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I thought long and hard about which format, nevermind which make and model to go for.I found the pioneer to be too expensive (although meant to be excellent), so In the end I narrowed it down to the same two dvd recorders most of you are probably considering buying-the philips dvdr880 and the panasonic dmr e30. In the end I went for the Dmr e30(multiregion).

There where a number of reasons for this. Firstly reliability. I have heard nothing but complaints about the dvdr880s reliability. Both in playing and recording disks. So right away the e30 was in the lead. But it didnt stop there. The editing facilities of dvd-ram are far superior to the rewritable format used by the philips machine(+rw).

A big deal has been made about the fact that you cannot play the e30s rewritable(dvd-ram) disks in other stand alone players. This is true to an extent (more and more players are coming out which support this however), although the +rw format of the philips is by no means universally accepted(50%compatibility on average).

Both machines have a write once format which is meant to be able to be read by most standalone dvd players. I cant comment on dvd+r, but the dvd-r made by my e30 play on everything I have tried them on, from xbox to a £49 player in the kids room. Blank dvd-r are also much cheeper than the more expensive dvd+R disks which was a big bonus for me. Although be careful, as a lot of the really cheap media doesnt work to well and can tend to skip. I use disks at about 80-90p each, usually using ritek dyd if at all possible. Although I have found a new disk lately that costs around 50p and has been excellent. The dvd-ram disks are far more expensive. the panasonic ones are around a tenner but again you can find unbranded ones for around £2-£3 which work just as well. These disks can be recorded on 10,000 times. At first because of their cost, I used these for recording tv programs and such that I didnt want to keep, and used the dvd-rs for any recordings I wanted to keep. But since dvd-ram has dropped in price, they make an excellent archiving medium with great editing facilities. Although remember, the ram disks dont play in many normal players just yet.

Lastly the panasonic has features which allow you to edit adverts, watch a program you recorded earlier whilst recording something else on the same disk (something I use a lot), and lets you watch a program you are recording from the beggining while recording the rest of it-known as catch up. The last two of which the philips cant do.

As far as im concerned there is no contest. the DMR E30 is far and away the better machine, despite many retailers seemingly pushing the dvdr880.

I dont know why this is, the only reason I can come up with is that philips marketing department are more switched on than the boys at panasonic. There is also a clear attempt being made to sway the industry towards dvd+R and +rw. But with only philips backing it fully (sony also use it but along with -r, -rw)and every other manufacturer including panasonic backing -r, Im secure in my choice that the dmr e30 and -r/-ram is the way forward.

In all an excellent player. Great PQ playing back recordings and store bougth dvds. Good sound and fantastic features. 5 recording modes-(mentioned below, although i will say i was impressed by the two longer modes which where far better than expected on 4 and 6hour recording).

There is a variable mode which uses all available space on a disk and provides the best possible quality of recording. With the philips you cannot vary the recording levels outwith the preset ones, so for example if your source is 2hours 10 mins the whole recording must be made in the 4 hour mode, resulting in a massive drop in quality than if you had been able to use the 2 hour mode-a high price to pay for ten extra minutes! with the dmr e30 you select the variable mode and the recording uses all the available space on the disk i.e using all 4.6gb for a 2hour 10min recording. This means the recording quality is almost identical to that of the straight 2 hour mode. Great Stuff!