dvd recorders

After doing much research on inexpensive DVD recorders I bought this one. I am transferring all my old home movies from VHS tapes to DVD. The Memorex +RW media works great and plays in all players I tried, including the DVD Rom on the computer. The +R media only seems to play in the Akai unit that recorded it. I also wanted to edit raw footage from my Hi8 camcorder using authoring software on my computer. I had tried capturing it with a capture card straight to the computer but had major trouble with audio sync. Now I record it to DVD, rip it on to my hard drive, edit it, and send it back to the unit with the firewire to burn it. A great solution for all my needs for $199!

I've had this unit for a little over a week and it does work, although it lacks many options found on slightly more expensive units. It does a good job of archiving video tapes, but don't expect anything fancy.

For example, the unit has very little editing capability and you cannot create even a basic menu. It creates a 'title' every time you record and stop but that's it. You can create 'chapters' every 2-15 minutes but they are not thumb nailed; you can simply skip ahead or backwards. The unit has no 'one touch record' (OTR) capability so you either have to use the awkward program timer or manually watch the record process. As another reviewer noted, if the DVD record session is not stopped before the end of the disk, you will get an error.

I spent two hours trying to get to tech support yesterday on the toll free number with no success. The AKAIUSA.com web site has no technical information other than the data sheet shown here. Don't expect any firmware upgrades or any other technical support. There is a new model DVDRW121 shown on the web site which looks like it may have some improvements (i.e. OTR and more recording speeds).

In summary, this unit works and it's cheap, but it's very basic. Check out the other brands available at COSTCO.com for $300 and compare the features before you buy.

.... thanks for the info about the hidden/secret menu. What you said about the Daytek version also applies to the Akai DVDRW 120 version. Just did it with the unit I've had for almost 2 weeks. Maybe future products will not have this secret menu but mine does. Thanks again.... really good tip.