4 comments about Samsung DVD-R157 Tunerless DVD Recorder.

1. This is my first dvd recorder. It plays divx fine and I play dvds on the hdmi out to my hdtv. The best quality in is svideo. The best quality out is hdmi or svideo.
   The biggest problem is recording from the hd cable drv box- IF I use a svideo cable to the hdtv it will record any channel to dvd but if I have a hdmi cable plugged in to the hdtv the recorder won't record nothing- all the channels say copy protection. So basically I have to swap cables so that I can watch dvds in the best quality(hdmi) or if I want to record to dvd(svideo).
   It won't remove commercials during recording.
   What I have recorded, looks great and plays fine.



2. I bought this DVD to use with my HDTV. Image is great ! It upscales old dvds to 1080, very good. The recorder works very fine too, with very good quality when recording in 2 or 4 hours.
   For me the only problem is that I cannot unlock it to region free...



3. After recording a few DVDs it broke. It freezes in the middle of recording. Has all the features one may not use but it lacks reliability. Currently awaiting a replacement shipped to me. It may only be limited to one defective unit I received out of bad luck or may be a general problem. Will know after receiving and using the replacement unit.



4. The DV input broke. Send for repair got it fixed but broke again while buring DVDs. I get screen freez after few minutes of recording.
   
   Samsung is sending brand new uunit model DVD-R160. Will have to see how it works.

2 comments about GoVideo R6750 DVD Recorder.

1. First of all, I have the GoVideo Dual Deck VCR player which I got about 5 years ago and that works excelently, so when it came time to upgrade my DVD player, I thought...
   "why not GoVideo"?
   
   I"ll tell you why not...
   
   Their DVD player/recorder is a piece of CRAP. Let's start with that.
   
   I wanted a DVD player that could also record.
   
   While this one did just that, it seemed to have a mind of it's own.
   
   I'd only owned the damned thing for 2 months when it started acting up.
   
   e.g. When you insert a DVD disc, what do you expect?
   
   For the TV screen to show the DVD main menu, right?
   
   And when it is on the main menu, and the "PLAY" option is highlighted, meaning, if you press "play" or "OK" on the remote it should play the movie, right?
   
   WRONG!
   
   If you press "OK", it doesn't work.
   
   what happens, a blue blank screen appears on the TV screen.
   
   You have to press "play" only, apparently.
   
   And that was only after a couple months.
   
   And now it's been 9 months and my DVD player/recorder - which by the way, cost me about $170 - is not working.
   
   No "main menu", NOTHING!
   
   Hell, my homie has a regular $45 DVD player that he's had longer than me (and not from GoVideo) and the darn thing is still working!
   
   As far as I'm concerned, this is the last product I'll ever buy from GoVideo!!!!
   
   I wish there was a less than 1 rating!



2. Basic machine, functioned satisfactorily for 6 months, but then stopped playing or recording. Tech support said to clean the laser, which I knew was not the problem, and of course $15 later it still did not work. They then said that the laser had gone bad. I could take it in for repair. That might cost more than the machine, but I told them I would consider it since the warranty still covered parts for 1 year. I was informed that the company had decided not to honor the warranty any more!
   
   I won't buy another GoVideo product.

5 comments about Philips DVDR77 DVD Recorder.

1. I bought this from a competitor, wish I had bought from Amazon.
   
   We have had it for a few months, have never been able to get it to record.
   
   The book says 1 year warranty. Philips would not honor the warranty, because they said, they no longer had in their data base, even though we have only owned it for a few months.
   
   After many headaches and shipping expense, and a restocking charge, the competition is taking it back.
   
   We are going to buy a Panasonic or Sony now



2. I bought this from a competitor, wish I had bought from Amazon.
   
   We have had it for a few months, have never been able to get it to record.
   
   The book says 1 year warranty. Philips would not honor the warranty, because they said, they no longer had in their data base, even though we have only owned it for a few months.
   
   After many headaches and shipping expense, and a restocking charge, the competition is taking it back.
   
   We are going to buy a Panasonic or Sony now



3. I bought a DVDR895 for $900 (+ $100 for an extended warranty) when they came out a few years ago. That unit failed multiple times. Ruined a bunch of DVDs. Philips couldn't fix the unit, so they provided me with a replacement unit under the extended warranty (at least they honored the warranty). But the DVDR77 started showing the same problems. This second unit has been serviced twice now and isn't working again.
   
   I had never tried to use the Digital Photo Manager functions... and now that I do, it shouldn't be a surprise that it doesn't work either.
   
   Don't waste your time or money on Philips DVDRecorders. Those people that write the positive reviews are either very lucky to have a DVDR that works or they are telling tall tales.



4. I have bought 3 dvd recorders over the last few months only to be severly dissapointed up until I bought the Philips DVDR77. It is one of the only recorders I have seen with component input and since I am recording video from a Tivo-esque device and had to run it through the recorder having a good connection was important. I am using Philips DVD-R's with it and have recorded about 25 DVD's as of now all without any problems; highly recomended recorder.



5. On June 23, 2006, I bought a Philips DVD Player at Wal-Mart. I could have purchased a cheap DVD player for $30.00 or $40.00, but frankly I spent more than that because I have other Philips products, including another Philips DVD player, and, up until now, was always pleased with the products made by them. The DVD player, even though it was not used much (it was kept at a vacation home), stopped loading disks at the end of September, 2006. I took it back to Wal-Mart, but Wal-Mart would not accept the return because the purchase was slightly over three months old and the limit for store-returns is three months. However, Wal-Mart printed a proof of purchase for me and advised that the manufacturer's warranty still applied. The Wal-Mart proof of purchase even specified the telephone number for the manufacturer.
   
   Accordingly, I called the number listed. I was first advised to use a disk cleaner. I purchased a Philips disk cleaner, but it did not solve the problem. (The first and second times I called, I was at first advised that the purchase date was back in 2005 and so no warranty would apply. I then was able to confirm my purchase date and the representatives "updated" the information and told me it was under warranty.) Each time you call, you get a different representative.
   
   After I advised that the disk cleaner did not work, I was given a fax number to fax my proof of purchase and I did so; I was told the player would be replaced. My letter attaching the proof of purchase was included. After I faxed it, I received a call asking me to re-fax it and I did so. I then heard nothing for two weeks. On October 30th, 2006, I called to find out the status of matters. I was told two inconsistent things: First, I was told it was under warranty but that only parts were warranted and it would cost me $40.00 for a replacement. Secondly, and obviously inconsistently, I was told that my proof of purchase from Wal-Mart was insufficient, even though the store specifically printed it out for me as my "proof of purchase." The underlying message was, "We are not going to do anything for you and even if we did, it would cost you forty dollars." I told the representative that I could buy a brand new player for that price and that I have no incentive to ever purchase a Philips product again. I have all sorts of electronics that are still working fine after years. I do not think it unreasonable to expect that a device will work for more than three months!
   
   I wrote to the CEO of Philips and heard not a thing back. Why would ANYONE buy products from such a company? Never again.

5 comments about Sony RDRVX515 DVD Recorder.

1. I bought this unit and it worked great for about a month. Thank goodness I bought an extended service plan. It started having what looked like signal disruption lines going through the pictures. I would click stop and then play gain and it would be fine for a little while. It also began sticking on the subtitles. The movie would go on with the subtitles still stuck at the previous clips. The last thing it started doing was moving very slow frame by frame on its own. I would have to forward it to get past it. These were brand new DVDs that played fine on my cheap $40 player. I took it back and would have been happy trying another but the store was out of stock and the item is discontinued so they offered me a Panasonic DMR-ES35V. So far so good with this one. It's working great and the remote is a lot easier to use.



2. I bought this to copy VHS to DVD. I thought is was high quality because it cost so much. VHS player is terrible quality. So I don't use it for that. It finalizes recordings for half an hour. I'm stuck with it. I won't buy Sony again because I feel ripped off. DVD fast-forward and rewind is ridiculously slow.



3. I purchaced the $600 sony 6 onths before this one and they work just as well. This peice is a bargin.



4. This unit worked flawlwssly yntil 3 weeks befor the warranty expired. Then
   a bad disc hung up in a continuous "Load" function. After the usual support "fal-der-all", I received a "Work Order No.", so off to Laredo it
   went for what, I thought, was a simple-enough repair. When I checked thsir repair search site, I found that there was a repair estimate, "for a unit supposedly still in warranty". After tracking through the corporate phone system, I finally was connected to a rather snotty twerp
   who informed me that, becaise cigar ashes had been found in the drive, the warranty was voided. When I received a copy of the repair estimate, I
   found that repairs were going to cost $459.66 (I only paid $269.89 for the
   unit, brand new). I'm waiting to see what sort of trash they return to me.
   By the way, I don't smoke cigars !! As I stated , it worked fine, but--!!
   Bill C, Warsaw, MO



5. Bought this video cassette/DVD recorder because it was a Sony. BIG mistake! What a total piece of junk. Sony should be ashamed of duping their customers like this. The VCR recording quality is terrible: murky and the sound is tinny and muted. The DVD recording manuel would take a NASA scientist to understand and then, when you finally do figure out the instructions and follow them to the letter, sometimes the DVD recorder records, and other times gets locked into the "Loading" function and simply won't read or record a DVD at all. The timer for DVD recordings is unreliable and as stated before, sometimes it records and others it does not. As others have stated, the dubbing function from VHS to DVD does not result in clear DVDs and sometimes won't work at all. I would give this product ZERO stars if I could. Do not buy this product!

2 comments about Sylvania DVR-90VG Progressive Scan DVD Recorder/VCR Combo.

1. I didn't purchase this through Amazon but my experience may be valuable to anyone thinking of buying it. I bought this solely to convert my family VHS tapes (created with my VideoCam) to DVD. It did a good job for the first ten tapes. Then every single tape after that gave me an error that said I was trying to copy commercially protected tapes. I couldn't convert anymore family tapes. I called the Sylvania help desk but they were helpless. I returned the unit and ordered another one, hoping I had a defective unit. I got the new unit and the convert failed on the first tape. Not only that, any tape I tried to play was unviewable, the tapes flickered constantly. The same tapes played fine on my other VCR player.
   
   This unit apparently has some kind of bug in its design and also a problem in its tape playback. Do not purchase it if you are looking to convert your VHS tapes to DVD.



2. I didn't buy mine through Amazon, but I want to take every opportunity to warn people away from the rip-off that is this piece of junk. Like the other reviewer, we began converting VHS tapes to DVDs. We at least got further along than the he/she did, but it eventually stopped recognizing blank DVDs. Well, we thought, at least we still have the DVD player functionality. Wrong. The machine now refuses to play any commercial DVD with copy protection (read: 99% of them).
   
   If you're driving along the I-5 near San Diego sometime soon and you see one of these fly out of a car window, honk and say "hello."

4 comments about Sony RDR-VX521 DVD Recorder Vcr Combo.

1. Simple, easy, nice unit by Sony. Having many video tapes that needed to be transferred, I tried my computer but it was cumbersome to do the transfers. This allows easy transfer to DVD using any format including DVD-RW for recording tv shows. My only complaint is the unit does not allow you to name your DVD so when you pop in into your computer, it comes up with the stock Sony name. Minor complaint because you can still edit and name the video via the unit on screen so when it sees a DVD player, you know what is on the DVD. Let's hope the prices keep coming down!



2. One star only because it is not possible to rate the product lower.
   
   I purchased this model DVD recorder/VCR combo locally on 11/17/2007. I attempted to install the product, but the machine would not display a menu or respond to commands from the remote. It also would not respond to some commands from the command buttons on the face of the recorder. I spent about an hour on the phone with Sony tech support, resulting in an offer to replace the item at no cost if I'd pay shipping to them. I opted to exchange it at the store at no cost to myself.
   
   The second unit also would not display a menu. It responded to more commands at both the remote and on the machine itself, but refused to acknowledge the existence of channel 3. I skipped the middle man, went to a different store location on 11/18/2007, repeated the exchange.
   
   The third unit had the same failure to display a menu and refused to acknowledge the existence of any channel but 127.
   
   At this point, I accept my defeat at the hands of bad tech and will seek another product with the features I want.
   
   Caveat emptor.



3. I purchased this VCR/DVD recorder for it's ability to dub family videos to DVD and to allow my children to watch old movies we have on tape. It began sporadically eating VHS tapes after 6 months of light use. When calling for warranty service (it has a decently long warranty, I will admit-1 year and 180 days P&L-much better than many electronics which offer 90 days), it took over an hour on hold just to get the address of a repair center and a work order number. Seems like they may be sorry for offering that warranty now. Of course you will need to pay to ship your unit in for repair out of your own pocket, not to mention the inconvenience of the shipping and being without a unit you paid good money for. If you purchase it, I highly recommend you keep your receipt and original packaging handy!
   
   Sony isn't the Sony of old. My recent experience has been that their products just don't hold up like they used to. Caveat Emptor.



4. Next time I buy ANYTHING from Sam's Club I will pay for the warranty.
   Used to be you could expect reasonable service from a new product--not
   anymore. Very light use, just getting to learn how to work the machine
   and it started eating VHS tapes, some old and priceless to me. Stupidly,
   I thought it was the age of the cassettes. Then it got to eating every single VHS I put in it, even new ones. Tried the "eaten" tapes in several
   older VHS machines and they worked just fine, even worked with the crinkled
   sections that I rewound. Wonder if this was produced in China for Sony?

2 comments about RCA DRC 8320N - DVD recorder/ VCR combo.

1. We have returned this product to Wal-Mart twice. Each time we have experienced problems. The first two models allowed some use of the control panels. For example: video tapes would rewind only if you pressed rewind while it was playing. If you tried to stop the tape first and then rewind, it would not rewind. Frequently, the controls would be unresponsive to the eject button as well. If we unplugged the unit, let it rest??, and then plugged it back in, it might work (on a good day). Needless to say, this has caused hours of frustration....especially when you have five children waiting to watch a movie.
   Hoping that the third unit would be a charm, crossing our fingers that maybe it was just a coincidence, we exchanged it one more time.
   Our third unit is the worst of them all. It is completely unresponsive to any and all controls. By the grace of God, we were able to get our DVD and VHS cassette out.
   We are sending it to the repair shop right now. They said they can fix it, I said "good luck, I hope your right".
   
   Do not buy this item.



2. i purchased this product awhile back and it broke after a few months they replaced it under the 1 yr warranty well it broke again and its no longer under warranty so they want me to send it back in a padded box and pay 65 dollars to have it serviced, i paid 250 dollars for this product it shouldn't have broken all ready, although i see the price has come down alot ! BUYER BEWARE !!!!

No comments about Samsung DVD-R135 Hi-Def Conversion DVD Recorder.

1 comments about Magnavox MWR20V6 DVD Recorder/VCR Combo.

1. This machine plays and records well, however, I am not happy with the fact that the timer record feature does not work, which kind of defeats the purpose for the most part.

5 comments about Panasonic DMR-E65S DVD Recorder with SD Card Slot (DVD-RAM & DVD-R).

1. Very happy that I got to archive my old home VHS to DVD with great results.
   
   Great features:
   This is an excellent entry-level DVD-recorder. The TV Guide feature is the reason to past over Panasonic cheaper brother the E55s which just have the VCR-plus feature. TV Guide is a simpler and free version to TiVo. It has an on-screen menu of the channels including title, time, info and the option to record. Sadly, TV Guide feature only work for antenna broadcasting and basic cable. Digital cable and satellite users might have to invest more money into a TiVo recording device (lack of component input here).
   
   The recording quality is great, which is almost the same or lesser then the original, but never better. I transfer old VHS home video to this device and it was easy with excellent quality. Recording TV programs through the antenna is simple, but the quality depends on your reception. DVD-r is more common then DVD+r. I use XP or SP mode (1-2hrs) for VCR transfer, and LP or EP mode (4-8hrs) for TV program.
   This is one of the most intelligence video devices I have own yet. There are so many option and setting to configure base on your needs. The SD card reader is a nice extra for this device. I have a Panasonic digital camera with a SD card so it is just plug and play. The manual is simple to follow and understand to figure this complex device.
   
   The have not:
   As an entry level recorder would mean this device have less of the advance input features. There are no component inputs which mean you can't recorder from higher quality image. No DV(firewire) input for newer digital camcorder. No hardrive for mix and match recording. The recorder is a 4-stars but the DVD playback is a 3.75-stars. The progressive scan has a lot of settings to customize from, but my Toshisba's DVD is a little smoother. The basic DVD-playback feature is just basic and limited. The old Toshiba has many features as zoom, slow forward, display length of the DVD, which I have yet figure/found. Slow boot time, but that is true to most recorders.
   
   Panasonic quality is great. I have a Panasonic's HDTV for almost a year, a digital camera and they all are working fine with great results. I like Panasonic's pricing which is producing great quality for the price, but they leave out some of the more fancy features and style that Sony has that will jack up the prices. I use Verbatim's Digital Movie DVD-r at 4x and Panasonic's DVD-RAM, anything faster like 8x does not seem to work.



2. For the price and the not so technology enabled person, this is a great peice of equipment. It was easy to set up and use. The only thing that may be a problem is the sd slot. I used this to see a slide show of my pics from my digital camera. The picture quality was not the best, but then this was only to review and edit my pics. Putting them on a disc, the picture quality is great. I am very happy with this product.



3. In the year that I have had this model I have had to talk to Customer Support eight times. Not only did I have to call them to help me with a problem, I frequently had to wait a long time (over 45 minutes) to get someone on the phone. Once I was talking to someone I either had a really bad experience or a so-so experince. For the amount of technical trouble I have had with this machine, I would never buy another Panasonic product again.



4. Although I have called Panasonic and gotten assistance, after 4 weeks I am still unable to get the on-screen TV Guide to work. I am technology-saavy, and even had a friend help me with the unit. No luck. Programming recording without the TV Guide is fine, but that defeats the purpose of buying this machine.



5. "U99" Error Problem.Piece of junk, one can not do anything with this machine in presence of that error code.The Machine has not been even used for any rcording-brand new and I was using Panasonic Brand DVD-Ram.