Customer Reviews

Magnavox MRV640 DVD Recorder

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Well, I waited a long while to make the foray into dvd recording and missed years of using a vcr because I was tired of those tapes that were the size of a house. So I finally bought this thing at Best Buy for a pretty good price and I am satisfied.

For all those out there who are going-What the heck is all this DVD+-_!@#$%^&**()":<>? R's? I hate that crap too. But all you need to do is buy DVD + R's from any store and they should work- JUST REMEMBER, THIS ONLY RECORDS ON DVD+R'S AND DVD+RW'S-ITS REALLY SIMPLE AND IT ALWAYS SAYS IT IN BIG EASY TO READ LETTERS ON THE BOX/CASE/WHATEVER...

I read the earlier review and I havent had any problems like that yet. Although once it did freeze once and I had to unplug it once to get it to reset or whatever. If you understand that its kind of like a computer and freezes like one than its no big deal. I have only bought 1 set of DVD+R's by memorex and they have worked flawlessly. And yes you can record anything that a vcr can also. And if you still have your vcr and those Gigantic VCR tapes and you want to transfer to digital for good, you can do that with ease (If you need help dont hesitate to ask).

It is a good looking gadget with pretty user friendly controls (except for that Phil guy! What the h@#$!)I record all my disposable shows (Seinfeld,JJudy,60 minutes) on my one supplied DVD+RW and I record and erase-just like a tape. And it says that you need to finalize your DVD+R's to play them on most dvd players(You cannot finalize DVD+RW's) but I tried to play the unfinalized DVD+RW in my cheap AMD DVD player and it played! I record on the lowest quality which is adequate for me and I get 8 hours of recording on one disc. This thing has 6 recording settings so you can adjust the quality accordingly-M1 for highest quality(1 Hour) and M8 (8 Hours) So far so good, and for the price you cant beat this deal if you are making the jump into digital recording. DONT BE AFRAID!

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STILL GOING STRONG!

This is a 2nd review...

Well, I have had this thing for about 5 months now, and I am pleased. I still cant for the life of me believe all that has been happening to the other reviewers, but perhaps a portion of these DVD recorders were just lemons. I have never had a disc warning problem, I have had to reset it once, and most of the other various problems have never happened either.
If it is discontinued, I guess this review is moot, but I want to defend the reputation of this machine.
Anyways, I have recorded hundreds of shows on Imation DVD+R's, and the one supplied Memorex DVD+RW-which recently stopped playing and recording altogether...but after I recorded dozens of favorites. If you do still find them new, you cant beat the price-I highly recommend it! You have to remember, you cannot expect perfection frow the lowest tier DVD recorders! But at this point it is close and I am still pleased.

This recorder is a good deal for the capability it has. There are a few tips I came up with that will help you get the most out of it:

1. Stick to using it for recording and don't use it very often to play dvds. Not only do movies tend to freeze up on this thing but it will save on the life of the machine.

2. DVD+Rs are the standard this was designed to use, the dvd+rw's work well also but cost more usually. I've burned over 40 discs so far and have had no problems, the brands I used were Memorex and Philips. Buy them in spindles and you will pay only half as much as w/cases (buy cheap cases separately).

3. Don't over-work the thing. After a couple hours burning, put it on stanby and let it cool off. This is true of any electronic device. Also a good idea is to cover it from dust while not in use.

4. It has the potential to lock up for no apparent reason. When this happens unplug it and go through the set up again. This is a hassle but at least you can fix it.

5. Always refer to the manual, especially if a problem comes up. The trouble shooting section in the back will likely solve the issue. This is good to remember before returning it or getting upset.

This recorder has worked great for me, it performs basic operations well. One thing to keep in mind before buying is this doesn't seem to have a lot of the convenient features that other more expensive ones might. It's a bit slow and you've got to read up on how to do some of the more complicated tasks such as editing.

It's ultimately simple though once you have used it a few times, all you have to do to transfer camcorder/vhs tapes is hook up the cables and press record (not much different than a vcr). For this reason I'm favoring it over dvd burners, which have a lot more going on. However you can't burn a dvd in 10 minutes with this. Shop around and get a good deal, you will get a lot for the money.

Magnavox MRV640 DVD Recorder

There are pros and cons about the Magnavox MRV640 DVD Recorder. However for me, I've not experienced any problems with it while playing DVD's, CD's, and recording DVD+R,+RW's. I like that you have a choice of up to 8 hours recording (depending on what discs you use), I've had no problems using the audio and video inputs and outputs. I've been able to hook up the Magnavox MRV640 DVD Recorder to my Panasonic VCR with ease to make back-up copies of my beloved, wearing VHS's.

The cons of the recorder are it's manual, remote control, and the color of its interface. The manual is black and white with few photos. It has in it what you need to learn how to use the Recorder however it's not excellent. There's a lot to read. The remote control is easy to use once you get a hang of it. There are buttons that do more than one task, which the manual also fails to point out. Last is the Magnavox picture interface that appears on you television screen. The con about this is the colors are blue on blue, which can make it a tad bit difficult viewing the menus, as there's not much contrast. Also the font on the screen is small.

The pros of the Magnavox MRV650 DVD Recorder are that it's a good price for the features it includes, such as progressive scan, up to eight hours recording time, Front-panel inputs. It burns DVD's and finalizes them quickly. It doesn't take long at all to turn it on. It begins recording almost instantly. Also it's not a hassle to set up physically. You can record from television your favorite shows. I've called Magnavox's customer care phone number several times and they were helpful. It's not fancy, if I were wanting fancy I would not choose this. However over all I'd say this is an Ok DVD Recorder. I'm happy with it.

I purchased this thing for $150 at Best Buy and brought it home, thinking I got a great deal. How wrong I was. It worked fine for about 30 minutes until I tried to play a second disc. The display said "blocked" and then cycled between "opening/closing/blocked" on the display. This happened without the drawer ever opening up. I gave up and took it back to the store the next day and exchanged it. I used this new one for about two weeks with only one issue. It didn't like my second disc of Dave Chapelle's second DVD set. It would lock up while playing and skip like a scratched record. Overall it recorded great. I loved the DVD edit features and the menu ability was pretty cool. BUT - Once again the drawer became "stuck". I put in a blank disk today and the display said "reading","disc error" and then back to "blocked/opening/closing". All without ever actually opening the drawer. I'm done with this thing. Apparently you can't get a good quality DVD recorder for a good price. It goes back to Best Buy tomorrow.

When I bought this recorder back in October, I was extremely happy with it. Yes the interface sucks and the manual isn't much better, but once you figure it out, it rocks. So, why only two stars? The unit began locking up and refusing to either record from the timer, or eject the disc. After calling Customer Care, I was informed to send it back for repair. What I got back was a dented, scratched unit with missing parts that has now been labeled "renewed" (even though I bought it brand new) and the warranty has been shortened from 1 year to 90 days. Repeated calls to customer care only yields
"I'm sorry we've escalated the problem and you should receive a call from us" Well guess what, it's been a month now, and I still
have the damaged unit and no calls from Magnavox. Next stop, BBB.

I read through a few reviews here AFTER my experience, and 4 or 5 told my story for me.
99 times out of a 100, I'm meticulous about doing my research on consumer electronics before I buy, and of course, this happened to be the one out of a hundred where I found my self at Best Buy with money in my pocket but no reviews in my head.
Like others who bought this recorder, I did so for the price, but avoided the no-name brands, thinking paying $40-50 more for a well-known name brand is worth the peace of mind. Well, long story short, I'm headed to get one of those no-name brand recorders after work today.
I was initially impressed with the variety of inputs and features it had. The menu was complex, but I figured I could get used to it. After 3 weeks of minimal use, however, it wouldn't read a disc- DVD+R or factory. That's all it took for me to throw it back in the box. Luckily for me, I was still under the 30 days return policy and was able to get a refund without a problem. I'll definitely think twice before paying for a 'reputable' name brand machine when I can get a cheapo that does the same thing and will last at least a month.
I'm happy for the people who have favorable things to say about this recorder, but I have to think they're in the minority for sure.

I had been reading the previous reviews, so I was very skeptical about this recorder...even though it was priced just right for me. Thus...I have been drilling this thing for one week...playing dvds, and recording for long hours. I have yet to get this to freeze up yet. (i suppose there still is time) So far, for the price, it had everything I need and makes fine recordings. Even in the eight hour mode, it has good quality. Definitely better than VHS. Like others said, the only drawback, is getting used to the on-screen menus and symbols. But...if you read the manual closely, it explains everything. For $200, you cant beat it!

This is not a bad DVD rec but it isn't wonderful either.

Let's start with the remote - I have three other DVD players who have an extra button to FWD and RWD. This one, is like all DVD players before they invented proper buttons, you have to hold down the |<<, and >>| buttons down for it to scan.

The manual I don't have a problem with, it's decent enough, though they could give it an overhaul. Read the whole thing before using the DVD player!

Now the player itself. It's nice looking, thin. But, it does have issues. More often than naught, it will show a "DISC WARNING" while recording and you hear the DVDR making a weird noise, almost like it's spinning the disc because it can not read it. Twice the whole system has shut down in the middle of a recording. I've always used DVD+RW's for there deleting factor. Don't want what you recorded? Just kill it. Lovely, but don't over use that feature, eventually the disc will just quit on you. However, on occasion, some of the discs will not play on other machines. (Note: read the manual, depending on your record mode, you have to record x amount of minutes in order for it to play on other machines) The machine is very slow to turn on, change channels and even stop recording.

Now that whole 8 hr recording thing, while it can record for that long, I don't suggest it. The playback is horrible past 3hrs.

So, all in all 2 stars from me, as soon as I can I am getting myself a more suitable DVDR.

I have had this unit for about a month and have had no hardware/operational problems. I use it for recording from analog cable and I've found that the 3-hr recording speed looks identical to the source material. I record to Memorex +RWs, which work fine and play fine on my Samsung DVD player. I use an after-market remote, so I can't vouch for the one that comes with this.

The on-screen menu is fairly easy to learn and the user manual does tell you the info you need. Note that this unit does not have Optical audio-out, only Coax-digital-out. Other than that, it does have a nice selection of Inputs and Outputs. It is worthless as an MP3 player because there is no GUI menu system to select folders from your MP3 disk - you can only go forward or back track-by-track.

This unit seems slow responding to commands sometimes, but as it is my first DVD recorder, most others may do the same thing.

The designers, in a moment of sheer stupidity, left off the fast-forward and rewind buttons standard in most designs. A couple of days later I finally figured out that you have to hold down the chapter forward/reverse buttons to search through the DVD. The manual is difficult to read, so it contributed to the problem.

More importantly, I tried to edit out commercials using the "hide chapter" feature, but they showed up anyway when I tried to play the DVD back on my good Samsung DVD player. Also, while the recordings play back OK on this machine, they periodically skip on my Samsung DVD player, which normally plays DVD+R disks fine when I create them on my computer. Disks seem to play OK on an older Toshiba DVD player, so it is probably hit and miss whether or not the disks will play on other devices. I'm not willing to put up with this, so I'm going to pay more for a Toshiba with a built-in hard drive and can really edit out the commercials.