Home > Consumer Reviews > Lite-On AllWrite LVW-5005 DVD/CD Recorder

My requirements for were basic and the 5005 fits that bill pretty well.

I need to transfer a Digital-8 home movies to dvd and record my kids' favorite TV shows from our Tivo for traveling. For this I only needed to burn DVD-R's even though the 5005 will burn all dvd media types which may come in handy in the future.

I've used it to burn about 6 dvd's from both the Tivo and my camcorder and it has worked fine. The unit is easy to hook up and the recording interface is simple. If you've not used a cd-burner you'll have to get used to the notion of 'finalizing' discs. Additionally nice is that the front-panel display provides useful information; input source, time recorded so far, and percentage finalized.

Various reviewers have called Liteon's quality into question. I've not installed any firmware updates, used only it in the most basic modes, and had no problems. I've no plans to use this for time shifting TV shows as I already have a Tivo. I did choose to buy this from a local retailer for their great return policy, "just in case".

The recorder is really basic. Start your video source playing and start the Liteon recording. You stop the Liteon when your source stops playing. All manual; nothing automatic. I wish I could set it to record from my video source for a set period of time and then stop. Most VCR's didn't really offer this functionality either.

The digital video hookup is equally basic and not quite as smart as hooking the camera up to my computer. You still have to hit play on the camera although a blank section in the video tape does appear to pause the dvd recorder so that you don't have gaps in your dvd.

The 5005 offers no editing or chapter titling what-so-ever. You can set it to create a chapter mark every X minutes but the dvd's it creates don't offer any kind of 'scene selection' like the dvd's that you buy. I wish it had the ability to at least title the individual 'chapters' that you see from the dvd menu but I can live without that.

All in all I'm happy. I wanted a basic recorder soley for the purpose of transferring various video to DVD and I got that for a really inexpensive price.

Over A year ago, I bought the LVW5007. I was very happy with it. It had TVGuide which was awesome. But after 11 months, it went belly up. I emailed Lite-on tech support (yes folks EMAIL) and was VERY HAPPY with their response (there is a 1yr warantee on this puppy). Unfortunately, the 5007 is hard to get, so they offer me the LVW5005. It's pretty darned good. I record from VCR to DVD no problems. I copy my vinyl to CDs no problem. It makes VideoCDs (if you care). It rights DVD+/- RW ( hence the name ALLRight) The user interface is friendly, but limited. I found LiteOn easy to deal with and they stand behind their product.

This is the biggest piece of junk I have bought in a long time. First, it only accepts and reads about 50% of the dvds I put in for recording. Yet the dvds read fine in other dvrs. I bought this to record videos onto dvds. 1/2 way though, approximately 10 videos, the screen started showing that it was recording in black and white. I assumed the the video player was on it last legs......wrong the dvd recorder is now recording in black and white.

Another thing I don't like is it does not give you thumbnails, which most other dvrs do. It gives you chapters (my mistake I assumed chapers and thumbnails are the same) They are not.

I would not recommend this for anyone. I will now buy a name brand, such as Sony. Remember you get what you pay for.

I hate to say it as my dad really liked what he read on the lite on but this is the second one ive had and it starts write failing abtou 4-6 mos into it. Im not a hardcore user very few times do I use it and never has failed it gets to the 6 month period and starts flaking out. this one is out of warranty but its my 2nd one in one year time. I would say go sony or a brand that will be there and will put in quality parts thos lasers go out and there is not repalcing them... good luck on your search... its also really finicky on the dvds as well and you end up losing cash there when they wont recognize it... Now either its because I keep getting bad lite ons or they are really strict on what they will take but technology should be good enough now where you dont have to do back bends just to get it to work!

I paid $120 for this dvd recorder
I've been able to transfer tapes from VHS to DVD; VCD to DVD; TV to DVD and the only problem I had was finding the 'finalize' button (need to go into special menu then select finalize) it could be made more clear in the instructions but is really very simple after you do it once

You should note the 'recommended dvd' list it does make a difference - most notably when having trouble reading a disk

I dont see how you can go wrong with what you spend and what you get. I buy blank dvd's for $0.50 each. and have already recorded roughly 40 DVDs on it. highly recommended if you have a use for it.

downsides - fan noise, ambient light, gets stuck in loop when not able to read a disk well (hence the better disks recommended)I powered off and back on and then was able to get the disk out and threw it away.