LG DR1F9H DVD Recorder 14-in-2 Memory Card Slot, 1080i HDMI Output

I got a refurbished unit almost a year ago for a good price. I was very satisfied with the purchase.

I mostly use it as a DVR (with DVD-RAM disks) and watch DivX movies on it ocasionally. Both of the features work great. I was pleased how clean and easy to use the menu system is (compared to my previous DVD player). I also liked the remote a lot. Every feature I tried worked well, no glitches or substandard quality. The recording quality is great, and I was even able to watch the recordings on a DVD-RAM disk on a PC. I also liked the time-shift mode, when you can watch the file you are recording and skip comercials, etc.

If there isn't anything wrong with the unit there is only a few things I could wish for. First of all, the interface is rather slow. Not a big issue if you are planning to use it as a DVD player/recorder, but I also planned to use it as my main TV tuner to watch TV programs. Unfortunately, it can take up to a minute, or more for it to start up (especialy if there is a disk inside) and during that time you can't watch TV programs at all. Also, it takes about half a second to switch between channels. Again, not a big issue, but can get annoying when flipping through the channels.

One of the features I miss a lot is a USB port for flash drives. Also, it doesn't let you watch movies from SD cards, just pictures (and maybe play mp3s, not sure though). I have to burn my DivX movies on CDs in order to watch them.

Also, the small cooling fan on the back of the unit is quite audible when it is on (which is almost always). I think cooling the unit could have been done better (quieter).

Now to the issues I had with my particular unit. After several month of rather light use it started having problems reading (and recording) DVD disks. The issue was worst with DVD-RAM disks, it would some times not recognize a perfectly good disk at all, and the issue was getting worse over time. Since my warranty was long gone, I decided to open the unit up. The DVD drive in it is very similar to a typical IDE drive you can find in a PC (the mountings are a little different and there is no face plate). So I just replced the drive with a DVD-RAM burner from my PC and, amazingly, everything worked perfectly (even though it was a NEC drive, not LG). All features worked fine, the problems were gone and it even got somewhat faster (although, a bit noisier). The noise is not an issue, though, it only spins up during start up. During playback and recording it is still very quiet.

I purchased this LG unit within the past week. I connected it to my LG LCD TV using a Monster HDMI cable without any problem. I have played commercial DVDs, DVD+R disks, DVD-R disks, and DVD+RW mini disks for my camcorder. All have played well although one commercial disk did freeze on the menu screen tonight. I had to unplug the unit to solve this problem. I have also viewed pictures on a Sony memory stick without any problem although the image on the TV screen is not the best. The slideshow feature is kind of fun if you have a number of pictures on a memory card. One thing to note is that since I have a Sony camcorder, the digital video input does not work for me since Sony uses their Firewire or i-Link or whatever it is called. I should be able to hook my camcorder up using the RCA inputs instead. Lastly, I did record TV programs onto a DVD disk without much hassle. Like any DVD recorder, you do have to initialize each disk and then finalize it when the recording is completed. I was able to record from both satellite programming as well as local programming from an antenna. As long as this unit does not continue to freeze during playback, I would give it a strong four stars. If issues do develop, I will update this review as necessary.

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No problems with this unit after 2 months of good use. Recorded on DVD-R,DVD+R,DVD-RW & DVD-RAM with no problems. Has played everything I've thrown at it with ease. With DVD-RAM disks, I use this recorder like a DVR. You can record a program and rewind back to the start while it's still recording. Great recording quality at the 2hr SP setting. Have used the DV input many times with our Cannon MiniDV camcorder. Excellent DVD's made with the XP 1hr setting the SP setting is also very good. Recommend a 4pin to 4pin firewire cable to link most camcorders with this unit. I wouldn't recommend going over 2 hours...you'll see a big difference. We have both a Cannon & Sony digital camera (SD & Memory Pro Duo) which both work great in this DVD player. Simple menu with all functions working great so far.

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I bought this machine about 6 months ago primarily because it could record on dual layer disks, and paid extra for that feature and the disks. Almost immediately, I found out that, unlike other DVD recorders I have used, if you leave your recording on pause for longer than a few minutes, the disk will crash. Don't walk away from this machine and leave your recording on pause. Almost immediately, I had other recording errors for no apparent reason. I don't think it was anything I did, as I have been recording DVDs for years. Because the dual layer disks record for double the timeframe of regular disks, there is that much more time that you waste when a recording fails -I've lost as much as 8 hours of recording at a time. Because of this, I've pretty much stopped recording at the 8-hour length because the odds are pretty good that I will get a disk error before I'm done. Now, I am recording at the 4-hr. speed to maximize my chances of getting through a disk without recording errors. Even then, my last 2 recordings failed. This is an overpriced DVD player, at best.

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I own two of these...unfortunately. These work great for the first six months or so but, then totally begin to fail on you in many ways. One only wished i had figured this out before i bought the second one. Now my second one is starting to have problems. These machine are NOT worth the headache. Buyer beware!