Customer Reviews

Sylvania DVR90VE DVD Player/Recorder and Hi-Fi VCR Combo

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(31)

 

 

This was one where I was hoping for the best but a bit dubious of what I might end up with at this price. As it turns out I was very pleasantly surprised. Easy to use with clear instructions, I was dubbing home videos to dvd 15-20 minutes out of the box. Easy hook up with digital/HD cable involved. High quality DVD picture, both playing and recording (dubbing from VCR or recording from TV). VCR portion does a nice job too. The copies and recordings I have made using DVD-R media work perfectly on 3 different DVD players in my house (each a different brand at a different price point bought at different times), so compatability doesn't seem to be an issue. I would have to say that the quality I got was much more than I expected for the money.

Copies tapes with the touch of one button to Disc. I can put up to (5) 2 hour vhs tapes on to one disc and save money and my valuable home movie collection of my children. The menu is easy to use, as I only have to press one of 4 arrow buttons and then hit enter to record and set up timer record programming. The picture on screen display is simple to understand and the record and sound quality are excellent. I was told by a salesperson at a giant electronics retailer this unit is made by the same company making Hitachi , Phillips and Sharp units , selling for much more. Lowest price Ive found. Thanks for the great buy Amazon.

I purchased the DVR90VE from Amazon about a year ago (12/2004).
It is a very good unit for the money and relatively easy to use, but it has a
severe media compatibility problem -- difficult to find out which DVD-R & -RW
media will work with it, and since media production has moved to higher speeds,
it is increasingly hard to find the slower media that works (1-4x -R, 1-2x -RW).

I recently ran into these same media compatibility problems that many others have encountered and reported here when I ran out of my original DVD-R spindle that was purchased a while back. Were it not for media incompatibility and the lame customer support for this issue, I would give the unit 5 stars.

These problems appear to be the fault of the original firmware in the machine, which only allows DVD-R 1-4x and DVD-RW 1-2x media to be used for recording. I do not yet understand why they did not then make provisions for using faster and faster media that would become available, but evidently they didn't.

One can go to their US website [...], but there is no information regarding this media compatibility problem. The only information available there is a PDF of the user's manual (which is also not helpful regarding this issue, since it does not stress in any way that the rated speed of the media is critical. There are no media compatibility FAQ pages or firmware update notices, and typing in the machine model DVR90VE gets you nothing. This website is a waste of time outside of contacting them by email.

I emailed them an inquiry and got a response 4 days later advising me to call the customer service number regarding the firmware update, which is supposedly operational 7 days a week. I had tried calling them a few times earlier in the year when I encountered the media compatibility problem, but was never able to reach anyone. Today (11/25/05) the line has a message that they are overloaded with calls and advising customers to call back some other time. This is also clearly a waste of time.

While I had been waiting for an email or phone response from them, I did some online searching through google and found an alternative, Canadian Sylvania support website (viva Canada!) that has software and firmware that can be downloaded -- go to the bottom of the page past manuals to Software/Firmware.

http://www.sylvaniaelectronics.ca/index/screen/sylvania_downloads.html

I downloaded DVR900E.zip (554kb), read the instructions in the PDF file DVR900E.pdf, burned a CD-ROM with the firmware program file NRS0115.mot on it, and successfully (it seems) installed it on my DVR machine. It seems to work -- my unit will now accept 8x DVD-R's, although still only 1-2x DVD-RWs. One caveat is that I do not yet have confirmation from Sylvania/Funai that this is indeed the right firmware file, although on the other hand the download link says "This upgrade is designed for all units. Please download and read instructions carefully."

I have asked them to put this information and firmware download on their main website, since it would save all of us a great deal of frustration and ill-will, and we will see by their response, or lack thereof, what kind of organization they really are. Why they have not done so long before this is a complete mystery to me, but I think it reflects badly on the company (or at least its US division) and certainly does not inspire great confidence in their other products.

Sylvania no longer makes this model. The new Model is DVR90VF and it has all the upgrades already applied to the unit. However the new and old units are identical except fot the upgrades.Amazon also sells this newer unit.

I love this recorder! It is so easy to use. However, the horror story is in the DVDs that it will use. Amazon.com recommended DVD-R discs from DateLifePlus at the time of my purchase (on Amazon from Office Depot).... so of course, I bought them too! However, the recommendation was wrong! These recommended DVDs will NEVER work in this machine. After tedious calls, and several attempts, I FINALLY got through to a customer service rep who explained that this machine will ONLY record on DVDs that are 1X or 2X, not the 8X that was recommended with my purchase. Unfortunate. You will love the ease of operating this once you get the right DVDs!

I must admit that I'm mechanically reclined when it comes to this stuff, but this was a piece of cake to set up and use. I had this hooked up, programmed and in use in a span of 45 minutes. I have already transfered several VHS programes to DVD and it was so easy that I thought I had done something wrong. I have very many VHS tapes to protect and this recorder will make it very easy to preserve them on DVD. Finally, before buying this, the lowest price I had seen was about 500.00. So I saved money and actually use it. You can't ask for much more than that.

I agonized for several weeks over which DVD recorder to purchase. I really wanted a DVD / DVR model (and still do). However, I decided that the most logical choice would be a DVD recorder that also contained a VHS player so that I could transfer some video tapes to DVD as well. I then narrowed my choices down to this Sylvania unit and the Panasonic unit. I almost went with the Panasonic unit because it does have a few additional features; but I am glad that I selected this unit instead. First of all, it is a perfect way to get your feet wet with DVD recording. It has a lot of features; in fact, I have still not mastered them all even though I am considered fairly technical by my peers. (Having said that, let me assure you that the basic functions are simple enough to perform.) The unit is certainly priced right and arrived quickly and works perfectly. I highly recommend this unit!

I've used my Sylvania DVR90VE a great deal over the past three months with surprisingly few problems for such an inexpensive machine. It's a good buy if you have a sizeable collection of VHS tapes that you'd like to archive in DVD format. Just a few tips:
1. Heed the one-star reviews: use only 4X (not 8X) DVD-R blank disks. TDK, Memorex, and SONY have all proved to be reliable. (Avoid Trex and Verbatim.)
2. DVD-RW? Don't bother. Editing options are limited, and DVD-RW disks are incompatible with most other players.
3. Quick fix: should the DVD drive lock up and the drawer refuse to open (e.g., when a faulty blank disk gets locked into formatting mode), simply unplug the unit, wait about an hour, and try again (with a fresh disk, of course). I can't tell you why, but it works for me.
4. Can you convert copy-protected VHS tapes to DVD? According to the owner's manual, no. According to the laws in most countries, no. But in practice, yes--about 80% of the time. No tricks, no hacks--apparently just happenstance.
5. Can you convert your homemade VHS tapes to DVD? Almost always--though very occasionally the DVD-R may read (and be blocked by) the copy-protection code on a program that your VCR copied without a problem.

The Sylvania DVD Recorder/VCR Combo I purchased was easy to hook up to our 16-year-old TV (an RCA console), delivers a beautiful, clear picture when playing back prerecorded media, and even seems to be helpful in getting reception on some TV stations we normally don't receive as clearly as we would like (we live in a remote rural location). HOWEVER, I purchased Ridata DVD-RW discs for use in my Sylvania, and the unit will not recognize them. Of course the instruction manual (which is confusing and not written in a logical sequence) only says that you MUST use DVD-R or DVD-RW discs. It does not tell you (as did their customer service AFTER I purchased 75 Ridata discs) that Sylvania has only tested TDK, Fujifilm and Imation discs and found them acceptable. The Ridata discs are not recognized in the machine, and cannot be formatted for recording. I wonder if they'll work to keep the birds out of my garden?

Was excited to find such a machine at a decent price on Amazon. Have copied about 15 taped to DVD so far and haven't had a problem yet. Only complaint I have is the instrustion book is a little confusing. I guess being male and actually having to read it to get it to operate hurt my ego somewhat,but I quickly recovered and put the book down and went on instinct.
Big fingers on the small remote keys is a little cumbersome when putting titles on the DVD but I learned to adapt(Had my wife do it) Hmmmmm... not bad huh. Have not tried DVD to VHS as
that's not what I want to record. All I have to do is put at VHS
tape in and a blank DVD in and come back in 2 or 3 hours and add
a title and finalize it and I'm done. I love it.