The Trutech DVD Recorder: an Inexpensive Alternative to the Tivo

The Trutech DVD recorder is one of the cheapest yet most affective electronic devices I own . Although it was initially difficult to set up, the pain and suffering it took to get it to work was well worth the struggle. This recorder has the ability to burn my favorite TV shows onto DVDs and has many different features that no VCR ever had. For only $88, this is one of the best electronic purchases you can make. Just compare its price to the Tivo. It's certainly well worth every penny you will spend, if not more.

The thing is, though, that I never knew I wanted a DVD recorder. I had always lived with VHS tapes and VCRs and I guess I didn't think there was anything particularly dated about that. That was, at least, until my sister bought the Trutech DVD recorder on sale at Target. I was really proud of her bargain until she tried to hook it up and found the instructions to be completely confusing. She tried many frustrating hours to get the thing set up, but she never could. Finally admitting defeat, she threw it into her closet and just tried to forget about it.

Several months later, the recorder came out from hiding to be sold on Ebay. Since the device was already out of its box to take pictures, I decided to try hook it up to my TV. I went through the same grief trying to make it work, as the instructions have tiny print and are difficult to follow. However, after an hour or two and being completely exhausted, I put in a commercially released DVD to see if it would play it. It did! My first experience with this DVD recorder was as a DVD player and it played the disc with excellent quality.

After I time I was able to discern how to record television onto my blank DVD+R disc by some miracle. It all has to do with where the cords go and you must hit 'source' at the bottom of the remote. The whole process actually seems very simple now, but when you first get it it's extremely confusing. Anyway, one of the greatest features on this device is that you can control the quality in which your show is recorded. The lower the quality, the more video you can store on your DVD. The lowest setting is pretty choppy, but it's still watchable. The most it can store is 6 hours and the least, an hour. If you set it to record only an hour at the highest quality, it's pretty flawless.

Another feature I love to use is the 'A to B erase' function. This allows you to skim back through the video you've recorded and delete certain parts wherever you like. I use this most often when I want to delete commercials. Just be careful of the kind of dics you use to record your shows on. This recorder is only capable of recording onto DVD+R's and DVD+RW's, not DVD-R's. Unfortunately, I realized this after buying a ten pack of DVD-R's with cases.

The Trutech DVD recorder is exceedingly cheaper than a Tivo, yet it has similar functions. If you'd like to record something at a specific time, just set it to begin. Next, choose which channel and the quality you'd like it to be. It's as simple as that! I haven't come across a cheaper DVD recorder out there and so far I've had no problems with this one. Just be patient with yours when you set it up and I assure you that it will be worth it in the end.