Enjoy the LG DR787T and Comparison between The First Two DVD Recorders with Digital Tuner

I purchased LG DR787T last week ($229.99 from Bestbuy) and hooked up with my Hitachi 50" 720p Plasma TV - 50HDT50 immediately. One often misunderstood that ATSC is equal to HD. It is actually not. An ATSC tuner is just capable of demodulating digital signals received from a certain channel and it needs further data decompression and other circuits to get HD signals if the channel carries HD either in 720/30p or 1080/60i. This machine, indeed, does very good job for both down and up conversions. Although I can't see any HD on my TV for every channel that I received OTA, the signals are quite sharp with such a 720p-native HDTV after up-converting to 1080i that I so set. It might be kind disappointed, in comparison with the true HD display on my 47" 1080p-native Vizio LCD TV with built-in ATSC/QAM that I bought recently for my desktop PC display. Because I want to playback my HDV that was taped using my Sony early-model mini-DV HDV camcorder (HDR-HC1) and converted the signals through i.Link into computer in mpeg2-TS (transport stream) files (took my computer a lot of memory), I purchased this 47" 1080p TV and, indeed, it gives me exactly 1080/60i video with incredible great surrounding sound. Then, I discovered that the Vizio can also receive true HD on the air with a small antenna without any adjustment. I started thinking about recording a program that I would like to playback and realized that this TV has no video output. This was my major motivation to purchase LG DR787T. I tried using its i.Link port to connect with my HDV camcorder and it works very well in both display and control only if the camcorder has to be set at DV-out, instead of HDV-out. Of course, what you can see on TV is up-converted 1080i, instead of the original true 1080i. Recording is very very easy with this LG DR787T. The remote controller is very sensitive and reliable and almost offers omni-direction.

I also bought a Philips DVDR3505 two days ago from Walmart and cost $169.99, just out of my curiosity. It is the second one with ATSC tuner in the market. The two machines were compared to each other with both at up-converted 1080i output setting, and I found that
(1) 3505 has worse picture, and not as sharp as 787T, for almost every channel OTA;
(2) 3505 sometimes is unstable and has digital distortion for some channels, and 787T never had such instability;
(3) The remote controller for 3505 is unacceptably insensitive and it works only within -20 degree angle;
(4) The i.Link does not work with 3505, but it works very well in 787T;
(5) When you switch DTV channels, you have to wait for at least 4 seconds with 3505, while 787T has almost no waiting time, like my 47" 1080p Vizio. This means that the demodulation circuit in 3505 is quite slow, which causes unpleasant feeling;
(6) 3505 has no USB, while 787T has, though the resolution is quite lower as if a jpg picture is seen on a regular VGA (640 by 480);
(7) Both machines are taking few seconds time for turning power on and off, but it is understandable, because each may contain a simple computer CPU for controlling demodulation, codec and conversion, and particularly 787T has even a simple file management system to show folders and jpg files via USB port, like the windows explore. You have to recognize that a computer turning on or power off also takes time;
(8) In terms of price, 3505 is $60 lower than 787T, but for the overall quality, the latter is much better than the former.

Finally, I returned Philips DVDR3505 and kept LG DR787T based on my comparative study.