Customer Reviews

iLO DVD Recorder +R/RW with 80 GB Hard Drive DVR, DVDRHD04

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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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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

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.

Had it since last summer. This is the second Ilo unit we got, after the first one locked up beyond repair and had to be replaced by the manufacturer, after only 1 week of use (by the way the replacement they sent us was also used!).
About the operation. It is very simple, with no frills. We use it mostly to record shows to hard drive, watch and delete. Pretty cool as vcr replacement, you will never go back to VCR after using HD recorder!
Issue: you cannot record something off TV and watch a different program at the same time - there is no such thing as a switch between TV and Ilo. What you record is what you have to see. How obsolete is that? For crying out loud, my first VCR had this function some 30 years ago!!!!
Good things: you can start recording a program and then watch it from the start, simultaneously, as it is recording.

Now for the BIG PROBLEM. Several months ago we bought a MiniDV video camera and began backing up our holiday movies to DVD+Rs. Recently we wanted to view them with our family, and... Not a single one of our 55 dvds is recognized by this machine! Oh my God! I thought my husband was going to have a heart attack - all our home movies gone! Just like that! They played fine at first and now zilch, nada, gone!
I won't repeat what we told Ilo techs, but there is a happy ending to it: turns out the DVDs play just fine on two of our other DVD players, but are no longer recognized by Ilo. What gives?! I guess it's dying.

I should have taken this back to Wal-Mart the 1st week that I bought it, as it froze and you have to unplug it, to reset. But it made great discs, I copied a lot of my VHS tapes onto cheap dvd+rs, and all worked fine, but the freezing (locking up of the picture) was getting too frequent. I bought it in October 20th 2004, and I wrecked it on January 28th 2005, as it froze during 'timeslip' at half time during a football (soccer)game. Timeslip lets you pause a 'live' TV broadcast, replay, fast forward,etc..
It is very easy to use, if it didn't freeze so much, then this would be an excellent purchase, especially with the hard drive of 80GB's, the price $310 was a bargain, it is even cheaper now, but be aware of the freezing. Maybe mine was just a lemon, just like my Jaguar!

This DVD REcorder will cause you more heart ache than any other piece of electronics you have. We bought this because of some previous reviews claiming how easy it was to use etc.
After two weeks it locked up and could not be fixed. Had to ship back to Ilo at my expense. They claimed to have fixed it, but what showed up was a banged up version that clearly was not the one I sent them. But I was happy to have an Ilo back so I tried it out. After recording 1 program (less than 12 hours in my hands) the Ilo locked up again with flashing lights this time....
Clearly this a crappy product. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!

I'm sorry to report that I had nothing but problems with this product.

1. My first ILO broke afer 2 days. It suffered the freeze-of-death, a very common issue with ILO recorders judging by the thousands of comemnts in tech forums. Basically the machine freezes on boot up and cannot be repaired. The only solution is to replace it.

The replacement came and it lasted all of two months... More about it:

2. Recording delivers a very audible hum that is very annoying in quiet scenes such as talking etc.

3. Disks previously recorded by this machine are no longer functional (Unreconganizeable disks).

4. DVD engine no longer recognizes blank DVD+R disks and is determined to treat them as DVD+RW disks. Tries to prepare them as such and ruins them in the process.

Called ILO tech support and was told I must purchase new drive. I said !@#$%^? This machine is only 2 months old and is under warranty! Not so! ILO played a pretty shrewed scheme. When they replaced my first recorder, they sent me one with a serial number and production date that was over 1 yr, hence it is no longer covered by warranty.

Just so you know, ILO is manufactured by LITEON. ILO is a re-branded LiteOn, so beware of both names.

I am researching class action suit agains the manufacturer and walmart for putting out and selling this piece of junk.

Do not buy ILO. You've been warned.

We bought the Ilo DVD recorder from a competitor, not Amazon but after only 6 weeks are returning it. It locks up so badly when trying to edit it had to be unplugged to reset. It destroys the file when it locks up and finally the hard drive locked completely, won't defrag and we lost everything that was on it. Other than that it's fine.

Super easy to use recorder, the hard drive feature is a big plus.This recorder readily takes updates so please load free updates on recorder,some of the early models had a few issues which were resolved with these updates.The easy guider(osm) button makes operation a snap.Nice picture quality and sound.Unit reasonably priced.The disc tray door started to stick after a few years but this can be fixed by replacing the disc tray belt,a $2 item.

Mine shutdown often when trying to put in a movie. Then had to unplug to reset. And during movies would skip and freeze up. Ilo wouldn't help. Then finally broke down completely and just does a low hum without turning on. The fuze is sodered in and can't simply be changed if that is what it is. No help from Ilo, supposed to be under warranty yet, but they don't want to fix it. Still arguing with reps, resending my receipt - 3rd time. Will sell it when/if I get it and hope to get $10 out of it. Piece of junk - stay away. I have a LOT of high tech products and 2 other DVD burners and this is the worst product I ever owned with the poorest support.