Rating: 
Summary: Better than reviewed elsewhere!
Review: Have owned the 4940 for four weeks now. It easily transfers recorded material from VHS to DVD-R or -RW. It beautifully does timer-recording on DVD-R or -RW. The Owners' Manual is much more complete, detailed, and easy to follow than most.
Everything I've recorded on this machine plays on it, and on my computer. I've not asked it to edit, or do anything more than the above.
I'm writing because the negative reports above almost kept me from buying a machine that does everything I need to do. Perhaps manufacture has improved in recent months. My machine was made in March, 2004.
Simple Soul
Rating: 
Summary: No Closed Captioning
Review: Am disappointed that the VR4940 does not support closed captioning. Having it is important to me and lots of others when we watch dvds. The GoVideo customer support said it was not a defect of the machine...that their machines do not support it.
The dvd recording quality is very good but would never have purchased it without being able to use closed captioning. Lots of DVDs do have English subtitles but many don't. Am shocked that a company would not include that option.
Rating:
Summary: Severe compatibly problems
Review: I am not sure wants is wrong, how the machine records to the disk or something else but I have not been able to play a signal DVD created from the GoVideo VR 4940. I have used the Sony DVD-R discs and the default LG disc that came with the unit, I have finalized both and none of them play on my Panasonic DVD player, or anthers Sony DVD player. One should be able to play media on a DVD-R format virtually on every computer's DVD Drive, I have not. I tried it on 23 Dell machine some with DVD-Rom drives, some with DVD/CD-RW drives, some with DVD+RW drives all of those drives should have played but they did not. Dell had no really solutions I even replaced on the computer DVD drives still did not play. Oddly enough I have used a MAC to digitize films and burned it to a DVD-R and that plays on all the machines, even the 23 dell computers. I contacted Go Video and their support staff only says to follow what the manual says and check to see if it finalized. I have not been able to fix the problem at all I was wondering if anyone had a fix of this.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent choice
Review: I am very pleased at the quality and ease of this machine. I have taken old VCR tapes of personal items I had taped over ten years ago and transferred to DVD. The quality of the picture is enhanced by the DVD and when done correctly is very compatable with other DVD players. I have no problems with the machine or the price. This is my Second GO Video machine (the first being the dual VCR) and as long as they make it easy I will continue purchasing from them.
Rating: 
Summary: Same machine as Zenith XBR413
Review: I bought the Zenith XBR413 from Best Buy. It is the exact same as the Govideo VR4940, manual is same page for page, machine is same except for front cosmetics. As for these types of machines, I only found the Zenith, Govideo and Sansui which is $100 cheaper. As for the Zenith, there help only knows what the manual says. Sometimes when I dub from VHS to DVD on a Verbatim or TDK DVD-R disk, (I play the VHS, pause it and press Copy on the remote and select a speed) it will say "Cannot copy due to bad disk" if I happen to pause the VHS, jump to a new location on the VHS and press Copy twice as the book says. I them have to stop the process which forces me to have a title (every time you stop the process a title is created). If i start again it works. No one can help me with this. Has anyone had this problem witht the Govideo?
Rating:
Summary: Good Device, But Not Without Problems
Review: I bought this device because it was (at the time) a reasonably priced way to get a DVD Player/Recorder with a VCR. I've owned GoVideo DVD/VCR combo players (not recorders) in the past, and I've been pleased with them. I wanted a device that would actually record from the TV to DVD, however, so that I could watch programs later with greater clarity than those recorded on a videotape.
The good news is that it does just that, and the pictures it records are sharp. It also functions as a good DVD/VCR player.
Here are the problems:
1. When attempting to record timed TV programs, you must make sure that the DVD starts with its power OFF (it will turn itself on with the timer.) Otherwise, the DVD will freeze after awhile.
2. In general, you need to keep the device powered off when not in use. If you keep it on, it will "freeze" the TV picture (but not the audio.) As a result, when you are watching TV, you will see a freeze frame, but hear the ongoing audio.
3. I have had a problem transferring my own personal camcorder (three-hour) tapes from the TV to the DVD. The DVD recorder simply cannot absorb a long recording session -- it is unable to record to file afterwards. I address this problem by stopping the DVD after an hour and a half and letting it "record to file" before continuing.
On balance, I am happy that I own a DVD recorder. If I had to do it over again, however, I'd wait for the next generation, so that they can get the kinks out.
Rating:
Summary: Great till it breaks
Review: I enjoyed this product for three months. The day before my warranty expired, the unit froze up. My only option was to ship it back at their expense in return for a refurbished unit. It is an outrage that an expensive product like this dies in such a short time and you get stuck with some other unit that also broke down. I guess I am lucky it didn't break down one day later. I hope the repaired unit they send back lasts longer.
Rating:
Summary: So far, I am extremely pleased
Review: I finally decided to get in the "digital world", and convert hundreds of VHS tapes (mostly recorded from HBO\Showtime over the years) to DVD. The first thing to understand is: If you have bad VHS (low sound or picture quality)...you will have a bad DVD. It simply transfers the contents of a VHS direct to a DVD in the same manner it was on VHS. You just change the type of media it's stored on. It does not improve the quality of the original VHS. With that being said, most of my tapes are recorded from satellite dish in standard 2 hour play and are in dolby stereo. My DVD record quality has been excellent from this player. I have copied several dozen hi quality VHS tapes to DVD, and they play perfectly on my other 2 DVD players. No skips, etc. But this is only on -R DVD's Note: It will ONLY record on DVD -R & -RW DVD's (not + R or +RW's), so buy the correct DVD format. I have noticed that some copies I've done on -RW DVD's (even in the 'compatible' Video format) will not play at all on one of my DVD players. So I don't recommend -RW DVD's. Operation is simple; manual is good on simple one touch recording...but is quite complex in the sections of custom DVD chapter editing. This is my second GoVideo Product (also have their dual deck VCR). So far I am a very satisfied customer with it's performance.
Rating:
Summary: So far, I am extremely pleased
Review: I finally decided to get in the "digital world", and convert hundreds of VHS tapes (mostly recorded from HBO\Showtime over the years) to DVD. The first thing to understand is: If you have bad VHS (low sound or picture quality)...you will have a bad DVD. It simply transfers the contents of a VHS direct to a DVD in the same manner it was on VHS. You just change the type of media it's stored on. It does not improve the quality of the original VHS. With that being said, most of my tapes are recorded from satellite dish in standard 2 hour play and are in dolby stereo. My DVD record quality has been excellent from this player. I have copied several dozen hi quality VHS tapes to DVD, and they play perfectly on my other 2 DVD players. No skips, etc. But this is only on -R DVD's Note: It will ONLY record on DVD -R & -RW DVD's (not + R or +RW's), so buy the correct DVD format. I have noticed that some copies I've done on -RW DVD's (even in the 'compatible' Video format) will not play at all on one of my DVD players. So I don't recommend -RW DVD's. Operation is simple; manual is good on simple one touch recording...but is quite complex in the sections of custom DVD chapter editing. This is my second GoVideo Product (also have their dual deck VCR). So far I am a very satisfied customer with it's performance.
Rating:
Summary: Crap is more valuable than this piece of _____!!!!!!
Review: I have had 6... count 'em... 6 of these units. All were defective... and all in multiple ways. Most had some of the same problems, but some were excentric and barely worked at all. GoVideo customer service is a joke and the combined IQ of everyone there wouldn't be high enough to post a score on standardized test.
I spent approx, 30 hours on the phone with tech support with my 6 units. They frequently told me that features described in the manual did not work, "but we have a work around!" Well, isn't that lovely! I love buying a $500 piece of equipment that out of the box is defective.
I could go on and on and list the problems with these machines. But let me simplIfy it for you. At some point in using it, absolutely NOTHING actually works on this machine. For those of you who think you have succesful recordings... I can guarantee if you have tried to record anything of length (like 30 mins or more) your 'great looking' video will break up or stop playing or pixelize or just freeze whatver dvd player you are using.
I can not stress what a terrible machine this is. Again... units that work DON'T WORK. You may have to really experiment to find the flaws, but you will. I have experimented with many of the dvd recorders out there (I work in the film industry.) and the pioneers and toshibas work perfectly.
AVOID THIS AT ALL COST!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT BUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT EVEN SIT NEAR ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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