CUSTOM INSTALLATION HOW-TO

The Short Form

LGUSA.COM / 800-243-0000 / $450 / 17.375 x 3 x 14 IN

Plus

•Widest disc compatibility of any recorder. •Simultaneous recording and playback with DVD-RAM. •Easy tape-to-disc dubbing. •Flexible editing features.

Minus

•Can't record on CD-R/RW discs. •Editing features depend on disc type. •No commercial skip. •No program guide or IR emitter.

Key Features

•Records and plays DVD-R/RW, -RAM, +R/RW, and +R DL (double layer) •Plays DVD-Video, audio CD, CD-R/RW, JPEG, WMA, MP3, and DivX v. 3/4/5 •Memory slots for SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, SMC, xD, MD, and CF •Built-in VCR •front-panel composite- and S-video inputs, stereo audio input, DV input •back-panel component-, composite-, and S-video outputs; composite-video input; 2 stereo audio outputs and 1 input; optical and coaxial digital audio outputs

Test Bench

The LG's progressive component output was typical for a DVD player, which means good on film-based material but with jagged diagonal edges on video-based programs. Vertical progressive resolution was fine, but some test patterns produced very jerky motion rendition (not visible in movies). As usual, recording performance was excellent at the two top recording modes (XP and SP), and static resolution test patterns looked unusually sharp in the LP and EP modes. However, the typical blocking and mosquito noise kicked in as soon as there was significant image motion. - David Ranada Full lab results

SETUP Setting up the recorder was trivial. I connected the output of my cable box to the recorder's antenna input, connected its component-video output to my Samsung DLP HDTV, and connected its optical digital audio output to my Denon receiver. Wiring completed, I enabled progressive-scan, selected the cable-TV band on the recorder's built-in tuner, and unleashed auto-channel setting. Piece of cake. But - and it's a major letdown - the recorder has no electronic channel guide. All time-shifting must be done by programming the recorder to turn on and off at specific times - as with an old VCR. And it also lacks an IR emitter to change channels automatically on a cable or satellite box, so if you use one of those you can't record multiple programs from different channels without changing channels manually.

RECORD/PLAYBACK PERFORMANCE I burned all kinds of discs, verifying that the recorder really does handle both + and - DVDs as well as double-layer DVD+Rs, which played fine but occasionally stuttered or skipped during layer changes. As you'd expect, picture quality has nothing to do with disc type (they're just bit buckets), but it has everything to do with bit rate. For example, I recorded an episode of ABC's Lost, a prime-time soap opera apparently inspired by Lord of the Flies. The XP mode looked as good as the broadcast feed, with sharp picture quality. Details were clearly visible even in visually complex, quick-edit flashbacks of the plane crash. In SP mode, still scenes weren't quite as sharp looking, and details, such as rain falling in a tropical downpour, were slightly blurred by MPEG motion artifacts, but the picture was still very good.

The LP mode was watchable, but the picture was very soft, and MPEG encoding artifacts such as blocking were plainly visible - for example, details on the sand beach became homogenous blobs. The picture was worse than a high-quality VHS recording. And the 6-hour EP mode looked terrible, like something you'd see streaming over the Internet. Moving objects, even slow pans, were completely surrounded (or obscured) by mosquito-noise artifacts. I'd use this mode only if I was down to my last minutes on my last disc. In all modes, sound quality was quite good (for off-air dubs) and, of course, stereo only.

I spent some nostalgia time with the VCR - no problems. Nice to have around for playing old tapes, or to make a recording if you run out of discs. I was pleased that I could dub from tape to disc, and vice versa, but only at real-time speed. You can't make tape or DVD dubs of any copy-protected DVDs or tapes.

BOTTOM LINE Diversity is a good thing, usually, but not always. When all these different recordable-DVD formats hit the market simultaneously, some people predicted Armageddon, or at least a bunch of frustrated consumers. In fact, it wasn't the end of the world, but it was a pain. LG's LRY-517 cuts through all the hassle and just deals with it - recording and playing regardless of disc type - with the caveat that its editing capabilities depend on the kind of disc you use. Throw in extraordinary memory-card compatibility, a DV input, a VCR, and you've got something happening. Okay, so, there's no hard disk. And A/V snobs wouldn't be caught dead with a VHS deck in their stack. But there's no denying that this flexible component does more than most other recorders.