Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Somewhat buggy, but firmware updates have helped, March 4, 2005
I bought the unit because it was somewhat reasonably priced for a unit with a hard drive in it. My first unit i bought off of ebay - i tried updating the firmware and the unit froze.. I returned it to Walmart no questions asked, and got a second unit. The second unit had a couple of small issues which were promptly fixed by a firmware update. Since then i have recorded countless shows and recorded 20-30 dvds without a single issue. I am very happy with the unit once things started working correctly.
My recommendation - get one, but update the firmware right away.
UPDATE: I've owned this unit for several months now - and I love it! I don't know what i did when I didn't own one of these. This second unit hasn't had a single problem - i think my original one died on me because i updated the firmware wrong.
After the most recent firmware update (08/22/05 firmware update) the unit will also allow you to copy your mp3's and pictures to the hard drive to use it as a media playerr. Great unit - must buy!
P.S. Most of the people who have had problems with this unit have NOT updated the firmware. Most if not all of the problems with this unit are fixed with firmware updates including the freezing on hello issue, not recognizing certain discs, etc.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
ILO DVDRHD04, February 3, 2005
I got this unit as a Christmas gift, and have been testing the heck out of it since. I had to take back the first unit I had - it produced DVDs that skipped or just stopped and froze upon playing the DVD in either the ILO or another DVD player. It also had problems not recognizing some of my DVD +R disks, even though I had bought ones recommended by the Ilo web site.
The second unit I got is behaving much better. Recognizes all my DVD +R disks so far, and recording has gone well. If you are looking at getting one of these, take a look at the date of manufacture, which is shown on the side of the box. Mine is: October 2004. The first defective unit was: July 2004.
I read the other reviews here, and also read elsewhere (on-line forums) about lock-ups/freezes. Ilo has addressed these issues by providing firmware upgrades for their DVD recorders from their web site. That's one thing I do like about this unit - it is upgradeable with firmware that you can download from the internet and install in a matter of a few minutes. The web site is (for the DVDRHD04):
http://www.ilohelp.com/download2.htm
I can confirm that the firmware upgrades do work and help! As soon as you buy this unit, go to the web site and immediately apply the latest firmware upgrade.
I am still testing this unit.. I got mine from Wal-Mart, which has a 90 day return policy on electronics. My 4 star rating is based on performance so far with my second unit, which so far works as advertised. Picture quality is decent. Especially for the price. I imagine there are units that might produce a better picture, but they also cost a lot more. But more time is still needed before I get confident that this unit will perform well for the duration....
Update (28 Feb 2005) - I had to return my second unit, as it decided to quit finalizing my DVD +Rs - it would just lock up at about 29% into the finalizing process. Now I am on my third iLo (thank goodness for Wal-Mart's generous return/exchange policy). The third unit is working fine. So far doing everything it is supposed to do. I am weary of the fact that this can be working fine for a time (as my second unit was), but then later go bad. I will continue testing the heck out of this one to see if the same thing happens. I definitely recommend buying this from a source with a good return policy (like Wal-Mart, which currently sells this unit).
MRO
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The good and the bad, July 5, 2005
I'll start with the bad: my Ilo broke after 1 week of use. It freezes on power-on and nothing can be done to make it work (as confirmed by Ilo tech support). The unit has to be sent back at my expense (no walmart nearby) for exchange. Ilo is aware of the problem, and if you'll browse the Net you'll see that it is quite common: DVDRHD04 freezes on HELLO welcome massage.
The recorder is so nice, that I opted for a replacement rather than refund. That takes me to the good part: Ilo DVDRHD04 is very easy to use. Unpack the box and it is ready in minutes. Picture quality is excellent, sound is good too. The harddrive recording beats VCR and TIVO. Records from mini DV camcorders, and several other sources. For those having problems watching movies purchased overseas, or having problems with copying own movies from vhs tapes, there is a way to make the unit region and macrovision free.
The things that need improvement on the manufacturer side:
Remote is small, and it is very easy to press a button by accident, screwing up a recording in progress. Recording (as well as other functions) is a matter of pressing a single key, which is a nice feature but because of the size of the remote, it can lead to problems. It is best to stay away from the remote while recording or defragmenting or running any other functions.
Out of 15 recorded DVDs (Ridata/Ritek) four were coasters, for no apparent reason.
Splitting titles (editing programs recorded on HD) can lead to hang-ups. Did two edits of removing commercials from movies recorded off of TV - one went fine, the other caused the machine to freeze and the movie to be unusable (file had to be deleted from HD).
The unit will not copy movies from hard disk to DVD if movies are longer than 2 hours. Anything over 2 hours has to be split, and recorded onto multiple DVD+R disks, even if you choose a 6 hour rocording mode for the DVD. A terrible shame here!
When recording through the front panel RCA inputs, there is a distinct echo, or a thumping sound in the background of recorded material. This is common too and should be fixed.
All in all, DVDRHD04 is a lot of fun, easy to use, and thanks to being manufactured for the World's largest retailer, the tech support is quick to respond and help.
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