Samsung DVD-V8500 DVD/VCR Combo
Sounds great, but VCR doesn't work as advertised
I thought my unit was broken when I first <br />hooked it up, because switched to VCR it still <br />showed the \\"blue greeter\\" screen for DVD. I <br />heard somebody else had this experience with <br />the S-Video, so I tried Composite Video <br />(yellow RCA) - same story. Only when I <br />hooked up the RF-out jack (yuck!) could I <br />see the VCR video. Oddly, I could hear <br />the audio on Line-Out, I just couldn't use <br />either of the Video jacks for Line-Out. I <br />thought my unit might be broken, so I <br />called their customer support. <br /> <br />After hanging up on me several times, they <br />eventually said you can only view the VCR <br />on RF-out. Since I have Tivo, I don't need <br />to hook up my Cable to the VCR - I just want <br />to watch tapes. So my cable is already <br />hooked up to my TV/Tivo. I could hook up <br />the RF-out to a 2nd RF-in on my TV, but who <br />wants to switch back and forth between <br />RF-in jacks on my TV, and maybe leave it <br />in the wrong state and mess up a Tivo <br />recording? Time to send it back. Note the <br />User manual mentions nothing of this. It <br />makes it sound like S-Video should work for <br />everything. <br /> <br />I'm still not certain my unit isn't simply broken or <br />misconfigured.  Why would Line Out switch the Audio <br />if it can't supply the video? <br /> <br />But their Tech Support won't listen or help, and tells me this <br />is how it's supposed to work.  Sheesh. <br /> <br />If somebody has a different experience, please share it, because <br />if it actually *worked* I'd give this unit 5 stars.