Sylvania DVR90DE Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder

• DVD player/recorder with 8-event, 1-year programming and up to 10 hours of recording per 4.7 GB recordable DVD
• DVD-R/RW recording and playback, DVD-ROM playback; offers content editing and scene deletion
• Includes NTSC tuner for off-air recording
• Composite-video and RF inputs
• Offers picture zoom and parental lock

It's a shame because the unit works quite well with my older 2x dvd-rw media, but after buying some 4x -rw and 8x -r neither would work. Talking to customer support (on sunday morning, with an 800 number, after a 20 minute wait) they claim this unit will not work with the newer media, and so I asked what happens in a year or two when there are no more 2x -rw discs for sale, or 4x -r. The rep suggested I return it.

One other point: the manual appears to be a translation and the translator clearly does not understand English grammar. On the box it states: "this unit cannot record on any copyright protected dvd". This even stumped the support rep. Apparently it should have said "from" instead of "on". The manual is forever making these sorts of errors and it is often difficult to know exactly what are the correct procedures or restrictions.

Oh, my first attempt to play a recorded dvd (2x -rw which works) in my sony dvd player did not work until I put it back into the recorder and did a finalize operation. This could explain the difficulty another reviewer mentioned.

Sadly, I had to return the unit.

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Here is an email I got from cust support:

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Thank you for your inquiry:

Please check the list provided below, the problem is most likely a compatibility issue.

Below is a list of disc that should or should not be used with the recorders.

DVD-R

4x can be used

8x will result in a disc error.

DVD-RW

2x can be used

4x will result in a disc error.

QUALITY ASSURANCE

DVD DISCS

The following discs have been tested and are proven to be compatible with our DVD recorders.

MEMOREX DVD-R

FUJIFILM DVD-R

FUJIFILM DVD-RW

IMATION DVD-RW

IMATION DVD-R 2.0

TDK DVD-RW 2X

TDK DVD-R 2X

Funai Corporation

Customer Support

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I bought this product, took it out of the box, read the manual and started recording within hours. I get 10 hrs on one disc and find this plays on my DVD dual deck in the living room and on my computer DVD drive. I was suprised to see the review that says it is not compatable with other DVD players /recorders. It is DVD-R recordings, that when you make them, are compatable with more formats than Panasonics Ram format, which is only compatable with Panasonic. I can pl;ay on Hitachi, dvd player,Phillips, and Go Video which I and my kids all own, so I think the other reviewer has a Ram format DVD or he has a software problewm. Mine works great and is easy to use , with an idiot proof On Screen Icon menu.

Good Value, good sound and picture quality and easy to program.

Read Best Reviews of Sylvania DVR90DE Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder Here

I bought this player recently instead of a 'standalone' cd recorder which btw doesn't have these extra features. I hooked up my turntable (the one with the built-in pre-amp, so I didn't need a amp or reciever to go thru) set the recording mode in my case 6 hours (or how many hours you want) and connected the red and white audio wires from the audio (leave off the 'yellow' or video wire for an all blank screen). I recorded and then pressed 'stop' when the song was over to create a title or chapter, you can then edit the name the track title (as you would with a movie or something) . You can hold up to 10 hours of audio on one dvd-r media with this dvd recorder.

BUT the only thing is it holds up to 80 chapters (or titles?) because I already tried this if you go over 80 titles then you cannot finalize the disc or record passed 80 as it says 'disc error' you cannot record on this disc. One way to bypass this is when you reach say track (or title/chapter) 75 use the pause button instead (of stop), though when you reach track 75 you would have to manually fast forward on your remote to play the other songs recorded, so you can fill up the entire disc with 10 hours of music.

The music recorded off the turntable played back in dolby digital format even in the 10 hour mode

Right now I'm playing one of my dvd-rs that I filled with 6 hours of music with while typing this in dvd-rom, I can say goodbye to the ancient cd player which only holds 80 minutes of music. Oh I can also play my Audio/music dvd-r on most other dvd players including my panasonic!

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This DVD Recorder accepts the DVD-R / -RW format (does not accept DVD+R/+RW). So far its pretty damn good, even better than the $299 magnavox model that was out last year which didn't have as much features and was $100 more. This DVD Recorder has up to 8 program recording up to a year in advance, daily or weekly recordings are also avail, just like your old vcr. One touch timer recordings, as well as other nice features. Comes with a full functional remote control as well as buttons on the unit itself. The recorder has 6 recording speeds they are XP 60MIN, SP 120MIN,LP 240MIN, EP 360MIN, SLP 480MIN, SEP 600MIN in other words from 1 to 10 hours, the 10 hr recording mode (SEP) looks sort of like vcd quality but just a bit less and I do not recommend it very much. EP mode looks like Vhs quality, XP, SP & LP modes are very good quality to record with. You can even preview it before making the disc how the picture would look like in that particular mode. The manual is very handy and tells you everything in complete detail step by step.

The unit has your basic audio/video inputs and outputs as well as component and RF input and output. It also plays CDs & CDRs. The discs recorded on this player also played on my Panasonic a120 dvd player which is more than a few years old.

The only possible bad thing about this recorder is the 'CPRM' (copy protection system) which ofcourse means you cannot make copies of copy protected broadcast materials, unless its made once on dvd-rw media, and then you cannot make a copy of that recording on the dvd-rw media and all of this is dependent on wether the programmer wants to copy protect its material or not, they may opt to do so (or not do so) in the future. But so far I've recorded many programs off the tv without any problems on regular dvd-r media, but I suspect many other newer dvd recorder nowadays have this feature. The older recorders that I know of didn't have this feature, which is good you might want to stock up on those discontinued dvd recorders since newer dvd recorders will have this feature. But all in all a good player/recorder seems like its worth more than $199 but since it didn't have progressive scanning (not that i needed it since I use it only for recording) it fits the price.

I have been using this DVR for about a month now. The record quality is great using the S Video input and I cannot tell the differance in quality between 2 hour and 4 hour modes. I have had media problems. I bought some Imation DVD-R's at Sams Club and everything was working fine but when I went back to Sams Club to buy more they didn't work. I noticed that the old ones I had purchased were DVD-R 2X and the new ones were DVD-R 1-8X you would think 1-8X means it would work at 1-2X "wrong". Then I went to Costco and bought some TDK 1-4X and I was back in business again until I ran out of TDK media. So back to Costco for some more TDK 1-4X, when I bought the new DVD-R's I noticed the packaging was different but the speed was the same. When I put it in the DVR90DE it came up with an error. I then inspected the media looking for a difference, the first TDK 1-4X had a red circle about a 1/4" from the center hub the newer DVD-R media had the same red circle but it was only about 1/8" from the center hub. I started inspecting other media I had tried without success and noticed what they had in common. It was a red circle very close the the inner hub. I will be going on a quest for media tomorrow. I hope they never discontinue the slower media because this thing won't work without it. The good news is it records great video.