I own the Sanyo DRW-500 and had it for 4 months now, and I have mixed feelings about it. It's a great machine when it works. When I bought the unit at Walmart, I also bought 100 blank Memorex DVD+R's... some recorded perfectly, some did not. Out of 100 discs used, I maybe got 60 good ones. I called the 800 number in the manual, and the representative told me I needed to use 1X-4X blanks (not the 8X that I bought). Sanyo also sent me an upgrade CD-Rom disc to maybe help fix the problem. I thought that was very good of them to do that. The upgrade came within days of the phone call. Well, I loaded the upgrade, and I purchaced 100 blank DVD+R 1X-4X discs. I still have the same problem. I get too many " disc errors". I also tried recording late nite TV...recording the shows while I sleep. When I woke up the next morning, I finalized the disc, and then I got "disc error" when I tried to view it. This happened every time I tried recording my shows while I slept. I am totally frustrated as I never know if it will record or not. Any advice from anyone out there will be greatly appreciated.
You pretty much described my problems with the 500. A 60% return rate on discs is totally unacceptable. I'm not just talking about the cost of the discs but my time as well. I don't know how many discs I flung across the room after spending 3-4 hours transferring programs over from my DVR and getting the 'baddisc' error. And my experience of leaving it running and finalizing the next morning was exactly the same as yours. It doesn't have the OTR so you can set it to shutoff recording. I loved the interfaces although the all small letter labeling system was rather childish. It did have better compatibility with other units of any of the recorders I've tried out.
I HAD the DRW1000 model. Right after a year, it started giving me problem. Which by then, the manufacture warrenty is no good. Not only that, they don't even make spare part. I also notice that the sanyo dvd recorder is no longer on any store shelve any where near my location.
