Rating: Summary: Very poor VCR recording--worse than my 16-year old Hitachi! Review: I bought this unit thinking I would be upgrading my 16-year old (!) VCR, and working my way into DVD with one convenient unit. First disappointment: there is no LP setting on the VCR--something I consider basic, even with my ancient Hitachi unit (which works great, though the sound quality when tapes are played back on other units is bad). Second disappointment: even on the SP setting, the recordings were just horrible--grainy, worse than my old VCR recordings even on the lowest setting quality. I think this is a poor union of products--others have commented on the bad DVD playback. Samsung has work to do. I'm returning this today. The only positive thing--shopping at Amazon is great. They are making it very easy for me to send this back, and I will continue to try to find a good product. But more research is in order--and I'm not sure that any of these 2-in-1 units is up to par in quality.
Rating: Summary: Not a keeper Review: I returned the DVD-V2000 after a few days for the following reasons:1. Noisy disk drive. 2. On DVD playback, part or all of the picture would occasionally break up; I have never seen this happen on my older standalone Samsung DVD player. 3. Response to the remote control is delayed by at least a second, making the remote awkward to use. Also the rew/FF buttons do double duty as skip-to-scene buttons, and it requires precise timing (very difficult with the delayed response) to get the mode and speed you want. I found it almost impossible to rewind just a few seconds to catch something I missed; I generally ended up either holding the button down too long and going into quadruple speed, or releasing too soon and skipping back to the beginning of the scene. On the positive side, the remote is universal and worked fine with my Sony TV.
Rating: Summary: problematic DVD playback Review: I ended up taking back three of these machines (which I regret, because I really wanted to save space with a two-in-one unit). Each one had the same problem, intermittent stuttering and pixilization. It didn't happen a great deal, but not one single DVD would play all the way through without errors. CD's played fine, the VHS unit was very nice -- but the DVD playback was an irritation. A service tech tried to play the "it's not a bug it's a feature" game, saying it had something to do with new Macrovision encoding to protect against piracy. Whether he was blowing smoke, or on to something, I do not know. All I know is that all three went back.
Rating: Summary: Convenient and Quiet! Review: I love the convenience of this unit which automatically switches between VCR, DVD and TV merely by inserting the tape, or disc! When the DVD is ejected, the unit switches back to TV, assuming that the TV is turned on. Other reviews I read before deciding to buy this unit implied that switching was difficult but we have not found it to be so. Nor did we find it to be noisy. I did however ask for and did receive professional advice on how to hook this unit up to a Sony Triniton 24" TV (KV-20FV300). The advice recommended heavy duty interconnection cables ("Monster Cable" brand M Series cables(M500V Advance Interconnect Video Cables and "Monster Cable" brand Interlink 300 MKII Audio cables) and how how to hook them up in my specific application. The result was very pleasing. I am still wrestling with getting both units to operate from the same remote (DVD/VCR). I have experimented with single remote use but so far could only get the TV to turn on but not the DVD/VCR when programmed as directed on page 12 of the DVD/VCR manual. I expect to be successful, however, but even if I am not, the pleasure of the ease of tape / disc / TV use and good quality of this unit makes the use of two remotes a relatively minor annoyance.
Rating: Summary: Decent, but pixelation on track change Review: Great idea in theory, but similar to review by Dean d "....I took the first one back the next day because sometimes when the tracks on the dvd switched, the screen would pixelate and skip part of a scene. This did not happen regularly. But it was very noticeable and happened several times during the movie. I am takeing our second one back today. Hopefully, third times a charm.... " I have already brought one back. I'm thinking about throwing in the towel on this one. I do like most of the other features, however it's not made with usability in mind. Not recommended if you have any sort of faith in technology. =)
Rating: Summary: hmmmmm, mabye Review: it would be almost perfect to me if it held more than 1 dvd at a time, and mabye a remote came with it, u could always buy a universal remote thuough, but i wish u didn't have 2 go 2 the trouble.
Rating: Summary: horrible product Review: Do not buy this unless you enjoy grainy pictures from your video tapes and horrible sound quality from both videos and DVD's. I bought this product a couple months ago and have spent the entire time trying to make different adjustments, settings, connections to make the thing work properly. I have sat through too many movies trying to get the sound to come through without having to constantly adjust the volume up and down to hear parts of movies. In fact I have missed entire portions of movies because the sound was so horrible and tinny. I have given up my battle with this beast and bought an inexpensive Panasonic VCR player and an inexpensive JVC DVD player and am now able to watch both videos and DVD's with theater quality sound and picture. Unless you are hard of hearing and only watch subtitled/closed caption movies don't buy this product.
Rating: Summary: Great DVD / VCR Review: I think this is a great DVD / VCR combo if mine ever breaks I plan to replace it with the same one! Please consider buying especially if you want both in one. Its a great size and shape considering it holds both DVD and VCR in one machine.
Rating: Summary: Good unit, but .... Review: I recently installed one of these units, and it plays wonderfully. It was easy to set up, and plays just about every format you will need, including VCD. However, the remote control is overly-complicated, and you cannot record DVDs directly onto the VCR. Still I think it's a great device, and I would purchase another one.
Rating: Summary: Good - but maybe not great? Review: This unit seems great - I just unpacked mine. But be warned, the manual claims that you cannot (under any circumstance) copy from DVD to the tape! That seems like a pretty basic function for a combo machine. If anyone knows a way around this, I'd like to hear it!
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