Sylvania DVR90VE DVD Player/Recorder and Hi-Fi VCR

Now you can give as good as you get: Sylvania's DVR90VE dual-recording combination DVD recorder and VCR lets you copy VHS tapes to DVD and DVDs to VHS tapes at the touch of a button (except where prohibited by copy-protection technology). Record your favorite television shows and treasured home videos to either videocassette or high-quality, long-lasting DVD-R (write-once) and DVD-RW (rewriteable) discs.
The recorder's built-in NTSC TV tuner and onscreen user interface permits up to eight timer recordings over a one-year period, with its six DVD recording speeds providing between one hour and an amazing 10 hours of content on each single-sided 4.7 GB recordable DVD. You can even select and compile the best footage to commit to disc: the recorder's handy editing features include auto playlist creation, project titling, title deletion and editing, and scene deletion. Amazon.com Product Description

The DVR90VE's versatile playback features include progressive-scan video outputs and support of MP3 CDs so you can easily shift your digital music enjoyment from the den to the living room. A variety of video and audio inputs--including front-panel composite- and S-video connections for fast, temporary hookups--grant connection to virtually all televisions and home theater components.
Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the DVR90VE's DVD player stands ready to deliver the full playback potential of your DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.
What's in the Box
DVD dual recorder, a remote control, remote batteries, audio/video cables, and a user's manual.

Sylvania DVR90VE DVD Player/Recorder and Hi-Fi VCR

Sylvania DVR90VE DVD Player/Recorder and Hi-Fi VCR

Test report

Great Unit, Very Poor customer service from Funai/Sylvania, April 20, 2005Reviewer:B. LaPierre "photo techie" - Test Report:
I found this unit to be a great value for the price. Setup, DVD recording, timer recording, etc. were a snap. The audio and video quality of the DVD 4 hour hour recordings that I made was excellent. I was also very pleasantly surprised to not that the unit recorded closed captioning.

I made the mistake, however, of purchasing the item from my local Sears store and thinking that I would be able to get a firmware upgrade from Fundai/Sylvania.

There IS a firmware upgrade available which will enable you to uses 8X DVD discs. Unfortunately the Funai/Sylvania/Sears customer service is incredibly poor. Upon contacting the Funai/Sylvania customer service, after being on hold 40 minutes the first time and almost 20 minutes the second time, I was told that I had to contact the Sears customer service line. I did, was put on hold again, and finally was given a phone number for a local Sears customer service center. When I called them yesterday morning, they told me that they handled physical parts of the unit only and told me to call Funai/Sylvania again. I did. They again told me to go back to Sears, who in turn told me to go back to Funai/Sylvania, who again told me that they could not help me. They told me that "contractual oblicagions" would not allow them to give me the upgrade.

I am going to try to contact the manager of the Sears store where I purchased the unit to see if I can get any help. If not, the unit is going back.

While the unit is great, the customer service that I have received from both the manufacturer and retailer has been abomniable.




Good DVD but bad VHS, April 13, 2005 Reviewer:Bozo127 (Roseville CA) - Test Report: After only two months and not a great deal of use a child's VHS tape fresh out of the package tried to eject immediately after being loaded. But it wouldn't eject and then reloaded itself. This process continued over and over until the unit was unplugged from the wall. It also completely rewound a tape off the reel on a previous use (which I had thought was just an old tape becomming weak). Unit is now in the shop for removal of the tape and repair. The DVD functions seemed to work fine but could not create my own titles unless I limited myself to the letters a,d,g,j,etc. Used Memorex 1x-2x -RW with great success. Found no trouble getting these through Amazon at a good price. Based on other reviews I may have to stock up now.



Does the job., April 10, 2005Reviewer:Olozbal "olozbal" (Williamsburg, VA United States) Test Report: Like most people, I have a bunch of VCR tapes with lots of memories on them and no way to get them to last a while longer since we all know VCR's are gone soon. I had priced services that transfer the stuff for you and it rapidly approached the cost of this machine. Combine that with the fact I needed a new DVD player and this worked out fine.

Look, this is an el cheapo unit but it does the job. I have been recording DVD's all weekend and it has been working great. Fairly simple to do. Once you figure out the specific steps it pretty much does everything you need. I read reviews saying the DVD-R's don't work and such. I use Memorex DVD-R's that are 4x rated and I bought them through Amazon (actually through "Dynadirect" but bought through Amazon) for $15 for a 25 pack bundle. They work just fine.

I have not done much else with this unit like watch movies or anything so I can't review on that. I'd buy it again.




Important Information, April 4, 2005 Reporter :J. Binder (Chicago, Illinois) - Test Report: A very important announcement!!!!!!

Funai Corporation who makes DVD Recorders under the following brands
Sylvania, Emerson, Symphonic, Funai, and even Sharp has released a free firmware upgrade so you can use up to 8x dvd-r or 8x dvd-rw and almost any brand as well.All You have to do is Call Customer service and ask for the upgrade disk.

I purchased this machine in December of last year and it has worked flawlessly for me. I read the instruction manual and the reviews here and knew what disks to use and what not to use. It amazes me how many people do not read the manuals or the reviews here.

The machine is great and after the upgrade it is no longer picky on disks. I am tired of people giving this machine a bad rap. People read your manuals reviews here and call customer service for your free upgrade.

I paid $229 for this machine with free shipping and it is a great bargain


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DVD compatibility report, March 20, 2005 Reporter:c ag - Test Report: First, I have the Symphonic version of this machine from Wal-Mart for $249. I believe the only difference between it and the Sylvania is that the Symphonic does not have progressive scan. I have seen the Sylvania version at Sam's also for $249, I couldn't find the Sylvania when I bought the Symphonic. I have used the following brands of DVD and found that ALL of these brands work on all of my home DVD players as well as my daughters Chrysler Pacifica factory DVD player(more on that later).
Memorex DVD-RW 1x-2x Wal-Mart 5-pack $9.88
Memorex DVD-R 4x Wal-Mart 5-pack $6.88
Verbatim DVD-R 4x BestBuy 25-spndl $12.99
Players:
Dual LCD two screen(7") Mobile DVD from WalMart
Emerson VCR/DVD combo
Kenwood 6-disc player
Chrysler Pacifica factory DVD ** After loading the DVD in the player, you must wait a full 2 min apprx for the menu screen to show up, don't need to press MENU or PLAY, just wait the 2 minutes. It plays all the -RW and -R mentioned above, with multiple Titles.
In 4 hour mode the picture is excellent, absolutely no complaints whatsoever. 6hr mode - Fair. More than 6-hr mode, forget it.

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Very pleased!, March 16, 2005 Test Report: Sam Courtney (Dallas, tx) - I thought I might be disappointed when it arrived based on other reviews but not so! Very impressed - easy to use, started dubbing VHS tapes immediately w/o even looking at the manual. This was exactly what I wanted for the price I paid - which was $249. If you need this type of unit, VHS to DVD dubbing, then don't pass this up! It also has easy connection to copy from camcorder to DVD!





Sylvania DVR90VE DVD player/recorder, March 13, 2005 Test Report:jappy3 - Warning!!! I have had nothing but trouble from the VCR on this machine. It eats tapes and now it won't even accept them. The owner's manual gives no hints for troubleshooting the VCR. What a waste of money!!!




Easy-to use, quality product, March 4, 2005 Test Report: Martazz (Los Angeles) - Highly recommended recorder. Excellent results, amazingly easy to use.
My only quibble is that the manual does NOT tell you exactly what types of DVD blanks to use. (I bought DVD-R 8X--but recorder needs DVD-R 4X) However, the free Sylvania 800 phone operator quickly gave me the correct information. I exchanged the DVDs, and now copying my favorite VHS tapes to DVD for posterity.




Scared after reading some reviews? DON'T BE!, March 4, 2005 Test Report: Broadcast Engineer (Overland Park, KS) - I ordered the DVR90VE on March 1st. Then I read some reviews that had me quite concerned. I downloaded the manual and called Funai Tech Service about what I read on the reviews.
Simply stated they told me to use 4X DVD-R and 2X DVD-RW. They said any brand would be fine, just make sure of the two types.

I found 100 4X DVD-R on sale at Office Depot for $32/100. I decided to get them before the unit arrived. The machine arrived at 9:30 and I had my first dub VCR-DVD at 10:30. Finalized it and played it in my portable DVD and two others.

The video quality was very good.
Now I will look at how to edit the titles etc.

Bottom line is that using the 4X DVD-R any brand works. How available they will be in the years ahead..... seen any 8 tracks lately? This is a real bargin price if you have loads of family tapes and you want to get them to DVD before they flake away.

Be careful of your old tapes as you might have to clean the heads of the VCR periodically, but you would have to do it with any old VHS tape.

*****NOTE****** 4/19/05 I installed the free upgrade Funia to work with -R 8X and it works fine. I have transfered hours and hours of old VHS tapes of the family and it works great on VHS and DVD side. I have cleaned the VHS heads a few times from tapes I that are 20+ years old, but that is to be expected.

Could not be happier with the service from Funia. I have about 300 dvd-r 4X that I bought on closeout before I knew about the upgrade, but I know it works on 8X after I use all of these 4X up. I noticed the price went up by $30, but it is still a good buy at the current price.



BE SMART! DON'T BUY THIS MACHINE!, March 2, 2005 Test Report: Shon R. Edwards (Layton, UT USA) -
I've had many problems with this, as have others. Yes, there are some pluses. It was very easy to set up and begin use of the machine. Also, I enjoyed the great variety of recording speeds available, which I haven't seen yet with other machines. Notwithstanding some of the good points, I would never advise anyone to purchase this particular product.

I had problems recording from the beginning. I wasted a few discs before calling the manufacturer. The only information I was given was that I shouldn't use Sony or Memorex, but said I should really stick to TDK (limitation to a single brand was my first warning signal), with the possibility of using two other brands, if I wanted. (The only testing performed on the machine, the manufacturer told me, was on the three types of DVDs.) After a while, I figured out that the actual problem was that the machine was recording at all speeds except SP :).

Another reviewer said the same machine was being sold under another name at Wal-Mart, so I returned the one I had initially purchased from Amazon and bought the Wal-Mart version, which actually did prove to be pretty much identical to the first, and for almost the same price. The VHS playback, however, was horrible on both machines. I had recorded some high quality tapes at SP, but was getting drop-outs and the screen looked screwed up and was doing some strange things (no, it wasn't anti-copying devices screwing up copyrighted material). At first, I thought my VHS tapes had just been degrading in quality over time. I took the second machine back to Wal-Mart, however, and bit the bullet and got a Panasonic machine at Circuit City for $350.

Wow! Did things change. I had no problem, whatsoever, using any type of -R DVD I tried ("up to 8X" DVDs mentioned in some of the reviews worked fine - Memorex, Maxell, whichever brand I tried). My VHS quality was back where it used to be again. My weekend of dubbing was going much more smoothly.

This is one area where you have to pay for quality. The Panasonic brand is great, as well. You won't break the bank, but you'll get consistent good results over time, if my experience with Panasonic holds true. Take my advice -- don't go for a quick cheepie. Save a few bucks from a few more paychecks and get something that will actually work.



Nice and easy, December 1, 2004 Test Report: Lawrence Bernhardrt (Brewster, MA United States) - Like a lot of you have attested to in these reviews, this machine is really easy to hook up and use. I made my first transfer of VHS to DVD and it was as easy as advertised by many of you. I only wish someone had warned me to get DVD-RW discs. I ordered DVD+RW and they don't work. After I read the book again, I found out the hard way they are not supported.

My DVDs from my camcorder don't run either. The only DVD player that they play on is Sony. Big surprise as the camcorder is a Sony.

Once I get the hang of this, recording both time and immediate, I think I will be a happy camper although I am pretty happy now.



Excellent Purchase, October 4, 2004 Test Report: Cinkoe (NJ) - I found this unit easy to hook up (even though I have a satellite box and cable). Though there's a lot to read in the manual, I was able to start recording my VHS tapes to DVD on the same day (probably within an hour). So far the unit is doing exactly what I wanted it to do. The DVD recordings have the same quality as the VHS tape from which you are recording. The only thing I have been unable to figure out is how to get rid of commercials that might be on my VHS (when taping to DVD-R). I have yet to try recording to DVD-RW, which might be different since it is rewritable. I am definitely pleased with this purchase.


Super Value, June 25, 2004
Reviewer:
"jimmeyer" (Tucson, AZ USA) -
This was one where I was hoping for the best but a bit dubious of what I might end up with at this price. As it turns out I was very pleasantly surprised. Easy to use with clear instructions, I was dubbing home videos to dvd 15-20 minutes out of the box. Easy hook up with digital/HD cable involved. High quality DVD picture, both playing and recording (dubbing from VCR or recording from TV). VCR portion does a nice job too. The copies and recordings I have made using DVD-R media work perfectly on 3 different DVD players in my house (each a different brand at a different price point bought at different times), so compatability doesn't seem to be an issue. I would have to say that the quality I got was much more than I expected for the money.


Best Value for the money, June 6, 2004 Test Report: Roger (San Francisco) - Copies tapes with the touch of one button to Disc. I can put up to (5) 2 hour vhs tapes on to one disc and save money and my valuable home movie collection of my children. The menu is easy to use, as I only have to press one of 4 arrow buttons and then hit enter to record and set up timer record programming. The picture on screen display is simple to understand and the record and sound quality are excellent. I was told by a salesperson at a giant electronics retailer this unit is made by the same company making Hitachi , Phillips and Sharp units , selling for much more. Lowest price Ive found. Thanks for the great buy Amazon.



Easy!, November 21, 2004 Test Report: D. Fava - I had been looking to get one of these for a long time. This machine is really easy to use. It records really easily from vcr to dvd and back. I especially like the fact that I don't have to rewind. It records really great quality from the tv too. Then all you have to do is delete. It is great.

The only bad part is that the remote is very cheap and fragile!
Seems like they can do better.



Careful - Works Great - But PICKY about which DVDs you use!, November 9, 2004 Reviewer: R. Deck - I love this recorder! It is so easy to use. However, the horror story is in the DVDs that it will use. Amazon.com recommended DVD-R discs from DateLifePlus at the time of my purchase (on Amazon from Office Depot).... so of course, I bought them too! However, the recommendation was wrong! These recommended DVDs will NEVER work in this machine. After tedious calls, and several attempts, I FINALLY got through to a customer service rep who explained that this machine will ONLY record on DVDs that are 1X or 2X, not the 8X that was recommended with my purchase. Unfortunate. You will love the ease of operating this once you get the right DVDs!



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