Customer Reviews

CyberHome CH-DVR 1500 Progressive-Scan DVD+R/+RW Recorder and Player , Silver

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(76)

 

 

Before I buy, I research everything completely and look through all the product reviews (Amazon and elsewhere).
I read some good things and some "horror stories" about some Panasonic and Philips DVD recorders that I was really interested in. The Sony GX7 looked pretty good, but way over-priced. The Philips R-75 had pretty much what I was looking for, and was $450, but had many reports of very pood customer service and very difficult controls and instructions. At this point, I decided to just buy a cheap player and wait a while for these companies to improve their products and get their prices down. While looking for players at W.M. I found the CyberHome CH-DVR-1500. It looked like an "el-cheapo" model, but after reading the reviews on it, I thought I would take a chance and buy it. At least it would be easy to return if there were any problems. After getting it home and set-up, I was REALLY surprised (for a recoder priced under $300). I haven't had it real long
yet, but I have done EVERYTHING with it that it was capable of doing. And I have found NO negative points. Here are a few of the many positives........
---complete, consise, and easy to follow instructions. They tell you, in "normal" language, how to do everything. Best of all, when you do what the manual says, IT WORKS!!!
---easy to understand remote - with most of its features ALSO available on the front panel of the unit itself. You don't have to rely only on the remote.
---every A / V input and output that you need to hook-up your other equipment. Rear and front inputs also.
---great picture quality from boughten DVDs and "home-made" ones from TV and VHS tape copying. It gives you 5 different choices of recording quality and hours per disc. HQ-1hr (highest), SP-2hrs, LP-3hrs, EP-4hrs, and SLP-6hrs. The first two are very good. The next two are acceptable. The last one (SLP) is not that great, but viewable, ok for some things.
---some reviewers said that their units developed a lot of heat and gave off an electrical smell. My unit got no warmer than the average VCR does. I had a slight electrical smell, but only from being new. It was less each day I used it. No problem really.
---it has a lot of other features that you wouldn't expect to find on a $300 unit, like -- Zoom, auto chapters, segment repeat, commercial skip, and others.
I guess what I liked the best about this recorder is that it did EVERYTHING that it said it could and in an EASY to follow and well explained way. The best way for you to really find these things out is to get one and try it. Most stores will
easily let you return them. Read the rest of the reviews that you find here. All of the positive comments are true. The few negative ones I found to be wrong. Good luck. For only $300, you'll like it !!!!!!

I bought my unit a couple months ago. It has been reliable but works a bit differently from a VCR and is more complex.

It plays every format of CD, DVD and R or RW, and jpegs, etc.. It will only handle the first 250 jpegs or mp3's it finds on a disk you insert. This is a potential nuisance. It records only the DVD+R and DVD+RW formats but can also play the "-" formats. A majority of DVD players and PC's will play the + format but some will only play the - format. A few older players will only play factory DVDs. DO NOT BLAME THE RECORDER for an industry with multiple standards. The RW discs are simpler to use than R discs, but cost more.

While recording, the pause contol works very nicely, but plan ahead for STOP. This results in a long delay while the disc index is written and you cannot resume or anything else until this step is complete.

You can choose the compression to record with to yield 1,2,3,4 or 6 hours on a single-layer single-sided disc. The 1 and 2 hour modes are very very good. Three hour mode is acceptable VCR quality, but the 4 and 6 hour modes suffer from the high compression.

Be sure you let it format the new disk when you first put it in. This takes about 90 seconds. Also allow about 20-30 seconds warm up when you program it to record TV broadcasts. I just set the system clock 30 seconds fast.
Editing takes some practice. I strongly suggest you practice first with material that can be discarded.

The menus need to be made more user friendly, but there is not much else to criticise. Recorders will surely become faster and easier to use in the future, but are already much easier than using a PC for recording.

I am transferring my 10-20 year old home videos to DVD before they go bad. The DVDs will also take up less shelf space.

I had one of these for (5) days and made a few recordings with it. In all honesty, the picture quality was very good. Included are (3) DVD+RW discs, a nice touch. However It seemed to stay QUITE warm all the time (even when turned off) and started to emit that nasty "electrical burning smell". It had also frozen up a couple of times....nothing would work until I unplugged it and plugged it in again. I had E-Mailed Cyberhome about this (they responded almost immediately to my surprise) and they said that "most" of the recorders work fine, but mine should be unplugged IMMEDIATELY and returned to the store. This could be a nice recorder (it is simpler to operate than the Philips that I have now)but be sure to buy it from a store that will let you return it should you need to.

This thing works great. The recording options are pretty intuitive, the playback quality for just viewing DVD's is excellent, it comes with 3 DVD+RW's, and has lots of input options including a bank in the front for camcorders or a temporary VHS feed to copy home movies.

You can create titles, thumbnails, and easily edit TV, VHS or any other device with a composite out to make your DVD's.

The review where someone complained about not being able to change things burnt on a DVD+R is completely invalid. DVD+R's are READ-ONLY. That is why they are cheaper that DVD+RW's, which can be re-written and changed. Once they are written to, no device on earth could change them without ruining them. This is not a weakness of the cyberhome device, but of DVD+R. Buy DVD+RW if you want to be able to change titles and such. This device comes with 3 DVD+RW to get you started.

This does a very good job on recording from external sources, such as analog cameras, etc. Very good unit for the money.

I tested it out the other night and it works great! I used a DVD+RW disc and was able to do some test recordings. Though it does not play in my 1997 DVD player, or game systems, it does play in the recorder itself and also in my companion Cyberhome DVD player, the compact size CH DVD 300/S.
I think the newer DVD players, if one checks if it lists that it is compatible with DVD-R / -RW or DVD+R / +RW, one can be just fine. My DVD player is older, so there is a chance it isn't compatible with any recordable DVD formats. (This recorder records in +R/+RW only)
The player works great! It has many recording speeds, HQ 1 hour, SP 2 hour, EP #?, ELP#?, and SLP 6 hour. I couldn't tell a big difference in HQ vs. SP, so I will most likely use SP. The 6 hour quality is worse than VCD, but the other modes come out real nice. (I would guess the EP or ELP may be in the VCD or digital-VHS like quality area) I did a test from a VCR SP recording and also live off my TV cable and it looks very good, though a TV source is near NTSC 320x240, and DVD is 640x480 or so, it is amazing to capture the TV on a digital disc, for collection purposes.
The RW disc is nice because you don't have to finalize the disc, just record and you are done, there are a few seconds when you STOP the recording, but it worked much like my VCR as to starting the recording, and pausing.
A neat surprise, the deck came with a leather case with empty sleeves for DVDs, and it came with 3 free +RW discs! It included batteries for the remote, and also had a AV cable and an RF cable for connections. I was happy to be surprised by the extra items. The recorder also has its own TV tuner, for live or timer recordings and multiple inputs.

I have a collection of cartoons I have gathered over the years on tape and have dearly wanted to put them on a recordable DVD, but have been waiting for prices to come down in the players. I was so glad when this recorder came available!

Do not buy a Cyberhome product. I have the 1600 model and started having problems viewing DVD's and using the DVD recorder 2 months after purchasing the product. The customer service was terrible. I e mailed them several times without receiving an answer. The labor warrenty was only 3 months. I contacted them via phone, was on hold for an hour, and finally talked to a rude man who told me that I should have updated my firmware via downloading it from the wedsite. The download wouldn't work and he stated he would send me a disc. It never arrived. Awful company!!!

I bought the unit yesterday and that same night, I started archiving Tivo recordings onto DVD+RW. Great tool to unload your "Now Playing" archive and burn it on portable media.

Ok, here is the deal with the cyberhome 1500 dvd recorder. I've had mine since 4/04, I had it serviced once, it can be an annoying unit but there are ways to get around it, read on....

It is very particular about the software you are recording on

Use only TDK or SONY DVD+R

Personally, I hate finalizing discs. I am frightened of transfering a 6 hour VHS to dvd and then the disc fails in the finalizing process, For this reason the only discs I use to record are TDK DVD+RW You can get them for $35 per 25 pack. Worth it because you DO NOT HAVE TO FINALIZE RW DISCS!

Among the problems I have had with this unit are:

Locks up for any apparent reason. (Turn it off, Unplug it, then turn it back on)

Disc was stuck inside (Wrong type of media, actually my own fault, serviced for free by RCA, returned working better than ever).

Disc errors.i.e.: during finalizing a disc, rejects request, loses all data (Used inferior software DO NOT USE FUJI, MAXELL, ANY CHEAP BRAND, and ESP MEMOREX). Verbatim DVD+R are not bad,but sometimes can be unreliable.

The only problem I have been able to figure out so far is:

Sometimes on an older VHS tape the unit will stop in the middle of a recording. I guess there are too many inperfections in the tape source so it tricks the DVD recorder into stopping.

The RCA cyberhome is a decent unit. Its not perfect, but very good for the price range.

The proof is in the pudding:

I HAVE BURNED OVER 300 DVD+r and +rw discs from my personal collection.

I feel I've gotten my money's worth, everything else is gravy at this point.

Update of two previous reviews...this is my second unit--the first was a dud-- and this one does everything it is supposed to do. I hope it will last. There is not one thing in the manual I have not tried with complete success, including editing titles, etc. I did no upgrades at all.

No, the picture is not what one would expect as a DVD quality. The color is a little flat and it does not have the resolution you might want from a dvd. However, it did copy all my vhs-c tapes, old special tv event tapes, and live concert tapes we have had for years. If I play these dvds in my RCA dvd player the quality is better for viewing and I have archived irreplaceable tapes.

Since everything I am recording is in analog form and my cable service is not digital yet I am satisfied with the results. A movie from tv cable has almost the same resolution as a SP vhs recording, and is space saving storage.

Have been using constantly since March 1 and have done about 150 recordings on various brands of discs.