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Samsung SV-5000W Worldwide VHS Format VCR

Samsung SV-5000W Worldwide VHS Format VCR

List Price: $499.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Very poor vcr
Review: Samsung just doesn't make a very good vcr. It has automatic tracking that just doesn't work, it goes in and out throughout play and on pre-recorded material. If your trying to find a spot your looking for this is not your vcr, you can't view the tape in fast forward or rewind, this unit cost $ 400 and my $ 60 dollar american made unit beats this one hands down.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Did not survive more than THREE MONTHS!!
Review: The first impression of this product was very positive. It was working fine on both PAL and NTSC cassettes. The VCR is easy to operate.

Unfortunately why buy a VCR, when it gives snow in couple of months without heavy use. We played not more than 3-4 movies a week. All cassettes were in good condition and the snow gets worse and worse, to the point where it is almost unusable. Cleaning the heads didn't help. Manual tracking(What is manual tracking these days anyway??) didn't help either....

Samsung support didn't help much too. The phone system of their main support number 1-800-SAMSUNG kept me in loop, when I did the proper selection. The email support request didn't get answered for days(still waiting). The local service center responded with "WE do not work on VCRs anymore, they are throw-away these days..".

I hope SAMSUNG cannot expect from me to accept that a 300$+ unit is a "throw away" in couple of months.

CONCLUSION: Look some other company with more reliable product and support.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst VCR I ever owned
Review: The first impression was great. It played all of my PAL VHS tapes, and converted them with reasonable (not great, but I didn't expect it to be great) quality. Then, after about 6 months it started "snowing" and then the whole screen become filled with snow that it basically impossible to see anything on it now. I've also tried to use it to watch my PAL DVDs on NTSC TV, and noticed strange sound drops. Sometimes, for no reason, it would only show video and audio would be completely mute. I've had nothing but problems with it. Samsung *really* should've recalled this model. I would like file a lawsuit on behalf of all people who got fooled the same way as me with this VCR against Samsung. A friend of mine owned the same VCR and his died in less than a year. So you spend $300 on something that you hope would last for a long time and you get *this* instead?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Worst VCR I ever owned
Review: The first impression was great. It played all of my PAL VHS tapes, and converted them with reasonable (not great, but I didn't expect it to be great) quality. Then, after about 6 months it started "snowing" and then the whole screen become filled with snow that it basically impossible to see anything on it now. I've also tried to use it to watch my PAL DVDs on NTSC TV, and noticed strange sound drops. Sometimes, for no reason, it would only show video and audio would be completely mute. I've had nothing but problems with it. Samsung *really* should've recalled this model. I would like file a lawsuit on behalf of all people who got fooled the same way as me with this VCR against Samsung. A friend of mine owned the same VCR and his died in less than a year. So you spend $300 on something that you hope would last for a long time and you get *this* instead?

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Poor playback quality
Review: The system is great for PAL tapes as we have tapes from Argentina and Australia - no problems to view them on an NTSC TV.

However, on some NTSC tapes I found the playback quality bad, specifically the image jitters like it is missing frames. Especially bad seem to be tapes from Disney, Barbie as Rapunzel, The Beauty and the Beast, etc so I thought it may be a macrovision problem but I found out that Beauty and the Beast does not have macrovision protection. Cartoons such as Pokemon 3 were also bad. The tapes we were using were original tapes and when we play them on our other Sony video or Zenith video we have no problems so the problem is in the Samsung machine not the tapes. Disappointing for an ... video.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Good quality, as long as it lasts
Review: This basically gives good video and conversion quality (I used to play PAL tapes on a NTSC system), but the problem is its poor durability. This deck ceased to work within 2 years, the LED of the ON switch being the only part still working. Opening the deck up revealed a darkened area on the board around a few components, which were apparently heated up so much during normal operation that they burned down. I have concluded that this is a design mistake. It seems Samsung did not get their basic circuitry right. If you buy this VCR, you had better have some repair experience and get your hands on a service manual.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Samsung SV-5000W: Overall, quite good.
Review: This particular Worldwide VCR comes with a wide variety of options- so many, in fact, that it is likely that you will never use them all unless you are very heavy into format conversion. The setup and implementation of the conversion, all digitally handled within (requiring no separate input or output converter) makes it very convenient to view PAL, SECAM, or other variant video tape formats with any type of TV. The best part is that the input format is normally selected automatically (output must be manually selected, but this is very easy), and the VCR produces a very clean, crisp image.

Of course, two or three times conversion produces grainy and/or fuzzy images, but this is to be expected with any system. Do not expect to record NTSC in SECAM and then be able to view that on an NTSC TV without loss of image quality. Conversion of PAL to NTSC, then viewing it on an NTSC TV, on the other hand, is marvelous.

Overall, this is a superb VCR. My only qualms with it are the inclusion of some rather idiotic features (ART mode, which makes the image look "artlike"; Strobe mode, which displays images from the video stream in single frame fashion), as well as the inability to select a recording program that records on Weekdays only.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: RF connection doesn't work, bad technical support
Review: This VCR have great feature for the price. It works enough well. It has to be used with RCA connection. RF connectors( in and out) are present. But output doesn't work and technical support of Samsung and repair centers are unable to get it work. Meaning you don't have a signal on the RF connector when you are playing a tape or selecting a specific channel.

I should mention also Samsung technical support is very bad, they have big problem to understand this worldwide VCR. One technician even hang-up on me because it was close to the end of working day and didn't want to handle cases on this VCR...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I hate Samsung for this piece of junk!
Review: This VCR is really a piece of junk! I have had with it more problmes than with all the other electronic equipment I have altogether. The VCR started "snowing" on all tapes 4 months after I bought it. Customer service sucks! Although the VCR was on warranty, it took me 6 (!) months and numerous contacts with the customer service and vistis to a repair shop to have the VCR fixed. Then, 10 months later, it started "showing" again. I am tired of this VCR! I wish I never bougth it! I hate Samsung for this piece of junk which cost me $340!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: it does not work for SECAM tapes...
Review: This VCR plays PAL tapes fine. I got tapes from England and Australia and they play fine with this VCR. However, it cannot play my SECAM tapes in color. All my french movies are played in black and white, and I am very disappointed. Can someone explain to me why this VCR does not work for SECAM tapes?


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