Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quirky But Works, June 20, 2009
The bottom line with this machine is that it works. We've been able to record OTA and cable broadcasts, in standard definition and HD, to DVD-R and DVD+RW discs and we copied a VHS tape to DVD-R. All have worked well.
The ATSC (digital) tuner works great, but the NTSC (analog) tuner seems a little poor. We only get basic cable, so we expected to use the NTSC tuner and had tested the ATSC tuner for OTA signals for a few days. The NTSC output seems a little fuzzy, though that might be due to its A/D and D/A conversion, since we're using the digital output to our receiver and then component video into our standard definition TV. (The ATSC tuner output was observed through this same connection as well as via HDMI to a 22" LCD TV.) It turns out that we have digital channels, often two, corresponding to each analog channel in our cable lineup, so we're using those channels instead.
One of the first things you notice about this machine is that access to the Setup menu is awkward. You press the Home button on the remote and the Setup menu is selected, but not opened. You must press the center (OK) button to open the setup menu. If you want one of the other menus, you merely press the left or right cursor button and the menu is selected and opened at once. Why wouldn't the setup menu be visible immediately!
Another awkward thing about the Setup menu is that it contains normal use and setup controls. One normally relegates rarely used functions to a setup menu because they are set-and-forget options, right? Sadly, in this machine, you must navigate past such options to use common functions such as for finalizing or labeling a disc.
Another frustration about the design of the user interface is that common operations for a DVD recorder like finalizing are not the first that appear when you invoke the menus with the Home button and are not accessible from the remote any other way. The principle operations of a device like this should be close at hand and those used less frequently should be accessible, but require extra steps to reach.
My final complaint about this machine is that it will begin recording a timer program whether the machine is on or off and, if on, seemingly regardless of what you may be doing with it at the time. No VCR would start recording when the machine is on. It will complain when it is time to record, but will wait for you to turn it off before recording. A DVD recorder should be no different and this was just stupid on JVC's part.
An interesting behavior of this machine, which is unlike any DVD player I've ever owned, is that it will automatically load and begin playing an inserted DVD, just as a VCR would start playing a prerecorded tape when inserted. That's a nice touch.
The channel editing feature is very nice, too. When editing which channels the machine should recognize or ignore, it uses a picture-in-picture style arrangement to show the channel in the upper left corner so that you can navigate from one channel to the next while deleting or enabling them. Our LCD TV, by contrast, pretty much requires selecting a channel, navigating the menus to the channel editor, and then adding or deleting that channel, for each channel you want to change. A button on the remote to access the add/delete functionality is probably the simplest approach with analog TV, but that is harder to use with digital signals because of the fractional channel numbers.
This machine has a good ATSC tuner, records as expected, and so deserves four stars for function. If JVC were to upgrade the firmware with a smart, frequency of use based menu layout, it would deserve five stars.
(By the way, we've had no problems with the machine freezing up on us. If yours does, exchange it.)
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works for me, July 11, 2009
I purchased this two weeks ago.
It took a short while to figure out how to operate the recorder.
Customer support was superb and helped me immensely.
Be sure to purchase the correct DVD blanks. They are listed in the manual, which is a page I kept overlooking.
I miss the old dvd/vcr recorders that don't require the HMDI. It was so nice to click on/off vcr. With this and other new ones, one must go to the menu for the t.v. and the recorder to switch things around. The t.v. is really a form of computer instead of the off and on switch.
Progress is hard for me to adjust.
However, I can now record off the t.v. to either vhs or dvd blanks. I can dub the vhs tapes to dvd blanks. All pretty easy with practice.
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No complaints - works like a charm!, September 23, 2009
I can't help but think some of the reviews are very biased...perhaps based on operator error more than anything. Although its possible to get a bad unit. I almost didn't make this purchase based on the reviews. But after some thought and the fact that I've owned a JVC t.v. for the past 11 years, I decided to give this unit a try. Thus far, I have no complaints. Set up was pretty simple. I have been able to play both DVDs and VHS tapes without problems. The picture quality could be better but its good enough. I had no problem setting up for recording. The one touch recording option was also pretty simple. I like the fact that you can record with both the DVD and VCR and the timer setup allows you to choose between the 2. So if you are away for the week and need more recording time than what is allowed via your DVD, you can also record the remaining shows you want to record on VHS tape. This is a very nice feature. If I run into problems with the unit (which I hope I don't) I will definitely write another review in all fairness.
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