Rating: 
Summary: So Far, So Good
Review: I read all the reviews posted here before buying one of these recorders and so far I have not had any of the problems other people have reported. I used Imation +R to record, finalized without a problem and the 2 dvds I made play back in both my computer and DVD player. I bought this recorder to copy tapes that are now OOP and a few movies that will probably never make it to DVD format. If I can accomplish this, I figure the unit will have paid for itself. As I say, so far, so good, but if I do run into problems I will update this review.Have now had the unit for 2 weeks, still no problems. Copied the tapes I wanted to and have also taped live tv. DVDs play fine in both my dvd player and computer. All in all, I am satified with this recorder. Had the unit for 3 months and have not had a problem. copies my vhs tapes and records from cable with no problem. I bought it to copy my Vhs tapes before they were unwatchable and I have accomplished that. The unit does get warm, but I take that into concideration and copy 1 or 2 tapes at a time. This is not a bad recorder for the price I paid for it.
Rating: 
Summary: No stars if permitted
Review: first make sure you have a TV with rca or s-video inputs else you will need an rf-modulator to connect to an older style tv. you will not see this on the box, but is on the instruction sheet inside. After making connections, turning on for 1st time should have invoked set-up. It didn't. Tried to use the remote for setup - no response. Batteries with unit were dead. Put in new batteries, the only function working on the remote was to turn the unit on and off. Nothing else. Packed up everything and returned for refund.
Rating:
Summary: Timer recording if it feels like it.
Review: I've had one of these for a month and finally returned it. I bought it to replace my VCR for recording shows when I'm gone. The problem with this thing is it's random if it will record or not. one week it skipped, the next it got 2 of 3 timers, the next it did one of the 3 timers etc. these are an unchangeing weekly timer. This is one of the main functions it was designed for, and it fails at it. Spend a little more money, and get a better name brand.
Rating: 
Summary: Dumb DVD Recorder
Review: I bought the CyberHome CH-DVR-1500 DVD recorder about two months ago. I naively assumed it would operate like any DVD+RW drive for a PC and be able to randomly separate recorded shows into multiple empty areas of a DVD+RW. WRONG! This is a surprisingly stupid device! For example, suppose you have recorded three one hour shows and two 30 min. shows on one DVD+RW in EP (4 hour total) mode. So, a title screen view will show you those three one hour shows on the first title screen (three titles to each screen) and the two 30 min. shows on the second title screen. Now you erase the first one hour title on the first title screen, leaving one hour of free space on the DVD+RW. If you set up the timer to record one 30 minute show, you will find that the recorder recorded nothing, when you come home and check. It only knows how to record in free area AT THE END of the title list (and I suspect at the end or inside track of the DVD+RW itself. Or start with the same full DVD+RW, erase the last 30 minute show and the first one hour show on the title screen (so 1 1/2 hours free space), and set the timer to record for 40 minutes. When you come home you will find that the recorded has recorded for 30 minutes and stopped. It can only begin recording in a free space at the end of the title list (here 30 min.), and it can not string the rest of the recording time to other free space on the DVD+RW, unless that space is continuous. So, erasing the two 30 min. titles at the end of the title list would have worked. There is also no way to combine free spaces that you have created by erasing shows on a DVD+RW to get around this problem. In most cases it is safest to record a TV show or whatever to a totally empty, formatted DVD+RW, or you may be surprised. After several conversations with CyberHome support I finally learned that "that is just how the recorder operates". So, the recorder is usable and does deal well with playing a wide variety of formats (CD+R, CD-R, MP3's JPEG's, etc), but I would say Buyer Beware!
Rating:
Summary: Great Recording Quality But Rough Edges...Can't Recommend
Review: I previously gave this unit 4 stars...now I must reduce to 2. It has too many rough edges (to be expected in a relatively new consumer product such as DVD recorders) such as: 2400 hour format clock so you better get used to military time when setting up a timer record, seems to run on the hot side (discs are very warm when ejected), the one touch record works in 30 minute increments but doesn't shut the unit down after recording, there's no way to have the unit power down after a period of inactivity (there's a setting in the 'setup' screen to power the unit down after inactivity but it doesn't work...at least on my unit). On the plus side it makes great recordings in the 1hr and 2hr speeds. The 6 hour speed is like 4hr or 6hr VHS. Presently, I use it mainly to back up stuff off my Tivo. I then rip the burned discs to PC and reauthor for a smoother finished product (if I'm permanently archiving). I reduced my rating on this product after my unit developed 'Disc Error' messages on discs that previously played OK. I feel that this unit runs way too hot and, as a result, is burnt out prematurely. After three weeks I returned mine for a refund. I'm sure DVD recorders in general will be in the hundred to hundred and fifty dollar range within a year...maybe even by Christmas 2004 and be multi-format (DVD + and -). I look forward the maturing of this technology. Too many bugs right now.
Rating: 
Summary: Does almost everything so far
Review: I just got this today Seems to do a good enough job recording clear video. I had bought the RCA DRC8000 from sams for almost 100 dollars more. This one is almost as good, but it has IR blaster for changing channels on the cable box. It's good enough, and at a good price. Still I liked the RCA better.
Rating:
Summary: Finalize function doesn't work
Review: I now have a 3rd CyberHome CH-DVR 1500. The first one the stanby power switch went dead after a small static spark from my finger zapped it. It also errored about every 10th +R disk to make a coaster. The finalized function did work, but I only used it on 3 +R disks and exchanged it hoping to get a better one. On the disks that the finalize worked, they played perfectly in a cheap Apex player. With the second CyberHome CH-DVR 1500 the finalized function didn't work at all. It messed up the title page and the +R disk could still be edited after using the finalize, which isn't suppose to be possible. These disks couldn't be played on the same Apex player. I exchanged it for a 3rd CyberHome CH-DVR 1500, but this one does the same thing and won't finalize +R disks. The media is not the problem, because the first CyberHome CH-DVR 1500 finalized 3 +R disks. I haven't tried getting support, but all they can recommend is exchanging it til I get a good one, pretty frustrating. Quality of recording and ease of operation are great , but there are definitely some bad apples out there and I'd really like to get one that would finalize +R disks again. I've got 30 recorded +R disks and only 3 are finalized, so I'm stuck using the CyberHome CH-DVR 1500 to play back all but the 3. I'd like to switch to a different recorder, but I doubt I can finalize the 27 recorded +R disks with another recorder. If you know that +R disks recorded from the CyberHome CH-DVR 1500 can be finalized on a different recorder, please email me at mistys@generic-isp.com Thanks.
Rating:
Summary: Need help to make my CH-DVR 1500 regionfree!
Review: Could anyone let me know how to make my CH-DVR 1500 regionfree, can't find any info on the web.
Thanks,
Rating:
Summary: Great Recorder
Review: For the price, you cannot go wrong buying this DVD Recorder. It does everything it is advertised to do. Easy set up, easy to follow manual and so far, the quality of the DVD+Rs I have made off VHS tape of old movies copied off TV years ago are much better. The only reason I do not give it 5 stars is because the controller seems fragile when you press the keys. Other than this, it is a great machine for copying your VHS collection.
Rating:
Summary: Does everything it claims, a few rough edges, no support
Review: This DVD recorder does everything it claims. I needed a recorder that would play back PAL and NTSC DVDs to any TV (PAL or NTSC), could be made region-free, and could record a PAL input signal as well as an NTSC one. This machine will do all those things, although there are a few gotchas which it took me a few days to figure out. First impressions: the unit is enormous! It's much wider than any other DVD player I have (I've owned several other players). Three blank DVD-RWs are supplied in the box, which is a nice touch. The region-free hack (magic remote sequence) is easy to find on the web, although I gather it may not survive a firmware upgrade. Since I own DVDs from three regions, many of which will never be released in region 1, this was an absolute requirement. Playback of PAL DVDs to an NTSC TV is excellent. I haven't tried playing NTSC to a PAL TV though. You can occasionally confuse the unit by switching between a PAL widescreen DVD and an NTSC TV signal -- the aspect ratio goes wrong, but it sorts itself out. The unit will in general convert a PAL input to NTSC output, and I assume vice versa. Recording: if your input signal is PAL, your DVD will be PAL, and vice versa for NTSC -- you can't record a PAL signal to NTSC or vice versa (even though you can output a converted signal to your TV). I initially had some problems recording from PAL VHS tapes to disk, as the recording had the wrong aspect ratio (525 out of 625 lines shown) and the frame rate conversion looked terrible. I discovered I could fix this by setting my VCR's output format to "PAL" instead of "THROUGH" (I use a Samsung worldwide VCR). I don't know how this makes a difference, but it does and I've had no further problems recording PAL. NTSC records without a hitch. I don't know any way to remove Macrovision with this unit however. Note to an earlier reviewer who said his scenes and edits didn't work on other DVD players: Read the ******* manual. You have to perform a "Make Compatible" step on DVD+RWs (the equivalent for DVD+Rs is called "Finalize") before the edits will be recognised. There's a nasty gotcha here however: the onscreen feedback makes it look as if "Make Compatible" takes only a few seconds, but then your machine behaves as if it has crashed. In fact "Make Compatible" takes a few minutes (the time seems to vary). It hasn't completed until the highlight appears on the Title again on the title screen. Other than this point, the manual seems quite helpful and easy to follow. Other notes to other reviewers: the date function on my unit is correct (gets the day of the week right). And if you can't understand a 24-hour clock, you're not intelligent enough to own a DVD recorder. Editing is fairly straightforward, however chapters you insert end up only approximately where you put them (within about a second or so). Other annoyances: the fast-forward and rewind modes have lots of different speeds, x2, x4, x8, x16, x30 and x60, which is nice. (Slo-motion forward and backward and frame by frame as well). The speed you get often bears no relation to its name however. The correspondence seems closest with commercially produced DVDs, but with DVDs I've recorded myself, x16 is closer to x160 and is way faster than all the others. When entering titles for the segments you record, you have to use the arrow keys on the remote to cycle through the whole of 7 bit ASCII to spell out the letters one by one. You can enter numbers directly but there's no shortcut to entering letters, which gets very tiresome very quickly. If you've got a collection of VHS tapes in a variety of formats quietly dying in a cupboard, this solution is much better than the other one I tried, namely a Hauppauge video capture card on a high-spec PC. You get less fine control over things such as menu graphics (you get no choice at all in fact, and no details such as chapter submenus), but the failure rate and general "drive you up the wall" factor is far lower. And it functions well as a general-purpose DVD player. Note that you appear to be on your own support-wise however: questions I emailed to the manufacturer on the customer support section of their website went unacknowledged and unanswered. Fortunately I subsequently solved the problems myself. Only three stars because of this however.
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