Samsung DVD-VR357 Tunerless DVD Recorder and VCR Combo
by Samsung
List Price:
Our Price: $190.00
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Category: Home Theater
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Digital product summary information
Manufacturer: SamsungBrand: Samsung
Edition: Electronics
Model: DVD-VR357
Color: Black
Publisher: Samsung
Studio: Samsung
Music Label: Samsung
Product features:
- Multi Format DVD/VHS Recorder
- VHS HiFi Player
- HDMI Upconversion
- One Touch - 2 Way Dubbing
- DivX Compatible
- AmazonBasics 3RCA Component Video Cable (6 Feet)
- AmazonBasics Ultra-High-Speed HDMI Cable Braided (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Braided Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics 700MB 52x CD-R (50-Pack Spindle)
- AmazonBasics 700 MB 52x CD-R (100-Pack Spindle)
Digital camera reviews of Samsung DVD-VR357 Tunerless DVD Recorder and VCR Combo
Digital camera Review: 100 DVDs, 1 coaster, easy to set up, run
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this with much trepidation after reading about all the troubles people have had with DVD recorders. Maybe it helped that we're using this with a Samsung 4669 46" LCD TV, but I found it a snap to set up and start recording with it. I've only gotten one coaster, and while I can't recreate the circumstances that produced it, I have a hunch it was my fault--that I tried to make it do two things at once that I shouldn't have. Other than that one time it's just worked. I have an older, low end DVD player that couldn't read the disks, but all the newer DVD players I've tried do fine. Even my cheapo $500 Toshiba laptop recognizes the DVDs and plays them as well as it plays any DVDs (it lacks dedicated Video RAM so it can't play movies smoothly).
I've read complaints about the manual, but it worked well enough for me. However, I'm a computer journalist who's been using/building/troublshooting computer systems since 1981, so what seems easy and obvious to me might be more opaque to a civilian.
It also makes it easier if you have a DVR. We have one from Comcast that came with the digital TV service. So 99% of the time we're recording from that and not from the TV directly. Normally I blip ads by just fast-forwarding through them while the Samsung continues to record, but you can stop/restart the recording at each juncture to eliminate the ads. This creates a lot of files but they play in sequence automatically.
Here's how you record a program off a DVR like Comcast's box:
1. stick a disk in the Samsung. If it's new a dialog box will pop up asking if you want to initialize the disk. Hit Enter on your remote. Initializing takes a few seconds.
1. pick your recording speed (it's the button on the remote labeled "rec speed"). As you toggle through the speeds, an onscreen display tells you how many minutes you have available at each speed. I generally use SP for standard programs, XP for HD ones (though I'm still not sure XP is necesssary), LP for longer shows I want to fit on one disk, and EP for talking heads programs (CSPAN, PBS etc.) where the lower resolution isn't a problem).
2. push the red "rec" button to start recording. If you push it again, it times the recording for 30 minutes, then stops. Hit this button again and it records for 60 minutes, and so forth.
3. If you aren't doing a timed recording, hit the "Stop" button to stop the recording. If you want to stop a timed recording, hit the "stop" button twice.
4. Label the track you just recorded by hitting the "title list disc menu" button. You can label tracks by highlighting the track you want to label, using the up/down arrow buttons, hit "Enter," then choose "Rename." You'll get an onscreen keyboard on which you can move the cursor around to select letters/symbols. If you move past the edge of the keyboard the cursor reappears on the opposite side. This makes typing labels a lot faster. Hit the onscreen button "Save" to save your entry. You can erase any/all of what you wrote, now or even after you've saved it.
5. When you've recorded everything you want on this disk, hit the "Menu" button, then choose "finalize." After a minute or so the disk is done and ready to be played on other DVD players.
That doesn't sound hard, does it?
Then for playback, you have various menu options to experiment with to get the best image on the screen you have. With the right options a DVD movie looks amazingly good on a good monitor like our Samsung 46" 120Hz TV--you can wait to get a Blu-Ray player until the prices come down (assuming they do). We've watched the BBC "Planet Earth" series this way--and that's used as a demo disk in its Blu Ray version--and it looks fantastic.
So. All in all this DVD recorder is easy to use, easy to set up, relatively cheap, and integrates well with Samsung TVs especially. And even when you do get an HD player it won't be able to record DVDs, so you'll still need this.
And if you do get one, please don't write a review griping that it doesn't have a tuner. It's clearly labeled as such, and anyway you don't need one if your have a TV with a tuner--and nearly everyone does--and/or cable/satellite.
Thus far I really have no complaints. It works, the remote works--and it's clear to me--and I don't get coasters. I haven't tried the VCR part yet but expect the same there.
And Amazon had about a $40 lower price than local stores (figuring in tax)--and I live in Silicon Valley, where stores are forced to compete a bit more than out in the boonies. And the Amazon shipment arrived in a timely manner.
I also ordered a 100-disk stack of Verbatim DVD+R disks with the recorder. They arrived in good shape and worked perfectly, as have a stack of Fuji DVD+R disks I've also burned. As I recall this machine requires +R disks, which if fine with me because they're superior anyway.
UPDATE August 5 2008
I've now successfully burned 250 DVDs with this recorder--including the new recorder they shipped me after I sent in the first recorder because I thought it was broken (it wasn't--I'd just pushed the wrong button on the remote without realizing it).
Today, as I was recording a program, the screen suddenly froze and I got a loud buzzing noise through the speakers and a "system error" error message on the screen that told me to turn off the recorder. I did, and when I turned it back on again the disc wouldn't load--it had turned the recording into a coaster. This is the first time this has happened. I've had the replacement recorder for several months.
Other than this glitch, the recorder has also turned half a dozen disks into coasters when I had too many chapters on the disk. Sometimes it just wouldn't finalize the disks. Then, at least, I can play them on this recorder, if not on other makes. Other times the recorder coasterized the disk. The number of chapters that trigger this varies, but on my machine at least, you're safe with 6 chapters or less. The user's manual hints at this--it says every time you put a disk in this recorder (before it's finalized), the recorder optimizes the disk for recording--and if it does this too many times it won't finalize the disk. But it doesn't specify just how many times "too many" represents. I'm guessing six, as I've said.
At this point I think I'd give it three stars. When it works, it works fine, and it works most of the time. But you'd better not delete something from your DVR until you finalize the disk.
And the firmware is buggy. It often freezes when you fast forward to the end of the disk. The system freezes and you have to eject the disk, then reload it, to make it work. Sometimes you even have to physically unplug it to get it going again.
And as others have said, tech support is iffy. For example, they claimed it won't record DVD+R disks--and that's all I've ever used, and the manual allows you to use both + & - R disks.
Problems notwithstanding, I'd say this is probably a decent buy at what I paid for it in March: $169. It has never shown the problem that ruled out Sony and others for me: refusing to record content from a TV set for copyright protection reasons--even when it was a regular show on TV. No problem there.
But for its current $500 price--I'd look long and hard for alternatives.
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