Customer Reviews

Pioneer DVR-520HS DVD Recorder + 80GB Digital Video Recorder

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

For many years, I have VCR taped all of our favorite television programs for later viewing. As juggling the different tapes is cumbersome and viewing quality ranges from acceptable to poor, I have been closely watching the DVD/HD recorders for some time as a replacement for VCR taping and to put all our family VHS tapes onto long-lasting DVD.

I liked the features and generally good reviews of the Panasonic models, but was hesitant to buy into the DVD-RAM technology as it seems very limited and likely to become more so as the DVD standards continue to evolve.

I chose the Pioneer DVR-520 because I liked the unit's features and have had great success with Pioneer products in the past.

While only using it for about two weeks... I really like it. Very easy to set up and simple to tape from TV to either the HD or DVD-R/DVD-RW. I have done all my recording on SP which allows approximately 40 hrs of HD programming and 2 hrs per DVD.

Picture quality has been terrific and the "easy record" feature makes it a snap to record television programs.

The manual is a bit tedious, so I generally just review the section headings in the table of contents and then dive into the onscreen menus. These are easy to navigate and each feature that is highlighted includes a thorough descrition of what it does.

Overall, I find the Pioneer DVR 520-H, quiet, simple to operate, produces excellent recorded picture quality, and so far, does everything it claims to - and quite well at that!

I've had the unit for about two weeks now, so am still exploring, but am happy with it so far, especially after the saga of purchase. Originally bought a Hitachi, discovered it wouldn't work without activating TIVO, then went through TWO Panasonic EH-85s without either one ever working right (tech support finally hypothesized that the factory got a bad batch of chips, installed them in consecutive units, and shipped a bad batch to the retailer).

I bought this primarily to archive home movies -- some going back 25 years to when my Navy son was taking his first toddling steps. The VHS tapes are deteriorating, so I wanted to get the footage digitized, and it's now cost-effective to do so. And though the editing functions are tedious, I've been happy with the results so far. The machine also really shines at time-shifting broadcast TV for later viewing and if that were the only purpose for the purchase it would have still probably been worthwhile.

Good points: very easy to use for timed recordings and it will record over 100 hours at the lowest quality (which is fine for us for time-shifting; it's about the same as 6-hour mode VHS recording on a good machine). The "fine" and SP modes (1 hour and 2 hours per DVD, respectively) offer less recording time but much higher resolution and less graininess -- the SP mode is virtually indistinguishable from a commercial DVD. Editing of video is straightforward, moderately intuitive, and easy to learn as it's menu-driven. The machine has a couple of neat features I didn't expect -- if the TV channel provides the info, the 520 will automatically title what it records off the air with the name of the show, making it very easy to find the shows we want to watch a day or two or ten after broadcast. It also plays back JPEG CDs made on a home computer, so we can show friends our digital photos on the TV instead of on the computer.

Less-than-good points: I haven't yet been successful in getting the VCR+ to work despite help from tech support, but we've got another couple of things to try and the lack of VCR+ is trivial, since it's so easy to set the manual timer. The editing functions are EXTREMELY tedious -- it uses hierarchical menus which require the user to go to all the up to the top level and back down several other levels to change functions. Editing out a commercial, choosing a frame to use as a title thumbnail, and then titling the segment require about 15 thumb presses instead of 3 or 4, due to the multiple trips up and down the menu hierarchy (plus many more thumb presses to actually input a name using the "arrow key cursor" with the on-screen virtual keyboard). It made me long for keyboard and mouse inputs on the recorder! Lastly -- the disks it makes in SP (2-hour) mode have played on all the machines with which I've tried them. The disks made in slower modes only play on about half of the other players, so I guess I'll just buy a few extra blank disks and use SP mode when I make copies of home movies to share with family.

Overall -- I'm glad I bought it and like it so far. For heavy-duty editing, I'd probably be happier doing it on computer. For light-duty editing, such as archiving old broadcast tapes or digitizing home movies, it's tedious but works just fine. For time-shifting broadcast TV to view later, it's a HUGE leap forward from a VCR with 6 hours of capacity requiring linear searching to find the desired program. I'm pleased with unit, feel I got my money's worth, and recommend it.

It took me a few months to decide which DVD Recorder I would buy. Pioneer, of course, has an excellent name and their products are usually reliable and are top quality. I have DVD Players by Pioneer and also external DVD/CD recorders for my PC, so after much research I gave the 520H-S a shot. And I'm very satisfied -- everything worked right away: the hook up, the recording quality and all the features of this DVR are just excellent. You will need to read through the manual in order to understand the onscreen menues and commands, etc. As other users mentioned, the editing functions are a little tedious and you'll need the manual right beside you.
But it's easy to record TV shows, old videos to the 80GB harddrive and then make edited copies to a DVD-R. The finalized DVD-Rs that I've recorded played in all my DVD players and the quality is excellent. It took me about a couple of hours for the complete setup for my home theater system with satellite receiver, video player, other DVD player, etc., so that everything worked perfectly. And it took me about a day to record the last 12 years of home videos that we had and burn the DVDs. The 80GB harddrive comes in handy with a capacity of approx. 36 hours for SP mode (excellent quality) recording. The burning of the DVDs is fast -- it takes about 5-7 minutes for a 2-hour DVD to burn and finalize.
Compared to the other models out there and considering all the features, etc., at this price I think the Pioneer DVR 520H-S is hard to beat, and it's a solid top quality unit with lots of features. Also, it has a DV input (i-Link) which lets you hook up your digital camcorder right into this DVD recorder and record unto the harddrive or a DVD. It's not an absolute perfect machine though, because e.g. it converts film-like 24P fps into 60i with a so-called Pure Cinema feature and it's okay, but don't think of this machine as a substitute for PC computer editing if that's something you'd like to do, because the editing features are just not extensive and/or sophisticated enough on this machine to do so. But it's probably the best DVD Recorder out there at the best price and I really enjoy it, and I'm glad I bought it.

This is all I wanted for Christmas 2 years ago. Researched and thought this was the best buy in both quality and duribility. So I got it and have used it almost daily since then. Today, 2 years later it just quit; has no power at all. One issue I had with this recorder was it would not record some old VHS tapes that are copy protected. I was disappointed because I wanted to preserve these VHS tapes on DVD. This recorder can do just about everything, but I never did figure it all out before it quit! I consider myself pretty knowledgeable but the manual is confusing. Going to take my chances and buy a less expensive recorder and if it only lasts 1-2 years I won't be out as much money, but will have accomplished my goals.

I bought as copy of the pionerr DVD recorder from Best Denki in Singapore and the recorder can do feature like simple edit after recording, record TV programme, copy non protected disc, writing bad disc, record from camcorders, line in recording from any deivce like VCR by using program L1 (line 1) and the playback could play multiregional purchased DVD and play RCE disc of code 1 (columbia tristar/sony picture based disc). This gives user a chance toi select any titles they wished to view which add more viewing experience and entertainment.

Review by:

Dr, MR Franc MBBS (PhD) GPS Ang Poon Kah
Director 'lou Ye' - Ang Poon Kah for film summer palace.