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CyberHome CH-DVR 1500 Progressive-Scan DVD+R/+RW Recorder and Player (Silver)

CyberHome CH-DVR 1500 Progressive-Scan DVD+R/+RW Recorder and Player (Silver)

List Price: $299.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Works great with Tivo
Review: I bought the unit yesterday and that same night, I started archiving Tivo recordings onto DVD+RW. Great tool to unload your "Now Playing" archive and burn it on portable media.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Better than the BIG name DVD recorders
Review: Before I buy, I research everything completely and look through all the product reviews (Amazon and elsewhere).
I read some good things and some "horror stories" about some Panasonic and Philips DVD recorders that I was really interested in. The Sony GX7 looked pretty good, but way over-priced. The Philips R-75 had pretty much what I was looking for, and was $450, but had many reports of very pood customer service and very difficult controls and instructions. At this point, I decided to just buy a cheap player and wait a while for these companies to improve their products and get their prices down. While looking for players at W.M. I found the CyberHome CH-DVR-1500. It looked like an "el-cheapo" model, but after reading the reviews on it, I thought I would take a chance and buy it. At least it would be easy to return if there were any problems. After getting it home and set-up, I was REALLY surprised (for a recoder priced under $300). I haven't had it real long
yet, but I have done EVERYTHING with it that it was capable of doing. And I have found NO negative points. Here are a few of the many positives........
---complete, consise, and easy to follow instructions. They tell you, in "normal" language, how to do everything. Best of all, when you do what the manual says, IT WORKS!!!
---easy to understand remote - with most of its features ALSO available on the front panel of the unit itself. You don't have to rely only on the remote.
---every A / V input and output that you need to hook-up your other equipment. Rear and front inputs also.
---great picture quality from boughten DVDs and "home-made" ones from TV and VHS tape copying. It gives you 5 different choices of recording quality and hours per disc. HQ-1hr (highest), SP-2hrs, LP-3hrs, EP-4hrs, and SLP-6hrs. The first two are very good. The next two are acceptable. The last one (SLP) is not that great, but viewable, ok for some things.
---some reviewers said that their units developed a lot of heat and gave off an electrical smell. My unit got no warmer than the average VCR does. I had a slight electrical smell, but only from being new. It was less each day I used it. No problem really.
---it has a lot of other features that you wouldn't expect to find on a $300 unit, like -- Zoom, auto chapters, segment repeat, commercial skip, and others.
I guess what I liked the best about this recorder is that it did EVERYTHING that it said it could and in an EASY to follow and well explained way. The best way for you to really find these things out is to get one and try it. Most stores will
easily let you return them. Read the rest of the reviews that you find here. All of the positive comments are true. The few negative ones I found to be wrong. Good luck. For only $300, you'll like it !!!!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Tray lockup disc removal help.....
Review: Tray lockup from discs left in recorder overnite, or unattended, usually result in tray lockup. I have had this problem, and have found the removal difficult.

From another forum, this user has a workaround for tray lockup:

Turn power off in back. Press and hold STOP button on front of unit, while powering back on....tray should then open. He insists it works!

I will test this workaround myself by purposely creating a lockup situation....worth a try!

Cheers!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: great product!
Review: I have had this product for less than a day and so far I am very pleased! Easy to use and it takes no time to record! Record as you watch!

Be aware of:

This is a DVD+RW recorder. That means it records onto DVD+RW and DVD+R media, not onto -R or -RW media, though it plays all media. There are a number of DVD players and DVD-ROMS that do not support this type. Fortunately, my regular DVD player and laptop DVD-ROM support every format. Also, be aware that most DVDs you wont be able to copy. They are copy protected. Not all, but most. Also, there is a good amount of VHS movies that are also copy protected (though this number is MUCH less than the DVDs that are protected). Though there are products to eliminate copy protection, they usually cost just as much as the player itself. I have never used one before, so I don't know much about them. The main focus of this player is to record directly from TV and home videos.

This is an amazing product for the price.

If what you're mainly looking to do is copy DVDs, then I recommend the program DVDxCopy, along with using your DVD+RW and/or DVD-RW drive.

Have fun!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Almost worth the aggravation
Review: Bought the CyberHome Ch-DVR 1500 at Walmart. Two weeks good use and then it was refusing about half the blank discs I put in. Had good luck with Maxell, then tried store brand and Memorex. Had some good results doing vhs-c tapes to dvd. Then it got to reading error every time I inserted new blank. Restarting unit didn't help. Returned to Walmart yesterday, and bought a replacement, hoping it would be better. This unit did fine today redoing vhs tapes. Have not tried tv timer yet, the family movies were why I wanted unit.

Will update this review in a couple of weeks.

If you can stand the frustration of recording something for two hours and then finding it won't finalize the disc, or wont format a brand new disk and you waste several blanks, try it. I haven't heard that an expensive model is any better than this cheap one. When it makes a successful dvd of an irreplaceable family tape it serves its purpose.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I have one that works!
Review: Update of two previous reviews...this is my second unit--the first was a dud-- and this one does everything it is supposed to do. I hope it will last. There is not one thing in the manual I have not tried with complete success, including editing titles, etc. I did no upgrades at all.

No, the picture is not what one would expect as a DVD quality. The color is a little flat and it does not have the resolution you might want from a dvd. However, it did copy all my vhs-c tapes, old special tv event tapes, and live concert tapes we have had for years. If I play these dvds in my RCA dvd player the quality is better for viewing and I have archived irreplaceable tapes.

Since everything I am recording is in analog form and my cable service is not digital yet I am satisfied with the results. A movie from tv cable has almost the same resolution as a SP vhs recording, and is space saving storage.

Have been using constantly since March 1 and have done about 150 recordings on various brands of discs.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: And yet mine just keeps going, and going, and going....
Review: I had one of these recorders which was a dud. Purchased another and it has been perfect in every way since Feb. 29th. (Had posted review previously with more info.) It does everything it is supposed to, and I even use mostly Kypermedia (cheapie) discs. As a matter of fact, it is archiving an old vhs tape right now--the fourth since yesterday. Have done a total of about 150 I think, as well as doing tv programs.

Yes, just plain dumb luck I guess! I love it. I gave 4 stars since I did have to return the first one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Save your money,,,,,,,,,Cyberhome is Garbage
Review: I bought this peice of junk three months ago from my local Radio Shack. Right out of the box I had trouble, the unit did not record to any of the discs I bought only to the ones supplied with the machine.So I went to the cyberhome web site and left them an E-mail. Better than a month went by before I received a reply from Cyberhome explaining that I had to use 4x type DVD's, Ok so I went out and got some 4x DVD's. All was fine for the first two DVD-RW discs, the third recorded really great to until I tried to play it back, NOTHING and I mean nothing this disc was trash,six hours of My time waisted not to mention the cost of the DVD. Bad disc? I'll try the brand new pack of DVD-R discs that just cost Me twenty some odd bucks Again recorded like a pro playback zippo try the disc in a nother DVD player not a thing the CH-DVR1500 did nothing to this disc but ruin it. Tried another DVD-RW disc just for the hell of it worked like a champ on record and playback. A mionr glitch? The recorder not set up properly? Dream on, Now for the icing on the cake. Tonight I go to remove that last disc that worked so I open the tray, remove the disc, and go and put a new blank disc in the tray closes and all hell lets loose. The display reads "ch-oo4 mp" and that's it. unplug the unit and restart it, now the thing spends five minutes reading the disc and then tells Me there is NO disc in it. Can't eject the disc, can't pull up the menu, can't even watch the damn TV. And to think all of this cost Me around three hundred dollars.
Do what I should have done, spend the extra money and buy yourself a real DVD recorder like Sony,RCA,Panasonic ect.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Cyberhome 1500 DVD Recorder Doesnt Work Bad Design
Review: I had a Cyberhome 1500 for less than a week when it started to lock up the disk drive and need reseting to do anything. This was the case for several weeks until it began to lock up for hours at a time and COMPLETELY UNRESPONSIVE TO THE DISK DRIVE.
As the last straw...if failed completely. After several phone waits exceeding 45 minutes each, I was told I would get a new one if I sent it back. WRONG. Instead I was contacted by a RUDE and EXEEDINGLY DISTASTEFUL individual who said I need to send $89.95 to get it REPAIRED not replaced. Cyberhome products are unrealiable, the service stinks and the staff are RUDE. Nothing good to say. I will NEVER buy another Cyberhome product. I promise.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: this product sucks and so does the company
Review: i bought this product and have had nothing but trouble. i couldn't get a response from their website either. i got the phone number from the company where i bought the product and waited for 45 minutes to get a rude customer service rep. i sent back the product (6months old) with a check for $89 and all of the wires and remote. got back just the machine without any way of using it. don't buy this product unless you want frustration and to spend more money!!!!!!


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