Pioneer DVR-320S DVD Recorder

I recently purchased this model to put all my VHS home movies onto DVD.I was a little concerned that the end results would not work in other DVD players.But im happy to report they do and all is well in DVD Home movies replacing stacks of VHS tapes from back to 1985.

I was concerned that those old tapes were not going to hold up and would be lost forever.But now there restored to DVD for future generations to see.

Im not very techy so if you want fancy terms and specs your in the wrong place.But if you want simple basic information I will try to be of help.

I use this device for the above mentioned use only.I do not use it to record telivision programs to watch later.Or to put VHS movies onto DVD.I am the type that watches a movie or program once and do not care about keeping it.If I do I buy the movie on VHS or DVD.However family videos are very important to me.

I want to be able to play the DVD'S I make on any DVD player and this Pioneer DVR-320-S does that and does it well.I simply hook either my VCR or Camcorder to it and play the video.Then push record on the DVD recorder and im burning a disk.I can push pause at any time and restart the recording without any glitches in the end result.I record in the 2 hour mode and the picture is breath taking good.I can push stop record and start up again with a different video topic.It makes a category with a picture that can be titled.Just like chapters on a DVD movie.Very impressive and make finding what your looking for easy.After you have completed the recording you must finalise the disk.So that it will play in other DVD players.I alway use DVD-R disks that are the one time use type.To finalise the disk you simply go into the menue and select (disk setup)and choose (finalise)disk.It only take a few minutes for this process and the disk is ready to be viewed in any stand alone DVD player as well as a computer DVD rom.

That is an important feature of this recorder it will I repeat will allow the dish to play in just about any player.Mine is a older GE and im sure if it works in it that it will work in any.Atleast it plays in all of my friends and familys different brands and models.If you want to be able to do this be very careful at the differnt brands out there.Also it will except different brand disk media.Your not held down to buying a paticular brand disk to burn.I have used Sony DVD-R and it comes with one Fugi DVD-R and one DVD-RW.DVD-RW is a reusable erase and burn over again disk where the DVD-R is a one time use disk.However the reusable DVD-RW probably will not work in other DVD players other then this one or possible a DVD rom drive on a computer.

Many say the owners manuals are hard to understand.I find that true with most electronics.But I managed and had it up and going and felt I had it mastered in just a few hours and that included hookup.If you can handle a VCR then you can handle this.You just need to finalise the disk when your done if you want to.However you can record a little now and add to it later if you like until the disk is full.That makes it nice when using your camcorder because you can add an event as you film them.The disk alway starts where you leave off and that creates the chapter that can be titled.So you can have several chapters to create a home movie with completly different video topics.With out it becoming a garbled up mess like it would on tape.

It has 3 imputs 2 on the back and one up front.Plus there is a fire wire connection for direct hook up from your camcorder.So far I use the regular front input jack and do not use the S video conection.I do not see how quality of picture could be improved.But I know most electronic gurus will want to plug into either the S video or fire wire.The only thing I can see that should be different is the front door for the audio video jacks that you open to connect.Is shaped like the front of the unit.It does not fold down flat and could be broken off easily while making the connection.

This model does not have a hard drive and many do.However that is why I went with this one.I wanted simple for a non tech guy like me.I guess the reason for a hard drive would be to record the video to the hard drive from say a DVD then to be able to burn that video to the DVD-R.But why not just hook a DVD player in line to the unit?After all DVD players are now inexpensive.I already have a VCR connected and will add a DVD player.

I tried another brand that would not except my blank DVD-R disk and said it was incompatible.I think that brand wanted to be sure I bought there disks.I fooled them and took it back and Im sure glad I did.Check my other DVD recorder review on that story.

Another nice feature of the Pioneer is it will play Jpeg picture files on CR-R.It is called photo viewer and is a extra added nice feature it will do.Many will play the Kodak CD disks but not your own Jpeg CD-R it also is Fuji CD compatable.What this means is after you bored your family and friends with your home movies you can pop in a CD-R picture file disk you created from your computer and start a slide show of your digital pictures from your camera on you tv screen.