Samsung DVD-VR330 DVD Recorder

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Product Details

• Item Weight: 14 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 13 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B000EHODZ2
• Item model number: DVD-VR330
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,796 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 17, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Samsung's DVD-VR330 provides the best of both worlds, with the ability to record home movies and TV programming to a wide variety of DVD discs while enabling you to continue playing your vast VHS library. Additionally, the 4-head VCR offers a full complement of standard recording and playback options as well as the ability to easily convert VHS tapes to DVD. A front-panel DV (FireWire IEEE 1394) input enables you to connect the family video camcorder and edit and record footage directly to a DVD disc--all via a single cable and without losing image quality. The EVQ (Enhanced Video Quality) feature provides sharper images and truer color reproduction for both movies and home videos. EVQ reduces pixel noise produced during digital signal processing, mitigates the cross color phenomenon occasionally produced by separation of Y & C signal.

It offers a full menu of DVD recording options, including DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW as well as DVD-RAM discs--a very flexible format that allows you to re-record on the disc up to several thousand times. Additionally, it offers recording compatibility with DVD-/+R discs--enabling you to store up to 8.5 GB of video on these two-sided discs.

You can program recording via the timer, or choose easy one-touch recording (initiating playback at 30 minutes and adding 30 minutes with each additional press of the button, up to the available disc time or 240 minutes, whichever is sooner). Chapters are created when you record your favorite TV show or video clips from a camcorder onto a DVD disc. The chapters are automatically created, which eliminates wasted time searching the whole DVD to find the right spot. Up to 99 titles can be recorded onto one disc. With the simple and easy edit function menu, you can delete, copy, rename, and lock, among other things. You can also create a playlist and edit video in a specific sequence.

It offers the following connection options:

• Composite video: 1 out
• S-Video: 1 out
• Component video: 1 out
• Firewire: 1 in
• RF: 1 in, 1 out
• Analog audio: 2 in, 2 out
• Coaxial digital audio: 1 out
• Optical digital audio: 1 out

Tech Talk
Component video (also called Y/Pb/Pr) features a three-jack video input, which provides separate connections for luminance (Y), blue color difference (PB) and red color difference (PR). This results in increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding than you would get with S-Video or composite (RCA yellow video plug) connections. You will need a separate RCA left/right audio cable for sound.

What's in the Box
DVD/VCR combo, remote control (with batteries), printed operating instructions

Product Description

Samsung DVD-VR330 DVD Recorder

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Recorded to both VHS and DVD-R/RW so far, August 31, 2006

By	airfirehorse (Outer Space) - See all my reviews

I've had this player/recorder for about 2 months. I found it at my local Ckt Cty for two-hundred twenty plus tax. I have recorded some of my older VHS tapes (Kung Fu stuff that is not on DVD and may never be) onto blank DVD-Rs and DVD+RWs. Both discs worked fine and I did not wait an inordinate amount of time for the discs to be finalized (maybe 2 minutes). The picture quality was just as good as the tape (no loss) as I expected. (I figure DVDs will last a lot longer than those ratty VHS tapes I had been keeping, that's why I transferred them.)

The recorder is supposed to handle pretty much any type of DVD media and it records at 4 different speeds for DVD. For VHS, it records at the standard 2 speeds (SP, SLP, EP). The manual claims slowest speed for DVD can save up to 8 hours on a standard single-sided disc; VHS can get 6 hours from a 2 hour tape (3X), just like other VCRs.

I have my recorder connected to cable and a powered antenna with a splitter. The tuner works fine for both sources, even with my cable source being split off for Internet. I have time-shift recorded using both disc and tape and was happy to see that works well, too. I recommend recording stuff with commercials to a VHS tape first since there is a record pause button that I like to use for eliminating commercials before I commit shows to disc. The chapter breaks for DVD are automatically set for every 10 minutes, but I wish there was a way to (on the fly) chapter stamp where you wanted to. You can edit chapters afterward, but it sounds too complicated and time consuming in the manual.

So far, I have had no reliability issues. Each time I have performed an action the player/recorder has worked as expected. I have also gone the other way and recorded DVDs to tape (mostly as a test, but also because there is no way to record from DVD to DVD). Note: I am not suggesting breaking the law, merely pointing out what is possible.

The player starts tape and DVD playback quickly and you can switch back and forth between VHS and DVD very easily. I sometimes record a TV station and watch a DVD at the same time, too. My only complaint besides the chapter thing would be I wish the DVD section played at least 3 discs since most TV series have 3 (sitcoms) or 6 discs (dramas) and I wouldn't have to change discs so often.

Update: Thanks to a question by a reader of this review I went back and tried my homemade discs in other players. Turns out the Samsung will definitely not make working copies of video recorded on 8x discs. The 4x DVD-RWs play fine, though. And make sure you've finalized the discs. This can be done later if you forget at the time you make the disc. Read and re-read that manual!

53 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Best I've found for my application., July 7, 2006

By	John Curtis "jgcurtis" (Granite Bay, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I tried a Sony RDR-VX511 for 3 months and found the DV input was flakey and it would not play DVD+R dual-layer made on my computer even though finalized and would play on my laptop, a Panasonic and also this Samsung. The Panasonic (forgot the model) will not record the second layer of a dual-layer until you close out the first layer! This is ridiculous if you want to record on a dual-layer. Luckily a small note on the box warns you of this but I didn't see it until I read the manual.

This Samsung works very well for me. The DV input works and as a bonus will send commands to the DV output on my Sony camcorder. Very handy for dubbing from the DV tape camcorder.

The other bonus I found was it controls my Samsung TV. It can be set for other TVs too, a real plus.

The only disappointment so far is the lack of an S-Video input on the front AV2. That would sure help dub from my Hi8 analog tapes. Too bad, I could have rated 5-stars otherwise.

One other worrisome point is that it takes forever to finalize some disks, my dual-layer for example. It goes to 95% for as long as nearly a half hour. The first time I thought it was frozen so I unplugged and restarted. The DVD seemed to play OK but this was bad. The second time, I just left it and started looking on the internet for any clues. Then all of a sudden after around a half hour it completed the last 5%. Very weird.

I will try to contact Samsung on this. I do not see any software update yet for this model. (You burn a DVD with a downloaded file and the player will update its flash memory..Good plus.

Layout of the remote is a bit crowded and the unit itself won't win any beauty contests but it's the best I've found for my purposes.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great machine so far, February 22, 2007

By	J. Adams "truthseeker" (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Since I make DVDs for some customers, I would like to think that I understand these type of gizmos to a certain extent.
Most of the complaints on the reviews were caused by customers who do not understand how the DVD burning process works. I can refute almost all of the complaints.
The quality of transfer from video to DVD is outstanding. I could not see any loss at all on my 37" television. It took all of a second for me to do it. I pressed the "to dvd" button. That is all it takes. DVDs do have to be finalized in all of these console units if you want to play the DVD elsewhere. Your computer burner/software likely does this automatically.
Like all high tech items, it has presented some interesting findings. DVD+R discs have to be initialized. The unit tells you what to do so this is easy. DVD+R discs seem to take longer to finalize but that could be due to a slower write speed on the DVD+R disc that I used. I do not seem to be able to pause a recording without flat out stopping it. If that problem continues, I will be upset. I suspect it is me not knowing what to do. Playback on a disc that has had recordings stopped goes much better on the Samsung than on other units. Using the SVHS input requires that you go into the menu and instruct the machine to use the SVHS input. I called Samsung and talked to a rep who did not know too much before finding what I needed in the pretty lenghty instruction manual. The manual seems OK....it is just...big. Accessing the A-B repeat function could be better, it could be worse. The remote is a good design except that the skip chapter button is 1/4" from the fast forward button. That is a matter of finger dexterity I suppose. If you transfer a DVD to video, the loss in quality is noteable. That is why DVDs are replacing video however. I like the fact that the highest quality mode allows for 1 hour and 14 minutes to be put on a disc. Better chance of putting an entire event on one disc with the highest quality. Also easy to use dual layer discs which almost double recording capability. Also plays SVHS tapes and I have a few lying around. I really like the function where a graph shows you how the tape is tracking in the Samsung. It automatically picks the best tracking and units are supposed to do that. But this machine shows you if your tape has tracking issues that require significant automatic adjustments. I believe the Samsung also allows manual tracking adjustments which is pretty awesome.
I bought the machine to mostly transfer old movies to DVD and I could not be happier with its performance in that critical respect.
I've only had the unit for a day. I wrote the review mostly to straighten out some erroneous complaints. It is incredily easy to use for dubbing video to DVD and that is what it is made for. Just remember that the disc has to be finalized if you want to play the disc in something beside the Samsung.
I think Pioneer likely makes the best DVD recorders. They are priced accordingly. I bought the Samsung because it is a bigger bang for the buck for me. This unit has several features that separate it from a unit simply made to make and sell cheap. It is for the person who can appreciate some quality features they may not have expected in a unit of this price.