5 comments about Sony RDR-VX530 DVD Recorder & VHS Combo Player.

1. Nothing but problems with this unit almost from the start! It won't record in a single title: When the recording is done there appears about 3 or 4 titles on the title list. none of them complete. I have to do the recording once or twice more ( DVD+RW ) in order to obtain a complete copy. On playback ( all discs ) the movie will "freeze" at various times making it necessary to eject the disc, re-insert it, and chapter through to where I was.
   
   Sony's customer service people were of no assistance whatsoever! Completely indifferent to the problem, and what finished me with them was their refusal to honor the warranty. They told me the warranty was for 90 days only. I reminded them I had a 1 year warranty with the unit which I filed with them the same day of purchase. Their reply was that I could ship the unit to them, at my own expense, and for $65/hr they would repair it. At that point I ended the conversation and unplugged the unit. I will replace it with another brand.
   
   We have been long time Sony customers. Until now I've never had a warranty issue but now that I know how poorly they address such issues there will never be another Sony product in our home.



2. I own two VX-530's and use them with DVD+R and DVD+RW discs to compile recordings of series from TIVO and VHS tapes. Up until recently, I have had very few problems with the recorders. Lately, however, one of them had presented problems when attempting to name a chapter on the DVD+R discs. Occasionally, I can get it to work after returning to the System Menu or naming the disc but often I have to do either an eject/load on the disc or power off/on the entire recorder before it will allow me to write the new chapter name. I don't have the problem when using DVD+RW discs. Despite this glitch, I have been very satisfied with the VX-530 and have logged over 500 recording hours. I have also watched all manner of pre-recorded DVD's without any noticeable problems.



3. I purchased this unit from Frys electronics in the Portland OR area, in April of 2007. the first one I bought first day the sound was not working and it was an obvious lemon. I promptly returned it and should have purchased an extended Warrantee on the replacement but I didnt.
   
   the replacement seemed to work ok for a while, but then occasionally the sound (DVD ONLY) would drop out to low levels and then back to normal, and sometimes would have horrible static in the sound. then it was fine for a while. then back to the issue.
   
   I took it back to Frys, and they would NOT exchange it, only send it in for repair, at first they said the Warrantee was 90 days but the papers said 1 year.
   
   after 40 days it was back after being "adjusted" and it seemed to work fine for a month or so. Now the DVD volume plays at about 1/10th of where it should be, very low, and has not come back. Taking it back for service again.
   
   Our old sony player only still works fine and has for 9 years or so. go figure,
   
   wondering if they tried to pack too m much into one package?
   
   since I saw 2 personally that were BAD id stay away from this model but it may be just me.



4. ...for transferring VHS to DVD, I'd recommend something else. This unit is crap.
   
   The dubbing function results in a lot of weird stops and starts. Your video programs will end up chopped up into random chunks, because the machine can't seem to operate for more than 5 to 35 minutes at a stretch without pausing and "regrouping." Also, quality-wise, the finalized DVDs look terrible.
   
   You could avoid the mess by using this machine's VCR function only for playback, recording DVDs on a different external unit. This results in a better disc (depending, of course, on your recorder). However, Sony's brilliant designers saw fit to have a huge, intrusive ONSCREEN DISPLAY pop up from the playback VCR wherever there is a hint of disrupted signal, tracking problem, imperfect stereo, ANYTHING. There is, of course, no way to turn the onscreen display off. So if your source videos aren't factory-perfect, forget about it.
   
   I hate this thing.



5. Easy to install; easy to use; recordings are just as good as originals; record DVD to DVD, VHS to DVD, DVD to VHS

5 comments about Philips DVDR 3400 - DVD recorder with TV tuner.

1. This machine is an outstanding value in the $130-$150 price range, and mine has worked flawlessly. Providing a tuner, an HDMI output, and the capability of playing and recording numerous DVD formats, it just keeps on delivering in my household. One can even plug a flash drive into it through its USB port enabling the playing or recording of material like JPEG images, MPG files, and more. If you want an inexpensive but capable machine to carry the load during the ongoing HD-DVD war, this is a great candidate.



2. I've been using all kinds of electronics since the very first IBM PC. This is my 10th (or so) DVD player and my 2nd DVD recorder. So I know my way around the world of electronic gear.
   
   This is the worst piece of gear I have ever bought. I have a long list of gripes, but I'll just mention a couple for brevity's sake. The remote works great- if you're standing directly in front of the unit, about 6ft away. Otherwise, it's just a paperweight. It can also control your TV, if it's a Philips TV.
   
   The machine is laughably slow to boot up, and to load a disc of any kind. It's slow to jump chapters or audio tracks, and when it's in the middle of one of these slow tasks, it won't respond to ANYTHING except being unplugged. So if you're using the remote and wondering if it's working, you have to push a button, then wait a few seconds to see if anything happens, push it again & wait, etc. This is MADDENING. Edison's wax cylinder recorder worked better than this.
   
   I tried to program the 'timer' function to record a TV show for me every week. It did it ONCE out of six tries. During those six weeks, the 'TIMER' light was always on, and it was another maddening chore to just play a DVD. It would always load the disc (30sec) and say "Please insert blank disc for recording", even if the recording was set to occur three days away! i had to unplug the unit for several minutes to disable the timer function (after trying to do it with the remote, of course).
   
   I could go on a lot more, but you're probably already bored. I hate this thing. I bought it to do its exact designed task, and it failed miserably.
   
   Spend your money on a DVDR that actually works. If you really want one of these, you can have mine. For free. Seriously.



3. Received two of these free in a special product promotion from a local store. One of them was used once and then it never worked again. When you turn it on it displays the message 'Startup' and never gets beyond that. The other unit has worked well for a year now but has never been used for recording so I don't know what the results of that would be. The TV tuner feature has also never been used. The DVD picture quality, connected via HDMI to a 1080p TV, seems fine.



4. I've had this recorder for a little over a year now and can say that I am ready to move on.
   
   The picture quality is fine. I haven't experienced any of the artifacts others have described.
   
   My issues are with the functioning of the recorder:
   
   First, it has always taken an extremely long time to start up--so long that we actually avoid watching anything on DVD because we know it will take a good five minutes before the machine is fully ready.
   
   Second, the remote is horrible. The buttons don't always register when you press them and you have to aim it just right.
   
   Third, the interface for changing the names of DVDs is very slow and doesn't have characters like apostrophes, which are useful in naming shows. It also is very limited in the number of characters you can enter for a name.
   
   Finally, and the reason why we're going to move on, the machine has started to freeze during finalization of DVDs. It's happened to me twice now--gets to 74% and then just doesn't go any farther. I know it can take a while, so I've waited about 10 minutes before just giving up and unplugging the machine. Of course then it thinks the disc is finalized, so I can't finalize it again, but it won't play on any other machine.
   
   Overall, this has been a very disappointing purchase.



5. SLOW menu response. Takes forever to "boot" up. Will show that it is recording yet when finished, DVD shows blank. However, there is space used on the blank that you cannot finalize since the recorder consideres it a blank still. IR Remote...crappy. You have to be inches away and aim directly at the IR receiver even with new batteries. Timer...a joke. Put a blank in and set it to record a 1 hour show at medium quality leaving another hour of space remaining. Set it to record a second 1 our show and it sits there like a bump on a log. No warnings...nothing.
   Remote buttons get hung up under the case cutouts. The absolute worst thing I've spent $150 on. I should have driven down the highway and thrown the $150 out of the window...I'd have more to show for it and WAY less stress.

No comments about Philips DVDR3506 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player/Recorder.

5 comments about CyberHome CH-DVR 1500 Progressive-Scan DVD+R/+RW Recorder and Player , Silver.

1. Please note that it is no longer possible to get ANY customer support, warranty coverage nor even downloadable manuals or upgrades. Purchasing a Cyberhome model of any kind is a poor proposition, owing to their high rate of failure, and, oh, that detail about their being out of business. [...]



2. Just wanted to add my two cents here. I have never been more disappointed in a product. I purchased one and had to return it on the same day. The disk tray got stuck and wouldn't open or play. I returned it right away and have had the "new" one for less than a year. Attempted to record several programs recently (I don't use it daily) and it appears to be recording but doesn't record ANYTHING! The disk tray only operates intermittently so don't put a disk in if you don't want to run the risk of losing or damaging it.
   
   Cyberhome's website is up for sale so I am assuming now that they have gone under. That means you will get no tech support on this product! I don't remember what I paid for it now...probably around $100 but after reading some of the other reviews I think it is a sham of a product - never intended to really operate for any length of time.



3. I used this product for burning not more than 10 DVDs - none of them were consistent. Some did not work on most DVD players, others did work anywhere.
   
   After struggling with it for 6 months(I am a infrequent user as I burn my kid's video on this), this machine broke on me and hasnt worked since.
   
   I couldnt trace the company for followup and I had lost my CCity receipt to go back - overall useless blow up of my money (75 dollars when I bought it)
   
   Be careful on warranty if you are brave enough to buy this.



4. Sure it's a DVD recorder, and yes it can transfer your old time VHS classics. But it's lazy. what I mean by that is that the player works when it wants to, he accepts only certain types of blanks, you can only use DVD+R all other's will not function, if you want to watch a movie it takes an eternity for it to load. Plus it has the worst fast forwarding feature I have ever seen: instead of fast forwarding the picture it lags even more. The player brings 3 DVD+RW blanks that records but can't be used in another player. The finalizing process to make your DVD recordings compatible with other players takes an eternity as well. Sometimes while finalizing it erases everything; basically everything you recorded is gone. Sure it works, it records, and it has good picture quality. But it sucks and it's slow and lazy. Simply put.
   
   
   MY PERSONAL RATING: 2 OUT OF 5



5. This was the worst electronic purchase I have ever made. Only lasted a few months for recording then just played dvds now it does nothing but collect dust!

1 comments about GPX PD907B 9 inch Port TFT DVD Player with Remote.

1. I did a lot of research trying to find the best and biggest player for the best price. This player has a great picture, great sound and is a steal for the price. Now I know a lot of people want a contrast button, which this does not have. But you can go into the menu and adjust the brightness and contrast there, so it's not even an issue. The swivel screen was not something I was looking for, but it is a great feature. Overall, this is a great player at a great price!

2 comments about Aleratec 230115 DVD-R 16x LightScribe V1.2 Duplicator Grade Rainbow (100-Pack).

1. Three different LightScribe drives wouldn't reliably recognize these discs - one would recognize them once in every two or three discs, the other two drives wouldn't recognize them at all. A total waste of time and effort.



2. I purchased these with high hopes (misplaced). Almost every disk gets rejected for an inability of the drive to read the lightscribe instructions. With careful cleaning it can read the disk on the first or second try and then prints the image without a problem. However the lightscribe side does not clean easily. Water is inadequate for the task, and although alcohol works, it partially destroys the surface. I have not had this problem with Memorex. Maybe just a bad production run, but I won't buy this brand again.
   
   Jeff Carmen
   Manlius

5 comments about Sony DVPNS75H Single Disc Upscaling DVD Player.

1. I have always been a fan of Sony products, but my faith is waning.
   I bought this unit to replace a dead Sony which lasted many years.
   I do not have HDTV (yet) so I can only vouch for the performance of the unit and not on the picture quality.
   
   As the title states, it is SLOW. Slow to open and close, slow to load the DVD content.
   
   In addition, it seems prone to hang up and kid's videos from Netflix (i.e. scratched), so in that regard does not perform better than its predecessor.
   
   I would seriously consider a Samsung or some other the next time around. And pay better attention to the reviews.



2. Most of the time im pretty unhappy with the results of the upscaling on my 40" samsung and then just 3months into owning the player my sound started cuting off about ever hour or so into the movie.You most eject the desk to get it working right..Pain!!



3. Simply put its garbage after 1 year. I had purchased the Sony DVPNS75H to use with my Sony Bravia. At first I loved it, great picture but after a little over a year it stopped working. As others have reported here, after inserting a DVD it would display loading for several minutes and then eventually display can't play.
   
   I had purchased it to hold me over until the price of Blu-Ray players came down, it didn't even last long enough for that purpose. If it had lasted for two years I might of given it 4 stars but for just over a year... its gets 1 star from me.
   
   I am going to think very hard about buying another Sony dvd player again. Or at least factor in the cost of an extended warranty since their quality control is a failure.



4. Good upconverting but since you can buy a home theater with a upconverting DVD player in it, no real need for this one (at least as a cheap low end model).



5. Does as it states. Only downsides are that the load up times are a bit high and it doesn't play Divx, but then again... it doesn't state that it offers that feature.
   
   I have owned 2 of these players for about 8 months and have absolutely no complaints besides those above. Beautiful picture quality on my 1080i projection Hitachi 50' TV.

5 comments about Samsung DVD-VR330 DVD Recorder.

1. After approximately six months of use, my Samsung DVD-VR330 began having problems reading blank DVD-R media, ejecting them several times before finally detecting them. Soon thereafter, it failed to read blank media as well as all the DVD-Rs I had recorded and finalized on that same recorder. When I called Samsung, the Customer Representative suggested I send the VR330 to Samsung's Repair Center, which would cost $65 in Labor plus the cost of shipping.
   
   Because the discs I had already burned were not perfectly compatible with other DVD brands, I needed a Samsung DVD player, but the cost of repairing the VR330 was over half the cost of the new Samsung DVD-VR357. So I decided to give Samsung another chance and bought the VR357, which had all good reviews at the time. Seven months later, the VR357 started failing in exactly the same way as the VR330. When I again called Customer Service, the rep again denied knowing anything about the problem. In fact, he had the temerity to claim that Samsung had "no known problems whatsoever" with their DVD recorders. Again, the only option was to send the recorder in for "repair" with little hope of solving the actual problem.
   
   As I told the second Samsung rep, I will NEVER buy another product from Samsung. Neither should you.



2. Had this recorder for about a year to empty my DVR and eliminate VHS tapes. Worked very well for about 6 months but then increasing started having trouble formating new discs for recording. Each time I started to record it would stop after 30 seconds and give a disc error; refusing to record any more shows and refusing to read the disc. After that I have to throw lot of them away. There is a work around that I found after working with it for a day: Start with a fresh disc and insert it in the machine. Record anything for about 4-7 seconds with chapters. The idea here is to lay down a good title and end it before the error occurs. After 4-7 seconds stop the recording and allow it to update. After that you can record anything like before with no problems. There is a firmware update but it's for Europe. The issue seems related to a copy protection software to prevent piracy. After all this time it seems Samsung isn't going to fix this very serious error. Love every Samsung product but this one isn't ready for prime time.



3. Samsung should be ashamed to have made such a overpriced faulty recorder.
   Mine has been for repair & still rejects over half the blank DVDs.
   Takes much longer to finalize discs than other makes.
   If you stop recording before full disc, it says to wait "a moment" & it takes enough time to have Breakfast or lunch.
   Could have bought 2-3 Lite-ons instead & they work much better.



4. I have just been reading up on a lot of the other customer reviews here and it's now at least I know it's not me!
   
   Like many others, mine worked for about a year (of course the time of the warranty) and then began not being able to read recordable DVDs. At first I thought the DVDs themselves might be faulty and even threw several out. After all, why would a major company like Samsung produce a machine that all of a sudden stopped working after a year? Several movies I had to watch on my laptop b/c it would not play.
   
   I could finally, at times, get some of the discs to work, but literally after trying 15 or 20 times! Then they started not working for a lot of pre-recorded discs as well, and even discs I made on this very machine! I bought a whole box set produced by 20th Century Fox, but can I watch any of them on this machine? No!
   
   I just burned a 2.5 hour movie from VHS to DVD+R (sometimes the plus-r's will not "initialize" correctly because they are "damaged" Bull! It's this machine that is truly damaged!) At any rate, when the movie was over I got the usual message after I pressed the stop button to wait. So I waited. And waited. And waited! Usually after 30 seconds or so the message disappears, but this one was on for literally 15 minutes! I could not shut the machine off or press stop. I had to unplug the damn thing and then it came back as a blank disc! I lost everything!
   
   I just bought a new non-name brand recorder, that will probably be much much better. Tomorrow Samsung goes into the garbage and hopefully my new machine will never give me this problem.
   
   
   To hell with Samsung and all of their products!



5. 
   Easy programming, clear recordings and a sharp picture through it's
   tuner. I already have this recorder and needed a second one and went
   out of my way to find it. I have not used the VCR side though.

5 comments about Toshiba D-R550 1080p Upconverting Div-X Certified DVD Recorder with Built In Tuner.

1. This DVD is just perfect for my 1080p projector. Its digital TV tuner is amazing. I still have not had time to try out the recording capabilities. But so far I am completely satisfied with my purchase.



2. Works like a charm. Even records show from my DVR which were from premium channels. Can't figure out how to get rid of the band on the top and bottom of the screen. Haven't used it enough. Would definitely recommend.



3. This was my second DVD Recorder and its leagues better than the Magnavox one I owned previously. I've had it for a month now and have had no issues at all. It records wonderfully and I've had zero issues with playback.



4. Seems to be a good dvd recorder at a resonable price. I had some trouble setting it up at first, but by going over the manual several times I got it working right. The only thing is I wish you could watch one program and record another, I don't think you can with this one.I'm satisfied with the purchase. Paul



5. I bought this from TigerDirect through Amazon with an amazing next day delivery with ground shipping. This unit has all the tuners built in - even a QAM tuner! It sets up easily out of the box and records very well. My only complaint is entering titles for recordings. It is cumbersome in that there is no storage for common titles so each title has to be entered from the numeric keypad. Overall a solid piece of equipment that I recommend.

5 comments about Panasonic DVD-LS91 Portable DVD Player.

1. This DVD player is satisfactory: good quality, fair image, good sound, you can plug 2 earphones. However, I would not purchase this product again. And it will be my last Panasonic DVD player. Why? It is almost impossible to dezone Panasonic DVD players. With most other "big names" like Samsung, Pioneer, Sony, Philips, etc. you can very easily dezone your player, the instructions are found on the net. Not for Panasonic. The only way I found is to pay another 30 bucks and a special remote will be sent to you...



2. I bought this for my wife for the airplane rides. She loves it. Our 5-year-old friend has used it several times. So, it's easy to use & works as designed. I used it on a recent plane trip and found that the adjustable screen was very useful. The 6 hour battery is great for the long trips. We're glad we bought it!



3. We have owned this dvd player for 13 months. We just got the H03 error; right on time according to other reviews. I would recommend looking at other players first or expect to repair this one after about a year.



4. This DVD player was well used in the ~13 months since purchase until suddenly "Error H03" was displayed on the screen and the player could not read the DVD. After looking into having it repaired, (cost being from $95-160, depending on what was found) we decided to purchase the LS80 ($155) as we had this model before and had no problems for over two years until our toddler son dropped it and it subsequently stopped working. After reading the reviews, I am not alone in having the "Error H03" message and a nonfunctional player after the 12 mo. warranty has expired. Note, there were similar reviews re: the LS82 ($180) model, which we considered as that battery life is 12 hours. Both the LS80 and LS91 have 6 hr battery lives.



5. Months after I purchased the player I recieved the dreaded HO3 error code. I fixed it per Panasonics specifications but got it again after the next play. However, even with the directions I have it won't work at all now. Upon researching this error code; I found that this error is so common - this model should have been recalled - save your money!