Cyberhome DVD/RW nightmare

You have got to be kidding. I just spent another mind numbing experience on the phone, 45minutes of listening to your " call is important to us please hold the line". Never did talk to anyone, just wanted to waste another night listening to California here we come. I just hope I can get through before my 1 year warranty is up. I only have only 8 more months left. Bet you can't tell what I think of CyberHome or is it CyberJunk!!!!

 

i just went to wal mart and returned my cyberhome and bought a sanyo drw-500. it was the same price exactly. i'll test it for couple days and see who it works. hopefully this one will be the keeper.

 

Harmsway,
Let us know how the Sanyo works out. Did Walmart have the Aspire? Its listed online for $218.

FD7605,
The Cyberhome has a 3 month warrantee. Walmart won't take it back after 3 months, no warranty, completely on your own if it breaks.

 

i also had a few probs with different media and different machines,but found that if your dvd media will burn,then the reason for not playing is the authoring prog.Some machines like to play certain authored discs.Try a different authoring prog.After you encode your files to dvd then try TMPGE AUTHOR and this should create the proper lead-in/out info for your home dvd player to identify and read.But some media is just very poor quality and burns up during your write and i have even seen media from princo that plays sometimes and doesn't other times(i thought maybe the heat from the dvd player,cause it always happened half way through,but who knows)if in doubt buy media that is not overpriced but not the bargain of a life time

 

There is one other element that comes into play with DVDAuthor, I believe. If you are using video that is shot from a camcorder (or perhaps copied too many times) or not closed properly by a dvd recorder, DVDAuthor can sometimes balk and refuse to recognize it. Even if recognized, it can sometimes create audio synch problems. That has been my experience, anyway. It usually works fine with off-air recordings. I like the program a lot and love the burning utility it has. I use it regularly with my Cyberhome recordings (you see, my post is relevant to the group).

 

ok, i bought the sanyo from wal mart monday night on impulse. i usually regret impulse buys. that's why my wife warns me against them. it's not a terrible recorder, but the picture quality just didn't seem as good as it should be. i don't know if this was fact, or just my imagination making it seem that way because i wanted an excuse to return it. anyway, i went to best buy tonight and got the phillips dvdr75 that has been suggested many times.sfar it seems that it's much trickier to learn. it took me 30 minutes to figure out how to switch the imputs so i could record from the front inputs labeled cam1. so this recorder has gotten tons of good reviews and i'm pretty sure it'll be getting one from me too. i'll test it thoroughly tomorrow night when i have time, but i'm pretty sure i'll be pleased. btw, it was $279 at best buy.

 

Hello all, i have had a horrible expreince with cyberhome. i sent the unit back to them in california, for what i thought to be repairs.
i then received a OLDER unit than the one i sent them. the unit i sent them was manufactured in december, 2003. and the one they sent me, was manufactured in october, 2003.
i returned the unit to walmart for a full refund.
i was very MAD about this situation. luckily now, i have a philips dvdr75 with NO problems at all.
here is the letter i sent cyberhome to let them know how i felt. here take a look at it, tell me what you think!

To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing this letter to formally complain about the quality of your products. Please read this letter carefully.
On 2/4/04, I purchased A Cyberhome CH-DVR 1500 DVD Recorder from my local Wal-Mart Store. The final price was $260.40.

I brought the unit home, unpacked it, and began using it that same night, with no obvious problems except that the unit ran EXTREMELY HOT. The discs that came out of the unit in some instances were almost too hot to touch. I just dismissed the issue, and figured it was nothing to be concerned with.
I then noticed that my timer recordings, (to record T.V. Shows) were not beginning on time. I consulted your website, www.cyberhome.com for help. There I found several
FIRMWARE updates that needed to be applied to my machine. I downloaded them just as your directions indicated, and it did, in fact clear up the problem.

After about a few weeks, I noticed that my recorder would “Freeze-Up” on several Occasions. I would attempt to edit a setting or fast forward through certain scenes on my recorded shows, and the unit would just “freeze” and not allow me to do anything.
I turned the unit off, from the back, and that didn’t remedy the problem.

I used the 3 discs that you ship with your new units to record my TV programs. As far as being able to play them back on the recorder, that was hit or miss. Sometimes I could watch them, and other times I would get 10 minutes into a show, and it would start skipping through every chapter until it reached the end of the disc. VERY FLUSTERATING, to say the least.
Other times, It would say “ERROR” on the screen and not even read the disc.
Thinking that it was just a “glitch” I went to my local Staples store and purchased
A 3 pack of MEMOREX DVD+RW discs. (4X SPEED).
My recorder would read and record to them for about a week, and then it either say “ERROR” or let me view about 10 minutes of the programs, and then it would just skip every chapter until the end of the disc.

I used the unit to record old home movies from VHS Camcorders. I connected my regular
VCR to the unit and began copying several hours of footage of my nieces and nephews when the were babies. I used MEMOREX DVD+R discs, (4X SPEED).
I reviewed most of the disc and finalized it, and when I gave the disc to a family member
The last 20 to 50 minutes of the disc would SKIP and the audio would drop out, and
It took me several hours of labor to get these recordings in the order I wanted, and my family wanted. I WAS AND STILL AM VERY UPSET ABOUT THIS.

Finally, being fed up with every aspect of this product, I contacted your service center
On 4/9/04. I had sent a email to your service department roughly a week and a half prior to my phone call. The service department never responded to my email. Again, this made me very upset.
After staying on the phone for 45 minutes, I was finally connected with someone in your
Service department. He asked me several questions, which I answered properly.
He gave me a RMA Number and advised me to mail the item to cyberhome for repairs.
I mailed the package via USPS parcel post with insurance that same day.

On 4/28/04, I received what I BELIEVED to be a replacement unit from your company.
However, I remember that the unit that I mailed was manufactured in December, 2003.
I plugged the unit in, checked all the settings and set it to record 2 programs one from 3:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. and the other from 9:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.
I then went off to work.

When I returned from work around midnight, I noticed the time on the unit to read: 8:10 A.M.! my 9:00 P.M. Program was NEVER RECORDED.

On the morning of 4/29/04 I contacted my local Wal-Mart store and advised them of my situation. They advised me that I could return the unit to them for a full refund, which I did. Keep in mind, I had this unit less than 3 months!

I have been researching the internet, and found that there are several hundred (I’m not exaggerating) complaints about this model and other models that you sell.
I think you should really reconsider selling this product to the general public.
Your company DID NOT send me a NEW unit. I was mailed either a refurbished unit or
A older unit. Mine Was manufactured in December 2003, and the one I received on 4/28/04 was manufactured in October 2003.

I will never again buy or recommend Any of your products to anyone. You have wasted a lot of my time and money. The only Good thing that came out of this whole ordeal was that I was able to get a full refund, thanks to Wal-Mart. Pretty soon, Wal-Mart will probably stop carrying your products because EVERYONE RETURNS THEM!
This is one experience I hope I never have to go through again!

 

rainmanva, great letter. Not only is their product defective, but their practices are unethical. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to respond though. I only hope all those with Cyberhome recorders can get their money back. Cyberhome cooked their own Goose with their faulty product and their lack of support. I don't think we'll be hearing much from Cyberhome anymore. If I owned any, I would be dumping my stock in their company.

Let us know if you hear anything from them.

 

I agree. Great letter. Having dozens of features is worthless if they don't work properly. That said, this is new technology. I've fiddled with my Cyberhome (which should not be necessary), leaving the cover partly open to allow heat to escape, and learned some work-arounds for problems. I'm now able to make many, many beautiful dvd's that come off well. (This evolving technology cost many thousands of dollars only a couple of years ago.) I record onto dvd-rw and transfer to other formats on my computer. I wish I had bought something other than the Cyberhome, however I'm not unhappy with the beautiful discs I'm able to make for the money I paid. I'm sold on dvd recorders as a format and will happily buy a different brand next year. In the meantime, I'm making beautiful dvd's. For what it's worth.

Jeremy

 

I can't believe I found this site! I am having some of the same problems. I purchased my recorder in Nov. 2003 from Fry's Electronics so I don't have the option now of returning it. I have recorded everything in the SLP mode and have 3 or 4 movies from my VHS tapes on each DVD. About every 3rd or 4th DVD+R disc would not finalize and the unit would display "error". I have not had any problems with my unit running hot or locking up. I have the timer record feature set to record my soap every afternoon and I do leave the DVD+RW disc in the machine overnight, sometimes 3 & 4 nights in row with the unit on standby, no problems with this at all. However, some of my recordings on the DVD+R discs have seemed to just disappear after recording. The title screen is blank but the remaining disc space has dropped from 99% to 74%. Two days ago my unit completely quit reading any disc that is inserted. DVD+R, DVD+RW, Pre-recorded DVD's, CD's, all show no disc. I also hear a rattling noise as the unit is trying to read each disc. I am thinking the drive went bad. I am currently waiting to hear from Cyberhome's tech support. I emailed them yesterday but after reading all the postings here I sure won't be holding my breath to hear from them soon. Thanks for all the input. BTW Great letter rainmanva!

 

Linda, forget about getting an email from Cyberhome. It just won't happen. Your best bet is to use the phone number Charmed1 left in a previous post, 1-888-302-2727. Be prepared to be put on hold for a MINIMUM of 45 minutes, most likely much longer. Good luck.

 

Cyberfrustrated,

You say you are not having heat-related issues, but some of what you're describing is what I experienced as indeed heat-related. When my unit got hot, it would not recognize disks, not respond to controls and other quirkiness. The stand-by mode, too, generates a lot of heat. All I know is a lot of these problems were solved for me when I shut the recorder off from the back when not using it, and when I opened the case partly to allow heat to escape (probably not a good idea if you have children around--I am very careful with this--I'd prefer extra vents or a fan, but I'm not very handy with such installations).

Jeremy

 

Well, add me to this nice group of Cyberhome DVD Recorder owners that now have an oversized paperweight. I've had my DVR 1500 for about 6 months now... but only burned 3 DVDs. I've always kept my unit in "Standby" mode. Last night, we had a power failure, and when the power returned, the unit displayed "CYBERHOME" and then "CH 010 ME". Wouldn't do anything else. After playing with it for about 5 hours, I finally got it to go to "NO DISC", but I never could get the drawer to open. Even tried the open button that is connected on the burner itself, but it still wouldn't open. I figured the burner itself went bad. NOT TRUE... took the burner out of the case and connected it to my PC, and the burner opened and closed fine. Turns out the burner was not receiving any power from the power PCB board in the unit. So, I put the burner back in the case and pulled out the power PCB board. I'm not much on PCB board components, so I don't know what they are all called. However, it has many thin brown round things with two connectors at the bottom. Found one of them had "exploded" and melted. Now I guess the fun begins with trying to get Cyberhome to send me a new PCB board. I sent them an email Monday night.. of course no response yet. I guess I'll try the phone number, but from what I've read so far, it would probably be quicker if I just jumped in my truck and drove over there in California from here in Virginia. Will keep you posted.

 

Well I finally did make contact with CyberHome and I am trying to have my unit repaired. So the nightmare may continue. I did see however that WalMart is now selling the 1500 model for $219.00. May be cheaper just to buy a new one everytime they take a dump!!!!

 

I bought one of those Cyberhome pieces of junk. I was one of the lucky ones. It wouldn't work out of the box, so I just packed it up and got a refund.

 

or go to best buy and get a phillips dvdr75 for $279 and never have any of these problems again.

 

Can you spell Cyberhome?? Try R.I.P.-O.F.F.! They actually sent me an email back. They told me they do not stock or sell individual parts to the customers. Even though my unit is still under a parts warranty, I will have to send the unit back to them, along with a $90.00 labor fee, to have the part replaced. So let's recap... I paid $400.00 for a unit that lasted only 7 months. The defective part is still under warranty, but Cyberhome will only honor the warranty if I return the item to them with a $90.00 labor fee. I have to pay for the shipping of the part to them. Well... as far as I'm concerned, this little black box of crap can sit here and rot before I send one more penny to the sorry company that made it. Be warned...

 

My suggestion is if you own a CyberHome 1500, is get your money back if the return policy will let you. It isn't worth the maddness you will go through owning this product. I wish like all I had done just a little more research on this product long before my purchase. Until their R&D department works out the bugs with heat generation problem, which will cause the problems we are all having. Getting a repair or replacement unit is nothing more than putting whip cream on a pile of manure. It may look good but still smells like a pile of crap!!

 

Folks complain alot about the Cyberhome, but the Philips DVDR75 isnt necessarily much better. It can't even play a prerecorded DVD properly. I had a Cyberhome, had lockup problems with the latest firmware, but I downgraded one level and didnt have any problems other than fast forward at 8x not working right. I always used cheap generic DVD+RW disks, never a problem. I returned it because the TV tuner sounded so bad and because I was afraid it would fail, but it hadn't.

Seems like its just too early to get a DVD recorder and expect it to work well.

Purchased a DVDR75. Updated firmware to version available on website.

1) Playing back a recording made in M6 mode. Fast forward at 8x is more like 150x. There's no commercial skip like on the Cyberhome. End result is that you have to sit through commercials at 4x.
2) I have had a situation when watching various shows where the tuner squishes the display making it letterbox when it should not be (ABC most frequently). The mode switches sometimes between commercials. If the 'TV shape' option is set to 16:9 this doesnt happen, however watching widescreen movies are then stretched vertically.
3) I have experienced two crashes of the unit. Most recently while recording I hit the pause button. The recorder locked up and showed the following on the display "D8059DF IC".
4) Playing a DVD movie, the audio goes WAY out of sync with the video. It does not matter which audio track is used, does not matter if analog or digital outputs are used. Tested with Austin Powers after about an hour, the audio was lagging the video by about 1 second. Not watchable.
5) Have sent multiple emails and received confirmations as far back as 5/20/2004 and have still received no response. They send a confirmation promising to get back to you in 2 business days. HA! I got better response from Cyberhome.

Other issues:
- mp3 playback not useful. Can not get any sort of listing on whats on the disk. Its strictly one song displayed at a time.
- doesnt support mp3 playback on a dvd at all, only CD
- unit is supposed to run cooler than the Cyberhome, but mine isn't much cooler, its pretty darn hot inside an enclosed glass case. The cyberhome sat there sweltering for 2 1/2 months wo a problem.

Finally talked to support in an online chat. They were worthless. I've found references to some of these problems as being well known and reported to philips as far back as January. Yet their customer support says they don't know of any problem. Its because they can't look up problems! All they can do is tell you to try and latest firmware, if that doesnt fix it, I'm supposed to waste my money shipping the unit cross country to the one service center for them to tell me its a firmware problem, or worse, there is no problem. And this is the great warranty program.

My $50 VCR works much better, my $29 Cyberhome DVD player does MUCH better playing movies and MP3s.

Any while am at it, the usability of the Philips stinks! They ask what language you want, but most of the menus are arcane icons.
Recording by default overwrites whatever you were last looking at. You have to go through hoops to make it record at the end of the DVD.
There's no way to watch a movie zoomed, it pauses to zoom then unzooms when you start watching.
Response to anything is really slow. Slow to start up, shutdown, even change a channel.
They have room on the remote for volume up/down that only works on Philips TVs, but no room for a commercial skip button. There arent even buttons for fast forward and rewind. You have to hold down chapter forward/back for a while to get FF and REW.
Has an I-link input, but the Philips FAQ says the quality may not be good and suggests you use S-Video input instead! Why bother with an I-link connection?

Sorry for the rant, but having chatted with their supposed support, I'm a little bent out of sorts.

 

well everyone, just to update, i have never heard from cyberhome yet and its been a month.
i think someone should complain to the better business bureau and the ftc. this is nuts. they can't continue to rip people off, and get away with it. i was lucky, i was able to get a refund. but there are some of us that are not so lucky.
i now have the philips dvdr75, and im happy with it.
no problems so far, i have used it to convert some of my rotting vhs collection to dvd, with no problems, also have converted several home movies with no problems. there is NO HEAT ISSUES, LOCKING UP or any of the CRAP you get with the cyberhome unit!
thank you philips!!
just wanted to update everyone!