Hi there. there aren't too many of us in this forum; it's fairly new and so is the concept of stand alone DVD recorders. If nobody else does come along, you might want to add any comments of your own; any odd little quirks or something you find that works well.
Have only made a few recordings of home movies. So for have had good luck, almosr, 1 recording hangs up for a few seconds, like u hit pause button. the ones i have recorded play fine on my portable player. Will not play on computer. I have not finalized any yet. don't know if u finalize dvd+rw or not thst function is not highlighted in there mmenu. will probaly have to call Sanyo. thanks
I know in my Panasonic if you don't finalize the disc, it won't play in other DVD players. Not sure if that helps.
i got this from wal mart last night. i exchanged myt cyberhome for this also. i only got to mess with it for a little bit last night, but it seems the picture quality is not very good. there were visible vertical bars in the picture. i tried going through both inputs and even used an s-video cable to view it and they were still there. does this happen on yours? if i can't figure out a way to get a normal picture this thing is going back fast. please let me know what experiences you've had so far with yours since you've had more time to test it.
my picture has been ok for me. I have learned thar some dvd's don't copy to good. i used some verbatim datplus. they worked ok, except they would sometime freeze up on playback, like hitting pause button. Talked to Sanyo, they said exchage it. doid thart, but same problem. went to best buy to get some of the recommended dvd's. they did nopt have any. talked to manager and he suggested memorex and if they did not wqork, bring back and get my money back. they seem to br working ok.
my picture has been ok for me. I have learned thar some dvd's don't copy to good. i used some verbatim datplus. they worked ok, except they would sometime freeze up on playback, like hitting pause button. Talked to Sanyo, they said exchage it. doid thart, but same problem. went to best buy to get some of the recommended dvd's. they did nopt have any. talked to manager and he suggested memorex and if they did not wqork, bring back and get my money back. they seem to br working ok.
to rbrown ...sometime you dvd's gets dirty ..this also causes a pause ...I have had it happen to me ...I cleaned the dvd ....ran with out a hitch ..I was using a cyberhome recorder ...the color quality is excellent at any recording level...I have yet to record a movie though
Mine seems to be working ok for the moment.I got it last week in exchange for the Cyberhome 1500 at Walmart( I had gone through 2 of those) Only problem for me with it is that it will not record PAL discs like the Cyberhome did. Only records NTSC.Even if i feed it with a PAL signal,it converts it to NTSC by itself and makes an NTSC disc !! I like the menu editing better than the Cyberhome,you can select the letters from an alphabet screen rather than scrolling through loads of characters to get to the one you want.Having said that it is all lower case letters,cant figure out how to get upper case,and you can only have 10 characters in each title !! If anyone knows how to get this thing to record PAL signals,please let me know. Andrew
I have reviewed 3 models from walmart, and the results are decisive. Cyberhome DVR1500 This was my first PVR, bought at Walmart 1/04 for $248 (it was the only one for sale there at the time). (Returned later) PROs: - It's a decent first try, for a noname company, and its price surprised me ($400 was the cheapest I had seen for any PVR) CONs: - It's very buggy, and shows the result of the new business miracle called "just in time manufacturing". Obviously there was no 'extra' time to notice that fast forward and rewind don't work correctly, at least not in LP, EP, and ELP modes. Fastforward at 4x and 8x are actually just about 2x, 16x is actually about 4x, and 32x is WAY too fast. So scanning is almost impossible. - It absolutely positively refused to eject a disc on two occasions, requiring me to break the box open to find the manual eject button. - It converted 2 out of 15 namebrand disks into coasters. - A little slow changing channels (almost a second delay) - Overall, a frustrating lack of engineering. All the pieces are there and pretty, but they didn't bother to finish the programming (design) job. Conclusion: This was a thrilling unit to borrow, being the first PVR I'd ever played with. But this model is only a first attempt. Stay away unless it's the only one available, and you plan to return it before the return period expires. Pioneer DVR310 This is what I bought when I returned the cyberhome. Walmart, 5/04 for $398. (Returned) PROs: - Very good tuner. - Very nice GUI for all operations, good usability--they actually put effort in! - Nice remote with pretty good layout and function design. - Records flawlessly and without delay - Nice 'play menu' showing actual previews with sound. - Nice editting functionality--good for removing commercials. - Nice DVD menu choices for finalizing your disc with a menu. - It knows (oftentimes) which program you're recording, and labels it automatically. CONs: - Only uses DVD-R/RW (this won't be a con for most people--for me, I have about 75 blank +R's, and I'd prefer not to waste them) - Long delay on 'stop' recording (about 10 seconds) - Slow changing channels (about 1 second delay) makes channel surfing annoying. Conclusion: Since I have a 6-month supply of +R/RW disks, this unit had to go back. (I forgot which ones I had until I got home) But this is a great unit. It's not perfect, but no major flaws. Best onscreen GUI I've seen, and it will only get better. If you have -R/RW disks, I give it two thumbs up. Hopefully they can fix the other two cons with a firmware update. This is easily the best unit I've seen so far. But remember: by christmas, there will be better units and cheaper. Review for Sanyo DRW-500. Bought at Walmart 5/04 for $248. PROs: - Good tuner with delay-less channel-changing (finally!). CONs: - It often loses sound sync, even when you're not recording!! - Slow to start recording (about 12 second delay), and there's no video or sound while you're waiting. So you could miss the vital tv moment you're trying to record. - Worse, it's very slow to stop recording (about 20-30 seconds delay), no picture or sound while you wait, and then it kicks you back to the 'play menu' rather than back to the channel you were watching. - Exceptionally poor ergonimcs/layout on the remote control. They don't even put the digits in a 3x3 grid like every other device in the world. This thing stinks of very sloppy commitee work. Page 44 of the manual actually states that the manual was "printed prior to product development." It's apparent that the remote was similarly made in isolation, according to dumb proceduralization. Very poor quality is the result--almost an unfinished product. ('just in time') - The record quality button on the remote doesn't work (page 44 of the manual goes on to explain that "when a part of the product specification must be changed to improve operability... the instruction manual may not entirely match ... the actual product"). And setting record quality in the onscreen menus requires 3 levels of poorly designed menu navigation, and there are decidedly non-intuitive rules about when you can actually get to those menus (e.g. they're disallowed while you're watching tv), making it very inconvenient to change quality (e.g. fast action recordings need higher quality than normal TV). - Overall the GUI is better than cyberhome, but buggy, incomplete, and inconsistent. Conclusions: This product is an embarrassment. I trusted the Sanyo name, and I am extremely disappointed in this first-class-looking piece of crap. With just a little bit of work to finish designing this thing (new remote, firmware upgrade), it COULD be a fine unit. I'm pretty sure it won't happen until some distant "new model". Apparently the shoddy workmanship and buggy business habits of the software industry now have swept into consumer electronics. I give this thing two thumbs WAY down. SHAME on you Sanyo!! Finish the product before you ship it!! ========================================= The only other model currently at walmart is the emerson, which looks ok, but it uses -R. So I've decided to buy a new batch of DVD-R's ($40 for 50 Riteks, which got good reviews, bought on web), and I'm going to return this crappy sanyo and get the pioneer. This is a very easy decision. I'll probably return the pioneer after 3 months and hope that they have a better one for under $300 by then. I'm really looking forward to the DVD recorders with built in hard drives. Can you imagine a massive video jukebox? It'll be here within a few years.
go to best buy and get the phillips. i promise you won't regret it. i've had mine for a few weeks now and have zero complaints. the only con i've found is the menus are tougher to figure out at first. once you learn them it's really not a problem though.
I have had a Cyberhome CH-DVR 1500 DVD recorder for the last three months and I have not run into any major problems with the unit up to the present time, if used for what it was intended for..the color is excellent at all levels .....if the unit has a continual message on the screen saying its reading ..its because the disc is dirty....clean the disc ..it should work fine...I use three different brands of DVD's with no hitch ...the response is good....it has one flaw ...it dose not have a place where you can eject the disc drawer from the front of the unit .....keeping my fingers crossed ...can someone tell me which is the better format -R/Rw or +R/RW
I just bought the sanyo. I cannot record my old vhs tapes(from tv) of behind the music or any specials on E. It says copy prohibited, but if I copy them directly( from daily tv) it works, All my other vhs tapes have been converted just fine. Why would it think these are copy protected.
I am seriously considering purchasing the DRW500 in the next day or two. Being new to the world of DVD recorders/players, I have lots of questions but will only throw a couple out there right now. Is the DRW500 a good start for me? Can you program this one to record TV shows at a specified date/time? I have a sony dolby digital surround sound system, is this compatible? Can you make dvd's from old vhs tapes? All rapid responses will be appreciated before I head to walmart.. Thank You!
The DRW500 isnt bad for the money.I only have a couple of gripes with it so far.It only records NTSC signal,which is fine for an American who only has NTSC TV and videotapes to transfer to DVD.But being from England,I brought a load of my tapes/discs with me,and i only found out since i brought the player home that it does not record in PAL,although it will allow PAL signals to loop through and display on the PC correctly,so it obviously handles PAL signals but just wont record them.(which is where i have it hooked into) There is no 2.5 hour SP+ mode,it goes from SP(2hr) to LP(3hr),but it does have 6hr mode if you want to get loads of stuff on one disc at slightly better than VHS LP quality. And like Greg123 said above in this thread.It takes about 8 - 10 seconds to start recording when you press record,so you could miss the start of a programme.The best thing to do is start recording early,and leave it on Record/Pause mode until the programme starts. Having said that,the delay only happens when starting a new disc,or recording to a part used disc after having just switched the unit on.If you have been recording,then pressed stop,then start recording again,the delay dosent happen. Also the disc tray seems a bit flimsy,and makes a cheap sounding noise when it is ejected. I do like the menu system,although it only lets you add 10 characters to a title,and in lower case for some reason.I cant find a way to change to upper case(But then,i havent even read the manual)When you want to edit a title,you get a screen which shows all the alphabet on a grid.You just move the sursor up and down and then highlight and select the letter you want.This is a better way than the Philips or the Cyberhome 1500,which i also had. It even finalized 2 discs which i had made on my Philips DVDR985 and hadnt been finalized.I went to copy them on my PC,but they wouldnt copy,so i tried to finalize them,and then they worked.I thought it wouldnt finalize them because they were created on another machine,but it did ! I only have the Sanyo because my Philips is at the repair shop....again.I will use the Philips when i get it back,and the Sanyo will be for back up/emergency use only. Even the Cyberhome 1500 recorded PAL signals,but that machine gave me so much aggravation that i took it back for a refund eventually,and that was after having it exchanged because the disc tray would not open,and when it did,it kept making coasters,or locking up completely and other crappy stuff. So all in all,i guess its worth $240 or whatever it was.
I have copyied old vhs tspes with no problems. I just made a timed dvd off of my satellite and worked ok./ another one did not. same dvd etc. it would not play and would lock up the player. had to unplug to get dvd out. got to call sanyo about this, because it happened two times. also screwed up advd i had bneen adding some gospel music shows to. lost what i already had copied.
I guess I am going to have to go trial/error on the drw500 dvd. No one seems to have answer to previous questions. I'll post it once again, then postpone going to walmart until Friday.. (1) Does the drw500 have on-screen programming and can you program it to start and stop on certain days/times (like a vcr)? (2) Can a dolby digital surround sound system be connected to it? Other than recording CD's on computer I have no knowledge of dvd recorder/players. My vhs recorder is on blink (tuner) and i want to go with dvd and get away from vcr's completely.
Hi Usafret,this may answer some of your questions : It does have on screen programming,and you can set it up to record 15 programmes in a 1 year period,and it's fairly easy with the On screen menu function. You can record from any source which is plugged into the RCA/S-Video input,so backing up your video tapes are not a problem,unless they are commercial tapes which have the Macrovision copy protection.The same goes for backing up DVD's. I have recorded from home made VHS and DVD without a problem.You could record from commercial DVD if the source player has Macrovision disabled. You can also connect the unit to an external amp via the coaxial digital or optical digital outputs on the back,so your Sony should not be a problem.Even the cheapest VCR's have digital outputs nowadays. Hope that helps,let me know if you have any more questions Andrew
