Samsung DVD-VR320 DVD Recorder
Good for some things, not for others
I mostly bought this unit to back up a library of old VHS tapes onto DVD's, as well as digital video tapes from my camcorder. I paid about $170.   So far it has been a snap to back up the VHS tapes, and that is this unit's strong point.  You pretty much pop in the blank DVD-r, the VHS tape, and press one button!  The results are fine.  However, I was also hoping to archive my favorite TV shows onto DVD from my satellite PVR (similar to Tivo).  Since there is no digital input on this unit, the signal goes from the digital TV/satellite box, through an RCA cable to the digital DVD recorder.   The result is the programs appear \\"dubbed\\" when they play back (ie. the sound and video are slightly off sync).  Another problem is, according to the manual, only certains brands of DVD-r's will work with the unit, and only at 4x speed.  Well, try finding 4x DVD-r's these days!  And be warned, I ordered a spindle of 4x DVD-r's from Amazon, and they sent 16x.  I have heard other similar stories.  A notice was included in the box that stated that post-Sept 2005, the unit is now compatible with certain higher-speed DVD-r's, but it did not specify the brands or the speeds.  A query to Samsung was answered by a totally unrelated answer, and I can't find the answer anywhere on line.  I have been using Sony 8x DVD-r's.  They work fine for the VHS to DVD copy, but as I said before, the transfer from TV is not so great.  I have not as yet tried transfer from my camcorder, or using DVD-RW or DVD-RAM.  As for playing back the DVD'r's, they did not work on my older DVD player that plays DVDrs made from other sources.   However, they did play on the newer DVD players I tried.  Also, Mac users beware, their firmware updates are only for Windows platforms so far.