The LVW-5005 is a very flexible and easy-to-use unit.  It has an "easy-guider" GUI-based wizard which helps the user make all the necessary settings for recording.  It can record to DVD, VCD, SVCD or music CD formats.  And in the DVD format, quality can be set for 1, 2, 4, or 6 hours.

First, a music CD was created by recording a few tracks from an audiophile-grade CD player.  Our panel of four judges was to decipher which track was the original on the CD player, and which one is the track recorded on the LVW-5005.  91% of the responses resulted in incorrect identification of the tracks.  This means the LVW-5005 does an excellent job in recording analog audio with very little THD and noise. 

Next, a three SVCDs were created using the timer recording function.  One was with a blank CD-R, next was with a new CD-RW and the third was with a very used CD-RW.  SVCD format holds about 30 minutes of mediocre-quality video.  All except the used CD-RW resulted in a viewable disc.  The used CD-RW was likely to be too scratched for it to properly record data.  It was not playable in six of our set-top DVD players, and was not readable by any PC CD or DVD drive.  The lesson here is: Avoid scratched discs!

Lastly, VCDs were made using the same method mentioned above.  Two new CD-R and CD-RWs were used in addition to the same used CD-RW above.  The result?  Same as above. 

For the DVD recording test, we tried four different formats, +R, -R, -RW, +RW.  All four performed superbly without any issues at all.  This is truly one versatile recorder!

Now for the quality.  All I can say is that I am impressed.  VCD quality is atrocious simply because of the nature of the VCD format.  I expected much worse, but it came through with good color saturation, great audio, and hardly any pixelation.  SVCDs were leaps and bounds better than VCD.  I would call it "near-DVD quality".  This format is what I use for 30-minute programs on unscratched CD-RWs.  As for DVDs, the quality is truly an image of the original content.  I was so pleased to finally see a clear playback of recorded TV, no more of those grainy VCR recordings!

So the LVW-5005 does a good job of recording.  Let's talk about the smaller but crucial details.  The cable-ready tuner easily locks into off-center frequencies, and also provides some manual fine-tuning adjustment which made us smile.  The timer recording scheduler is complete, concise and easy to use.  A disc eraser is also included, and many other settings are provided for maximum flexibility. 

So what features did we not like, or did not see in the LVW-5005?

• No MPEG4/DIVX support, even just in playback

• Didn't advise that the disc is too badly scratched for use

• No digital audio capture

• No integrated programming guide

The verdict is as follows:

88%