Compare Sony and Panasonic DVD Recorders

DVD recorders allow you to record content from the television to the built-in hard drive, then burn the programming onto a DVD. This gives you the ability to take recorded content to any television with a DVD player (unlike DVR devices). Two of the top manufacturers of DVD recorders are Sony and Panasonic.

When first looking at the Sony and Panasonic DVD recorders, you want to find out how large each hard drive is. The larger the hard drive, the more television programming you can record before you are forced to delete content. Digital programming fills up a hard drive fast and only a few hundred hours of content fills up a several hundred gigabytes on a hard drive. The larger the hard drive, the more expensive the product, however if you like to maintain the content on the hard drive space it may be a good idea to opt for the larger storage space.

Look on the product box (or user manual if you have already purchased it) for the DVD recording speed. This is the speed the Sony or Panasonic device can burn the disk. 16x (16 times faster than the standard playback speed) is the fastest speed you can obtain. The slower the speed (8x, 4x, 2x) the longer it takes to create the DVD movie.

Look to see what kinds of DVD formats the Sony and Panasonic DVD recorders can use. Although most DVD recorders now can use a variety of different formats you are going to find older recorders use either DVD-R or DVD+R. The difference is how the DVD stores information. Both DVD formats are readily available and can be purchased at any large electronics store, however it is a haste to purchase the wrong DVD format and realize the DVD recorder does not use discs you purchased.

Both Sony and Panasonic DVD recorders can come with Bluray burning functions. This means the recorders can burn high definition video from high definition recordings. Bluray recorders are going to cost several hundred dollars more than a standard definition DVD recorder and the hard drive space is used up quicker thanks to HD video using up larger amounts of storage space. If you do not have an HD television or HD cable/satellite you should opt out of this option.

Because you can use a DVD recorder as a DVD player also you want a large amount of outputs to take advantage of the video playback. Standard DVD players all have RCA and coaxial connects, however for better image quality look for component connections and even HDMI (if it is Bluray compatible). Both Sony and Panasonic offer different DVD recorders that have a variety of different connection outputs so make sure you find a product that features connections compatible with your television.