1775 wrote:
There are a few DVD recorders still being sold. Most do not have tuners and must be connected to a cable box to record. Toshiba, Phillips, and Funai make these -likely the same one rebranded. Samsung sells a DVD recorder with a built in digital tuner. This unit has component inputs and an HDMI output. I found these with a quick Google search for "DVD recorder". These may not be any better than what you currently have. If the games you are looking to record are on over teh air broadcasts that can be picked up with an antenna you may get better results with a unit like the Samsung that has a digital tuner - connect that to an antenna and pull in the local broadcasts of the games. This may record better than a recorder connected to a cable box.
Funai makes ALL the brands recorders you listed above.. So no matter what you buy it STARTED life as a Funai.
Funai started life as a cheapo Portable VCR manufacturer for the RENTAL Video market back in the late 1980s early 1990s.. Their VCRS were built as cheaply as possible.. They had very flimsy carriages/tape transport and video quality (if you could call it that) was absolutely horrible..
I made lots of money servicing Funai portable VCRs for quite a few years, they were a pain to work on and didn't last long.
As far as the brands you listed above, NONE have component or HDMI INPUTS that the OP was requesting. Pretty much eliminates ALL DVD RECORDERS that are still currently for sale in the USA/North American market.
There simply is no need or reason to have a input capable of 720 or 1080 video input when the recording capture IS limited to 480 (SD) ONLY.
The problem is the MPAA has EVERY manufacturer running scared from the USA/North American market when it comes to consumer video recording. And no manufacturer is going to be willing to step up to the plate to pay the royalties for HDMI HDCP.. And even if they did it would make the cost of such a recorder absolutely too expensive to sell..
No manufacturer wants any part of this market, they have been bullied out so to speak.
Convenience also plays a huge roll, DVRs provided by sat and cable offer a lot of that and makes it easy for the consumer to use since it is integrated with the tuner/receiver..
You could say that consumer stand alone video recording like DVDs or VCR tapes is pretty much a dead market.. No manufacturer wants to invest millions into a market that is stagnant, shrinking or totally dead.
If the OP really wants component or HDMI there is no real consumer version of a standalone DVD recorder in the market.
OP has only several affordable options which ARE capture cards for a PC.. If the OP has their heart set on a non PC device then they would have to step up to a PROFESSIONAL STUDIO HD RECORDER which is going to cost $5K or more IF they could convince a manufacturer to sell it to them (no retail outlets for these) and even then those recorders have a lot of limitations like no tuner, no timer and will still honor HDCP..
