I have used four of these machines for well over two years in a professional setting, and have found them to be stable and reliable machines. I have used this model and the model with a 160gig drive.I felt the need to post this review because other reviews unfairly took this machine to task for things it is not advertised to do, i.e. simultaneous recordings on different media, and playing/recording HD media. That is like rating a toaster poorly because it doesn't paint your house very well. Duh.....
In over 1000 hours of use each, I have had only two failures both in DVD drives. I used these machines to replace an expensive Pioneer Pro model that cost nearly three times as much and barely lasted a year, (just out of warranty) which gradually lost both DVD drives ($500 apiece) and the hard drive. I also experienced at least a dozen failures with the Pioneer machine, and ended up thoroughly disgusted with it. It was supposed to record to all three drives at once, but I learned the hard way that it would fail to record to all three at once as well. Separate machines provides better redundancy, and I haven't lost any material since I changed to these machines.
I find them reasonably easy to use, although I have yet to see one of these type of machines (hard drive DVD combo) with a decent menu system. I commonly used these to record Distance Education classes in a studio setting, and for transferring older class material from VHS tapes to DVD. (All our own material no copyright infringements, in case you wondered.) Some of the organization and menu choices can take a little getting used to, and I never had reason to try much editing with them as we usually recorded live and usually whole blocks of time at once. We had other suites for serious editing.
They record well going from any media, MiniDV, hard drive or DVD, to the other. Given the 60 minute limit on most MiniDv tape, they work very well copying directly from tape to DVD, and have a special mode just for that.
The camera we used during this time period was the Canon HV-20, which is an HD camera, although we recorded in SD as most of our clients still use that mode. The tapes played just fine in the JVC deck if we used SD mode. It is not an HD deck, so don't expect that.
Given the usefulness of these kind of machines in my work, I am not happy they are becoming increasingly rare (probably due to Blu-ray usurping the arena). These are one of the last few remaining models which will record to hard drives or DVD in one unit, and they have a nice set of features. Philips had a similar deck, minus the tape function, which I have also used, and which is also discontinued. I am still using the Philips and the JVCs several times a week for up to 4 hours at a time.
All in all, I have been pretty happy with these machines. I would have probably given them only 4 stars if others hadn't treated them unfairly.
Buy JVC SR-DVM700US 3-in-1 Professional Series Video Recorder (MiniDV, 250GB Hard Drive, DVD) Now
This unit will not simultaneously record on the Hard Drive and DVD. When transferring from Hard Drive to DVD, the DVDs are letterboxed. (I never found a work around for this problem) High speed transfer from HD to DVD has limitations.Video quality is very acceptable on all three drives, and their are plenty of in and out connections.
This unit was not right for my requirements. Had I known it would not record simultaneously on HD and DVD I would have never bought the unit. I even downloaded the manual before purchase and this limitation is not mentioned. Not until I tried to record did a screen pop up saying I could not simultaneously record.
Glad I bought it on Amazon! Excellent return policiesAny one that rates this product more than one star is not a "professional." This product unfortunately proves the point that if it has the word professional printed on it, it is not a piece of gear used by professionals. This is why this product is un-acceptable for any use in the video production field. It has NO VU meters for audio levels, It has no indication whatsoever that you are recording any audio. So you say, "well just plug in some phones." Well guess what else is left out of this "professional" product? Yea, there is no headphone jack anywhere.Would not recognize or run the tapes from my HD camcorder. I sent it back the next day!
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