Samsung DVD-V3650 Progressive Scan DVD/VCR Combo
Close, but no cigar
It took me a while to make up my mind about this unit.  In general, I've had good luck with Samsung products (printer, cell phone) so I thought I'd give the DVD-3650 a try. I wanted to add DVD capability to my family room system, but didn't want to add another box.  So this unit went in, and the VCR I was using went to the bedroom. <br />At first, I liked the unit overall; I'm fine with the remote; the buttons aren't too small for me, and I have big hands.  The picture on the DVD is as good as necessary for a 30\\" TV.  The VCR picture with pre-recorded tapes is OK.  I like the access to manual tracking adjustment on the remote.  And I haven't had any functional problems with it (over 3 months).<br />But little things bug me.  I use VHS index search a lot, since I make compilations of several kids films on one tape to reduce bulk on trips.  On the Samsung, you have to go deep into the menus to get to index search, instead of it being directly on the remote.  When you finally do get to it via the menu, it is only available as introscan fwd or rev; you can't set it to search, for example, two indexes forward and start playing.  Plus, it only searches at about 8x playback speed, so it's not much faster than just using scan during playback and searching manually.  Its a totally lame implementation of what should be a standard feature.<br />Other minor quibbles; two vertical ribs on the VCR tape door that are apparently for aesthetics make it HARDER to insert a tape correctly.  Not a big deal for an adult, perhaps, but a major frustration for a 4 year old, and there is NO good reason for them to be there.  When the remote is in the VCR mode, the mute button becomes the VCR audio input select button.  Since I use the VCR tuner for watching TV on a regular basis, this is a pain; I have to switch the remote back to TV function, press mute; press it again when the commercial is over, then press VCR again if I want to channel surf.  And how often does the average person want toswitch the audio input on a VCR anyway?  Ever?  THAT is something that should be in a menu.<br />Also, not a problem for me, but could be for many purchasers are the very limited number of TV brands controllable via the remote, far fewer than most other multibrand remotes I've seen.  It would be a good idea to download the manual from the Samsung site to make sure your TV is listed before purchasing if you want to use this feature.<br />More significantly, I've recently discovered the VCR seems to be abnormally sensitive to anti-copy schemes; tapes I made from a DVD on another VCR using a Sima video stabilizer that play perfectly on that and every other VCR I own, have horizontal purple stripes on the Samsung.  <br />All in all, if it played copied tapes properly, I'd be willing to put up with its other weaknesses.  But as it is, even though I'm now stuck with it (didn't discover that problem until after Amazon's return time limit expired), I regret this purchase.