Customer Reviews

Lite-On LVC-9006 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder/VCR Combo

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I just recieved this unit and am very pleased with the purchase. I've recorded 5 DVD's already and had no problems whatsoever. I used regular TDK+R discs and after finalizing them, they played in all of my other DVD players including my portable made by Initial. After pressing stop on recording, unit does take a few seconds to actually stop playing.
The only problems I have with the unit is that it is a bit bulky and heavy and the menu's can be a bit confusing, but once you get the hang of them, they are OK.
Also the remote needs to be pointed DIRECTLY at the unit. If it's pointed in any other direction, even slightly, it doesn't work. Also, the VCR, which tapes great is a bit slow and is missing a few things normal VCR's have. Such as timer recording for Mon-Fri. It only has weekly, daily or one time only feature. Also, the navigation for the VCR, to reset the counter etc. only works when the tape is playing. The menu does not show if the tape is just off.
Most of the problems I have are just as far as the basics goes the few things that make like a bit easier. Quality wise everything is excellent, audio and video and DVD recording (even at 6hrs)is superb and comparable to more expensive models. If your looking to convert your VHS collection this is a very good unit to buy.

This machine does it all, the only thing it requires is a little patients to let the machine do its work.
I have not found anything that it will not play. I have tryed other brands and they only work on certain applications and not on others. The allwrite technology is absolutely great.
It is absolutely a great buy, has all the other DVD recorders beat hands down.

I purchased this last week to digitize my stack of VHS-C and MiniDV camcorder movies. I've copied 30 tapes so far and have come across a very annoying issue. Sometimes (like 6 of 30) after dubbing VHS->DVD, the deck hangs flashing "STOP". Normally it should do this for 3-5 seconds as it finishes the DVD burn and then continue to normal operation. When it hangs, I'm left having to power down. When I power back up, 3 random scenarios 1) I have a coaster, 2) I lost the last 30minute dub but the disc is still intact, 3) Everything is fine. The deck is also a bit loud ( sounds like a computer DVD drive, not a consumer DVD deck ). It does work great for moving shows and movies off my Comcast-DVR box (Tivo Like) to DVD over S-Video. HQ (1hr) and SP(2hr) modes look good.

Lite-On VCR/DVD Recorder LVC-9006 R Review

This product has some nice features one would want - record and play DVDs in any format, VCR and DVD recorder in one package, etc. However, the picture quality made this a return item for us.

We have two video sources in our surround sound unit, one passing through the VCR and one not, which allows us to do a few things we like. With our old VCR, both of these pictures had the same brightness, color, tint, etc., so flipping from Video 1 to Video 2 gave you the same picture quality. When we connected the Lite-On LVC-9006 R the same way our old VCR was hooked in, the picture became bleached out. Dark colors became light. This could be adjusted somewhat with the TV color controls, but then the Video 2 signal ended up way too dark.

We didn't like this, but were prepared to live with it. (To be fair, our subsequent purchase, a Panasonic, did the same thing, though not as badly.) Then we started getting bright horizontal lines in the picture sometimes. Then we found at times the picture would get jerky, like an old Charlie Chaplin movie. This would last for 1-2 minutes, go away, then come back at a later time. That was the last straw. We returned the product.

Other things need fixing. The commercial skip in our old VCR was great. Push it once, it skipped for one minute. Two times, two minutes, etc. In this product, you have to push a menu button, then select the commercial skip and push again, and then it only skips for 30 seconds. And you can't push it more than once. You have to wait for the 30 seconds to pass and then do it again. So for a two minute commercial you have to push the button 8 times with waits in between each push. Who needs that?

The pause button on the VCR (not sure of the DVD) holds the picture OK, but if you push again to advance one frame, that frame jitters all over the place. Ditto for each subsequent frame advance.

Programming was a hassle. The prior setting data from your last record, like record speed, etc was not remembered and you had to drop down menus and re-select the same thing each time.

Not recommended.

I bought this unit as it was highly reccommended by a computer service person. But, I wish I had these reviews first.

I installed the unit this last week end and by Sunday night I wish it had come with an accessory sledge hammer. I would have used the hammer on the unit.

At best this machine is in "beta" form and selling it for full retail price is unfair. TO say the least the software is "clunky" and difficult to use. All of the comments of problems in the other reviews are applicable here.

I had 4 specific problems and when I got to talk to tech support today I was told to update the firmware and that should solve the problems. If they update the firmware to solve problems you know that many users are complaining.

The instruction book is poorly translated from Chinese to English and therefore hard to understand. Even their website has grammer mistakes.

THe VHS part in no where as good as the 4 year old Sony that it replaced. Some of the functions ( such as rewind) sound as if it were a thrashing machine.

I am sorry I bought the unit, but you never really know how it works until you set it up and use it.

A good VHS player ( like my old Sony) and a separate DVD recorder are a better bet.

I don't reccommend buying this unit.

I am totally frustrated with this unit and deeply regret the entire purchase. After 15-20 hours of frustration I have yet to successfully create my first DVD from a VHS tape. Every step in the process has been painful. The user manual is very confusing, the unit does not function as per the manual, there is no helpline support, and the website only provides a download of an electronic copy of the same manual. Just to qualify this review, I am a computer consultant and NOT stupid when it comes to electronic items. If you purchase this unit you will need a very high pain threshold.

For the first 12 months of ownership this recorder worked great in all respects. I felt I had a winner. Its on-screen "Easy Guider" system made it a snap to operate. I was happy. But in the 13th month (it had a 12 month warranty) it stopped dead in its tracks and couldn't be budged to do anything. The unit's front panel display read "Hello," but didn't proceed beyond that. I couldn't play, record, eject my tape cassette or DVD disk, and I could not even turn the machine off unless I disconnected the power cord.

When I asked the Lite-On support team for help, I was told to return the unit to the store where I bought it for repair. The store told me to return it to the manufacturer. After 13 months of ownership with light usage I'm stuck with a dead machine. I'm not happy now.

I was happy when I first bought this. I made 10 DVD's without a problem. Then the DVD recorder started making junk. I had to pay $38 to return it to the manufacturer because it was still under warranty (I bought the extended 2-year warranty)
When I got it back 8 weeks later, the VHS wouldn't play right - the picture jiggled from side to side so badly I couldn't watch the movie.

To get it fixed I had to pay another $38 to return it to get it fixed (it was still under the manufacturer warranty). It's only been

I WILL NOT BUY ANOTHER LITE-ON PRODUCT - EVER. I WILL NOT ORDER ANOTHER PRODUCT FROM AMAZON.COM. If I can't get the merchandise from a local store, I just will not purchase it.

I bought this unit with hopes of being able to transfer VHS to DVD and to also record television favorites to DVD. I could not get the unit to display any television at all, it would play a DVD fine, never tried using the VHS. Two calls to customer service for help, VERY long wait time and virtually no help at all. The only thing they could come up with, was that the TV tuner was bad and the unit would have to be replaced. I boxed it up today for return for a refund, it was definately not worth purchasing.

I'm rather fortunate that I didn't read any of the reviews here prior to purchase of my unit. I picked it up at a great price last November 2005 on 'Black Friday' (the day after Thanksgiving). Since then I have either recorded off the air or made archive copies totaling approximately 250 DVD+R/RW discs and have wound up with only about a dozen 'coasters' out of that many.

Perhaps I'm just lucky but I haven't had any problems with mine with the exception that the picture on the VHS side is somewhat washed out, as another user mentioned, so has to be adjusted. Since I also have a standalone Philips DVD recorder purchased the year before, I'm able to archive both VHS and DVD programs.

The remote could be a little more intuitive and some functions can't be accessed while the machine is busy on the other deck.

I expected to be able to watch a DVD while recording on the VHS side but wasn't able to do so, though I had assumed it possible since the while viewing a tape, you are not using the tuner.

Still, for the price, I think I got my money's worth and more. It has been dependable so far <knocking on wood> and I have no regrets on my purchase.


******************* UPDATED July 19, 2007 *************************

After this review was written I discovered through trial and error that the tuner in this machine does NOT decode MTS stereo. In other words, when you record a program off the air, the resultant file on the DVD will be in MONO, which is very poor for this day and age and is a serious drawback because it makes the home theater equipment worthless since there is very little a receiver can do with a MONO signal. I'd like to subtract a star for that.
What's confusing about this is that when copying from DVD to tape or vice-versa, the stereo is very high quality. I also don't know if I have a defective tuner or all of them are that way. I didn't realize it was in MONO until way after the warranty was over. I'll just have to be more careful with future machines.

It does still work fine in all other respects after more than 1 and a half years.

************ UPDATED 22 JULY 2008 (!) **************************

Yes, this machine is still working just like when it was new. I wanted to add to my previous review to point out another aspect of the All-Write technology that really hasn't been touched upon in any other reviews: The capability to create finalized CDs that will play on any standard CD player. Being a music lover, I sometimes find that there are musical performance on TV that generally are not available on CD. As an example, over the weekend, I went through my recordings of American Idol Season 7 and was able to dub the audio from the perfomances of the gals that were voted off too early or at least didn't win: Alaina Whitaker, Amy Davis, Kady Malloy, Brooke White & last but not least Kristy Lee Cook. With this Lite-On machine, you simply load a blank CD-R in the DVD/CD drive and then connect another unit to the audio inputs (front or rear) from which to play back the performance from a previously recorded DVD+R/RW. The Lite-On machine will create separate tracks each time you press the record button on the remote as long as you also press 'Stop' after each recording. Then when the disc is full, just finalize it in the same manner as a DVD and you have a customized CD that will play anywhere.

As you can see, I'm still enjoying this machine.

++++++++++++++++++++++++ UPDATE 27 MARCH 2010 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I realize that this device is no longer available, but Amazon still carries its successor, the LVC-9016, so I'll keep updating my review since they are 99% identical.
My LVC-9006 is still working fine. I'm currently using it to archive all my old VHS tapes containing movies and TV shows recorded from cable in the 90s. While every production run may produce a lemon or two, I seem to have gotten a gem as I'm still enjoying this thing, even though I have more modern equipment including 4 DVD recorders equipped with internal hard drives.

I hope to have this in my rack for many years to come or at least till I have all my VHS archived - only about 60 more to go!