To Dub or Not to Dub

Dear Paul:

I'm looking for good-to-better DVD/VHS player with a dubbing feature. Your thoughts, please.

Dear Cecil:

While I’m not sure what you’ll be ‘dubbing’ or recording, I’ll assume you’re recording TV shows to a DVD or transferring old VHS tapes to DVD’s.

Before I give you my pick, I should say that many people are moving out of this world and into DVR’s or ‘digital video recorders,’ which can record high-definition TV shows directly on to a hard drive for later viewing. TIVO is the most famous brand among DVR’s, but there are many. That said, the Panasonic DMR-EZ48VK, which I’ve seen advertised for about $280, lets you record one TV show while watching another prerecorded one (using DVD-RAM discs). Plus, an SD card slot lets you play back still images, and of course, the VHS deck inside the unit will record to a DVD you put in the system. The slightly less expensive (around $250) Toshiba D-VR660 also has a digital tuner that lets it record TV shows.

As with all of these combination devices, you can certainly find less expensive versions, but they’ll often have no digital TV tuner.

Good luck!