Rating: 
Summary: Response To John From Canada
Review: .... thanks for the info about the hidden/secret menu. What you said about the Daytek version also applies to the Akai DVDRW 120 version. Just did it with the unit I've had for almost 2 weeks. Maybe future products will not have this secret menu but mine does. Thanks again.... really good tip.
Rating: 
Summary: IT WORKS!
Review: After doing much research on inexpensive DVD recorders I bought this one. I am transferring all my old home movies from VHS tapes to DVD. The Memorex +RW media works great and plays in all players I tried, including the DVD Rom on the computer. The +R media only seems to play in the Akai unit that recorded it. I also wanted to edit raw footage from my Hi8 camcorder using authoring software on my computer. I had tried capturing it with a capture card straight to the computer but had major trouble with audio sync. Now I record it to DVD, rip it on to my hard drive, edit it, and send it back to the unit with the firewire to burn it. A great solution for all my needs for $199!
Rating:
Summary: Easy to use DVD+R/W recorder
Review: After reading the reviews of some other bug-ridden DVD+R/W recorders I decided to wait until something better came along. Am I glad I did! This recorder at just under $200 is the least expensive on the market.Akai is a well known quality brand who exited the US market in the late 1980s or early 1990s. I owned both a reel-to-reel tape recorder and cassette tape deck from them, and both were well built and reliable. This DVD recorder is easy to use. The manual is very simple. It has a few translation errors (overwrited instead of overwritten) but the instructions are clear and I was up and running in no time. My first endeavor was to copy 8mm home video tapes. These transferred easily and there are simple steps to create multiple selection entries per DVD. It also automatically inserts chapter markers everyone 5 minutes which is very convenient for quick scanning. You can title each selection as well, and the selection picture shows the image from the start of the selection recording. Picture quality was excellent, though I admit my 8mm tapes don't strain the limit of the 2 hour recording mode. After burning some Maxell DVD+Rs, I tried them on several DVD decks. The only one that didn't work was a new auto Panasonic DVD Player. I suspect it was the player as Panasonic supports DVD-R. The disks played fine in a newer Samsung and Toshiba DVD players as well as a 5 year old Panasonic DVD Player. Overall, Akai has come through with a great product at a great price. Akai distribution is spotty so I think Amazon may be the only source for this great buy.
Rating:
Summary: DVD Recorder at the Right Price!
Review: As a long time satisfied repeat buyer of Akai, it's good to see their products back on the market. I've been waiting to buy a DVD-Recorder until the prices came down and now after getting and using the actual unit, i wish i would have bought it earlier. The picture quality of the recordings and the ease of use are top flight, this is a great product!
Rating:
Summary: Hope It Lasts!
Review: Easy setup. Crystal clear playback with Pre-Recorded DVD'S. Will not re-create HDTV broadcasts from cable - that is not to say you cannot copy them, they will simply play back in standard digital quality. Is that so bad? So far, I haven't heard of any DVD Recorder capable of HDTV playback.
Here's The Beauty part: Thanks to John S in Toronto (Check out his review) You can utilize a secret menu to kill the Macrovision Copy Guard on all your Pre-Recorded VHS's and copy them to DVD...In the same clear quality. I don't think the Mainstream Name Brand Copiers can do that.
I have recorded many broadcasts and VCR copies on DVD-RW and passed them around to friends with different brand DVD players. They all played back beautifully.
Thank you Akai. Again I say: I hope it lasts.
Rating: 
Summary: Uncertain
Review: I am still uncertain about this Recorder. The unit is the least expensive I found and it looks good. Does it work? ... well, sometimes ...
I couldn't use any of the 5 Memorex DVD+R I bought initially.
Based on recommendation here, I then bought a 50 pack Fuji DVD+R disks. I transfered 5, 6 VHS tapes to them, the unit worked wonderfully. Then it stopped working. This past week, I tried about 10 blank disks, the unit either could not read it, could not format it, or had a write failure after a few minutes.
I am going to try different brands of media next week. I do hate to throw good money after bad though ....
Rating:
Summary: Pretty Easy to Use But...
Review: I bought the Gateway AR230 so I could archive a closetful of old Beta (yes, Beta!) and VHS tapes I recorded over the years. I basically record using the 6-hour option which means I can copy 3 VHS tapes onto a singel DVD. Works pretty well and is a piece of cake to use except occasionally the AR230 gets confused and refuses to copy a tape - it thinks a tape is copy protected when it isn't. I called Gateway and they weren't able to help. Maybe there's a hack out there that'll let me do that (I did find out that you can bypass the region code via a secret menu). For the price it's an OK bit of kit.
Rating:
Summary: Decent Product
Review: I bought this unit from Amazon for $189.99 when it was on sale for couple of days for Labour day, It is a nice product so far here are the pros and Cons
Pros:
1. Good price $189 {better than buying a PC and Capture cards to Capture Video and Burning VCD's or DVDs}.
2. Nice Recording image Quality (Even at EP mode 4hrs) (SP recommended for better image quality)
3. Good build of the machine, feels solid, Small Fan included for extended periods of use, this unit remains cool inspite of running 16+ hours of continuous use.
4. Nice array of inputs and outputs, Firewire is an added bonus
5. Remote control is well laid out, Easy Guide menus provided for people with less knowledge to Burn DVDs.
6. AC 110/240v capable works everywhere in the world, PAL /NTSC capable.
7. DVD Component Output is great (Must have HDTV Capable TV), SVideo and RCA outputs also available for Non HDTVs
8. Progressive Scan Output is also available.
9. Accepts virtually any cheap DVD+R media, and DVD+RW media, tried with Cheap GQ DVD+R and Memorex DVD+RW works great.
10. Plays commercial DVDs okay, But do not expect it to play all badly scratched Rental DVDs, Plays cheap VCD 2.0 (PBC ON/OFF), 1.1 and 1.0 Flawlessly
UPDATE !! -- Converts and plays cheap PAL VCD/SVCD to NTSC TV output easily and displays on NTSC HDTV capable TV without change in Aspect Ratios or color mangling.
Cons:
1. It is very basic DVD recorder, No fancy Editing is possible, Even the Title name does not go beyond 8 characters!!!
2. Does not play WMA media. No ID tag display for MP3s, No menu structure for MP3 playback selection like Panasonics DVD players.
3. JPEG image viewing produces little darker pictures no aspect ratio is maintained if the image size is small (It streches picture to fit the screen)
4. Included TV tuner induces noise on TV channels when connected to CableTV on certain channels when the unit is on, I had to connect the unit seperately rather than the pass thru' option to avoid this interference, Looks that the powersupply in this unit is producing noise which interferes with TV tuner.
5. As most of the reviewers on this site have observed, the unit takes sweet time to obey commands, do not expect it to be fast when you press buttons, It does it's job, But you will have to be patient.. and wait..
6. Limited editing capablities once recording is done, the only option is to delete and or edit the title name and or finialize the VR to DVD video.
7. Do not attempt to fill the disk to the brim, It will surely confuse the player, It might hang on you if you do not enable chapter markings, If you enable Chapters (5-15 mins) it does not hang but the last chapter is lost, Remember, After the DVD recorder fills the DVD, It must have atleast some space left to write the Index mark, Lead-in Lead-out, hence plan ahead to avoid Coasters.
For the price, I would say it is good product, It is too early to comment on the reliability of the unit, However, the unit looks well built, Hope it lasts long. I do recommend it for people who looks for cheap and decent unit.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the best choice
Review: I had this DVD recorder for two weeks. Initially it worked fine but later it started having trouble playing any DVD. The DVDs would get stuck frequently while playing (the DVD play fine in the Sony DVD player). So maybe a problem with this unit but I just returned it. Will buy a Sony DVD recorder once they are little cheaper.
Rating:
Summary: Works as good as my other DVD Recorders
Review: I have not had any of the problems other reviewers have written about. My Akai unit works as good as my Panasonic DVD Recorder and my Emerson DVD Recorder, both Wal-Mart specials. And the Akai unit cost less. I am impressed with the Akai unit to the point where I will order two more units to be used as gifts at Christmas time.
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