Sharp DV-HR300U DVD Player/Recorder with 80-GB Drive

by Sharp

Product Details

Product Manual [5.54mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 14.3 x 17 x 3.3 inches ; 11.3 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 15 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0001ZROQM
• Item model number: DV-HR300U
• Batteries: 2 AAA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #192,158 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Sharp's cutting-edge DV-HR300U is a full-function DVD recorder and DVD player, offering conveniences like an i.Link DV (IEEE 1394) input, DVD-RW/DVD-R editing and recording, and progressive-scan video performance for state-of-the-art home theater viewing. Equally as cool, the DV-HR300U's internal hard disk drive (HDD) can record and store up to 109 hours--4.5 solid days--of audio/video programming. That means you can record a full season's worth of TV shows and watch them anytime you wish, or archive your favorites to high-quality recordable DVDs at 2x speed.

Other features include CD/MP3 playback, DVD+R/+RW playback, simultaneous recording/playback, and simple, convenient advanced programming options (including 1-year, 32-event scheduling) using VCR Plus+. Rewriteable DVD-RW media can be recorded on more than 1,000 times, delivering about six hours of programming in EP mode. The recorder's editing function will erase sections of recorded scenes easily, in addition to renaming the displayed titles. Select any image you like to represent a scene's thumbnail image for chapter selection. On rewritable discs, you can add chapter marks, divide existing chapters, and combine chapters when desired, too.

Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the DV-HR300U stands ready to deliver the full potential of your commercial DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts. The DV-HR300U sports one set of progressive-scan component-video outputs and 2 each composite- and S-video outs for use with SD (standard-definition) TVs as well as with VCRs or DVRs.

The i.Link-spec'ed DV terminal is perfect for transferring your digital home video footage directly to DVD. The DV-HR300U simplifies the process of searching for a specific moment on a disc through its High Speed Access thumbnail views and Quick Search functions. A video enhancement called Digital Gamma Picture will heighten the contrast of the transferred video to give it a more true and vivid image when displayed in bright environments.

Other inputs consist of a generous 3 each composite- and S-video (with 3 total sets of stereo analog RCA inputs) and an RF coaxial video input for use with either an aerial antenna or a cable box.

Two sets of left/right RCA analog-audio outputs channel audio to Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions. Both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround-sound signals can be routed through the player's digital-audio outputs (one each RCA coaxial and Toslink optical) for direct connection to a full-featured audio/video receiver.

A tamperproof feature lets you lock the recorder functions even with the power off, so children or others cannot change or use the timer-record functions. The unit's EZ Setup/auto clock feature detects all air and cable channels from the outset and also sets the clock by your local PBS station.

What's in the Box
DVD player/recorder, remote control, remote batteries, user's manual, stereo analog audio interconnect/composite-video cable.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sharp DV-HR300U review, May 4, 2004

By 

mauricio matute (smyrna, ga United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sharp DV-HR300U DVD Player/Recorder with 80-GB Drive (Electronics)

After searching near and far to replace my Panasonic showstopper 2000 (problems with over heating hard drive) I came across an article in Sound and Vision that reviewed the Sharp DV-HR300U. They gave a very good review of the Sharp and I completely agree with there assessment. The actual recording on the hard drive looks 10x better then the my old Panasonic.
There were only a few quirky things to get used to. One was that fact that this DVR does not have a menu like Tivo or Replay. You will get a grid very similar to the Tivo and Replay but there is no listing of the shows. For me personally it took a little getting used to, kind of had withdrawals. But, once I got past it I was just fine. The Sharp DV-HR300U comes with its own tuner so you can watch your own TV and record on separate channel. BUT **BIG BUT* if you have cable as I do and your premium channels are 99 and higher then you need to get a little creative. I had to keep in mind that Sharp made the DV-HR300U more like a VCR then a PVR. So on my cable box I used the component out for the component in on the Sharp DV-HR300U and record directly off the cable box. I leave the Sharp DV-HR300U on channel three and my cable box on the channel that it needs to record. Sounds like a pain in the but.. HUH! Well I would agree with you. and I was ready to return it, until I discovered that my cable box has a channel timer. Now I simply set the cable box to switch to the channels I want, at the time I want and set the Sharp DV-HR300U to record at that time and I have my personal clone of Tivo/ Replay type of user friendly menu.
Like I said if it were not for the fact that my cable box would switch channels for me I would not have kept it. And that would have been a real shame, because this thing puts out some awesome pictures. I also like the fact that I am not paying Tivo and Replay the $200.00 life time or $14.99 monthly service to record. It's a give and take. =)
One last thing to review is the dvd recording. Simply put its looks great. Don't expect some of the older dvd players to be able to play the DVD-R or RW. I nor any of my family or friends had to worry about it because we had dvd players that were fairly new and played the whatever I had recorded. The software is bit technical but once you understand it you will have no problems. I have even uploaded home movies that I recorded on my sony digital camcorder. It's a nice touch to be able to put those home made movies on dvd..
I hope this review helped and with these parting words I recommend it highly as long you can meet the same needs that I had. good luck ....

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This ended up being a nightmare that won't end, June 26, 2004

By 

Matthew Glasson "mglasson" (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sharp DV-HR300U DVD Player/Recorder with 80-GB Drive (Electronics)

I posted a favorable review of this unit about 6 months ago. Granted there were some catches, but one day the DVD recorder just stopped working for me. 20 DVD-Rs later, Sharp had me ship the unit to them (at my expense). One month later, the unit was returned to me and SURPRISE! the DVD Recorder still doesn't work for me. Livid, I call back saying that this time the shipping is on them. They agreed and it was returned to them using their Fed Ex account. Two months go by and I don't hear anything and finally, the unit arrives back at my doorstep in a box that's 50X larger than the unit (way to save on materials, guys!). SURPRISE! the unit still doesn't work. I returned it once again, sure that they would just replace the old unit with a new one. Apparently, not surprisingly, they stopped making this piece of garbage and agreed to reimburse me for the cost of my unit. That was two months ago and still no check and every time I try to get someone on the phone over at Sharp, they either don't have answers for me or I get disconnected.

My advice... avoid Sharp products at all costs - they clearly don't have the resources to take care of their customers and I'm out $300.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice unit - decent price - but lacks features, June 15, 2004

By 

LG (MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sharp DV-HR300U DVD Player/Recorder with 80-GB Drive (Electronics)

First off, don't take this as a reason NOT to buy this unit. The player/recorder worked great right out of the box. It records great to -RW and -R discs and to the hard drive.

The dubbing feature from the HD to the DVD burner is a little slow (it's actually 1x mode) unless you activate highspeed dubbing, but has a neat timing feature where you can schedule a dub from HD to DVD in the future. I pop the DVD in when I go to bed and it's ready to pop into a stand alone DVD player when I wake up. I was so happy to see that the DVD-R played in my 6 year old Sony DVPS-550S player!!!

My biggest beef is the lack of editing support. You can edit scenes, add chapters, and move things around but the menu is clunky and it take for ever to change the name of a title with the remote control. I now burn to DVD -RW, finalize the disc, and dump it onto my PC for advanced editing and then reburn to -R disc. I was debating on whether I needed a HD unit or not. A HD makes it a lot easier to use the unit as a VCR, which I have started to do.

Overall, VERY satisfied with this unit. I was lucky to get it on Amazon for 379!!!