Customer Reviews

GoVideo DVR5100 Progressive Scan DVD-VCR Combo

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I purchased this for my wife for Christmas. When it was finally setup, I noticed that there were wavy lines going across the screen. They were very noticible when the picture was black or dark, and somewhat visible during playback of any DVD - I tried 5 different ones. This was through the RCA connection (Video, Left, Right audio). When I switched to the RF (Cable TV) connection, the lines were gone, but then the picture quality had all the failings of a standard Cable TV signal. I hooked the unit up to a different television and had the same wavy lines. I was about to return the unit to Amazon.com, when I noticed on the box it says "do not return this to the store, call our support line or email us at..." I called the support line and after 2 minutes navigating the phone menu, I got the message, "call back later, we are experiencing high call volume" and was disconnected. I called back an hour later and got the message immediately without even entering the phone maze. I decided to try emailing their support address. Here was my email to them:

"The picture for every DVD I have tried has wavy lines going across it, and a faint black line going up the right side of the screen. I tried 5 different dvds. It does not happen when connecting through the RF cable, but then the picture is garbage quality. The box said to contact you before returning the product, so I am, but if I do not receive a response within 24 hours, I am sending it back to the vendor. I tried calling your customer support number and was told to 'call back later'. "

Here is their reply:

" We appologies for the inconvenience you have faced,

You would have connected it with your VCR or you have a TV/VCR combo. You need to connect it to a stand alone TV."

Here is my reply:

"Nowhere did I state that I was connecting to a VCR or TV/VCR combo. I was
connecting it directly to a standalone tv; I don't know why you would
assume otherwise. Is this the only advice you have?"

Here is their second reply:

" PLEASE SEND ME YOUR ZIP CODE AND I CAN RECOMMEND YOU NEAREST SEVICE CENTER.BECAUSE FOR THIS PROBLEM UNIT HAS TO BE TAKEN TO THE SRVICE CENTER ONLY.THANKS"

These are copied and pasted with all errors left intact. Anyhow, I returned the unit to Amazon.com today and will never buy a SonicBlue product again.

Overall, the build quality and image seems good, though the price is steep and features limited compared to separate standalone units. I wish the VCR was S-VHS. Easy to use overall. Commercial Advance is best feature since sliced bread. The DVD>VHS one-touch copy is very convenient for dubbing home movies from VCD to tape for grandma. Read the fine print, and you'll find that many of the cheaper DVD/VCR combos can't record onto tape from DVD (note DVR5100 still can't record copy-protected DVDs). It will play CD-R and VCDs, but not SVCDs (beware Rio HT2030 from same manufacturer, which won't play CD-R at all!). I haven't tried it with DVD-R yet. I had the same awful experience with SonicBlue support: endless phone hold, no or useless response to emails. That said, if you must have a combo unit, this is one of the better ones. However, if you have room in your rack/reciever for separate components, you'll get more for your money that way.

I did a lot of research for a DVD/VCR combo unit when my bedroom VCR was fried in a power outtage. Most of the units seem to spread the wealth of features in the DVD rather than VCR direction, which is not good for me since I still tape a lot of what I watch from broadcast television. The one VHS feature I had to have was Commercial Advance, in which the unit marks commercials after recording and then fast forwards through them during playback. Not only does this really work most of the time and save time when watching, but I must admit that it is fun to snicker as the junk that the advertisers throw at us goes flying by without me being a captive audience. The GoVideo DVR5100 seemed to fit the bill, as it is almost unheard of to have Commercial Advance in a combo unit. Even though there were some mixed reviews on the quality of the unit, and it had some features like progressive scan that I could not take advantage of now, I decided to take a chance at $(...).

Unfortunately, the VHS picture quality was terrible. I was shocked that at this point in the evolution of the VCR, even in a combo unit, there could exist such poor quality. I was only able to use the RF cable connections going to my older analog TV, but I expected better. Whether watching broadcast cable TV channels through the VCR, taped shows, or even pre-recorded VHS tapes, there were thin white lines, sometimes straight, sometimes wavy, all over the screen, especially visible on dark or black pictures. I only tried the DVD portion once. It seemed to work OK, but it was a bit noisy.

Given that the VHS problems were not the result of poor cable signal (the television alone worked as fine as it always did) or poor tapes, I could not see bringing this brand new unit into an authorized repair center. It just does not seem like the type of problem to be fixed easily, if at all. So I returned the unit to Amazon(.com) and will probably go with the Zenith XBV243 or the new JVC HR-XVC20U and hope for the best.

Just hooked this up, and it only took a few minutes. The instruction booklet is extremely clear with a lot of screen pictures. Everything was explained clearly and I was able to start watching DVDs quickly and knew how to use the remote. It also fit right into our entertainment center where the old VCR player was. For a dual deck, it is very sleek. We also have a Go Video Dual Deck VCR and have been very pleased with its perfomance these past couple years. I would recommend this company and this DVD/VCR combo.

Finally got the time to setup this unit and the VCR tape transport eats tapes. Unfortunately I am just beyond the 90 day warranty so I am out of luck. The DVD ouput is fine through the SVHS cable but the VCR output which is a standard RCA cable is terrible. It is hard to justify spending the money on repairing the defective transport when the VCR output is such a miserable quality. Since the company is in Chapter 11 and the assets are changing hands you would be wise to find another manufacturer.

Item was defective out of the box. Customer Service wasr not helpful at all. Tech Support people know ONLY how to tell you to check the cable connections(speaker, video etc.)--Even after I insisted that the problem was "DVD Draw Does NOT open"-- This is after trying to understand them--TERRIBLE LITTLE ENGLISH!
Their So-called Service centers (in FL at least) are run by independent shops and are REALLY BAD! The shops apparently have a bad working relationship with GOVIDEO and therfore do not want to do service. CAVEAT EMPTOR! RUN when you see one of this company's products. For a couple of dollars more you can get a "REAL BRAND NAME" and you will be happier. That is what I ended up doing(bought a Brand Name). One Year later Still have problems ...It only works as a VCR not DVD+VCR

I had the same problems as the others who complained about poor quality on the VCR side of this machine. The picture has white lines or sometimes a wavy pattern when you use the RCA or coax outputs, there is no S video for the VCR. I determined problem is definitely with the machine because they are present when I ONLY have the outputs connected to the TV, nothing on the input side. I have been going back and forth with Sonic blue/Go video for since 12/2002, it's now 8/2003 and I've finally given up. There's no way they will admit anything is wrong with their machine and they won't refund me any money at all. I've sent it back to them at least 5 times, sometimes they sent a new one, sometimes a refurbished, and once the person who I talked to actually looked at the picture himself so I'm told. He and the engineers couldn't see anything wrong with the picture, yeah right, so they replaced one of the boards and sent it back. Same problem when I got it back. I started to do more research and found the reviews here that were saying exactly what I had told them. When confronted with that, they said it was not a defect just the quality of the machine I had purchased, and if I expected better quality it would cost $1,000. It's funny because this is their top of the line. They offered to look at it again but I declined because I'm tired of wasting my time and money.

Also, the pause/slow motion picture is terrible also. Beware if you want to use this on any of your existing tapes because the picture is badly distorted and jumpy. Even tapes recorded on machine, though better, are nowhere near what you would expect quality wise.

This was true of every machine they sent me otherwise I wouldn't be giving it that bad of a review. The only good thing I can say is it has a lot of features. That and it made me look for something else so I bought a Panasonic DVD recorder w/80 gig. harddrive, it's fantastic so far.

I experienced a poor quality picture with the VCR portion and returned the unit. I was also disappointed that the S-Video port was only for the DVD. Apparently most combo units are built this way - Buyers beware, if you want the higher quality of S-Video make sure the VCR portion has S-Video. The "spec" is misleading because it says "S-Video" port but does not reveal that it is only for the dvd. I will not buy "Go Video" again.

The DVD play back is outstanding, though the 360 degree round button used for fast forward and rewind is tough to master.

My unit started failing on the sound playback of Videotapes. Sound got softer then quit completely. I cleaned the heads, to no avail. It must go for repair, warranty is only 90 days for labor, one year for parts. Estimated repair labor is $60.00

I recommend not buying any DVD/ VCR without a 1 year warranty. For [item price] I would have expected this unit to function for at least a year! I have a 10 year old VCR and an 8 year old one that still work fine, cannot understand why a 6 month old VCR should fail.

Note also that the instruction manual that comes with this does not address all questions, and that online manual is just a .pdf of the printed one. This forces you to call the 800 number, with waits of up to 30 minutes on hold, to get your questions answered.

It's been interesting to read the other reviews on the DVR5100 unit, as I've used the predecessor DVR5000 model for two years now. The VCR picture quality is sometimes alittle "liney" and the VHS audio quality lacks sparkle, but no more than any other mid-range VCR machine I've ever owned, and not nearly as bad as what some other reviwers have reported. The lack of S-video from the VCR is annoying, and on the DVR5000, commercials cannot be skipped, despite trade specifications to the contrary, although I've read that the commercial skip works fine on the current DVR5100 model. DVD picture and sound quality is great, and sound quality from CDs, CDRs and MP3-formatted CDs is good, if not spectacular. In terms of reliability, my machine has been problem free, without any tape chewing, despite heavy usuage. So reading the other reviews, perhaps there is a quality control problem with these units. Is this machine a good buy? Yes, as long as watching VHS is not your priority. Also, if you can put a new machine through its paces while still under warranty, you probably don't have a unit that's defective in the ways described in other reviews.