Toshiba DVR660 1080p Upconverting VHS DVD Recorder with Built-in Tuner Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have a Samsung digital TV (1080p), and with my new Toshiba DVR660 and an HDMI cable, I can turn HD programming into sharp DVD's that appear to match my 1080p picture pixel for pixel. (In actuality, the DVR660 records it to 480p and then upconverts it back to 1080p.) By the way, I get all my programming from a portable antenna, and the DVD recorder has an excellent HD tuner.
The VCR is adequate, giving me the same picture quality as the SONY which preceeded it. After seeing how easy it was to make a DVD recording, and how fabulous the results, I realized that I would never make a VCR recording again. It did an excellent job dubbing a VCR tape to a DVD.
Although I am not a computer programmer like the "Man from Happy Rock", who found it so difficult to use, I found that the machine was not so difficult to use at all, as long as you followed the instructions. One of the major complaints from Mr. Happy Rock was that the machine turns itself off after you use the "set timer" button. My brother, who IS a computer programmer, said that his Magnavox also turns itself off when you use the "set timer" function and that they all do this. He also said it took him 2 years to master his Magnavox!
I did have a couple questions the first day, and I called the Toshiba telephone number given for DVD recorders. My call was answered by a real person with an American accent within 30 seconds. She answered all my questions easily.
Before I purchased this recorder, I spent hours reading and re-reading the reviews for like products made by Sony, Samsung, Panisonic, JVC, Philips, etc. All the other products seemed to have fatal flaws, so I made the decision for Toshiba. I'm glad I did.

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Sony RDR-VX560 1080p Tunerless DVD Recorder/VHS Combo Player Review

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(More customer reviews)Finally, a DVD Recorder and VHS combination unit that allows you to view DVD and your old VHS through your HDMI connection. That's right, you read that correctly. One of the biggest drawbacks of earlier upscaling machines from a variety of manufacturers was that you STILL had to use primitive S or RCA cables to output VHS images onto your HDTV.
Like many folks, I still have a large collection of movies on VHS (for some films, it remains the only version in print), but I was not going to buy another VCR unless I could really view them on my Samsung HDTV. Some VCRs connect with component cables, but cost as much (if not more) than this combo unit, which is so feature laden that I'm glad I waited.
The upconversion is very impressive so far for both DVD and factory VHS releases (lets face it, grainy home recorded VHS copies of TV programs will never look sharp at 1080p, so keep that in mind) and the controls are no more complicated than the average machine (which, may in itself be a problem for some already).
I have yet to fully utilize all the features, including the use of my Sony HD digital camera or camcorder, but those were secondary parts of the purchase. For me, the fact that I can now view my VHS library (and non-Blue Ray DVD library) on my HDTV through HDMI with such impressive image quality is more than enough to satisfy me.
If you are in the market for a combo unit to use with your HDTV, then this may finally be what you and I have been waiting for. Stellar product.
Why 4 stars? Well, I've only had the product a week, so it is too early to throw a 5th star onto the score, but it certainly merits 4 right out of the box.

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Sony's new DVD Recorder/VCR - Just what your cable box ordered. Save your favorite TV shows, archive old VHS tapes, even burn photos and personal video from Sony USB based camcorders and digital cameras The RDR-VX560 brings the ability to record your content to DVD to your living room. Do you have old VHS tapes lying around? Well, now you can save space and make them last by burning them onto a DVD. The RDR-VX560 brings ease of use with One Touch dubbing from VHS to DVD, or even from DVD to VHS. It couldn't be simpler.

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LG RC897T Multi-Format DVD Recorder and VCR Combo with Digital Tuner Review

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(More customer reviews)As a satisfied owner of an LG HDTV, I bought this DVD/VCR combo recorder fully expecting to be likewise happy with the quality of the images produced by another LG product. Unfortunately, I had to box it up for return the same day I got it. The problem with the product is one that I hadn't anticipated, but which further very specifically-targeted reading online revealed as a known problem with LG's DVD recorders. That problem is what various message-boarders and bloggers call "image over-processing". Translate that as "too much anti-aliasing" (image-smoothing) or "too much blur". And it was not just on the recorded images. For the minute you switch from the LG TV's internal tuner to the LG recorder's internal tuner, there's an instant layer of "smoothing" that is pronounced enough to be distracting. ...I am talking, depending on your threshold of sensitivity to such things, a potential headache-inducing level of fuzziness.
If you purchase this product hoping to use it to archive your family videos, no way it can do them justice. If you plan to use it as a down and dirty digital era VCR, grabbing episodes of shows you intend to record over once you watch them a single time, it is really not quite servicable for that. All this keeps pulling me back to one head-shaker of a question: What were the people at LG thinking? At nearly three hundred bucks, the quality of the LG RC897T is a major disappointment.

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Panasonic DMR-EZ47V Up-Converting 1080p DVD-Recorder/VCR Combo with Built In Tuner Review

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(More customer reviews)My setup: HD antenna directly into the Panasonic's coax input, then connected via HDMI, coax and component cables to the back of my LCD panel (a Sharp LC37D62U, a 1080P panel with HDMI inputs).
The tuner in the Panasonic unit, while capable of receiving HD signals, cannot output a full HD signal, but only 480P. If you are looking for a unit to act as a full-on HD tuner, this unit is not for you, but if your TV already has an HD tuner, then this unit offers some cool features. Before I start though, I want to point out that the unit does "pass" a full HD signal - that is, when using my TV's own tuner with the Panasonic set to "TV" (on the "TV/VCR" selection), the TV receives a pass-through of the HD signal coming in over the air to the Panasonic. Other descriptions of this unit had me believing that it would pass-through a 480P signal, but this is fortunately not the case.
Cool Feature #1: Recording HD TV shows over the air. This is one of the first of a new generation of DVD recorders that can record an HD signal onto a DVD disc (although only at the lower 480P resolution). Despite the lower resolution, the picture looks great, obviously not full HD but far better than analog TV. I have recorded "Lost" and "House" and both shows look pretty good. While the unit appears to be able to record on every DVD format known, DVD-RAM format provides some advantages. Using a DVD-RAM disc and the HDMI connection to the TV, the TV switches automatically to a full wide screen picture. Setting the unit on its LP recording mode, I can record 4 hours of HD programs on one disc, and the sound is great.
Cool Feature #2: Chase play. After starting a program recording, you can start watching the recorded program before the entire recording is complete - skipping past commercials and so on until you catch up to the "live" point in the recording. This works only with DVD-RAM discs, but is pretty nifty. By the way, the DVD-RAM discs can (according to the Panasonic manual) be re-recorded up to 100,000 times, so they are ALMOST like having a hard drive in the unit.
Cool Feature #3: Disc navigator. This allows you to see all the programs recorded on a DVD disc on a single screen - you can then use this to select which recorded program you want to watch. Nifty! No more hunting through VCR tapes for the program you recorded you can't remember when...
The VCR output is also fine (although obviously much less impressive that the DVD output). I can't comment on its ability to output upscaled 1080P as compared to other DVD units with a similar feature, but the outlook looks pretty darn good to me, no noticable "jaggies".
Complaints: The auto-channel setup missed one of my local HD stations, instead tuning a secondary station being broadcast on the same signal. Annoying! There appears to be no way to manually select which channels are tuned by the unit. I have been meaning to call Panasonic about this, but haven't gotten around to it. Also, long-ish startup time (like 15 seconds). Sometimes the DVD output seems a little washed out, but this can be taken care of by re-adjusting the TV's color settings. Having to turn the unit off in order to have it launch a scheduled recording.
Overall, quite happy with the performance.
FYI, the first unit I bought (from Amazon) arrived DOA, but they were great about returning it and I had a new unit two days later. They even paid for the shipping to return the first unit. Nice!

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Samsung DVD-AR650 DVD Recorder Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this unit and have been using it for about 3 days now. Everything seems to be working well! I have it set up with my Samsung 32 inch LCD HDTV (780P) using the HDMI output. I also have standard cable with no cable box just coaxial coming in from the wall. (thus the need for the built in tuner) So far I've recorded from TV (using DVD-RW) and also watched a DVD.
Positives-Easy set up and use, great picture and sound, excellent menus for set up and programming, cool design.
Negatives-Low level hum at all times even when power is off, Digital stations take a long time to scan (50 min although it does warn you of that in the manual) EPG only works with Digital stations, which I don't use anyway.
Overall, I love this unit! The purpose was to replace the old VCR/DVD combo and get an upconversion DVD player. Both tasks have been accomplished very nicely. It runs very quiet, although it is all the time. I assume it is the built-in fan. Picture quality and sound are great. I definitely would recommend this unit. I give it 4 1/2 stars.
Other info-I ordered it through Amazon from J&R music world ($209) and it arrived in 3 days no problems. I also bought the HDMI cable through Amazon from Eforcity ($3.30 + shipping $8.00 total) It works great as well, and you can't beat the price.

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Samsung's DVD-AR650 Recorder with a built-in ATSC tuner which allows the reception of digital TV signals broadcast over-the-air by TV stations is the perfect way to join the digital revolution. The ±R dual layer recording and front DV input features let you record TV shows and add home video to a DVD disc for more than 14 hours of programming. Favorite shows can be captured immediately with the 1 sec. EZ record feature. Playback is amazingly clear with true color reproduction, thanks to Samsung's EVQ (Enhanced Video Quality) and Progressive scan output features.

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Panasonic DIGA DMR-EZ475VK - DVD recorder/ VCR combo - black Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)What makes this different from the DMR-EZ47V model? Only the inclusion of an HDMI cable. This is my third Panasonic DVD-type recorder and none of them have had major failings.
Don't believe the Amazon reports of a bad digital tuner as it just isn't true. The secret to good terrestrial digital reception is the right antenna. If you have that, you get great channels. Albeit, not in high def. But this is not a high def recorder. I didn't bother with the analog channels as I receive them all digitally, and then some.
I recommend the stand alone Phillips "Silver Sensor" antenna or clone. Don't waste money on the Terk models as they look nicer but don't do the job as well. Analog transmission is going away so you won't need rabbit ears. If the "Silver Sensor" doesn't work, you are just in a bad location. Mine works great through a 5-900 MHz 3-way splitter.
With my old GoVideo DVD/VCR combo I had 8 cables running from the back of the unit to the TV. 3 component cables & 2 audio. Plus 1 yellow composite and 2 more audio just to play VHS. 8 cables replaced by 1 (ONE) HDMI. Both formats play through HDMI.
With the HDMI upconversion turned on your DVD and VHS pictures can display at 480i/p, 720p, 1080i/p, or just select auto. While the difference in the picture is noticeable, especially with VHS, don't expect miracles. The best upconversion in the world can only simulate HD, it can't create information not in the original. For true HD movie experience we still need blu-ray. I have one and it is awesome.
If the HDMI on your TV supports Viera the Panasonic remote control can control limited functions of your TV. No more manual programming of the remote to work with your TV! The smart features means your player will automatically turn off when you turn the TV off. However, my Vizio doesn't support Viera so it doesn't work via HDMI. Pages 68 - 69 in the manual allows programming of the remote via the buttons.
As you can see in the product description this player supports a wide variety of discs. One long awaited favorite is the ability to record to DVD +/- R Dual Layer. DVD-RAM is great because playback supports 1.3x playback by pressing [play] a second time. Press [play] again to return to normal speed. Now you can record your favorite programs in digital quality (Analog only to VHS.), skip commercials, and watch them faster on DVD-RAM. The upconversion means you almost don't miss the HD airing. Plus you have the ability to cross copy VHS to DVD and vice verser, providing copy protection is not an issue.
One of my favorite features missing on this unit is "shorten segment". It easily allowed cutting out commercials, yet leave a single video file. Alternately, "divide program" allows cutting around the commercials, then you may delete them. It's a bit more time consuming and leaves you with a fragmented video file. This will not affect play back as it simply jumps to the next video block. However, the "combine chapters" function only works with "chapters" you create, and doesn't combine the segments of cut pieces.
Thus I must agree it is a bit more complex to use, and you will need to spend some time with the manual and even cross reference some pages. It is time well spent as it is nothing you won't learn with repeated use. It's not rocket science. You'll be a pro in no time.
While I wish this had a hard drive and recorded in HD, I can't ding the product because that is not the design intent. Maybe next years model. I'm very picky in what I like and I am VERY happy with this player.
This is a great way to give that old 4:3 analog TV a digital tuner and keep it around a few more years. Plus you could receive more digital channels than analog! But only HDMI supports upconversion. Even with some short comings such as the standard definiton digital tuner, this player does it all and does it extremely well.
My two biggest gripes which make me wish I never sold my analog GoVideo combo. Finalized DVD-R will NOT copy to VHS. Only unfinalized DVD-R will copy providing the material is not copy protected. I can no longer copy a couple of regular DVD's to tape. Maybe there are tweaks to be found. But my need to copy to tape isn't as great as was my desire to do so. Cest la vie.
For more on this product download the manual and firmware updates at the Panasonic website.

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Panasonic DMR-EZ27K Up-Converting 1080p DVD-Recorder with ATSC Tuner Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this from Best Buy not Amazon.
Things I like:
1) Scheduling for recording programs is pretty intuitive
2) Creating the DVD top menu is easy
3) Playback of DVDs with HDMI cable is very sharp with upconversion
4) XP (1hr) and SP (2hr) are very good...better than VCR quality
5) Has Flexible Recording mode (FR) which you assign the hours to record.
6) To my surprise, when I record a 16x9 broadcast on a +RW, it actually plays in 16x9 on my TV. It's not supposed to per the manual.
7) Although not advertised, it has a QAM tuner. Will deciper any HD/digital channels from my cable connection. The quality isn't as good as the built in QAM tuner on my TV though.
8) Remote layout is good and feels sturdy.
9) Can use TIVO like features if recording using a DVD-RAM.
Things I dislike:
1) LP (4hrs) mode is very pixeling when played back on my 56" widescreen. Way worst than VCR quality. I don't even use this mode. EP (6 or 8hrs) is practically garbage. My old reliable VCR could tape 6hrs which was good for a week of shows. Now since I only use the 2hr SP mode, I have to keep remembering to switch out my DVD+RWs and label them. A big hassle, which I'm not sure outweighs the benefits. Very bad if you have to tape 4 hours or more during a day...i.e. a long sporting event.
2) If I set the recorder as hooked up to a 16x9 TV, which it is, and I record a 16x9 broadcast, it plays fine on my HDTV. However, if I play back the recording on a 4x3 TV, the image is scrunched into the 4:3 TV making everybody appear narrow. No setting on my 4:3 TV or DVD player can change how it appears. Can't get it to go widescreen on the 4:3. If I set the recorder as hooked up to a 4x3 TV, then it will play back okay on a 4:3 but won't go 16x9 on my HDTV. Ugh.
3) The QAM tuner when auto programming channels isn't intelligent. It will pick up every digital channel going through the cable feed, whether encrypted or not. Thus, you'll end up with about 100 digital channels that are encrypted and you can't view (blue screened). You have to manually deleted these channels from the recorder, which after doing about 10 took way too long and I stopped. Slow channel changing.
4) No Open/Close button on the remote.
5) Cable signal quality on analog channels through this tuner isn't the greatest.
6) I have a Samsung 1080P DVD Player and when playing back recordings with the Panasonic, I can't get my "instant replay" or "instant skip" features to work on my Samsung.
7-15-07 UPDATE:
Two weeks after purchasing this recorder and 1 week after posting this review, my digital (HD) channels disappeared from the unit. Resetting or re-auto programming the channels didn't work to get them back. I called Panasonic tech support who's supposed to send me a firmware update for the unit. Supposedly, I'm not the 1st to report this issue. The firmware update isn't on the panasonic website though. This now lowers my rating to two stars. If the firmware doesn't fix the issue, I will update this.
7/30/07 Update: Well lame-o Panasonic finally mailed the firmware update about 12 days after I first called them even though they promised it with 3 days. The firmware update has brought back my digital channels. I'm crossing my fingers that they will continue to remain. The firmware update's biggest feature, however, was that it made the LP (4hr) recording mode much better. Before, I couldn't even tolerate the quality of the LP mode because there was too much pixelation. With the firmware upgrade, it's actually tolerable...at least when watching a regular TV show. I have to test it on a sporting event before I give my final opinion. I'm taping the Giant's game tomorrow (in case BB ties HA) so I'll let y'all know later.
8/6/07 and FINAL Update:
Well, I lost my digital channels twice since my last update. Once after the unit froze on me...another time for no apparent reason. I have to goto through the tedious 10-15 minute process of reloading the firmware update and the the long auto-channel setup to get my digital channels back. I have no faith that my digital channels will remain indefinitely. There seems to be quite a few bugs in this unit. I called Panasonic Tech Support and they told me to ship the unit back for their Techs to inspect and repair. Although the shipping and repair is covered under the warranty, I've already paid this unit in full and will be out of a recorder for at probably 3-4 weeks if I went this route. Unfortunately, I've owned this thing over 30 days and can't return it anymore. I'm crossing my fingers that my digital channels won't mysteriously disappear anymore or that Panasonic will come out with yet a better firmware upgrade....but I'm not holding my breath. It's been very disappointing that this unit has a lot of glitches.

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Toshiba DR410 1080p Upconverting Tunerless DVD Recorder Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)We have had the recorder about three weeks. I am over 50 and completely new to video recording although considered the techno-twit in the family. The main reason we bought a recorder is because we have about a hundred Hi8 two hour tapes of our family adventures around the world some of which are 20 years old, and I needed to transfer them before they turned to dust! The reason we picked this unit were the price and the reviews on several websites. I had bought computer software and hardware back in 2000 and found it quirky,unreliable, poor quality and agonizingly slow to render. I gave up for a few years and decided to wait for the right standalone recorder. I had considered sending them off to be transferred, but that was rather expensive and might disappoint.Setup and playback:
Set up with the HDMI cable to my 52" 1080p LCD TV was a breeze. Upconverting to 1080p with regular DVDs is superb! A very noticeable improvement over my regular player. Subtle details and colors we never noticed before seemed to jump out at us. The manual and menus were about what I expected with a new technology to learn. The manual is adequate, better than Sony manuals. The menus were confusing until I experimented a bit and looked up some terms online. I am still learning them.
Recording:
I set up my old Sony Hi8 camcorder to it with the S-video and audio RCA cables. We have a Sony Hi8 standalone VCR that needs repair thus using the camcorder for tape playback. I setup my first DVD+r recording for two hour SP mode and nothing! A coaster! But it showed by the color change on the back that it recorded , just no video on it. After reading the reviews that said they got nothing but coasters I began to hope that it was just a beginners mistake and read the manual again. After playing with the menus I realized that I might have not selected the right input. Got it set and tried again. Voila! It not only recorded but the combination of the superior Hi8 source, and this recorder and the image and sound quality were fantastic! Hi8 records in PCM sound so the audio was perfect!
I immediately tried it in my Sony dvd player because I read several reviews that said it produced DVDs that were only playable in that machine. Sure enough it would not play in it. So I tried it in all three of my computers in my home network, two desktops and a laptop. It only played back in one of them.
I double checked the menus on the recorder and I sure enough had it set to auto finalize when full or with the timer??????
So I hit the manual again and it dawned on me that perhaps it only would auto finalize when the DVD could hold no more, or when a timer was set. It has been my experience with CDr data and music recording that once you remove the media nothing more can be done to it. But just to try I took the recorded DVD and popped it back into the recorder and manually finalized it. It worked!!!!! I learned that I have to finalize every DVD, it would only finalize automatically, under those two specific conditions, full or on timer.
Now the same DVD that I took out and would not play in but one other computer played perfectly in the Sony player and all computers I tried it on. I even took it to work and played it on our five workstations and the network server I administer, and perfect playback on all!
I suspect the folks producing coasters and incompatible DVDs did not RTFD (Read The Freakin' Directions!)
Last week Office Depot had a sale on 100 pack Memorex DVD spindles for 24 bucks. I bought one to experiment with the features I am still not clear on. It appears that even with a DVD-r or +r I can pause and resume without losing the recording thus being able to edit out manually in real time things I don't want to keep. I haven't even gotten into title and chapters, I just set it to auto set chapters every ten minutes, so I can easily find specific items to view quickly. I have a catalogue of every tape and they are numbered, and I just have to revise the content from feet of tape to chapters as I transfer them in the word document I have them listed in as the numbers will remain the same for each DVD.
I give it 5 stars because all technology manuals are terrible and adequate is the best I can expect. As well, the menus will take some experimenting just like the first time using any new technology or software.
This is an excellent recorder with lots of hidden features and capabilities. If you RTFD and play with it.

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Panasonic DMR-EZ17K DVD Recorder with ATSC Tuner Black Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've been using my new DMR-EZ17K for around a week now. As expected for the price, it's got some features that are great, and some that are not. Here are the unexpectedly positive highlights:
(1) The ATSC tuner picks up perfect widescreen digital over-the-air channels, under conditions where an analog NTSC tuner can receive mostly only static and snow. This feature alone - even without the DVD recorder - nearly justifies the cost of this unit.
(2) The quality of the recorded image in LP mode (4 hours) is truly exceptional - it's nearly indistinguishable from the original 480p off-air HD digital signal. Kudos to Panasonic for this one.
(3) Using 480p outputs, and playing a downsampled off-air digital HD widescreen recording (EDTV), the recorded image quality nearly equals that of a 780p digitally-upsampled standard (non-HD) DVD. From 8 feet away on a non-huge screen, the image looks nearly as good as a true HD broadcast.
(4) Plays and/or displays JPEGs and MP3s burned to CD (but not DVD).
(5) With a certain amount of fiddling, and the use of the proper recordable medium (DVD-RAM), you can achieve chase-playback and "pause live TV" capabilities. While not nearly as convenient or seamless as a TiVo, it *can* be done with this recorder.
(6) With the use of the proper recordable medium (DVD-RAM), you can record one TV program while watching another (or the same) recorded program. Combine that with the 60-second commercial-skip button, and you might just never have to watch another commercial again. Nice!
Negative highlights:
(1) Panasonic seems to have maliciously omitted certain 'free' features merely for marketing parity or to cost-justify the other products in its lineup. Examples include an HDMI output connector and digital upsampling - features found even on $35 Chinese DVD players.
(2) Even though this unit includes an ATSC tuner, which picks up high-definition terrestrial signals by default, Panasonic has chosen to disallow the received high-definition signals from being passed through to a connected HD monitor. Live signal video quality is needlessly reduced/downsampled to 480p, which is standard definition (but digital) EDTV.
(3) It literally takes 10 seconds to change digital channels.
(4) The ability to record the free, on-air Dolby-Digtal 5.1 signal broadcast with certain HD programming seems intentionally crippled, perhaps for anti-piracy reasons. This recorder down-samples the 6 digital channels to only 2 (ordinary stereo) when recording. So you can never record off-air Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. You can, however, play it back when viewing commercial DVDs, using the built-in optical output (no cable included, of course).
(5) No digital inputs OR COMPONENT VIDEO inputs; the highest quality external video you can record is S-Video! There are also no digital video outputs whatsoever, although the component video output quality is decent, and there is a DV input for your camcorder.
(6) The manual is sketchy; while comprehensive and well-illustrated, it still contains some remnants of Asian grammar, and resolutely refuses to explain any usage models or DVD recording theory, focusing instead on acronyms and a context-free explanation of the minutae of each individual button and menu option. You will need to be thoroughly familiar with DVD recording and digital video concepts and theory BEFORE attempting to use this unit effectively, or the manual WILL NOT make complete sense.
(7) No digital zoom during playback means you can't always eliminate the horizontal or vertical black bars present on most widescreen analog (NTSC) broadcasts or recordings.
Overall, due to the ATSC tuner and superb EP recording quality, this recorder is a fantastic buy. I would buy it again.

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Samsung DVD-V9700 Tunerless 1080i Upconverting DVD VHS Combo Player Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Wanted an HDMI upper for DVD's but also needed to be able to show legacy VHS. Price was same as Sony up converting player, (which I have for another TV) but has the the VCR. Sounded good. I am connecting to Samsung TV, so why not? First player was DOA. Wouldn't recognize a DVD. Amazon immediately shipped a replacement (They have really done right by me in customer service). Machine delivers a very nice image through HDMI output and the VCR transport seems to be fine. All's well that ends well.

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Toshiba DKR40 DVD Recorder with 1080p Upconversion Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I got this for the purpose of digitizing my old VHS Home Videos at the same time I'm looking for something to improve my DVD viewing thru upconvert. I have a 6-yr old Sony projection HDTV with DVI and component video input @720p/1080i. I bought an HDMI-to-DVI cable since this unit will upconvert only at 480p when used with component video cable. But then upon my initial setup I was disappointed with the contrast/color running at 720p/1080i that my old DVD player displays even better. I found that with the converter cable, it only renders in RGB and not as PyPbPr signals. As I dig more time on discovering the setup options, I have found that the factory defaults have the progressive scanning turned off and the HDMI RGB is not in enhanced color mode. Once I had corrected this, I got an excellent viewing of my sci-fi movies. I did set to 720p which gives better picture/clarity than the interlaced 1080i.

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The DKR40 is an excellent solution for archiving your favorite home movies to DVD. That's not all; the DKR40 also enhances your DVD collection with 1080p upconversion to near HD picture quality via HDMI. Video Upconversion via HDMI 720p/1080i/1080p One Touch Recording* Multi-Format Recording and Playback*** Progressive Out Video DAC -10-bit/54 MHz Digital Photo Viewer (JPEG) Y/C Separation Audio DAC 192kHz/24bit MP3,WMA Dolby Digital Recording (2-Ch) L-PCM Recording XP mode only 3-D Vi

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Samsung DVD-VR357 Tunerless DVD Recorder and VCR Combo Review

Average Reviews:

(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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HDMI / Easy Record / Component Video / Composite

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