Customer Reviews

RCA SCENIUM Digital Media Recorder with DVD Player (DRS7000N)

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

 

 

After purchasing this unit and programming it to record my favorite shows, I found that it often displays "An error occurred" when it is time for it to begin recording a show.

The errors were intermitent, and there was no apparent cause, so I exchanged the unit for a new one. The new one does the same thing.

I sent an e-mail message to RCA technical support, but they did not respond. If I cannot resolve this problem, I will probably return the unit for a refund.

I bought this to replace a Phillips DVD/VCR combination that wasn't even playing Disney discs properly. I am much happier with the Scenium than I was with the Phillips. The picture it records off my satellite dish is very crisp and it plays all my DVDs, even the ones that the Philips unit wouldn't touch. It also handles them more quickly. I am happy with the way it plays MP3s burned to a CD, especially audio books. I like the way I can show my digital pictures on the screen in a slideshow format too, as that was something I had hoped to do with a DVD player someday.

I have DirectTV like many of the other reviewers. I too went to Scenium technical support, and they were very willing to help me. They thought the problem was with Direct TV but didn't know the details, and steered me in that direction. Direct TV admitted that the features on the Scenium like channel changing and recording while watching another channel(as well as using the PIP feature on your TV) requires their additional service (I forget the name of it) for $9.99 per month. Since I believe I should only have to pay for a signal once, I declined. I can record what I want if I leave the Direct TV box on and set it to the channel that I want to record. That isn't any different than I was doing with the Phillips, but the recorded picture is so superior that I feel like it's an improvement. I suspect any DVD recorder I might have gotten instead of this unit would have created the same issues, because the problem is with Direct TV. I understand that a person could easily argue that one should not have to live with these limitations, but I've decided it's okay with me.

Had really high hopes for this unit - Tivo capabilities with no monthly cost - consolidating digital pictures and Mp3 files - great concept for an all in one device. One catch - It won't work with DirectTV. Customer Service was laughable. Wait this one out guys, I can only assume the next generation with get some of the bugs out.

My issues:
- I also get errors when trying to record with unhelpful messages
- Having it switch channels on my cable box doesn't always work (doesn't always enter all the numbers)
- It won't let me enter most 3-digit channel numbers
- Crashed on me twice so far. Unit still had clock working, but won't turn on & status light off. Unplug/Replug to work again.
- No support on website for this product yet
- Limited naming convention on recorded shows (i.e. can't specify caps where I want them, names have to be very short).
- Opening/Closing DVD drawer takes you to menu (i.e. can't put movie in to watch later without disrupting what you're watching).
- Can't record show on one channel & still watch another

When it does record, it works great.
Am hoping for some sort of firmware update(s) to fix these issues

I think maybe people that are unhappy with a product purchase are more likely to take the time to write a review, than are people that are satisfied.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this RCA Scenium hard drive recorder/DVD player.

The good: Great picture from both the DVD and hard drive, I like the Guide+ (much more accurate than the TV listing in our local Gannet newspaper)and the simplicity of one click recording w/o messing with tape and VCR programming.

The bad: Not much. The hard drive could be bigger, I look forward to the next generation product that includes a DVD recorder in which to dump off hard drive material. And the channels do change a bit too slowly.

Anyway, there was no way I was going to give the TIVO people one or two hundred dollars AND a monthly annuity of $13.00 (just for a program guide). This RCA unit was just what I was looking for.

I did a lot of reading, and there are a lot of people who were unsuccessful with this digital video recorder. I'm now pretty sure the failures were most likely user error.

I'm a long time RCA customer, with a fully integrated home theater, based on RCA's wonderful brand. I love having a true one remote (not macros) entertainment system. This component fits right in, and really enhances the quality of my Home Theater experience.

Anyway, this unit offered me the bonus of adding RCA's "Scenium" double-scan picture technology available in current model digital RCA big screen sets to my 2 year old 52 inch analog RCA MM52110 big screen. Wow....the quality of my Cox cable signals are now right up there with the off-air ATSC Digital signals I'm getting with my DTC-100 HDTV set-top.

I'm already a big fan of Guide+...works great here with Cox cable. I even watched a DVD movie in progressive scan (of course), and the quality is on par with my former JVC progressive scan player....but now I can watch DVD-R and DVD+R material that I'm creating with my own DV gear.

The digital TV recording seems to be working quite well. Even my wife was impressed....and that's a big deal. We even copied some of the family photos to the recorder via CD-R/JPEG. Works as advertised.

Kudos to Thompson...they did it right again (which is good, because the two different RCA 6100P DVD players I tried 2 years ago were garbage).

My wife and I absolutely love this unit in conjunction with our DirecTV. Frankly, we don't use the Guide+ because we have the DirecTV grid. Yes, we have to manually set the record time on the DMR, but it takes about 45 seconds and can be set for once, everyday, M -F or whatever you want. I think the complainers must be those who could never figure out how to set the clock on their VCR.

This is so much better than an old VCR that I used to have. Now I can record on the go and program as well. I like the ease of use and also the size of the internal hard drive. I do wish it was a little smaller and that it would completely shut down when turned off, but besides that..nothing bad from my point of view.

System setup completed, but got an error message. "An Error Occurred" when channel auto setup completed. No help anywhere for this. No tech support to contact, except by email. Menu screen has option to watch TV, but when you press "OK" system just hangs. Have been working on it for 2 days, no success. I have a ReplayTV and so does my son, both work fine. We purchased this for our office, because of the price and integrated DVD player. Don't waste your money on one.

I think the title about says it all. I read many reviews before I bought, and I agree about the lousy remote and slow channel switch time. I could overlook all of that if the damn thing would just work.

The 1st one wouldn't let me delete a program I had recorded. RCA said "you can either live with it, or we can send you a new one". Live with it? They have no master reset or deltree type of command to reset these things. #2 worked for about 30 minutes then everything went green and stayed green. #3 wouldn't play my recorded DVD's where the 1st would. Now #4 has a recorded show "stuck" on the hard drive just like #1.

In addition to all of this every one of them has to be unplugged to "reset" them every couple of weeks because it will start getting "unknown error" messages when you try to record a show.

Be warned...........1 OK, 2 getting bad, 3 you must be joking, 4 take this piece of junk away!