LG has certainly been busy on the DVD recorder front. A few short months ago, we reviewed the RH7800,a modestly-priced machine with 160GB hard drive and DiVX playback. However, the RH7800's cardinal sin was to omit the allimportant RGB Scart input, which we consider essential for machines without an integral terrestrial digital tuner.
The company's latest machine is slightly more upmarket, selling for over £100 more. From the outset, we should stress that the similarly analogue-tuned RH199H sports a RGB input for external sources.
Another major addition is HDMI - the RH199H is one of the current elite with such an output. Shop-bought DVDs and self-made recordings alike will profit from this digital interface provided, of course, that your display has the relevant input socketry. Associated with the HDMI port is an 'upscaling' function - in addition to a standard-def (576i/p) mode are 720p and 1080i settings. Just don't expect it to make your video look hi-def.
Compared to the RH7800,the RH199H is quite an elegant and distinctive-looking beast. Unfortunately, its unusual topmounted controls are likely to collect dust over time. They can also be accidentally-operated if something's carelessly shoved on top of the recorder (something that happened to me at least once during the review period).
More positive comments can be levelled at the features on offer. The multi-format drive looks after all of today's rewritable DVD formats, and as a result the RH199H can record onto DVD-RWs (both 'compatible' video and 'editing' VR modes are supported),DVD-RAMs and DVD RWs. On top of this, the machine caters for non-reusable 4.7GB DVD-Rs and DVD Rs.
Dual-layer 8.5GB DVD Rs also receive LG's blessing, for nearly twice the possible running time but these uber-discs aren't compatible with all players. The hard disk, the contents of which can be dubbed to or from DVDs using a handy 'one-touch copy' facility, weighs in at a mammoth 250GB.Use the bottom EP recording mode, and you'll be able to squeeze 356 hours of video into the machine.
There are four recording modes presenting between one hour (XP) and six hours (EP) per single-layer DVD. All work at DVD's full resolution for maximum capture of detail. LG has clearly paid a lot of attention to the all-important MPEG encoder, which relies on LSI Logic's proprietary 'DVFX' video pre- and post-processing technologies.
