LG – DRT389H 1080P Up-Scaling Digital TV/DVD Recorder
Posted by Notcot on Apr 12, 2010 in Home Cinema & Video |
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I bought the DRT389H to replace my faulty Hitachi DVD/HDD recorder. The specification for the LG was good without being spectacular. I bought it primarily for making DVD’s from a Freesat PVR (WHEN they decide to launch one!), so all I needed was a good, basic unit that was comfortable with a wide range of discs.
The LG comes with Freeview as standard, which is a great feature on such a low-cost unit. It’s quite easy to programme, & the remote is fairly user-friendly. The upscaling output gives good definition & is a useful feature. It comes programmed at the lowest setting, so you need to set it up for 1080i. As it’s a simple one-button operation, it shouldn’t catch you out.
Single-layer discs can be set to give 14 hours playback, & dual layer discs can give 22 hours. Why, oh why doesn’t someone make a dual-layer re-recordable disc? This would be a great step forward in data storage. Using the discs on the 14 hour setting gives a very low picture quality & should only be used as a last option. The high resolution settings are excellent.
The LG plays DivX & AVI files too, & plays them extremely well. The menu is a big help & points the user to the correct options every time. I haven’t found the limit for USB sticks, but I have tried an 8Gb stick without any problems. Recognition times are good, too.
In these days of PVR’s with dual tuners, we are becoming blase about recording one (or two) programmes, whilst simultaneously watching another. The LG has only one tuner, & if you set it to record a programme, you lose the option of watching another. Be aware of this!!
In the greater scheme of things, the LG has performance equal to many more expensive units. In fact, the Amazon price was some £38.00 cheaper than Curry’s, & has just been reduced even further. I hope this review helps you to make an informed choice.
Rating: 4 / 5
Went from a Samsung to this model and this is a giant leap in comparison.
Clear pictures, easy recording, freeview no problems, lets me plug in a usb stick (!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Great stuff for the price. I found the negative reviews here slightly fair – it’s not for advanced users. Cheap but very cheerful. It’s simple to set up and has a quick boot up time. Really, really like this machine.
Rating: 5 / 5
I bought this from ASDA in a hurry to go with my lg32 lh5000 lcd tv. Do not route the TV ‘s aerial through the recorder because the TV’s tuner is much better. Plug the tv directly into the aerial. As an upscaling dvd player it is great. I linked it through the hmdi alone and nothing went wrong. Why three stars – the crummy freeview tuner in the recorder almost spoilt my day because it could not get that bundle of stations that include itv3. the TV diagnostic was showing that the signal was very poor and the quality was non existent via the recorder.
Rating: 3 / 5
The nice thing about this recorder is it records on both + and – DVD formats so you don’t have to worry about getting the right blank DVDs. It can also record to +DL disks if you need extra recording time and in the box there is a SCART lead which most manufacturers leave out.
As well as a built in freeview tuner, the LG still has a traditional analogue tuner so if you don’t have freeview yet, you can still use the LG until digital switch over. As well as playing DVDs, it can do JPEG slideshows and play MP3s, CDs and DivX movies. These can be on disk or a USB stick (which plugs into the USB socket on the front). You can also plug digital cameras and USB hard drives into this socket which is very useful. Note that the USB socket is playback only! There are also front sockets for connecting an external digicam via DV or composite plus stereo audio connectors.
The picture is good and so is the recording quality at XP and SP modes. LP and EP are acceptable although the extreme MLP mode is akin to VHS-LP. You might not want to use this if you have a large HD display! Error correction on playback is also good. The LG managed to play my scratched DVD no problem. It often causes players to skip or even crash. The remote is OK but the on/off/standby is a bit sluggish. Having pressed it, the unit takes a while to respond. The other keys are fine.
However. After using it for a few weeks, there are a few niggles…
As mentioned by Dodster, when the unit is in standby, the signal on the input scart (AV2) is not always passed to the output scart (AV1). This means if you have a Sky box (or similar) connected, you might have to leave the LG on to watch Sky. Putting the LG into standby can cause Sky to vanish from the TV screen.
When recording to DVD, you have to choose a fixed 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio. The LG doesn’t auto detect (or record) what the source is using.
When recording from the freeview tuner, subtitles are displayed. This is only during recording. When you playback, the subtitles are hidden (unless you display them with the subtitle button). This is not a big issue unless you watch while you record and don’t want subtitles.
When viewing JPG images, the LG adjusts them to the selected TV output shape rather than preserving the JPG aspect ratio. So if you have a widescreen TV and view normal shaped JPGs, they get stretched.
The LG supports freeview+ and when selecting a programme to record from the freeview EPG, a mini menu pops up with recording options. However, these have been written in gibberish so you have to guess what they mean.
If you want to set a manual recording, getting to the screen to do this is long winded. You have to go via the setup menu which is a good few key presses. Other units manage to have a TIMER button on the remote to give direct access. I accept LG probably expect most people to select programmes from the EPG (a la Sky+) but the EPG is not available when using the internal analogue tuner, or for timed recording from the AV2 scart (eg. Sky box!). Also, you can’t access the timer menu when the LG is recording. So if you want to add a manual recording to the list while the unit is recording, you can’t. In fact, when the LG is recording, you can’t do very much except stop the recording or show info.
There isn’t a quick way to change the recording mode either. This too has to be done via the setup menus.
Setting the LG clock to auto update causes the time to go all funny. Not sure how the clock is supposed to auto update but it displays anything but the correct time. Set the clock manually and leave it on manual update.
Finally, I haven’t been able to find a multiregion hack.
Overall, the LG is a good unit and compares very well against similarly priced DVD recorders. The niggles lose it 1 star but if you can live with them, go for it.
UPDATES:
There is now a multiregion hack which can be found on google.
Tried to use the DV input to connect a JVC camcorder. When the JVC was connected, the LG displayed ‘updating the information’ on the TV screen and that was that. The DV input wouldn’t work with the JVC.
Rating: 4 / 5
well this is a great machine. works a treat, easy to use and setup. i cant wait to use the freeview on it. nice slim design. lots of connections. great idea you can use a usb memory stick. i thought this is real bargain for the price.
its classed as a budget machine in all the magazines. i dont see how. its built like a £250 machine got all the features of the top notch version. except the hard drive this is a clever idea and is on the next version up for more money.
picture and sound quality is very good. i have mine hooked to the hifi to listen to concerts. simple to record tv, generally no problems to mention.
a great bargain. i will get a 1080P TV one day so i can upscale i have seen it working. the upscale really does look awesome. so all in all a great perfomer and well worth all your money.
Rating: 5 / 5