Coby DVD-R1000 DVD Recorder/Player , Silver
Coby DVDR1000
I am an Electrical Engineer with some experience with electronic consumer products, and I have even repaired many of them.  This is the only DVD recorder that I have owned.<br />The price was very low and was an incentive to try it.  I took the first unit back to the store when it failed to read most of my prerecorded DVDs.  The second unit worked better, but was still having trouble some of the time.  After playing around a little, the unit began to work quite well, for some unknown reason.<br />I have noticed in the month that I have owned the product that it can be quite temperamental, but more often than not, works pretty well.  I believe that there are firmware (internal software) bugs in the product.<br />I initially bought some low cost +RW disks before I read the manual.  They wouldn't record!  I then got some Memorex disks which were recommended in the manual, and things got better.<br />To make a long story short, I've learned to live with a very temperamental product because of the low cost.  For example, when recording movies with the timer, they often don't come out, at first.  My next step now, is to record an additional short segment after the movie and, &quot;BOOM&quot;, the disk now works properly with the original recording.  I can erase the additional recording with no problem.<br />The manual has excellent English, but is missing a lot of key information.  For example, it tells you how to format a DVD, but there is no explanation as to why, or when, you might want to do that.  There are still some set-up functions where I haven't a clue as to what they do.  Again the manual says nothing!<br />The quality of the recording is very good as most other reviewers have stated.  The DVDs also play OK on another playback machine that I have.  There are some internal adjustments, I would have to say, however, are not set correctly - the black level, for instance, but they are not too far off.  And I agree with the other reviews that the TV tuner is poor.<br />This is a simple, basic, machine that lacks a lot of features that could be nice (editing functions, for example).  But the simplicity means less complexity for the average user and could be viewed as a benefit.<br />In conclusion, if you are willing to fiddle with some of the temperamental nature of this machine, it may be worth the low cost.  However, I would think that someone with little patience won't like this machine.  A lot more money is probably in order for that person!