Samsung DVD-VR357 Tunerless DVD Recorder and VCR Combo Review

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(More customer reviews)Having had three combos in the last 5 years I decided to try a number of them at the same time and then return the worst of them - because as many would agree, what I actually want is just not available.
In comparison to Toshiba 650, LG 797, Sony 555 (these are the ones I have tried so far), this one is the cheapest, by a significant amount of money and better than all of the others in one way or another. The LG797 is best but it is so sensitive to copyright there are TV shows (Mad Men on AMC), even cartoons (Stuart Little), Sometimes even Lifetime Movies that it will not record from a DVR or straight from Satellite. Samsung is not sensitive.
Samsung has three drawbacks that are almost dealbreakers - except that the other combos are so much worse in so many areas- not enough connections and it is slower than the others in editing features. It records RAM but not Double Layer discs. I have never had a combo that records RAM or DL until now so I would like it to record both like the LG does.
If you research all of your components and maybe even get an adapter when needed, the hookups is no problem. The speed for deleting a portion of a dvd or dividing, is slower than the others. Since I do lots of dividing and deleting on my +RW's, this would normally be enough to send it back. But it beats the others in so many other areas, it's still close to the best.
I have been transferring 24 hours a day from VHS to DVD or DVR to DVD and it has only frozen once (the others have several times). It is not sensitive to copyright so I can tape a movie and watch it later. I only make dvd's for myself to watch and I pay for the tv stations so I should be able to watch them and Samsung gives me that opportunity at my convenience.
The video quality from VHS to DVD or DVR to DVD is ridiculously better than the Toshiba and the Sony (Both over $240 each). It records every format it claims to record (unlike Panasonic which has great difficulty with +R and +RW). I am a +RW fan - if you haven't tried it because you think it is no different than -RW - you are sorely mistaken. Not having to finalize and "make compatible" or unfinalize to add something saves time and the discs still play on all of my DVD players. Not to mention more editing ability and reusing the beginning of the disc while there are shows still on the end (I have not figured this out on the Samsung yet - my previous LiteOn's did this quite easily and from all the features with +RW Samsung allows, I think it will do this also). I have used 8 different brands of DVD's (and have tried +R/+RW/-R/-RW/RAM and every single one has recorded and played back without a problem. From high end discs down to office depot generics. This is rare. In +RW mode it has the lovely feature called "Divide" also available on Sony and LG (not Toshiba). If you are transferring or recording and you let it run long or fall asleep you can divide at the end of your show and delete the part you don't want. You can do this with all the commercials also if you wanted to take the time. You get to use variable recording speed so if you are recording in SP but the last show you are adding to the disc is a bit longer, you can record the last show in LP so it fits. When you press Record mode to set SP SLP etc, it shows on the screen how much time you would have left on the disc for recording if you used that speed. So you don't have to open up the title list or figure it out yourself. There is much more and as I continue to use the Samsung, if there is anything important, I will add to my review. This combo is not perfect - there are more things I would change if the DVD makers would let me creat my own machine with every feature I want but so far this is surprisingly better than the Sony or Toshiba and beats the LG if you tend to record show or movies to watch on DVD later. I need two combos and this is good enough that if I can't find something that has the LG797 positives and the Samsung's positives - I will actually buy another one. I am very picky with my media and especially because the combos out there generally do not do what they say they do and that's heartbreaking when you are spending anywhere from $170 - $400. My three others were Liteon's and JVC and all three broke in less than 3 years.
IF you have right hookups and this combo has the features you are looking for, I can certainly say, it is excellent compared to the others I have tried.

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