I am considering buying a DVD/HDD Recorder to replace my VCR which is on its last legs. I have chosen the Pioneer DVR433HS which is currently retailing in Comet for £279.99 which i think is a good deal but i want to know if this recorder is any good or should i prehaps go for a more expensive model. I use my VCR a lot especially for recording the NFL on five on Sunday and Monday nights so the HDD is ideal for me but i am hoping the Pioneer is robust and will last a decent length of time.

Hi Craig

I bought the Pioneer DVR533HS on Wednesday - it has 160gb. Prior to this I had the Toshiba RDXS34 and prior to that I had the Toshiba RDXS30.

I was an ardent fan of the Toshiba and its capabilities but had lots of probs with the XS34.

In comparison, the DVR533HS is a far superior machine - has guideplus, capable of Jukebox, seems to manage my Telewest Cable receiver change over (most of the time but see my seperate thread on this). Easy to programme, easy to delete, easy to set up and above all else a very compact, sleek nice looking machine.

LXDirect are doing this for £299 plus delivery at the moment so for the extra £20 on top of the Comet price you can get an extra 80gb and again you can pay by most credit and debit cards.

If I was you, it's the model I'd say to go for...

Enjoy the machine and let us know what you thought

I have the Pioneer DVR433HS. It is great. No more rewinding tapes, finding one with some space. Press record and it starts instantly. Intuitive interface, I cannot recommend this machine highly enough. I bought mine from Amazon for £248, although i notice it's now £158.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...360041-5299815

Here are the tech specs.
http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/product_...nomy_id=45-133

Here is the PDF manual.
http://www.service.pioneer-eur.com/p...rm&Modelnr=433

I do not work for Pioneer. This is just such a great piece of kit.

The site says £258,and of course it won't be multiregion

Hi Craig,
There are plenty of sites around selling multiregion pio 433 for £249 or less. Check with a price comparison sites like 'pricerunner' or 'kelkoo'- or do a google search on 'pioneer 433 multi'.
It worked for me in August and I'm very happy with mine which is multiregion - but be aware that making your unit multiregion does invalidate the manufacturers warranty. You have to rely on the dealer you bought from if anything goes wrong.

I think YorkshireTV means DVR530HS not 533HS.

It does have a few extras like guideplus, extra 80Gb disk space, program delivery control but not sure if it is worth £50 more. At the moment I find 80Gb hard disk space plenty for my viewing habits. (record, watch, ditch; or record, watch, archive to DVD).

'Just DO it!'

I have the older Pioneer 520, but based on my recommendations a couple of people have now bought the 433 - seems great - no problems, wouldn't hesitate to recommend it

I have used Pioneer HDD/DVDR combos since the days of their 5100.
Now using a 420 and having used a Panasonic HDD previously,aswell as a Philips dog,Pioneer win out everytime

How fast is the transfer when moving programmes between Hard Drive and DVD?

With new Pioneer recorders its 8x.A complete disc can be done in about 8 minutes.
I'm not sure that Panasonic go beyond 4x on their latest models.
Of course,all high speed transfers depend on you recording on the HDD at the correct recording level-on all recorders.
Thats why Philips are best avoided.If you make a mistake and record at the wrong level,you can do a real time rate conversion transfer,not possible on DVD+ models

Hi everyone

I recently bought a Lite-On LVW5045 but returned it because of the loud buzz and fan noise that the unit was giving off.

How does the DVR-433H-S sound when in HD record mode and when it's just sitting there waiting to record (say if you were waiting to "pause live TV")

Any answers to these questions would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,
Steve

I have recently bought 433hs and so far, there was no noise from it. I gotta say that it is in the living room and when it is on standy by, the tv is on so if there was any noise, it might be supressed

In any case, i think it is a great piece of equipment

That is one of the reasons i want to replace my VCR because my current one is making a squeaking noise during playback which is driving everyone up the wall so it is good to hear that the 433hs does not make any noise.

Echo Y-not's reply. My 433 is pretty quiet also.
The transfer speeds depend on the speed of the DVD disc that you use. It can cope with good quality 16x speed discs like datawrite. The high speed copy time depends on the recording quality - using standard play which is the default quality and gives 2 hours of recording on one DVD :-
16x speed = 6 minutes per disc
8x = 8 minutes per disc
4x = 15 minutes per disc

Incidentally if you record at 'default' quality on the HDD and want to archive more than 2 hours on DVDR you can copy at a different bitrate (ie lower quality/higher compression) - but this always done in real time.

Thanks for the help guys. I've decided to go for the Pioneer DVR433-HS in Comet.

I bought the Pioneer DVR433-HS yesterday and it is an excellent machine.
Last edited by craigwat201183 : 21-11-2005 at 18:30

Good choice.

Hi everyone - I am also looking at the Pioneer DVR433HS and was hoping that owners of this machine could kindly confirm what the operational noise of this machine is like.

The reason that I ask is because it's going into a bedroom where I will be sitting only a few feet away from it and as such need it to be a quiet as possible.

I bought a Samsung DVD-R122 and it is horribly noisy making and low level humming / chuntering sound so this is going back.

I hoping that the Pioneer is much less noisy. Would be very grateful for owners opinions on the noise levels of the unit.

Regards

Noise works on a logarithmic scale and so does the human ear. Ambient noise levels of your surroundings will determine how much, if any, noise you will hear from your Pio - or any other brand.

This is the first DVR that I have owned, and I have read comments about noise problems with other makes, but my Pio 433 is virtually silent.

Either that, or I'm going deaf!

Is it possible to record a program and watch a program you have already recorded at the same time?

It's possible on the DVR533HS to watch a pre-recorded programme off the HDD whilst recording another to it (or watch the DVD whilst recording to HDD) so I would have thought the facility would be the same on the DVR433HS as its the same machine with a smaller HDD.

Note that you can't watch an NTSC region 1 disc while recording in PAL on the HDD

Interested, very in this Pioneer machine!

Just one question. It turns over the NTL receiver?

Would it do the same on a sky box?

I'm not sure it can 'turn over' any external receiver, but what you can do (I think) is to set up your programme choices on the Sky scheduler thing, and set the recorder timer to match. The older (520) model has a function where it will automatically switch on and start recording when it receives an external input, which is ok for one off recordings (but personally I think it's as easy to set the timer). I would guess the 433 has the same function.


ps. some people have asked about noise. From what I can tell, the newer models are much quieter than the old ones.

The 530H and the 630H can control external boxes (via a small infra-red transmitter). I believe that the 433H CANNOT control external boxes.

Hi
I've just bought a 433h and have set it up. I have two questions though:

1/ It seems to be recording to the hard drive OK but I would like to save some long-term items to DVD-r and some other programs to DVD-rw so that I can take them away and play in another standard recorder. I have chosen -r and -rw over the + versions as I understand that they are more compatable with other older machines. However, they seem to come in speeds (don't know what that represents) and versions. What speed and version do I need?

2/ I'm sure that I read somewhere in the instructions that it is possible to skip the adverts but can't find it now in the mammoth instruction book. Does anyone know how to do this?

Many thanks for any advice

Ian