Samsung DVD-VR357 Tunerless DVD Recorder and VCR Combo
- AvoidItem never worked for copying vcr to dvd.
The DVD stopped working entirely after 6 months.
The VCR stopped working after 9 months.
Avoid this item!
Rating:
- DVD burning died after 13 monthsSamsung DVD-VR357 Tunerless DVD Recorder and VCR Combo
Mine was purchased from Sams over a year ago. The VCR works flawlessly and is heavily used by my technphobe housemate. I recorded a lot of TV using DVD+RW and DVD-RAM. I also used the DVD to play content burned on various computer DVD burners (all LG) to DVD+RW, DVD+R and DVD-RAM. The VR357 was very good about drilling through folders. I just did my first VCR-DVD direct transfer. The quality was exceptional. After that first success the DVD recorder is suddenly toast. I can no longer format or initialize my DVD-RWs or DVD-RAMs. DVD-RWs become corrupt and DVD-RAMs cause the machine to POWER OFF!!!
I am purchasing a replacement from a well known retailer, refurbished. Perhaps it will run longer. I loved it while it worked.
Rating:
- STOP -- DO NOT PURCHASE THIS MACHINE!Shoppers beware - I wish I had been warned about this product.
There is something wrong with the design on this model. I say this because I have plenty of Samsung electronics that function perfectly well, so I know the company's products are generally sound.It's this particular model that is the problem.My first VR-357 deteriorated right from the beginning, eventually losing the ability to record onto dvd altogether.Samsung was unable to repair that machine, so they sent me a reconditioned recorder, same model - and right away it was clear that it had the same exact problems as my first recorder!Please believe me, this model is a headache that you don't need.Do yourself a favor and give this one a PASS.
Rating:
- Excellent ValueThis was purchased for a K-8 school and has gotten plenty of use. It comes with a user-friendly manual and is chock-full of features that all can be quite handy. One of the reasons we got the DVR was so we could digitize some of our aging and often irreplaceable educational materials on VHS. You can copy a VHS tape to DVD with the click of a button. If you have plenty of time, you can also create chapters, but the time required and the fact that the feature is not very forgiving of mistakes, makes advanced transfers a bit frustrating. But I'm not complaining really. Playback is good enough for me (I am not a connoisseur), and none of the teachers have complained. The real genius of this device is that it has a gentle learning curve. You can easily use it right out of the box for basic playback as long as you have some VCR/DVD player experience. This is vital in a school environment where teachers are harried and have little time to prepare a video presentation. We consider the fact that it is tunerless to be a positive feature because it reduces the complexity.
Rating:
- Should have returned it when I could.This was our first Samsung DVD player/recorder and right from the beginning I had misgivings.I connected it to my stereo system with an optical digital audio cable for the full surround sound effect.When I played a prerecorded disk with 5.1 Dolby Digital, my stereo system showed that I was only getting 2ch stereo sound from the DVD player.A quick look at the manual revealed that I needed to change from PCM to Bitstream and turn DTS On.Success, I now have 5.1 surround sound.For simplicity when I don't want or need surround sound, I connected a HDMI cable from the DVD player/recorder to my TV.Now for a big suprise, when I switch to the HDMI input on my TV, I have a picture but it displays the message "HDMI audio not supported"and there is no sound.What gives?I switched from Bitstream back to PCM and now I have sound on my TV through the HDMI cable.If I want 5.1 surround through my stereo I have to change back to Bitstream.This stinks, why didn't they design this machine so I can have audio on my TV through the HDMI cable and 5.1 surround on my stereo without having to change settings back and forth all the time.I have my satellite receiver/DVR connected in a similar fashion.It works the way I want it to and I don't have to change settings when switching between TV sound and 5.1 surround sound from the stereo.This is annoying, but not a deal breaker.
Right from the begining, the 357 was fussy about what recordable disks it would accept.I called tech support and they said try a disk they recommended.This sounded fishy to me but I went with it.The disks they recommended didn't work any better but I found a brand and type that worked and all was well for a couple of months.Then it started getting more and more picky and stopped taking the disks that had been working.Tech support had us reset the machine and recommended using a cleaning disk.Things got better for a little while and then it stopped taking blank disks altogether.Tech support had us send it in under warranty and they sent us back a refurbished unit.This unit worked pretty good for everything execpt DL disks.Neither machine ever finalized a DL disk recording.We have had the refurbished machine for about ten months and it has recently decided not to do any more recording.Another call to tech support.A reset didn't help so they said we could send it in for repair for $90.We've have had enough.Rather than spend $90 to fix a machine that we have never really liked and we have no reason to believe will last more than a few months we are looking for a new DVD recorder.I've read a lot of nice reviews about Toshiba.Panasonic's are claimed to have a LP recording mode that looks substantially better than anyone else's.Panasonic also offers Flexible Recording which opimizes picture quality for the amount of recording time you need.If you can't tell I leaning toward a Panasonic.
In defense of the Samsung 357, when it works, it works reasonably well, the problem is it never did everything it was supposed to and twice now it has completely stopped recording at all.
