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GoVideo R6530 Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder

GoVideo R6530 Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder

List Price: $349.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: FRUSTRATION + JUNK
Review: Heard good things about GO VIDEO, so i bought it. Nothing but JUNK - wasted a whole weekend trying to figure out the Disc+R.
recorded on the media and upon loading says "NO DISC". even if the disc was loaded. I returned the discs and bought memorex compatible +R. still the same problem after recording.
Display does not work while recording. PBC ? what is it no mention of it in the manual. it is just a button on th eremote.
I will never buy this piece of crap again. stick to Pioneer, Panasonic or Sony.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't Do It - Sending Second Unit Back
Review: I bought the first unit and it wouldn't recognize the R dvd's. I could only record on the RW dvd's. It would not finalize either the R or RW dvd's. Customer service said it was probably the brand of dvd and to try other brands...NOT. I sent it back thinking it was probably a bad unit. Low and behold, I had the same problem with the second unit.

Everything in the other reviews is true...very slow response from the remote, plus I always had to get up and point the remote directly at the unit at a close distance. Poor layout of buttons on the remote.

So, I've wasted my time, endured a lot of frustration and I'm out of return shipping costs for two units. Save yourself the time and frustration.


Rating: 1 stars
Summary: An Exercise in Frustration
Review: I bought the recorder at Costco, and began experiencing problems as soon as I started using it. The setup was easy, the picture quality was fine, and the controls for navigating the DVD were great. Too bad it wasn't enough to make up for all the problems. As one reviewer noted with his unit, one of my first recordings skipped about 10 minutes whenever I played it, although you can see that the 10 minutes had recorded when you rewind. The unit is also a problem if you use a TIVO Series 2 standalone unit. The recorder responds to the TIVO remote. After many hours of experimenting to identify the problem, I discovered that, if I pushed virtually any button on my TIVO remote 3 times (e.g, fast forward), the recorder reads it, and will pause if it's recording, and will start recording if it's in pause. I tried a universal remote instead, and fortunately the DVD recorder did not respond to that remote. The universal remote does not have certain functions that the TIVO remote has, so I had to keep switching between the TIVO remote and universal remote. The recorder also tells you only what percent of your free space is left, not the minutes left, so you have to add up the minutes of all the recordings you have already made to find out if you have room to squeeze in the next recording you want to make. When I ran out of room, the recorder froze on me, then refused to see the disc anymore. The recorder also skimps on useful features, which would have been acceptable if not for the functional flaws and unreliability. As noted above, it will not tell you how many minutes you have left on the disk. Unlike many other DVD recorders, you can't insert your own personalized titles or delete bad recordings from +R disks. Hitting the DISPLAY button does not display anything on the screen while you are recording, like how much time you have left on the disk. The remote buttons are ridiculously small, and are not bunched intuitively (e.g., the tiny record button is several buttons away from the tiny pause button, so cutting out commercials requires much fumbling), and it is very difficult to use the remote in bad lighting. Inexplicably, Go Video decided not to bunch together and emphasize the buttons required to record. The troubleshooting in the user manual is for very basic problems only (e.g., did you put in the disk upside down), and the Go Video website has no troubleshooting information beyond that. All-in-all, not worth the money.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Waste of money - no support either
Review: I bought this 10 months ago. Spent $300. Wasted $300.
The purpose was to dump videos off the TiVo onto disc.
And to record shows that were on at the same time as something else I was recording on my TiVo.
About a month ago, it stopped recording.
It takes forever to decide to open the tray.
Never records when its supposed to anymore.
I would buy something else if I had it to do over again,
and I am replacing the unit today with something more reliable.
Menus stink, too.
Sent an e-mail to support 3 weeks ago, they never even acknowledged they got it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The DVD recorder that disappoints...
Review: I had high expectations for this recorder. Archive my family VHS tapes and share with family and friends. I recorded my first tape 8 times using three diffrent mfg. media - none would play in any other DVD player. I returned it back to QVC today and got a refund. Don't consider this unit...

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The DVD recorder that disappoints...
Review: I had high expectations for this recorder. Archive my family VHS tapes and share with family and friends. I recorded my first tape 8 times using three diffrent mfg. media - none would play in any other DVD player. I returned it back to QVC today and got a refund. Don't consider this unit...

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Would be a fine unit - if it worked reliably
Review: I just sent back my second GoVideo R6530. Consistant problems of unpredictable frequent repeated skipping, sometimes several chapters at a time. First one did it on two different brands of DVD+RW blanks, including the one that came with the unit. Thought it was just a dud unit and sent it back to the vendor for a replacement. Second one the same. Tried it with 4 different DVD blank brands, including RiData blanks (the same as came with the unit) and it was even worse. I don't know if it was a bad batch of units sent to the vendor or what.

My demands on the unit are not that great - copy some VHS tapes to DVD and some movies from TV (got a PERFECT copy of The Day The Earth Stood Still off of satellite - GREAT movie! - that is, until the last 15 minutes where the whole story comes together - when the DVD began hanging up, then skipping all over the place making it unwatchable - oddly enough, when I played it in reverse, it went just fine - but that's a tough way to watch a movie!).

Overall, the feature set of the unit was fine. I particularly liked the JPEG capability (it showed all 1000 of my last trip images just fine, even though they were divided into subdirecties - although it didn't obviously recognize the subdirectories, it just continued from one directory to the next without a break. Didn't particularly like the remote. It was small with small, closely spaced buttons, twitchy, had to be aimed directly at the receiver, and the unit often didn't always give feed back ("...I pushed the button...is anything going to happen...? - Oh - there it goes..."). There is one button that doesn't appear to do anything at all. I sent a detailed email to their tech support about my problems and got an automated reply of Frequently Asked Questions. Telephone help was quick and responsive but not much help either ("...never heard of that before..."). They did offer to immediately send me a replacement unit, but, after two bad ones, I decided to try another brand.

Finally, I can't say the looks of the unit particularly excited me - a full mirror front with a tray and a couple of buttons, one of which turns of the unit completely, as if it were unplugged (rather than just a standby mode) which was a pain if I had turned if off and forgot about it. Just when I get into couch potato mode I realize I have to get up agan to punch the On button. Not serious beefs though. Clearly there's a problem with my particular units - no one would deliberately sell something like this that simply doesn't work. However, with that said, I feel I can't chance it again. Too much of a pain. From now on, if I can't find a (positive) review of it in a popular A/V magazine, then I won't get it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I liked the specs on this item and the price at Costco was right, but unfortunately this is a very cheaply made recorder. It connects to your TV just like a VCR, but like an ultra cheap VCR the remote control and on screen menus are very poorly implemented.

Even with fresh batteries you need to be close to the recorder to get it to respond to the remote. Sometimes buttons must be pushed again and again. The remote contains a lot of buttons, but Go Video skimped on size so the buttons are small and close together.

On screen menus are blurry and use small print so you need to be quite close to the screen. You'll be near the screen anyway given the remote's very limited range.

The video quality appeared to be worse than the VCR I replaced it with. There was none of the sharpness that you'd expect from a DVD even with a store bought DVD movie.

Timed recordings went well.

The last straw for me was the media. The manual states that it will work with all DVD+R and DVD+RW media that adhere to the standards, blah blah blah. I bought HP DVD+R disks and the unit responded with an error.

This unit is priced relatively low for a home DVD recorder, but if this is the best they can do for the price, skip it until they get the bugs out and bring the quality up.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: JUST A BAD MACHINE PERIOD.
Review: My Sister bought this model and had nothing but trouble.
Seems it doesn't like the same disc twice.
Plays once then not again.
Blank disc OK, then not OK.
You can keep buying other brand disks and trying to write
to them until you go crazy.
Just bad electronics..
Don't waste your time & money.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: QUITE THE RIPOFF!! DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH GO VIDEO!!
Review: Paid $349.00 for this on the Home Shopping Network and thought I had gotten a bargain - UGH!! - Warranty only good for 90 Days from Go Video and after changing batteries several times because of slow opening and closing it stopped working altogether - this was of course just after the 90 days!! When I called Go Video they said I could send it back for repair at a cost of $75.00 plus my cost to ship and they would extend the warranty for another 30 days thereafter - BIG DEAL!! So now I have a useless piece of junk that I will probably try and have repaired - can't see spending another hundred dollars to have the same thing happen over again - What a Ripoff!! GO Video? No Way!!


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