Akai DVDRW120 Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder

Other products by Akai

Product Details

Data Sheet [1.50mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 10.5 x 16.5 x 2.6 inches ; 6.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 10 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002A9LRQ
• Item model number: DVDRW120
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #57,691 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 1, 2004

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description
With Akai's slim DVDRW120 DVD player/recorder you can share your home videos with friends and family, relieve your VCR of its TV taping duties, and enjoy quality home entertainment on either standard or high-definition televisions. The unit's convenient inputs include a front-panel IEEE 1394 digital-video (DV) jack, through which you can transfer and assemble your most treasured footage, archive all your old video tapes, or burn video from your PC straight to high-capacity, rewritable DVD+RW. Inclined to take your deck overseas? Go right ahead: it's compatible with NTSC, PAL, and SECAM video systems and offers a wide-range power supply (AC 100 to 240V, 50/60 Hz) for just that purpose.

You can also use the DVDRW120 like a VCR, burning televised programs directly to disc. DVD+RW discs require no finalizing--you can record, eject, and play them with minimal fuss, thanks to "background formatting." This feature, which lowers total burning time, is an advantage over the "dash" formats. Other DVD+RW advantages include on-disc content editing and multisession writing. And, because of DVD+RW and DVD+R's compatibility with most existing DVD players, they're a great way for you to share your special memories with family and friends.

Four recording modes (HQ, SP, LP, and EP) let you scale the quality of your recordings to suit your taste or fit your media, and Akai's Easy Track navigator simplifies access to your favorite scenes.

The DVDRW120 is also a first-rate DVD player, featuring progressive-scan video outputs, Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround sound passthrough, MP3 CD playback (CD-R/CD-RW), JPEG image CD playback, and compatibility with most DVD media (including video-mode DVD-R and DVD-RW).

Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the DVDRW120 stands ready to deliver the full potential of your DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts. Also for use with high-definition displays is an optional DVI (digital visual interface) output with HDCP copy protection, which affords a direct digital connection with your display.

Top-of-the-line component-video and outputs help minimize digital and line-scan artifacts on compatible advanced televisions, while composite- and S-video inputs and outputs bring compatibility with nearly any video component and television monitor. Audio inputs consist of 2-channel analog jacks with up to 24-bit analog-to-digital conversion.

A set of left/right analog-audio outputs channel audio to Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions. Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround-sound signals can be routed through the player's digital-audio outputs (one each of RCA coaxial and Toslink optical) for direct connection to a full-featured audio/video receiver.

Product Description
Akai is a company with a long history of innovation and leadership in the fields of audio and video consumer electronics. For the past decades, Akai has been a major factor in the electronics industry. From its early days of dominant marketshare in the reel-to-reel recording industry, to modern day state of the art home entertainment systems, Akai continues to be a leader in the consumer electronics industry.PRODUCT FEATURES:Records in DVD+RW Format;Programmable Timer Recording;Programmable Recording Mode (HQ / SP / LP / EP);Easy Track Navigator;DV Link (IEEE1394 mini) to Link DV Camcorder;DVI+HDCP Output (option);Progressive Scan 480p;Multi Language OSD;NTSC or PAL/SECAM TV System Compatible;1 x DV (IEEE 1394) Input (Front);Slim Profile.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Basic Functionality, July 7, 2004

By A Customer

This is the only DVD recorder I have ever used so I have no frame of reference. However, I have used four regular DVD players and read the specs on many DVD recorders so I can kind of compare functionality.

First, it works fine. I was able to record to DVD+RW's no problem right out of the box. You can control how often it places scene/track markers. I think default is every 5 minutes. It records each session as a separate file and places the scene/track markers within those sessions. The menu for replay of the sessions is convenient as it's a graphical user interface showing time, date, and a representative picture from the session.

It does take longer than a regular DVD player to recognize the type of disc it has in... up to 20 seconds or so (even with regular store-bought movie DVDs). Sometimes (rarely) it will not recognize the type of disc. You can remedy this by powering off and on and it always recognizes the disc when the disc is in when it powers on.

Maybe I am expecting too much, but this unit does not have the ability to edit the sessions. I would like to edit out commercials but you can't do that with this model. I think you *can* do that on many other models.

You also cannot "slipstream," i.e, where you go back and watch a part of the recorded movie while you are still recording. I think some Panasonics offer this feature. It also does not have "commercial skipping."

Anyway, like I said, it has good basic functionality but is missing some of the bells and whistles I would want.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Waiting for the Next One, August 7, 2004

By	Fritz Weller "DVD collector" (Concord, N.C.) - See all my reviews

I am waiting for a replacement from Amazon. The first one I received had a problem with the DVD drive mechanism. It would not even recognize a commercial DVD disk which played on all my different brand of cheap players.Made a horrible grinding noise and sped up and slowed down like it was trying to find the disk. But that aside, this is a good machine. The set up was easy. Be aware that in order to use the "S" video output , you must first hook it up to the RCA video output to get a menu on the TV screen, so that you can then tell it to use the "S" video output. After that is done, the "S" video output works fine. Oh, and by the way, the secret menu for macrovision and region free is on this machine manufactured in February 2004. And it has a fan in back.

Amazon is 2 day shipping me a replacement unit and has provided a free shipping UPS return label. I think this is good service from Amazon. Better than other on line stores where you are stuck with the return shipping. I also like Amazon's 30 day return policy. When you are buying electronics, you need this flexibility.

Update 13 August 2004:
Amazon sent the replacement unit in on time. This one works and all functions appear to be normal. Picture is great even in extended play (4 hour) mode. I am using Ritek 2.4 x and 4.0 x DVD+R disks. Also Ritek DVD +RW disks. This recorder recognizes them with no problem. Able to access secret menu and record commercial VHS tapes with no picture scrambling. Note that every time you insert a new disk, the player automatically formats them. You do need to finalize DVD+R disks to play in other players. You do not have to finalize DVD +RW disks. This appears to be a LITEON clone. The volume label under Windows Explorer displays LITEON. Will see how long this player lasts.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DVD Recorder at the Right Price!, June 17, 2004

By A Customer

As a long time satisfied repeat buyer of Akai, it's good to see their products back on the market.

I've been waiting to buy a DVD-Recorder until the prices came down and now after getting and using the actual unit, i wish i would have bought it earlier.

The picture quality of the recordings and the ease of use are top flight, this is a great product!