- Multiple Playback And Records RAM/RW/R
- HDMI Output With 1080p Up-conversion
- DVDR/RW, CD, SVCD, VCD And CD-R/RW Playback
- Dimensions: (WHD) 20 11/16 X 7 7/16 X 7 7/16 In.
The ATSC (digital) tuner works great, but the NTSC (analog) tuner seems a little poor. We only get basic cable, so we expected to use the NTSC tuner and had tested the ATSC tuner for OTA signals for a few days. The NTSC output seems a little fuzzy, though that might be due to its A/D and D/A conversion, since we're using the digital output to our receiver and then component video into our standard definition TV. (The ATSC tuner output was observed through this same connection as well as via HDMI to a 22" LCD TV.) It turns out that we have digital channels, often two, corresponding to each analog channel in our cable lineup, so we're using those channels instead.
One of the first things you notice about this machine is that access to the Setup menu is awkward. You press the Home button on the remote and the Setup menu is selected, but not opened. You must press the center (OK) button to open the setup menu. If you want one of the other menus, you merely press the left or right cursor button and the menu is selected and opened at once. Why wouldn't the setup menu be visible immediately!
Another awkward thing about the Setup menu is that it contains normal use and setup controls. One normally relegates rarely used functions to a setup menu because they are set-and-forget options, right? Sadly, in this machine, you must navigate past such options to use common functions such as for finalizing or labeling a disc.
Another frustration about the design of the user interface is that common operations for a DVD recorder like finalizing are not the first that appear when you invoke the menus with the Home button and are not accessible from the remote any other way. The principle operations of a device like this should be close at hand and those used less frequently should be accessible, but require extra steps to reach.
My final complaint about this machine is that it will begin recording a timer program whether the machine is on or off and, if on, seemingly regardless of what you may be doing with it at the time. No VCR would start recording when the machine is on. It will complain when it is time to record, but will wait for you to turn it off before recording. A DVD recorder should be no different and this was just stupid on JVC's part.
An interesting behavior of this machine, which is unlike any DVD player I've ever owned, is that it will automatically load and begin playing an inserted DVD, just as a VCR would start playing a prerecorded tape when inserted. That's a nice touch.
The channel editing feature is very nice, too. When editing which channels the machine should recognize or ignore, it uses a picture-in-picture style arrangement to show the channel in the upper left corner so that you can navigate from one channel to the next while deleting or enabling them. Our LCD TV, by contrast, pretty much requires selecting a channel, navigating the menus to the channel editor, and then adding or deleting that channel, for each channel you want to change. A button on the remote to access the add/delete functionality is probably the simplest approach with analog TV, but that is harder to use with digital signals because of the fractional channel numbers.
This machine has a good ATSC tuner, records as expected, and so deserves four stars for function. If JVC were to upgrade the firmware with a smart, frequency of use based menu layout, it would deserve five stars.
(By the way, we've had no problems with the machine freezing up on us. If yours does, exchange it.)
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Update 11 December 2010
The DVD spindle drive motor has all but seized. That means it struggles to spin the discs, so it cannot play, much less record, DVDs now. Until this happened, the machine has continued to work exactly as from the start. I'm looking to see what else is available now, but will probably just buy another of these.I purchased this two weeks ago.
It took a short while to figure out how to operate the recorder.
Customer support was superb and helped me immensely.
Be sure to purchase the correct DVD blanks. They are listed in the manual, which is a page I kept overlooking.
I miss the old dvd/vcr recorders that don't require the HMDI. It was so nice to click on/off vcr. With this and other new ones, one must go to the menu for the t.v. and the recorder to switch things around. The t.v. is really a form of computer instead of the off and on switch.
Progress is hard for me to adjust.
However, I can now record off the t.v. to either vhs or dvd blanks. I can dub the vhs tapes to dvd blanks. All pretty easy with practice.picture
The tuner is excellent! This recorder outperformed my standalone QAM tuner (which only pulled in about 25% of the available channels). It might even be better than my Sharp TV's QAM tuner. I don't think it missed a single channel. Futhermore, it automatically skipped any encrypted channels, saving me the trouble of manually deleting a ton of empty channels.
I connected the recorder using HDMI cables. The picture quality is very sharp and very clear. HD channels are downsampled to 720x480, even when just viewing them (ie not recording). They still look great, but they are not HD. It would have been nice if the HD channels were not downsampled when connected via HDMI, but it's understandable. The analog channels of course do not look as good as the digital channels, but they look as clear as they ever have. It's just that the digital channels look that much better!
recording
I have so far only tested HQ mode, and the record quality was exceptional. I recorded an episode of "House" from FOX (HD 16x9 720p). I was pleased to discover the unit records widescreen material anamorphic instead of letterboxed. In HQ, the audio was ac3 256kbps 2-channel. I believe the audio was downmixed to 2-channel (from 5.1), but it sounded great nonetheless.
I had my TV aspect set as "16x9 wide" in the recorder's settings. I noticed that if I set it as "4x3 pan and scan" it crops the left and right edges of widescreen channels. If I set it as "4x3 letterbox" it letterboxes the widescreen channels. I would assume that any recordings would be the same, but I have not tested that.
I recorded onto Maxell DVD-RW discs. I was very happy to see that RW discs work just fine. After finalizing the disc, it played well in any other player in the house, including the PS3. An un-finalized disc only plays in the recorder.
interface
The menu takes a little getting used to, but it's actually quite well designed. I only have a few complaints. I'd prefer "Timer record" to be at the top, or even accessible via a single button on the remote (perhaps it is. I haven't read the manual yet). And I'd like quicker access to finalizing a disc. But overall, it's well done.
The remote is fairly well layed out. It is way better than the remotes that came with the Philips recorders and players. And the "eye" sees the remote from anywhere in the room. There are still some buttons I don't know what they do, but again, I haven't read the manual yet.
I have used it to copy hundreds of hours of precious home video from VHS tape to DVD, some over 20 years old. The quality of the copy is as good as the tape it came from.
And of course the picture quality on new DVDs is excellent.
My only complaint is that the users' manual is a bit difficult to follow in places, but after a brief period of trial-and-error, I found it really easy to use.
I'm very happy with this product.
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