anyone have either emerson dvd recorder from Walmart and do you like it?

Hello-all! I was on this board a while about a year ago when I bought the Emerson DVD (w/o VCR). I got a new computer system with a DVD-CD recording drive and I have never even plugged the Emerson in, I was fiddling with new OS and other stuff. When last I was here, the latest was the Funai upgrade to increase speed of recording. Do you know how to get it and is it available as a download or do you have to get a disc? I have found Imation 4x DVD-RW at my local WalMart. I am ignorant of most DVD recording facts--just never got into it much, although I have made CDs and DVDs using Nero--but I have several other programs also that I have not tried. Is there a REALLY big difference say--of recording at 16x -vs- 4x? Sometimes computer whizzes think a 1 minute -vs- 3 minute recording is a milestone. A difference like that of USB1 and USB2 I can understand. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Ok, my unit turns itself off with either VHS or DVD after about 6 seconds, no matter what I do. If I unplug it for a while it will work for about 15 minutes then shuts off. Any help out there?

 

I forgot, when it turns off it switches from DVD to VHS. Weird.

 

I would try and either hitting the reset button on the front of the unit or unplugging it overnight. Can't hurt to try either/or/both.

 

No reset button on my unit and I have unplugged it over night...new development: now before it shuts off there is a noise my daughter describes as a woodpecker and then it shuts down ...weird!

 

Bummer. I had all sorts of problems with mine - some were cleared up with a lens cleaner and the rest went away by unplugging it for 2 days. I finally bought an Emerson DVD/VCR recorder at Walmart - the one with a hard drive. Best purchase I ever made!! I wouldn't trade this unit for anything! I think I paid like $238.00 for it but it is worth every penny. A thread exists on it here - check it out. ps - use only 2x or 4x for DVD-RW recording and not more than 8x for DVD recording.

 

I unplugged it for three days. (tho why the time matters escapes me) When I plugged it back in anturned it on the word repairing appears. After about two minutes, it stopped. I started recording and after five minutes the woodpecker sound again and it shuts itself off. I'm about ready to give up. Anyone know about the RCA recorder with the 80G hard drive?

 

I have an Emerson DVD/VCR Recorder EWR20V5. I've had it for a year now and throughout that time I've tried to find the best blank DVDs to use. I finally settled on the Maxell DVD-R 8x and they have all been working great. Unfortunately, for the past month all of the DVDs that I use to record on have extreme difficulty recording. 90% of the time it will get up to 3 or 4 seconds and then say "Error: Cannot record on this disc". I've cleaned the discs, the lens, the disc tray, and I've unplugged it overnight. When I unplugged it overnight it worked the first time on a disc that hadn't been working for a while. However, it only worked for that small window of time. I really don't want to have to unplug the system every time that I wish to record, so if anyone can help I would really appreciate it.

 

Hmmm...do any of you ever wonder if low-cost DVD recorders all have a frailty that makes them work well when THEY want to and the dizzying array of possible problems can break even the strongest of men.

 

Texace I have the same machine with similar problems. Once the 8xdisks got scarce I switched to the 16x verbatims. WOrked ok for 2-3spindles of those, then either the quality got worse, or the recorder got more worn out. Sometimes they work, sometimes they dont, cleaning good, and unplugging after EACH recording session seems to help at keeping it behaving. However, it seems to do better on the Sony 16s than the verbs lately. Rarely does it kick one of those out.
charles

 

For a while I tried using the Maxell 16x, but after a couple of months I went back and watched what I had recorded on them and found that it skipped in some places. At first I thought that it may have been a playback problem, but the next time that I recorded on one of the 16x I noticed that when it got to a certain point it would go back about a minute and a half. Example: when it got to 6 1/2 minutes, it would go back to 5 minutes and continue doing that until the show was over and I would end up with just the first 5 minutes of the show recorded. It did this about 50% of the time and I stopped using 16x when I read in the manuel that you could use 4x, 8x, and 16x, but that only 4x and 8x were recommended. Does it not do this though with the Sony brand? Also, when the 8x discs became scarce, I started buying the Maxell 8x discs with the white tops that could be used with a printer. Even though I never use the printer to label them, could this be contributing to the problem?

 

Texace I did try those printable maxells too, never had a problem with them skipping or anything. And havent seen any problem like you describe with the verbs or sonys skipping. I learned to clean this thing pretty often (manual says every 10hours of use I think). I found that a can of compressed air helps mine if it gets to the point of refusing to record-I dont put much faith in those 'cleaning' disks , dry or wet.
blowing air into the thing prob just moves the dust around, but it has helped before. After a yrs heavy use, I wouldnt worry too much if it broke down, though I'd like to use it awhile longer if I can. Unplugging /replugging it will also fix mine when it wants to "Cannot record on this disk blah blah" lol
charles

 

I just don't get this, can anyone able to help?

I am using my father inlaws unit to copy old vhs family videos to dvd which seems to work very well, when it works!
I have already completed 15 tapes to dvd but have 6 that won't copy at all. All the tapes are the standard home record tapes but the 6 that fail, fail about 10 seconds in to the record and I get an error saying "this tape is copy protected".
I checked I haven't broken the recorder by trying to record from a tape that has already worked and it works no problem but when I put the other tape back in it again fails.
This is very annoying especially when after the 10 seconds of failed recording it still writes it to disk, so I now have about 12 dvds with 10 seconds of rubbish on, Ahhhhhhhh what a waste.
Please if you have any ideas to try I still have 14 more blank dvds.
Cheers

 

Talked to a guy at Walmart who says he hates selling this Emerson crap to people and in fact Walmart has stopped selling them because they get so many returned. Said the RCA with hard drive is simple to use and only had one returned because the tray didn't work.

It's been suggested i take off the cover and clean any dust, course Emerson says not to open unless your a pro.

 

scoobydre,
You can delete those failed chapters off a dvd-r and still use the remaining space on the disk(check the menu on your recorder-delete chapter) I havent had a home-made videotape ever get rejected like that, sounds like the dvd recorder is thinking the tape is copy-guarded for some reason. I have the emerson 20ewrv5 also. Sometimes when I dub a tape it will reject at first, then I try again and it works. Start the tape, put it on pause, then hit the red 'dubbing'button on remote. Try unplugging the recorder and plugging back it, mine has to be 'reset' pretty often but it still works.
charles

 

Greetings all,
My Emerson is still going strong after about three years. I have no complaints. The update made the difference in terms of the discs I can use although mine will still not play or record the x16. It will do x12 (actual x according to my PC).

What I use for my unit is the Tayo Yudens x4 or x8. I buy them 50 or 100 at a time according to the deal. Be advised the TY's usually are faster than they are labeled. x8's run from x12 to x16. I try to get the x4's but the last bunch of x8's worked great. I would also suggest going with premium instead of the value line of discs.

I understand that Emersons are probably not the top of the line units. Mine has been a workhorse and with a few exceptions has performed well. It pays to do alot of research before buying anything like this though. My next unit will be thoroughly investigated and I have no doubt it will probably not be an Emerson.

 

Thank you Charles, I will try the pause method and let you know how I get on.
Cheers

 

That is what I would suggest too. For some reason when you start playing a tape and the tape in the VCR is adjusting it's tracking, the Emerson will think it's copy protected...
so I would hit record then pause, then start the VCR and make sure it's a few seconds into the video and the tracking has adjusted.

Hope that helps.

Danielle

 

Danielle, I have found that on some old vhs tapes I have, to get the recording started without all the 'cannot record'messages, I can start the dvd recording by beginning on the color bars on Galaxy 1,ch14, then switching back to tape! Of course that only works if you have a big dish sat system. I suspected that the tracking thing was what caused the prob
charles

 

Thanks for all youre ideas but still no luck. I guess I will have to find some way of doing it over a computer or mabye trying a diffrent vhs to dvd recorder, anyway thanks again and if you have anymore ideas I dont have to give this unit back till the weekend so will try anything.

Cheers