ASPIRE DIGITAL AD-8091 DVD Recorder

First, these things are a super bargain in terms of price. At least one half the price of anything else I have seen. I suspect that often the "bargain" price is due to people returning the unit. I purchased my from Future Shop, and the one I looked at had $50 dollars off because it was opened. I asked for a closed box for the same price, and the manager gave it to me ($150 Canadian…that is about 120 US).

So, at $120 US, that is a great bargain.

Right off the bat, I started experiencing the freeze up that many have commented about. I then simply downloaded the firmware upgrade. You REALLY want to install this upgrade. After installing the upgrade, the machine was really good, and freeze up all but went away. After the upgrade the unit was also much more responsive. The firm upgrade also fixes a few other minor issues (such as when you pop in a dvd, the dvd does NOT auto start if you are viewing/browsing TV channels using the dvd remote – nice fix!!). The unit also behaves better when you pop in a blank DVD after the upgrade.

Bottom line:

Install that rom upgrade.

If you go to the store that is getting rid of them because customers can't install the upgrade you will get a decent dvd recorder for next to nothing!!

I will say that the unit has frozen a few times after the firmware upgrade (very rare however). When this happens, simply un-plug the unit, wait about 5 seconds, and plug it back in. You don't loose your settings, but on startup you do get back to the menu, or can even eject the disk during startup.

Recording quality is excellent. I use the 6 hour mode to record news, and education channel stuff. At 6 hours, you are hard pressed to tell the difference between it and a VHS tape in long play. (in fact, I think it is even better quality then that).

Note that at 6 hours, you get a 352 x 240 non interlaced video. This is actually PERFECT for transferring to your computer. I often convert shows for viewing on my palm pilot (I use Divx, and virtual dub (mpeg mod) to convert the DVD to a divx for my palm pilot. If you use the 2, 3, or 4 hour mode, you get a 352 x 480 interlaced tv. And, if you use the 1 hour HQ, then you get a full dvd 780 x 480 resolution. Of course, if the dvd source is not interlaced, then you get a progressive picture.

Anyway, if you are a news junkie, then the 6 hour format is just perfect. I can't tell you how nice it is to record 4 or 5 news shows, and then have a great menu to "browse" those shows. You can set the auto chapter to whatever you want during recordings (the default is 10 minutes). So, you can jump ahead into a show by 10 minutes. No more rewinding tapes. And, you can delete what you don't want and keep recording. What a dream come true!! The fast forward/reverse is up to 8 times. Being a new hound, I would like a faster forward, but with auto chapters, I can just whack the "next" chapter button and move around faster then any tape anyway!!

I now hate tapes!!

The menu system is rather nice, and you can delete programs that you record and you GET THE SPACE back. Some DVD recorders do not do this unless you erase the disk and start over from square one.

In fact, some DVD records provide a format function to prepare and format the dvd-rw disk. On these players if you don't format, then deleting one show will NOT give you back the space. It is interesting but the 8091 gives back the space even when you do not use the format but actually use the erase disk feature.

So, point in case, format disk , and erase disk do not seem to do much difference. However, erase is to erase everything and return the disk to virgin state. Format will erase everything on the disk, and then do some format setup on the dvd. Gosh, talk about a industry confusing the consumer. They really should rename the format feature to prepare disk. Regardless, you can actually ignore all of the above advice, since the 8091 does not care much if you erase a disk, or format a disk (they both remove everything anyway).

However, as mentioned, I would still use format, as the disk does seem to spool up better when you insert this blank formatted disk. (when you inserted a blank/erased disk, the unit can take about 1 or 3 seconds longer to figure this out. And, the switch from tv to viewing the empty disk takes much longer when it is not formatted).

There is really only a few issues that I can think of that mark against this unit.

I am a news junkie, and the unit has a record button just like any vcr. However, the unit does not have a one touch TIMER record. OTR is a botton that means you whack the button, and the unit starts recording for 30 minutes. If you hit the button a again, you get a additional 30 minutes. So, if you start watching a 1 hour show, and then need to run out the door, you just hit the OTR button two times and you can walk away.

A work around is to just whack the record and run away, and the until will stop when the disk is full. I always go a stack of blank rw's sitting ready to go anyway.

#1 complaint about the unit:
When you are setting up a timer recording, you can NOT use the keypad to enter the channel number (it always starts at 2). So, to record something on channel 42, I have to hit the up key 40 times. This is really a oversight in the design (even the manual hints that you can use the keypad here, but you can not). Do note that the keypad works just fine to switch to a channel of your choice. So, the channel change works, and allows direct jump to a channel, but NOT when you are entering a timer recording. This is just plain wrong.

#2 complaint

This unit does NOT have a MTS TV stereo decoder. I want to be CLEAR here, as we are talking about tv broadcast decoding. This unit does have George Lucas digital theater system (DTS). And, the unit also has the Dolby pro logic 5.1 surround sound system (and, this includes the front/back and rear audio outputs). So, nothing was scrimped upon here. I should point out that a LOT of DVD recorders do NOT have the MTS stereo decoding for TV. (and, worse, you can't tell when look at the box!!).

A work around to the above is of course to use your vcr as the tuner, and use a set of patch cables to the 8091. And, what is nice is that the timer record even lets you select the import source (tv tuner, input1 etc). So, this does allow you record stereo TV if you use the VCR turner as the source here.

The reason that SO MANY DVD recorders do not have the MTS stereo decoder is that a separate chip set (and more licensing) is required to do this. DTS and Dolby surround is mostly implanted in software on these units (after all, the sound is digital already on the DVD, so LITTLE EFFORT is needed to get the DTS theater, or the Dolby surround as this becomes a software decoding and is essentially free from a hardware point of view)

In fact, some $500 DVD recorder units do not have MTS stereo decoding. (something you want to check before you buy!).

So, if you want to convert your tapes, tape news, tape your favorite shows, then this unit is a great performer. At the price I got it is CHEAPER then hiring a service to just convert a few tapes. If you need to record stereo TV, then either patch through your VCR, or avoid this unit.

I do recommend this unit. You will never go back to horrible tapes. Having a instant menu that lets you Jump to the list of programs that you record, and further being able to delete individual programs is dream.

A recommend buy keeping the above limitations in mind.

Albert D. Kallal
Edmonton, Alberta Canada