Customer Reviews

Zenith XBV243 Dual Deck DVD-VCR Combo

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

For a combo player, this one is pretty good. If you can get over the silver color .. I'd prefer it in black, the mirrored front is cool though.

Please note .. if you're a serious AV person, this should not be the center-piece of your Home Theater. However it makes a great second/bedroom player.

I bought this unit after returning a Samsung DVD-2000 that I was just not pleased with. This unit's operation was much quieter than the Samsung, plus the DVD's video performance was slightly crisper (using the S-Video jack) and the audio was very noticeably better. This unit has played every disc I've put in it, DVD, CD, CD-RW. It has played a disc of MP3s that were encoded anywhere from 128kbps to 320kbps.

The VHS quality, is well, VHS quality. It's just a standard VCR. Other than HiFi, there are no frills. On the plus side though, it plays tapes fine, isn't loud, and hasn't eaten any of my tapes.

The only problem with this unit is that the auto-clock feature doesn't seem to work, or I have some setting wrong. Either way, that's a problem .. it's a pretty basic feature.

The remote isn't a universal, which is only a minor annoyance.

This is a GREAT player. Selling factors of this unit were versatility, some of which are connections including component, composite, S-Video, digital audio out, RF in and RF out. This is especially great for folks with older TV sets wanting to go DVD. I can also attach it to a newer digital quality TV when I'm ready. I happened to like the silver and mirrored front, esp. if your going for that monochomatic, mirrored, sleek look for a smaller area or bedroom. It has played every disk that I have put in it, DVD, CD, CD-RW. You can switch between DVD, VCR, or Cable TV all with one button on the remote!

While I haven't had the unit for very long I have been very pleased with it up to this point. It is silver with a mirrored band along the bottom where most of the buttons reside. Although this can make reading the button label a bit tricky I think it gives it a slick look. Set-up was easy on my 27" analog set and the instructions covered many different potential configurations. The remote is not universal nor is it back-lit but it is small and handy with an efficient button layout. This was fine for me because I've grown tired of so many large remotes cluttering up the coffee table.

I have only watched a couple DVDS but have had no problems. The VCR functions also seem to work fine at this early stage so no complaints there. The timed recording function is solid with programming being fairly intuitive. My only comment is that there does not seem to be a way to set the time to record without scrolling through each minute. If that is the worst I can say about it then I have had a good experience. The unit was a bit noisy when I tested it out on the floor but once I set it on its shelf under the TV it operated quietly.

The MP3/CD Audio functions work only OK. The music plays well and it is nice to be able to set up play lists from a disc but I haven't figured out how to shuffle an entire MP3 disc. Especially if the MP3s are burned into seperate folders by album. Perhaps more reading of the manual will help but it looks like all the MP3s need to be copied into one directory to do any meaningful shuffling. Good job all around though.

Picture and sound quality are good, but there are several major design flaws and lack of features. If the electricity goes off, all eight programs need to be reset - not just the clock. There are eight programs, but in order to record daily, seven days per week, you have to use up three of those eight programs - one for Mon.-Fri., one for Sat. and one for Sun. Setting start and stop times takes forever, because you can't key in the numbers - you have to use the arrows. The directions say that the power must be off for the timer to work, but that is not true. While the power is on, the timer will still come on and record over a tape that you don't want to record over.

We shopped many, many, on-line sites and stores.Comparisons and price brought us back to Zenith. We haven't seen this model in any store. The hook-up was easy. The DVD plays wonderfully, as does the VCR!! The whole system is quiet and fast in fast-forwarding and rewinding. The VHS playback is better than the Samsung VCR we had been using. The price was UNBELIEVEABLY LOW for this product!!!!! The only reason for 4 instead of 5 stars is the remote is not universal....a VERY SMALL complaint for the quality of this VHS/DVD Combo. Thanks Amazon!!

After two calls to Zenith Customer support, it was confirmed that you can not save a program (record weekly Monday 8-9pm) on the timer and watch a VHS tape that can't be recorded on (ie a rental). If you turn off the timer, it deletes your program. So what's the point of entering a recurring program if it can't be saved and turned on and off?
My 10 year old VHS recorder is more accommodating.

The best things you can say about the unit is that it's very quiet. However, the response to commands from the remote is extremely slow. By the time the VCR unit stops either FF or REW you're so far past the point where you wanted to be that you have to do it all over again. The Commercial Skip feature sounds great in theory but in practice you have the same problem as with the FF or REW, and you have to use it 4-6 times together with REW. Programming the VCR to record a program can take forever because you can't set the hour and mins independent of each other. There are many other shortcomings with the VCR but too many to list. The same also holds true for the DVD player. Also, since the remote isn't a "universal" it has no volume controls so you have to switch to your TV's remote every time you need to adjust the volume. I've had better performance from very inexpensive VCR and DVD units than from this "high end" unit.

I purchased this for a TV I have in my computer-room. This machine looks very sleek,and offers excellent performance.I do not use it as my main,home-theater set-up in the living room,but I'm sure it would work just fine there,as well.I am using it with a new small flat-screen TV and everything works well together.Very happy.

The first one I received from Amazon was defective. The clock would not increment, thus I could not set the timer to record programs. After returning the first one and receiving a replacement, it works flawlessly. The DVD picture quality is great and the quality of VCR recordings in EP mode is fine. Only annoying part about the VCR playback is that the first 5-10 seconds are always a bit fuzzy along the bottom of the screen. The auto-tracking feature has always cleared it up though.

Well after being a hard-core zenith fan for many many years I decided to go with this machine when my old Zenith VCR ate a tape after 15 years and a few quirky ejections.

This one seemed like a good choice, ...the few problems I did have were caused by those annoying people putting thier grubby dirty fingers on the DVDs at Blockbuster that messed up the player reading them. after a quick rub on the DVD it worked fine.

The remote is a bit small for peopel with big fingers, but not impossible to use.

My biggest qualm with it? The buttons on the front are very hard to read and see which button you are pushing. This is due to the reflective backing the buttons are set through. If you have this unit set low and in a dark spot you can pretty much forget seeing what you are pushing, best choice is to the use the remote.

I can't testify to the programing of this unit since I've trying to figure out how to get the best picture throgh a cable box comming from a new HDTV and all the other boxes and cables, I haven't had time to bother trying to record something.

If I had the chance to buy it again? I think I would pass and go for something a progressive scan capability. I would consider a Zenith in that yes, but this no. Especially since I saw how going from the RCA connection to the S-Video improved the quality. Maybe using the component output would kick it up to change my mind, maybe not.