Samsung DVD-VR320 DVD Recorder
Too Early to go for the High Dollar Models this works fine!
I almost paid a lot more for this model.  You see they had it at SAM's, and I hadn't seen what the costs of these combo units were, so I thought it was a good deal. Thank goodness for the web when comparison shopping.  Now Samsung makes a more expensive model at near twice the price, and it does have features that are supposed to support those high def. sets.  It took a bit of deciding, but ultimately why pay for something that's not really set yet. <br /> <br />It's kind of interesting all the schemes you get for devices that tell you they are ready for the future, but really are not. I had a Sony big screen (two piece projection model) TV I won in a contest back in 1981. Stereo TV was just in its infancy then, and this model was listed as \\"stereo ready\\".  It's not unlike all the companies that sell people HDTV ready which really means: \\"we neglected to include the HDTV tuner to save cost.\\" The TV I had accomplished its Stereo ready, not by having some special magic that would receive and play stereo when it was broadcast.  What it had was separate monaural amplifiers so you could play the right, and left side from some other stereo device.  It really wasn't stereo ready, it just couldn't afford to market itself as mono, being an expensive big screen and all. <br /> <br />It seems Sony along with the other companies, are still arguing over the standards they will ultimately release to the public for High Definition DVD.  I'm guessing recording, playback and compatibility issues will be the order of the day when its finally announced. Plus with Sony now a major player in the property rights theater, I expect copy protections to be quite stringent.  What this means to you and I is that a High Def recorder bought today will be fairly useless when the standard comes out.  Most current DVDs play at about 480P on progressive scan, so they're not bad.  The higher definitions will come later down the line, so there is no reason to spend the money now. <br /> <br />As for the model here at hand, I complement it for the nice display they have on the front.  It has reasonably simple operation, you are gonna get some complexity with a device of this type. Perhaps it was simpler for me since the remote looks like a near clone of the Sony WEGA remote.  I think remote control companies must be making for several manufacturers these days, I doubt Sony and Samsung have that much of a connection.  This unit does a nice job of direct copying of VHS cassettes to DVDs.  I bought it for that primary task, as I have a lot of home movies and other stuff to shrink down from tape.   <br /> <br />The process is not well suited for DVD copies off TIVO or some other digital recorder.  I recommend using your computer to perform those tasks.  Computers have much more memory, and likely a faster DVD recorder than these stand alone models, at least at this price.  I believe it will take much less time that way. Still for a stand alone slave, this is a decent unit. The VCR is a four head model, and of fairly high quality, so the copies come out fine if the source is up to par. <br /> <br />This device is nothing really especially innovative so it can't get that last star from me, but for what it is I couldn't expect too much better for the price.  One more thing that shouldn't escape your attention.  The price on this is lower than many player combos have been the past few years.  It's play quality is quite good, so even if you rarely take advantage of the recording capability, you're buying a darn fine combo player too.