dvd recorder suggestions - close to HD and more

Would like to get suggestions on a DVD recorder to purchase, that comes
close to "supporting" HD. I currently have a Samsung DVD-R120, these are my
complaints with it:
1. When I record an HD show to it, it records it "letterboxed".
2. It shows most store-purchased DVD's on my HD tv as letterboxed - is this
what "HD upconversion" that many dvd players/recorders takes care of? They
will make it fill out the whole screen?
3. HD or not, many dvd's that I record simply don't play well on other DVD
players. They always play fine on a PC, but other DVD players, such as my
portable Panasonic DVD player, usually have problems.

On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 22:13:52 -0400, "Luch"
wrote:

Would like to get suggestions on a DVD recorder to purchase, that comes
close to "supporting" HD. I currently have a Samsung DVD-R120, these are my
complaints with it:
1. When I record an HD show to it, it records it "letterboxed".

I don't think it is likely that the _recorder_ converts the 16:9 video
to a 4:3 signal in letterbox when recording. It is more likely that
either the HD receiver does this conversion (on the SD output) or the
conversion takes place when you play back the recording.
See below.

2. It shows most store-purchased DVD's on my HD tv as letterboxed - is this
what "HD upconversion" that many dvd players/recorders takes care of? They
will make it fill out the whole screen?

"Most" or all with a true 16:9 SIGNAL format?
That is what happens if you play a 16:9 format DVD and the player is
told that your display is in 4:3 format.
So together with the symptoms in (1) it suggests that maybe the
setting in the recorder of "TV format" is set to 4:3 and you have a
16:9 display.

3. HD or not, many dvd's that I record simply don't play well on other DVD
players. They always play fine on a PC, but other DVD players, such as my
portable Panasonic DVD player, usually have problems.

If it stutters, try another disc make.
A usual problem with playing recorded DVD:s in a standard player is
that the DVD-Video standard does not allow the video format flag (16:9
or 4:3) to change within a title (within a recording). Most
DVD-Recorders, therefore, sets this flag always to 4:3.
Some recorders records the flag in its own format (I know Philips +RW
recorders does) so it can play it back when you play the disc in the
recorder.

A standard player can not read this information. The problem shows if
you play a recorded DVD where the signal is in 16:9 signal format, the
format flag is 4:3 you play the disc on a standard player connected to
a (older) 4:3 screen. Now you get the content in the wrong aspect
ratio (egg heads) and an old TV can not change it.

The format flag will also lie on a modern system but then you can
overide the setting manually.
/Jan