Rating: 
Summary: Cyberhome, Not Perfect , But Kinda Works
Review: I have had my Cyberhome for over a year now and for the most part it works, well for at least 75% of the time. Of course, the one I have had for a year was my 3rd unit from the store after having returned the previous two. I just decided to keep this one with its flaws. It is frustrating because on some days the unit works fine and on other days it doesn't work at all. I have no idea why. For the most part it's easy to use and when it works the quality is good. Some features on the unit such as the timer have never worked at all. But for the price and the 75% success rate it was worth it.
Rating: 
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:
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: 
Summary: Need help to make my CH-DVR 1500 regionfree!
Review: Could anyone let me know how to make my CH-DVR 1500 regionfree, can't find any info on the web.
Thanks,
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Junk
Review: DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!!!! I purchased mine just over one year ago, have burnt approx. 12-15 DVD's, and never really used it for watching DVD's, then the thing just quit working, no warning, just states no disc, but drawer will not open to load disc.
Rating:
Summary: Yup, just like everyone warned me!
Review: DO NOT BUY THIS!!! I figured, hey how much of a piece of junk can this be. I am an IT director I can figure it out and make it work. So I went out to best buy and picked it up. Everything seemed simple enough to understand and setting it up was easy. The firmware didnt need upgrading it already had 128A. I put in one of the supplied CD+RW and tested it out. Recorded a couple minutes and watched the results, not bad. Next step to tape a program on a CD+R memorex(on their TESTED list). Recorded the show and went to standby, recording done. Pressed the standby and never got past the CYBERHOME Screen. Locked up solid. Best Buy had to take it apart to get my DVD out. DO NOT BUY THIS!!!! Going to try the Philips dvdr75 next.
Rating:
Summary: Junk
Review: Don't buy this. I've had it for a day. Its going back tomorrow. Locks up. Will record for 30 seconds or so and just shuts off. Its destroyed 3 DVD+Rs. Don't waste your money.
Rating:
Summary: Cyberhome 1530 Avoid this one
Review: DVD tray locks up, no release, customer service very poor,unresponsive to emails, warranty returns? You pay shipping, video display fades in and out, finally returned mine for store credit. I would not recommend this if it were under $100. Had they made an effort to assist I might feel better.
Rating:
Summary: No stars if permitted
Review: first make sure you have a TV with rca or s-video inputs else you will need an rf-modulator to connect to an older style tv. you will not see this on the box, but is on the instruction sheet inside. After making connections, turning on for 1st time should have invoked set-up. It didn't. Tried to use the remote for setup - no response. Batteries with unit were dead. Put in new batteries, the only function working on the remote was to turn the unit on and off. Nothing else. Packed up everything and returned for refund.
Rating:
Summary: Now on unit number 2
Review: First things first...I knew going in that this device was not going to be as well built as a Sony, or even higher-end name brand. However, I did at least expect the bloody thing to work correctly. (An incorrect assumption). So quality issues, such as the layout of the remote, the way the DVD drive itself works in loading the DVD, were about what I expected. Clunky! However, you get what you pay for, so I thought, as this is was my first DVD recorder, and I wanted to see if I would even use it....Well you get the idea. Anyway, at first it worked fine. However, I did notice that I had to "reset" the unit by unplugging it from the AC more than once, after it refused to pony up the DVD that was in the drive. Also it ran "hot," but not so I'd worry. However, one day (I had probably only recorded on it 3-4 times), it refused to recognise blank DVD's. It would come up with the display message "Format," then "Error." Disconnecting the unit from the AC did not work. I even upgraded the Firmware from Cyberhome's website. Still no go. Finally I returned it, and got another unit. It seems trial and error regarding quality control is the normal mode of operation at Cyberhome. So now I have a new unit (today). It seems to work fine. It is easliy hackable to all regions (Another reason I purchased this one), and should last a few years. All in all, not bad, but needs work.
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