OTHER TECH

Are You Receiving Me? I noted earlier that it can be more convenient to connect your DVD player to an A/V receiver rather than directly to your TV. The same applies to DVD recorders, only more so. Not only can the recorder double as your main DVD player, supplying excellent picture quality and surround sound to your home theater, but you'll be able to make recordings from all the other source components hooked up to the receiver - a cable box or satellite receiver, a VCR, a game console, whatever. The only things you won't be able to record are copy-protected discs played on another DVD player or copy-protected videocassettes played on a VCR. Again, be sure to make the best possible video and audio connections between the recorder, the other source components, and your receiver.

So Many Options As infomercial king Ron Popeil likes to say, "But wait - there's more!" DVD recorders can offer more features than a Veg-O-Matic. My favorite is front-panel A/V inputs, w hich let you easily plug in a camcorder o r a VCR for dubbing tapes to DVD. Most recorders can also accept an IEEE 1394 (a.k.a. FireWire or i.Link) output from a digital camcorder, and this all-digital connection can yield very high-quality video and audio. Cue Ron again: "Isn't that amazing?"

More and more DVD recorders also have hard drives, which let you take advantage of all kinds of useful functions - like watching a program from the beginning while it's still being recorded, recording a program to DVD while you watch another you've previously recorded to the hard drive, setting up future recordings by making selections on an electronic program guide, and convenient video editing. Instead of a hard disk, some DVD recorders also have a built-in VCR for easy tape-to-disc dubbing. And some models even have an Ethernet connection for linking the recorder to a home network and the Internet.

Set 'Em Up, Joe Once you've connected the DVD recorder, you need to use the remote control and onscreen menus to go through a one-time setup procedure. While this varies somewhat from model to model, most step you through a series of menus for things like onscreen language, tuner and channel setup, the shape of your TV picture (widescreen or standard), and audio setup. The menus will also provide options for controlling recording and playback ranging from simple, VCR-like timer recording to advanced functions like disc titling, playlist creation, and scene editing.

When all is said and done, installing and setting up a DVD recorder is a lot less complicated than you might think - not like, say, assembling a kids' bike or trying to figure out what to get your wife for her birthday! The first time I tried a DVD recorder, I was hooked - and I know you will be, too. Take a look a sample setup on the next page.