Pioneer DVR-633H-S DVD Recorder With 160 GB Hard Drive

• DVD Video Recording Format- DVD-R , DVD-RW (, DVD Video, CD, CD-R/RW, Video-CD/ MP3 / WMA / JPEG
• Video Outputs -Component, S-Video (2), Composite (2) / Audio Outputs
• Advanced Graphical User Interface, HELP On-Screen Assistant
• 10-Bit/54 MHz Video Digital-To-Analog Converter
• 24-Bit/192 kHz Audio Digital-To-Analog Converter

On paper, this recorder seemed to be perfect for my needs primarily scheduled recordings of TV programs. In addition to the normal specs for these devices, I particularly liked the commercial skip, its low standby power level, and its 5-year battery backup.

But the TV Guide is truly a deal-breaker. In the week I had my unit, it literally chattered continuously as it tried (with only partial success) to download the guide. It was very irritating in an otherwise quiet room, and quiet passages in music or TV programs are a thing of the past with this in the same room.

I emailed Pioneer; they said it is normal for the unit "to make some sound" when it is on, and the TV Guide cannot be disabled.

If it worked well, the TV guide would be nice, but it isn't worth the racket. If I could have disabled the TV Guide, I would have kept the unit and programmed it manually.

I reluctantly returned the recorder.

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On the surface the Pioneer DVR-633-HS seems to be the one to get. After review I'll give it 4 stars without the TV Guide. It's a very good unit and perhaps the best in its class right now.

The Good: It's nice looking. It has many inputs although no component inputs. The remote and menu system is clean. Recording/picture quality is very good, 16:9 is automatically recorded and preserved. Can set many video levels (not audio though) to compensate for bad external signals. Flexible recording is fantastic. Hard drive is quiet although some complain. It does DVD copying. It does burning and finalizing DVDs in one shot. It has an amazing number of video controls for INPUT for recording from a VHS. Recording VHS tapes is *superb* and best I have seen and this is a great unit to buy if you are archiving. The dual layer is a great idea but it is only DLwhich is not popular at all. I wonder if it will become popular eventually.

The Bad. TVGOS sucks. I feel like trashing the TV Guide magazine I see every time I buy groceries. Setting it up is nightmarish and you will be fortunate if it works. The TVGOS is made by Gemstar. Unfortunately you cannot turn it of. I read another reviewer's problem and I have the same setup -problem is that the 633 won't control my cable box. What is insane is that if you want to record using the S-VHS, you have to allow the unit to cycle through all your channels when off. This means that you cannot watch TV when the unit is downloading information. Expect not to watch TV for 24-48 after you purchase since the unit needs to cycle your cable box through all the channels.

What is unfortunate is the omission of the "chapter mark" button where, during playback, you can add areas to place "chapters" or indexes where hitting the fast forward (not seek button) will go to these chapter points. These will also be burned on DVD you create and are the same "chapters" you can view in movies. For undisclosed reasons Pioneer REMOVED the chapter mark button from the 533/633 remote. As matter of fact all video editing is done while viewing the video in a tiny 1/8 window. Why options couldn't be superimposed lightly over the video is beyond me.

Overall this is really one of the best DVRs for the money. My prior review gave this machine only a three star because I realized how bad TVGOS. Shame on all the manufacturers for not allowing you to turn this off. If you cannot use it, unfortunately there is no way to have the TVGOS stop searching for data and popping up on your screen every time you turn it on.

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This would be a great machine if it didn't have that TV guide system on it. I've used a simpler TV Guide system on our RCA TV without problems. However with Pioneer, the TV Guide causes the hard drive to run virtually all the time. Even while watching a movie on DVD the hard drive is running and is noticeable. When the room is silent, the hard drive noise is irritating. I think that there must be something wrong where it is just not able to properly download the data that is causing this problem. We've had it plugged in for over two weeks now and it still does not give a full week (there is always one day missing and it constantly changes) of programs. The result is that it does not shut down. I've found that if I turn the machine off, and on again and then off, and wait about two minutes it will sometimes power down. There must be a trick to it. This is otherwise a wonderful machine that is easy to use and operate but that TV Guide system is going to cause a lot of customers to be unhappy. When I phoned Pioneer about it they had no solutions except to say that I was one of the lucky ones as many people can't even get the TV Guide system to work at all. They are clearly aware that these things have a problem.

Once you've used a machine with a hard drive you will never go back to just a DVD Recorder. The difference in convenience, simplicity and possibilities is incredible. Whether it be this Pioneer product or another recorder, a hard drive is the only way to go.

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I have had this unit for a week. I don't really use it to record tv, but the tv guide shows "no data" even though I have Time Warner cable hooked to it.

I'm using the unit to copy home video tapes to the hard drive, then edit the video on the hard drive. You can delete footage, set chapter markers, divide titles, name titles, etc. Then copy the video to DVD complete with menus. I'm very pleased with these features.

Note that only each "title" will appear on the DVD menu. So you must "divide title" which divides it into 2 titles where you specify. You can divide as many times as you want. Each division creates a new menu item on the final DVD.

Also it can write to DVD at high speed. Using 8x dvd-r it takes me about 15 minutes to write an hour of video. 16x would be faster, but I have yet to purchase 16x media.

It took me about an hour to really get hang of it. The manual takes you step by step and is very clear. If you are good with computers and technical things, it will be a breeze to learn.

Gripes:

TV Guide system is not working. But I have not spent any time trouble shooting it. I run my cable from wall, to digital cable box, then to the Pioneer recorder. If I ran it from wall to recorder it might work but then you only get up to channel 125 from the Pioneer built in tuner. Even without TV guide you can set the cable box to on the channel you want to record, and set the timer, or record right away.

There is only one digital output (needed to pipe surround sound to your AV receiver) and it is optical, no coax.

Also I have had about 4 out of 12 blank DVD-Rs fail to record. I'm using 8x dvd-r, I think I need to use 16x dvd-r, which I have not tried yet. The manual list tested media from Sony, TDK and Maxell. I bought Fuji. I will try the TDK 16x media next time.

I paid $450 at a local Tweeter store. I could have got it cheaper on the web, but because this is a complex piece of equipment I wanted to by an extended waranty and have a place to return to without shipping.

"UPDATE" 1-10-2006

Here is an update to my first review. I have had the unit for about 5 months now. The TV Guide system does work but it takes the unit about a week to load the guide to the point that it is usable. But it is clumsy to use. I have a HD DVR I rent from Time Warner for an extra $5 a month, and it is so easy to use and works great. The TV Guide system pales in comparison. Also I can copy video from the Time Warner DVR to the Pioneer DVR and then burn to DVD if I want.

After trying several blank DVD types I found that TDK 16X DVD-R work the best. You can copy at 16X and I have never had a bad copy with these disk. Search for item number DVD-R47CB50. I bought a 50 pack at Comp USA for about $25. I also saw them on PriceGrabber.com.

I read one review at Sound & Vision that said this units resolution is a little less than standard DVD quality.

This is a good review, you should read it if you plan to buy this unit. Google "DVR-633H review" and look for Sound & Vision.

I'm satisfied with the picture quality.

I still love the unit. The only complaint (I hope you are reading this Pioneer) is that when you hit the record button say to record a TV show you are currently watching with out setting the timer, there should be an option to set that tells the recorder to "stop recording" after a time interval of 1/2 hour 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours etc. As is the unit just keeps recording until you hit the stop button. A few times I forgot to to stop it and ended up with a 5 hour recording.

Also I have a new wide screen capable Sony camcorder with DV (i.Link) output. This works great, you just plug the DV cable from the camcorder into the front of the Pioneer DVR to copy your home video to the hard drive. And when you copy this from the hard drive to the DVD you end up with a widescreen format DVD. I think I read that to have the DVD end up as wide screen, you cannot mix full screen format 4:3 and wide screen 16:9 on the same DVD.

Yes this unit does have a DV (i.Link) input on the front panel, even though I do not see that listed here on the Amazon description.

Happy Recording,

TechGuy "Jack"

This DVR does have a steep learning curve, but once you figure it out, it really is a great system. The picture quality is great and it is loaded with features. I agree that it is noisy and that the TV Guide Online is terrible, but I did figure out how to get around that problem (I didn't see it expressly stated in the manual but I stumbled into it).

To program the DVR like a VCR here are the steps: In the Schedule menu (press "TV Guide on the remote) select the "Menu" Button (refer to page 44 of the manual). Next select "go to Service Bar" from the options on the right side of the screen. Then, chose the "Schedule" Option at the top of the bar. Select "Menu" again. This little step is left out of the instructions. Then select "New Manual Recording" on the right side menu. Here you can program the machine just like an old VCR. Select any date you like and enter the time. One more thing I noticed is that when I use the TV Guide to record, I also edit it to begin 1 minute early and end 1 minute late. I was not getting the whole show and it was disappointing to miss the first few seconds and last few seconds of a show.

Overall, it is a great value for cost versus performance.