Officemax B&M Liteon LVW1105HC DVD Recorder w/Divx PB $69.99 after $30 Rebate

[Kato]

BF item Liteon LVW1105HC...Records +/-r/rw, Divx playback, SVCD, VCD MP3, WMA, JPEG, etc. I have no idea how well it records yet. Can't find much info on this unit. Few other retailers have it for similar price with various rebates. Grabbed one this AM at OMax. OM cat #844149006192

Recorder info

 

[cremefilled]

A couple of things stand out about this unit --

It's a smaller box. Most cheap DVD recorders are pretty large and bulky.
It is Divx6 certified.
It can use "-" blanks -- most cheapies only use "+".

Also, LiteOn is a decent brand, and they might have firmware updates in the future. So, this is a good deal.

 

[kmcherry]

Originally posted by: cremefilled
A couple of things stand out about this unit --

It's a smaller box. Most cheap DVD recorders are pretty large and bulky.
It is Divx6 certified.
It can use "-" blanks -- most cheapies only use "+".

Also, LiteOn is a decent brand, and they might have firmware updates in the future. So, this is a good deal.

Snagged this and used a $10 off $30 coupon. Thanks OP!

 

[uhohs]

is this unit region free? or can it be hacked to be region free?

 

[rameshms]

All office max's around me have run out of this unit. But I found this..

Costco has Liteon LVW-5115GHC+ for 99.99. This unit seems to have DV input

Liteon LVW-5115GHC+

 

[Kato]

Originally posted by: uhohs
is this unit region free? or can it be hacked to be region free?

Here

Costco has Liteon LVW-5115GHC+ for 99.99. This unit seems to have DV input

The LVW-1105 has front panel DVi and extra set of composite inputs.

 

[uhohs]

that's the older model without divx/mpeg4 support? hopefully the unlock is the same.

 

[Kato]

I tried it on mine and it works. Atleast it now says region free. I don't own non-region 1 disc to test.

 

[uhohs]

cool, thanks.

 

[kmcherry]

Originally posted by: rameshms

All office max's around me have run out of this unit. But I found this..

Costco has Liteon LVW-5115GHC+ for 99.99. This unit seems to have DV input

Liteon LVW-5115GHC+

The 5115 is slightly (okay, quite a bit) wider but it comes with Video Plus, which is some sort of way to make recording off TV easier.

http://www.liteonit.com/DC/english/lvw_5115ghc-plus/5115ghc-pkus_showview.htm

 

[uhohs]

pasadena office max had quite a few left. ~15

woot. thanks for the deal.

 

[kmcherry]

Originally posted by: uhohs
is this unit region free? or can it be hacked to be region free?

For anyone willing to take a couple of extra steps, you use this hack
http://ilohacker.tripod.com/

with the firmware upgrade
http://liteonamericas.com/us/download_dvd.htm

to a) make the player region free and b) add an LP (3 hrs) setting on the DVD recorder. This hack also attempts to unlock Macrovision (the industry's anti-piracy device) but it doesn't work on this firmware version. I imagine that one of those will be forthcoming soon. (You can also firmware downgrade to a version that the hack will work on if that is important to you.)

 

[cremefilled]

After playing around with this for a couple of hours, I'm not very happy. There is a high-pitched tone out of both the digital and analog audio out. It's faint, but I can make it out in soft passages, and it stays there even when a movie is paused.

The divx compatibility is good -- it even plays some tracks my Philips DVP642 cannot -- but it sometimes freezes and the track has to be restarted. On the bright side, it has a very quick timesearch feature in MP4, unlike the Philips.

I'll probably try one replacement, but the quality is unacceptable on this particular unit.

Be aware that there is no front-panel display.

 

[Kato]

I bought two units and haven't noticed any high pitched sound and one is hooked to a good size HT audio system. There is a small cooling fan in the player which you can hear. No Divx lockups here. I've tried couple of Divx5 vids burned on cd-rws. SVCD works fine also. BTW, this unit already has LP 3hr. record mode (HQ, SP, LP, EP, SLP). So far I'm impressed for $70. If the player has reliability then I'll be happy.

 

[uhohs]

burning a disk full of various files to test.

 

[BoKingWen]

Will check it out tomorrow.

 

[ming2000]

cant find it at their website with the cat#,oos?

 

[uhohs]

not on their site. instore only.

 

[uhohs]

region code hack works, tested with region 2 dvds.

no luck with windows media videos (wmv, asf)
no luck with HD(.ts) and high bitrate(10+mbps) mpg2 files

edit: actually, i'm not sure if it's because of the high bitrate or the wacky hd resolution. off to do more testing.

 

[kmcherry]

The lack of front panel display is annoying.

But I have no high pitched whine and I was able to play an MPEG-4 DiVX file straight off the disc. I haven't tried recording anything yet, though.

My one problem is that it seems not to connect through a coaxial cable to the TV. I have to run the video and audio out on the RCA cords, which is annoying since I have my other DVD player (with surround sound already set up) into those jacks. So if I can't figure it out, I'll have to switch cords every time.

But for 50 bucks--what more can you want?

I should add that the on-line customer service is . . . really, really bad, and might even be considered incoherent:
http://www.liteonit.com/DC/english/index.htm

 

[Hork]

I picked this up yesterday morning for the recorder, not even realizing it played divx! Bonus!

I burned a CD with a few .avi files on it and it played them no problem!

Now I am happy!

 

[TheArabian]

w00t

 

[grandeCC]

It's an impressive recorder for the price around $55-$60AR+tax if we can get the extra $15 off or $10 off. I'm testing on a 2.4 speed DVD+RW media on SP mode. I can live w/o the S-video. It's a great little machine.

 

[zed0]

Did anyone find a macrovision hack for the LVW-1105 model.

 

[imported_OrSin]

Just asking but does the macrovision hack lets you connect a firewaire hard drive to it instead of have to use something like a camcorder. If I'm worn what is the macrovision hack good for.