ELLION DVR 530S REVIEW

It's very robustly constructed and, I think, looks very classy. The photos don't do it justice because they don't show the large LED "donut" in the centre of the fascia that changes colour depending on the DVD's status (blue during standby; purple when loading a disk; red whilst recording; off during playback) and the unit's generally sleek, minimalist and logo-free appearance. The Ellion's extreme slimness, that LED, and the disk-tray hidden behind a contour-following, black, drop-down panel, all enhance the impression that this recorder has evolved beyond the legacy of VHS design.

Divx compatibility has been very good, however the player doesn't appear to be handling 16:9 screen-sizing properly as it cuts off the top and bottom extremities of the picture (yes, it has been set-up for 16:9). However, MPEG4 is still generally more than a tad flaky, so I regard its abilities here as a bonus and not the primary reason for buying it. (PS: "Proper" DVDs format without any problem.)

Set-up is extremely easy. The tuner is high quality and surprisingly sensitive, picking up more marginal signals (and setting the clock at the right time) than my JVC television's tuner. However, as I live in a tragically weak signal-area, my unit is hooked-up to my Sky digital box, via SCART, accepting a RGB signal. By the way, if your TV does not have a SCART, S-Video, or A/V input, be aware that the aerial-lead from the 530 does not provide an RF-out signal - it will not transmit a DVD or recorded program via the aerial lead.

Recording quality is exceptional. The four-hour EP setting is good enough for day-to-day needs and there are still two settings better than that if exceptional quality is desired. In my opinion, EP is distinctly better than VHS when you consider the state of your average well-worn tape and it's obviously so much easier to navigate around a DVD recording. Ease of navigation is also greatly enhanced by the ability to auto-add chapters every five minutes during a recording. A Menu screen shows what you've recorded onto the disk and what remaining time is available for new recordings. Each new recording automatically receives an Index Picture (which you can change later through the Title Edit facility, if desired), so you can always be sure what's on a disk and, even more importantly, if you are using +RW disks, what you are about to erase or over-write.

Timer recordings: there is no Videoplus so all recordings are programmed manually. Not a big problem for anyone who has mastered the 24 Hour Clock. I do however have a gripe that the unit always has to be instructed to record the SCART signal each time rather than defaulting to the last setting used.

I have had one problem with blocky playback from a Philips DVD+RW disk. However the problem appears to have been resolved by fully erasing the disk before using it again in earnest - all subsequent recordings have resulted in perfect playback.

The root-menu has also had some problems. After changing the index-pictures, twice the title-menu has not displayed the recorded titles properly, even though the player still recognises that they are there and you can play them okay. The remedy is to re-index-picture any blank titles (even if the menu looks as if it has gone forever) and all the titles on the disk are then restored on the menu - the titles themselves are not lost, so don't reformat or erase the disk, they just don't display on the root-menu. However, this has not reoccured recently.

Splitting titles: once it reaches 98%, you still have another 4-5 minutes to wait, so be patient, it will eventually move to 100% and finish processing. By the way, despite the issues mentioned above, editing titles is a breeze from a user-interface perspective as all the functions are activated by one button on the remote, then on-screen navigable menus.

I suspect that a firmware upgrade from Ellion would solve the 16:9 picture-sizing issue, but that all the other niggles are media-related rather than anything inherent in the recorder (a friend bought the same model at the same time as me and has experienced no similar problems with TDK branded disks).

In summary, I am very pleased that I took the plunge with the DVD+ recording format - it leaves VHS in the stone-age! I am also very pleased that I bought the Ellion 540S as, although I've had some minor niggles, these are still much, much less than you hear about with more expensive, branded DVD recorder units. Four stars seems unfair - four-and-a-half would be more accurate, but as that doesn't exist, and I would certainly recommend this machine and would buy the exact same one again, I'm giving it five-stars, despite the niggles.