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Liteon 1105hc+ Review

(2 Apr 2007)


This has since been relaunched as the Lite-On DD-A100X Mini Dual Format Multi-region Capable DVD Recorder with DivX (snappy title eh!)

It does effectively provide the same functionality as the 1105hc+

This dvd player is a real find at under £100 and you will struggle to find a DVD recorder with Divx capability which can match it at this price.

Firstly the unit itself is very small and neat, very portable and easy to set up with plenty of connections including AV, firewire and 2 scarts (although unfortunately no USB support)
One factor which may have driven the price down on this unit is the lack of on unit display. The unit functions virtually entirely from the remote control with the user only able to turn off/on and eject the disc from the unit itself.
This doesn’t present a problem however as the on screen menus are clear and easily accessible from a simple yet intuitive remote.

A common complaint about this DVD player/recorder is the time it takes to read discs when they are inserted. Generally an original disc can be playing in about 10seconds from the time its put into the machine, however discs containing various media formats such as Divx and jpegs and mp3’s can often take twice as long for the player to read and prepare the media format.

Recording is simple, either one touch or via a timer function, the unit allows up to 8 hours recording time on SLP or 1hour on HQ. The difference is noticeable but to be honest the difference between 2 or 3 hour length recording times and 1hr HQ recording times is negligible, it also features a handy ‘just fit’ option which auto adjusts the recording quality so it fits onto the remaining disc space.
Finalising the discs is supposedly required to make them compatible with other players although depending on the player this is not always the case but is good practice to do anyway if you wish to keep the recording.
On screen disc labelling is possible although quite fiddly with the remote control and the menu screen showing chapters or recordings can be quite slow to appear (especially if you have recorded an SLP disc)

Overall picture quality is good, although I wouldn’t say its anything amazing, certainly you would be looking at least an HDMI upscaling player if you intend watching films and recordings on an expensive HD ready flatscreen.

But for a multipurpose cheap player which plays virtually anything you throw at it and copes with troublesome skipping discs extremely well often playing them seamlessly when they jump on more expensive DVD players, this is a recommended player.

All it lacks is HDMI upscaling and USB support!

Technical Data (from Amazon.co.uk)

Recording media - DVD+R DL disc, DVD+R / DVD+RW disc, DVD-R / DVD-RW discPlayable media - DVD+R DL disc, DVD+R / DVD+RW disc, DVD-R / DVD-RW disc, CD-R / CD-RW disc, DVD-Video disc, SVCD / VCD disc, Audio CD disc, MPEG4 video disc (support avi file), DivX® video disc (support avi/div/divx file), MP3 / WMA music disc, JPEG photo discRecording features - One touch record (OTR) (30-minute interval, 30-360 mins) depends on the recording mode, Just fit (auto adjust recording quality to fit disc space)Video editing features - Title editing (rename, erase, protect, overwrite), Automatic chapter mark insertionFunctionality - Easy Guider" on-screen menu, Channel editing (move up/down, insert, swap, rename,channel turn on/off), DVD title browsing with thumbnails, DV controlGeneral - Power Supply AC 100-240V 50 / 60Hz, Power Consumption Approx. 36W (operation), Operating Temperature +5°C to +40°C (+36°F to +104°F), Operating Humidity 5% to 80% RH, Dimensions (W/H/D): 280 x 52 x 250 mm, Net Weight: Approx. 2.0 kg

Posted by Don at 2:58 pm | |
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