I just returned and got my money back my Digital Max DVD Recorder (DMDR0501) which cost me all of $95 new & worked great except one retarded thing the company, LiteOn , failed to neglect on the packaging but listed inside the instruction book- it doesn't record 16:9 full widescreen instead it does something where there are bars on the bottom and top & I think it stretches the picture. Aparently you can not set the aspect when you record & if you are recording an HDTV broadcast it will not record it in such a way as to show the full widescreen. This is insane. I guess they figure people who spend $95 on a cheap recorder won't notice the difference because they probably don't have a widescreen TV anyway. When I phoned the company they said it doesn't record full widescreen.

To make a long story short, I just bought an RCA DVD recorder (DRC8060N) that does Upconverting through HDMI output. As I am not sure I'll see a noticeable difference, I really don't want to invest much in an HDMI, at least at first. Can anybody tell me, if these make a difference in the picture & if so, what is the cheapest decent one around? If not, can I just get a cheap generic one on Ebay & will I still see a difference using it? One of my TV's had an HDMI input while the other has DVI. If I use an HDMI DVI adapter will that impact negatively on the picture. Any advice is much appreciated.