Sylvania DVR90VE DVD Player/Recorder and Hi-Fi VCR Combo

• DVD player/recorder with built-in 4-head, hi-fi VCR; 8-event, 1-year programming for DVD-Rs/DVD-RWs or VHS tape
• Copy tape to disc or disc to tape (except where copy-prohibited)
• Composite-video, RF, and S-video inputs
• Progressive-scan output for seamless, flicker-free images on high-definition and HD-ready TVs
• Plays MP3 CDs, video mode DVD-Rs and DVD-RWs

This was one where I was hoping for the best but a bit dubious of what I might end up with at this price. As it turns out I was very pleasantly surprised. Easy to use with clear instructions, I was dubbing home videos to dvd 15-20 minutes out of the box. Easy hook up with digital/HD cable involved. High quality DVD picture, both playing and recording (dubbing from VCR or recording from TV). VCR portion does a nice job too. The copies and recordings I have made using DVD-R media work perfectly on 3 different DVD players in my house (each a different brand at a different price point bought at different times), so compatability doesn't seem to be an issue. I would have to say that the quality I got was much more than I expected for the money.

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Copies tapes with the touch of one button to Disc. I can put up to (5) 2 hour vhs tapes on to one disc and save money and my valuable home movie collection of my children. The menu is easy to use, as I only have to press one of 4 arrow buttons and then hit enter to record and set up timer record programming. The picture on screen display is simple to understand and the record and sound quality are excellent. I was told by a salesperson at a giant electronics retailer this unit is made by the same company making Hitachi , Phillips and Sharp units , selling for much more. Lowest price Ive found. Thanks for the great buy Amazon.

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I purchased the DVR90VE from Amazon about a year ago (12/2004).

It is a very good unit for the money and relatively easy to use, but it has a

severe media compatibility problem -difficult to find out which DVD-R & -RW

media will work with it, and since media production has moved to higher speeds,

it is increasingly hard to find the slower media that works (1-4x -R, 1-2x -RW).

I recently ran into these same media compatibility problems that many others have encountered and reported here when I ran out of my original DVD-R spindle that was purchased a while back. Were it not for media incompatibility and the lame customer support for this issue, I would give the unit 5 stars.

These problems appear to be the fault of the original firmware in the machine, which only allows DVD-R 1-4x and DVD-RW 1-2x media to be used for recording. I do not yet understand why they did not then make provisions for using faster and faster media that would become available, but evidently they didn't.

One can go to their US website , but there is no information regarding this media compatibility problem. The only information available there is a PDF of the user's manual (which is also not helpful regarding this issue, since it does not stress in any way that the rated speed of the media is critical. There are no media compatibility FAQ pages or firmware update notices, and typing in the machine model DVR90VE gets you nothing. This website is a waste of time outside of contacting them by email.

I emailed them an inquiry and got a response 4 days later advising me to call the customer service number regarding the firmware update, which is supposedly operational 7 days a week. I had tried calling them a few times earlier in the year when I encountered the media compatibility problem, but was never able to reach anyone. Today (11/25/05) the line has a message that they are overloaded with calls and advising customers to call back some other time. This is also clearly a waste of time.

While I had been waiting for an email or phone response from them, I did some online searching through google and found an alternative, Canadian Sylvania support website (viva Canada!) that has software and firmware that can be downloaded -go to the bottom of the page past manuals to Software/Firmware.

http://www.sylvaniaelectronics.ca/index/screen/sylvania_downloads.html

I downloaded DVR900E.zip (554kb), read the instructions in the PDF file DVR900E.pdf, burned a CD-ROM with the firmware program file NRS0115.mot on it, and successfully (it seems) installed it on my DVR machine. It seems to work -my unit will now accept 8x DVD-R's, although still only 1-2x DVD-RWs. One caveat is that I do not yet have confirmation from Sylvania/Funai that this is indeed the right firmware file, although on the other hand the download link says "This upgrade is designed for all units. Please download and read instructions carefully."

I have asked them to put this information and firmware download on their main website, since it would save all of us a great deal of frustration and ill-will, and we will see by their response, or lack thereof, what kind of organization they really are. Why they have not done so long before this is a complete mystery to me, but I think it reflects badly on the company (or at least its US division) and certainly does not inspire great confidence in their other products.

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I love this recorder! It is so easy to use. However, the horror story is in the DVDs that it will use. Amazon.com recommended DVD-R discs from DateLifePlus at the time of my purchase (on Amazon from Office Depot).... so of course, I bought them too! However, the recommendation was wrong! These recommended DVDs will NEVER work in this machine. After tedious calls, and several attempts, I FINALLY got through to a customer service rep who explained that this machine will ONLY record on DVDs that are 1X or 2X, not the 8X that was recommended with my purchase. Unfortunate. You will love the ease of operating this once you get the right DVDs!

I must admit that I'm mechanically reclined when it comes to this stuff, but this was a piece of cake to set up and use. I had this hooked up, programmed and in use in a span of 45 minutes. I have already transfered several VHS programes to DVD and it was so easy that I thought I had done something wrong. I have very many VHS tapes to protect and this recorder will make it very easy to preserve them on DVD. Finally, before buying this, the lowest price I had seen was about 500.00. So I saved money and actually use it. You can't ask for much more than that.