Home :: Video :: VCRs  

Rewinders
TV-VCR Combinations
VCR-DVD Combinations
Video Converters
Zenith XBV243 Dual Deck DVD-VCR Combo

Zenith XBV243 Dual Deck DVD-VCR Combo

List Price: $299.99
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Decent.
Review: Aforementioned, the unit looks great, and displays a clear picture. The one problem I have, is the fact that the scan and skip for fast forwarding and rewinding for the DVD is on one track and not separate tracks. I happen to own television series on dvd's, and since the scan/skip aren't on separate tracks this creates a problem because when I want to, say, rewind the show I'm watching, the remote will skip me back all the way to the beginning of the show, if I don't press the button ever so slowly to perform the imbedded scan command. I've yet to see dvd's for television series with scene selections (not saying that they don't exist). Had my shows had scene selections, it wouldn't be a big deal, but since they don't, it's very annoying to have to go back to the beginning.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: You've got to be kidding me.
Review: After two calls to Zenith Customer support, it was confirmed that you can not save a program (record weekly Monday 8-9pm) on the timer and watch a VHS tape that can't be recorded on (ie a rental). If you turn off the timer, it deletes your program. So what's the point of entering a recurring program if it can't be saved and turned on and off?
My 10 year old VHS recorder is more accommodating.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Service is HORRIBLE.
Review: After two months the VCR stopped recording video. I brought it in for service and it has been three weeks and Zenith has not repaired yet.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Looks elegant, ease of use could be improved
Review: Did lots of homework before buying this, and it looked like the best unit I could get within my budget. Not a bad choice, but there are some limitations.

First, the good news. It plays DVDs without a flaw and the quality is excellent. It plays videotapes adequately, and the quality is... well, videotape quality. It looks very elegant, with its mirrored front (though that can make the messages it displays harder to read.) It is (and this is very important to me) deliciously quiet in operation.

The not-so-good news concerns the set-up process and the remote.

Set-up can be a bear. Since I'm relatively new to TV/DVD electronics, I did RTFM. I read it religiously. Getting the initial set-up done -- all the right jacks in the right places -- wasn't *too* bad. Any difficulties were to do with my neophyte status, not the machine.

But setting the machine up via the remote is something of a dog's breakfast. I have tried every possible combination of buttons, new batteries, and small animal sacrifice, but no go. The manual blithely says, "Press MENU and the MAIN MENU will appear".

It doesn't, ninety times out of a hundred.

Just to keep you interested via partial reinforcement, the main menu does on occasion actually show up on screen and you can finally Do Stuff like set the date and so on. The rest of the time, the unit itself displays "SET-UP", but nothing in the way of a menu shows up on the TV screen. It makes something basic like setting the time something of a long-term hobby.

Second bad news is the remote. It's very small, it's laid out for the daintiest of tiny fingers, and it's not universal. If you're over thirty, you also require powerful reading glasses to decipher the labels on the buttons. In short, the remote is a lousy piece of design -- a real contrast to the elegance of the unit itself.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pleased with this product for over one year
Review: Fine product for the money. With an extensive library of old VHS tapes, and kids who are enthralled with all the new DVDs available, I turned to this unit almost one year ago. It has performed flawlessly. It is a no-brainer to program, which is good because I don't have a brain for these things normally.

I have used it in conjunction with both my old analog camcorder, and a newer digital model. Fine.

I have used it without cable attached, and with cable running through it. Fine.

VERY IMPORTANTLY...it is easy enough for my kids (under 10) to use it without Dad's help. EVEN MORE IMPORTANT...Mom can use it without Dad's hinderance.

If anyone breaks it now, after one year, well it doesn't owe me anything. Good choice all-in-all.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pleased with this product for over one year
Review: Fine product for the money. With an extensive library of old VHS tapes, and kids who are enthralled with all the new DVDs available, I turned to this unit almost one year ago. It has performed flawlessly. It is a no-brainer to program, which is good because I don't have a brain for these things normally.

I have used it in conjunction with both my old analog camcorder, and a newer digital model. Fine.

I have used it without cable attached, and with cable running through it. Fine.

VERY IMPORTANTLY...it is easy enough for my kids (under 10) to use it without Dad's help. EVEN MORE IMPORTANT...Mom can use it without Dad's hinderance.

If anyone breaks it now, after one year, well it doesn't owe me anything. Good choice all-in-all.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: very few drawbacks
Review: For a combo player, this one is pretty good. If you can get over the silver color .. I'd prefer it in black, the mirrored front is cool though.

Please note .. if you're a serious AV person, this should not be the center-piece of your Home Theater. However it makes a great second/bedroom player.

I bought this unit after returning a Samsung DVD-2000 that I was just not pleased with. This unit's operation was much quieter than the Samsung, plus the DVD's video performance was slightly crisper (using the S-Video jack) and the audio was very noticeably better. This unit has played every disc I've put in it, DVD, CD, CD-RW. It has played a disc of MP3s that were encoded anywhere from 128kbps to 320kbps.

The VHS quality, is well, VHS quality. It's just a standard VCR. Other than HiFi, there are no frills. On the plus side though, it plays tapes fine, isn't loud, and hasn't eaten any of my tapes.

The only problem with this unit is that the auto-clock feature doesn't seem to work, or I have some setting wrong. Either way, that's a problem .. it's a pretty basic feature.

The remote isn't a universal, which is only a minor annoyance.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Zenith dvd vcr
Review: Got the product and it rejected most DVD's. Called company and it was brand new and they are trying to get a new laser for it. It has been in the repair shop since we got it. Very disappointed no wonder the cost was low. Linda T.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Sleek and smooth
Review: Hooked up the unit yesterday and all parts are functional. The unit looks GREAT next to a JVC flatscreen.. Silvers are identical. The vhs is so quiet. No noise when ejecting, playing, rewinding or fast forwarding. The dvd shows excellent picture quality. So far so good. Highly recommended at this very early stage.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Service is HORRIBLE.
Review: I bought this as a Christmas present for my husband in 2002. Immediately upon installation we noticed the unit having problems with pausing during DVD play and the VCR didn't want to rewind the VHS tapes -- you had to press rewind over and over, as many as ten times, to get it to rewind a tape.

We contacted Zenith in early February and were told that although they wouldn't replace it (even though it was only 1 1/2 months old), we could send it in for an upgrade. They told us that the problem was an internal software upgrade to the unit, "in which the latest software version used by DVD manufacturers, is installed" (which begs the question why wasn't the latest software used during manufacture?). Zenith had UPS come and get it, and the last we've seen of it was a month ago, and whenever I try to get a customer service rep on the line, I get disconnected or bounced all over a voice system.

A company should stand behind its product and replace it if it is new and not working properly. This is ridiculous and I won't buy another Zenith product.


<< 1 2 3 4 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates