Pioneer DVR-810HS DVD Recorder with TiVo Basic Service

Other products by Pioneer

Product Details

• Item Weight: 17 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 19 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000YDALM
• Item model number: DVR810HS
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #69,523 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: November 7, 2003

Product Description

Product Description
The amazing DVR-810H is a videophile's dream: TiVo service, an 80GB hard drive, next-generation viewing and recording features... and the list continues. This machine will forever change how you find, watch, and record video.The DVR-810H comes with the revolutionary TiVo Basic Service included, with no startup cost or monthly fees. Pioneer is the world's first company to offer this powerful combination. Setup is very simple, and finding and scheduling your favorite shows is a breeze.With the built-in 80GB hard drive you can record up to 80 hours of material - off the air, cable, or satellite, or your home movies - for short-term storage and viewing. You can actually control live TV: pause it, reverse it, play it in slow motion. You can even watch a recorded program from the beginning, while the recorder simultaneously finishes the recording. With the DVR-810H, there's just no going back to the old way of watching TV.And those shows and other content you want to keep for a longer period of time? Burn them onto a DVD-R (permanent; can't be erased) or DVD - RW (can be erased/written over many times). The DVR-810H features up to 18x record speed, so you'll be able to dub a 1-hour program to DVD in basic EP quality mode in just over 3 minutes. (DVR Version 2.0 4X Media.) You can even record content to the hard drive while dubbing different content from the hard drive to a DVD. It's fast and easy, and the content remains in a digital state throughout, so the quality level is very high.The DVR-810H features PureCinema 2: 3 Progressive Scan for a more film-like presentation when watching movies; a 9-bit/27MHz video DAC for a truly superior picture; Faroudja Directional Correlation De-interlacing, or DCDi, for a smoother, more natural picture; and a sophisticated noise reduction circuit which can achieve an amazing 6-10dB of noise reduction.The DVR-810H also features Dolby Digital and DTS Digital surround sound outputs, plus CD and MP3 compatibility.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid performance--so far, February 5, 2004

By	careless whiz (Rhode Island, United States) - See all my reviews

I was longing after this machine for a long time and finally bought it two days ago. It was very easy to set up (although when I had a question, Pioneer customer service took forever on hold and then the person answering the phone was unhelpful), with a good Install manual (and an even easier quick-reference pamphlet), and a good User's guide. The picture is great--I'm not sure why the two people above me had troubles. I am recording in Extreme Fine and I have no complaints. I generally go by the rule that Medium quality is only for animated programs, and I use Best/Extreme Fine for everything else. DVD picture is excellent. I recorded an old videotape to the DVR hard drive and then burned it to DVD, with superb results. I set up my old TiVo in the bedroom and used wireless network adapters to link them, and now I can transfer programs from one set to the other. The DVR is able to record a new program onto the hard drive even while transferring another program from the other TiVo! And while burning a DVD, all other TiVo capabilities are available--you can watch, record a new program, etc. The burner is fairly quick (in extreme fine, it is a little faster than real time), and the interface is very easy to use. The only glitches/inconveniences I have experienced so far are: (1) programs transfer from TiVo to TiVo in slower-than-real time (ie, they take a while)--but you can watch while they transfer, if you give them a head start. (2) The Amazon description which states that you can edit a program once it is on your DVR hard drive is inaccurate--THERE IS NO EDITING FEATURE. (3) It seems impossible to transfer a program from one Tivo to the other and then burn it to DVD (the DVR says "this program is taped in an incompatible format"). (4) There is only one set of video-2 inputs on the back of the set, permitting only ONE of the following {VCR, videocamera or DVD player} to be hooked up. Another set of inputs would have been nice. (5) The 80 gig hard drive holds only about 14 hours of extreme-fine quality video--but with the capability to burn to DVD-RW that shouldn't be too confining and (6) The video inputs are composite, not component, although that is a very minor annoyance. In all, however, I am very happy with my new "toy."

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Used this for a few months and like it, May 14, 2004

By	JS "joesquid" (California) - See all my reviews

I have had this unit for a few monts in my bedroom. Medum quality records just fine and makes DVDs that dont have any pixelization (basic quality sucked). I have used el-cheapo DVD-Rs and it has worked well. The unit is no more noisy than my 80 hour seris 2 in the livingroom and the wife and I never hear the unit. On numerous occasions I have burned a DVD while recording a show and watching another and the unit performed like a champ. A note: The burned DVDs use the Tivo interface for the menu which is neat but confusing when watching the DVD - we keep thinking we are in Tivo and wonder why the 30sec skip doesnt work.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Problematic, April 3, 2004

By	W. A. Livesley "W. Alex Livesley" (Carlsbad, CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I purchased this product in early February and have yet to be able to use it (it's now the beginning of April) for longer than around 10 minutes; this despite two returns to Pioneer for repair. In use the picture either freezes after a few minutes, or the unit resets itself. In addition, the picture shows high frequency flicker (I am using component video). The current thinking from Pioneer is that I need to plug the unit directly into the wall rather than into a surge protection power strip. I'll try that out.
I own a Replay TV unit and only tried this unit because it reduced the overall number of boxes in my living room (replacing the PVR, DVD and MP3 player with a single box). I hoped that Tivo would have better software than Replay TV (I had some issues with their unit as well) but it appears not. One requires a real telephone line to perform the initial setup (unlike ReplayTV) and apparently my Vonage line just won't do. I finally discovered that it is possible to use the broadband connection for the initial set up but the information was not easy to find. One Tivo tech. actually denied that it was possible and I only found the information after searching the internet.
On the plus side Pioneer support has been reasonable but I still don't have a working unit.
I regret having purchased this unit and would suggest that Pioneer should not have released something which clearly has problems operating in the real world.