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Introduction
At the recent CES show in Vegas last January I ran into
the LiteOn booth and had a fantastic introduction into their products
with a team of enthusiastic and well informed employees from the company.
They were actually doing the exact same thing that this website is doing
in terms of focus and strategy - they are merging their expertise in the
world of computer electronics and going after the hot industry of home
theater where the two industries are quickly merging into one.
LiteOn had a very impressive line of DVD players on display
and we were lucky enough to just try out one of their newest products
- the LVW-5001 - and it's not just your average DVD player for your home
theater. This unit is able to play back DVDs, MP3 CDs, Music CDs, and
has all the inputs and outputs to make very home theater buff drool with
envy. And if all that wasn't enough you have the best difference making
feature we've seen to date with a DVD player - the ability to RECORD onto
a DVD+R from your cable television, totally programmable, so it acts just
like a VCR used to ... you can finally record those shows you've been
missing right on a handy blank DVD!
show me the features
The specifications and highlights of the device ...
Playback Formats: DVD-Video, DVD+VR (DVD+VR
format is compatible with DVD-Video in most case), VCD, Audio CD, SVCD,
JPEG, MP3
Audio D/A Converter: 192kHz/24-bit
Remote Control: Universal
Dimensions: 16.54" x 2.6" x 10.55"
Other Features:
- Programmable TV Recording
- Digital Recording (Up to 6 Hours)
- Archive VHS cassettes on DVD Disc
- One Touch Recording
- DV Link ( IEEE1394 )
- Easy Guider
Performance
This DVD player is big
on the "amazing" side of features. I was of course VERY eager
to try out the DVD burning capabilities of the unit, and quickly hooked
it up to my home theater. I recorded the NHL All Star Game on TV ... I
used the "pause" feature while watching the game to make sure
those pesky commercials didn't make their way into my beloved DVD! Sure
enough it paused and restarted the recording like champ (note: I was recording
on HQ mode). After recording the end of the 3rd period I waited around
for a few hours and then recorded my favorite TV show - MXC ("Most
Extreme Elimination Challenge" on SpikeTV). I recorded another 45
minutes (while recoding on "HQ" Mode) maxing out the 60 minutes
a High Quality record will take on a blank DVD (120 for the next quality
mode, and so on ... you can get 4 hours on one DVD but the quality suffers).
The recording quality was extremely impressive with very
little quality loss on the video side, and no loss of quality on the end
of sound. The unit can also be programmed, much like a VCR, to record
programs on television. One problem you might have is that the DVD player
uses the +R format, which isn't as widely used as the -R format. Nevertheless,
if you own a recent DVD player you should able to view these discs (in
the event you taken them to a buddy's house or whatever the situation
might be).
The DVD playback is solid ... for some reason the playback
seemed just a tiny bit darker than another DVD player I use, but the difference
wasn't too great as to knock it down in points. Playing MP3s and other
CDs play extremely well and as they should.
Value and Usefulness
For $299 you are getting one of the more unique DVD players on the market
because it's not a DVD player at all - it's a DVD player / recorder! Obviously
the recording capability is huge and a great feature for those of you
always wishing you could record your programs on television, but who threw
out your VCRs long ago (like me!).
For the price point, it's a good buy if you WANT the DVD
recording feature. Obviously, if you're looking for just a player you
wouldn't want to spend this kind of money - but if you're looking to record
television on a DVD just like you used to with your VCR then you've got
your solution right here. The usefulness of the product is tremendous
- everyone is watching DVDs these days, and the ability to record television
- or even from another source such as directly from your camcorder's iLink
cable or from one of the inputs - is a great feature that will soon become
standard on DVD players.
Overall Impressions
I'm very impressed with the recording features of the LiteOn LVW-5001
DVD player/recorder and the playback features of the burned DVDs play
pretty well in most DVD players. The quality of the playback of the player
itself is solid but for some reason was a little "darker" than
what we would have liked in our tests ... outside of that the player performed
very well in viewing DVDs.
The value of the unit stems straight from the ability to
record. If you wish to record straight from your camcorder, from cable
television, or from another video source (such as a VCR) then this unit
is perfectly suited to your needs. Lets say you wanted to transfer your
old VCR tapes from your player to a DVD, but didn't want to go through
any fancy DVD authoring and video editing suite through your computer.
All you would conceivably have to do then is hook it up, hit the "source"
button on the universal remote control to go to that input, start playing,
and hit record (with a blank DVD+R in the LVW-5001 of course) and enjoy!
Obviously there's a lot of uses for this DVD player and
there's a lot of people unaware that this technology even exists at all.
There are other vendors out there that actually have a unit that does
this very same thing, but at $100-$200 more. Fortunately LiteOn is a company
that brings a great price point to consumers while giving the latest features
in their product - an impressive offer.
Overall, the LiteOn LVW-5001 is a fantastic and unique DVD
solution offering good DVD playback and an awesome recording feature that
all owners will love to exploit. At the given price point it's a good
deal for consumers to check out while shopping for their next DVD player
(and recorder!).
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9 / 10 |
OVERALL SCORE
94%
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9 / 10 |
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10 / 10 |
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9 / 10 |
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10 / 10 |
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9.4 / 10 |
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