Home > Consumer Reviews > Pioneer DVR-433H-S Ultra slim DVD-R / DVD-RW Recorder, 80 Gb HDD - Silver

Just a rather quick review since there are no others as yet :-)

This DVD recorder wowed me with it's slick, responsive and almost fool-proof GUI. The menu system really is a pleasure to use, probably the best I've seen and used to date. Also, sometimes when you buy a new piece of equipment you get a gut feeling very quickly that you're going to enjoy using it because it looks and feels like the manufacture put lots of design hours into it. I got that feeling, and it hasn't gone away yet, a month or so after I first bought it. That's the most important comment I have to make.

It does what it says on the box, it doesn't mess you about or do inexplicable things like most inexpensive units seem to. Recording to HD and copying from HD to DVD is a breeze, it's exactly the right balance between speed, simplicity and flexibilty. I haven't recorded directly to DVD so I can't coment about that. Pre-recorded and machine-recorded DVD's seem to play flawlessly, and the quality of the output to TV from both (depending on recording quality of course) is very good indeed. The picture on my old-ish widescreen Sony TV is great when routed from the DVD recorder - it outputs proper RGB SCART even when it's just passing-through.

SO far it hasn't put a foot wrong, I really do like this machine, and I would recommend it to anyone who might ask :-)

I looked at a lot of reviews of DVD Recorders with Hard Discs and found much of the information from the manufacturers confusing and unclear as to the functions. I wanted a hard drive recorder, with the I-Link for transfering my camcorder tapes onto DVD, I also wanted to ensure that I could get not only chasing playback (to watch a programme from the begininng whilst it was still recodring), but to also be able to watch from a DVD whilst the recorder was recording a programme to the hard drive.

I was concerned that many players do not have all of these functions, I saw some poor reviews of some of the Lite-On products and others that had been purchased and then the owner had realised that it did not do the above and also found it odd that even visiting the manufacturers website's did not make the availability of the various fuctions and facilities clear.

I finally selected the Pioneer DVR 433h and it is great. It has simple on screen menus for all functions, the manual is well laid out and explains all the facilities very well. I have had no trouble recording to the hard drive or a DVD disc, or copying between the two. It is great to come in and start watching something from the begining that is still recording (golf and football and of course films are prime fot this), I have transferred all my Camcorder tapes and old VHS tapes to DVD's with no trouble, (but did need to purchase the I-Link cable), plus we have been able to watch and record with no problems and play our JPeg and music discs.

The 80 Gb Hdd gives over 30 hours storage at standard play, which seems more that enough as the stuff we want to keep goes quickly onto DVD's.

I paid around £340 but have just seen it advertised for under £300 so its a great investment.....anyone want to buy a DVD and VHS recorder going cheap!!!!

Wow. My best piece of kit. Press RECORD and it instantly RECORDS to the hard disc. No more searching for an empty blank tape or wondering how much time is left on a tape. Just decide what you want to record set the simple timer and it's there. The editing facility on the hard disc is so simple (remove those ads). Archiving to DVD is also simple as the menus are so intuative. The best DVD/HDD and at a fantastic price. If your dithering, this makes life so simple, go on you won't regret it. Fantastic.

Will what can I say- Fantastic!
It looks great and is a pleasure to use.
I'm a great believer in good quality brands, and this certainly is and at a great price.
Its pact full of easy to use features, you hardly need to look at the instructions it's so easy!
Its Hard Drive & DVD are brilliant unlike other top brand machines I've used, they are fast at processing and easy to use.
You can easily copy DVD to Hard Drive, Hard Drive to DVD, add your music CDs to Hard Drive and view your JPEG photos, plus all this in the - Format (The best)!
All I can say is it does exactly what it says and is a total joy to use- I love it...

Had this a few weeks now and I am very pleased with this DVD-433H-S recorder/player. I have not experienced any problems or lock ups and the basic options are very user friendly. Also there are many advanced menus and this should provide the techies with many hours of enjoyment. One thing to bear in mind when considering this machine is that Pioneer favour DVD-R/RW rather than DVD+R/RW.
The 80GB HD is more than large enough for most people, whereas the DVD-RW/RWx2 option (not the DVD-Rx2) is perhaps over the top especially as the dual layer discs are difficult to obtain and very expensive. The quality obtained using a 4.7GB disc for burning a 1 hr program is excellent. No extras are included, but it's good value for money from Amazon UK, especially as they upgraded my delivery to a next day Saturday morning at no extra charge.