Sylvania DVR90VE DVD Player/Recorder and Hi-Fi VCR Combo
Buy It - Use the right disks !
The first thing I did was to open the box and connect the unit up to the TV so I could get the information needed to get the firmware update. I knew to do this thanks to another reviewer on Amazon. When I called in they were on the phone within about 2 mins. They talked me though how to get the information off the unit needed for them to know what verision I had so they could me the right firmware update. I then just forgot about the DVD side till I got the disk from them. While waiting for the disk I did something realy strange to me - I read the manual. It took about two weeks to get the disks, but I had the VCR side to use till it was there and it helped me learn how to operate the VCR side. So taking that long to get the update kept me from getting lost trying to learn both sides at once. When I got the update I called them to get the instructions to install the update. This took about 5 mins. on hold and about 3 mins. with the person telling me how to install it.    After installing the update I tried to record my first movie, I put in a blank disk ( that I got in the same order, because it was recomended) and got error message saying there was a error loading. I placed at least three different kinds of disks and could not get any of them to work. I was about to send it back when I realized that I was trying to use a CD-R one time and a DVD+RW the second - My fault even after reading the manual I was still using the wrong media types. Once I got the right DVD-R every thing started working. I recorded a old movie in the 4 hour mode and the results were great !    The segustions I have for anyone looking for a unit that transfers shows from VCR to DVD or the other way around is -Buy this one, get the firmware, be sure to only use either a DVD-R or a DVD-RW -( make note of the '-' after the letters DVD. You do not want anything that has a '+'.    Another thing to watch out for is that when Amazon tells you that 'People who bought this product also bought the 'Memorex 4x 700 MB/80-Minute CD-RW Discs (25-Pack Spindle)' these are the wrong type of disk for this device these are CD-' not DVD-. I think the reason they suggest buying them is that so many people have bought the wrong type of disks that the program that makes the recomendations think they go together . Which is one of the reasons I had as many problems as I did ! This also explains some of the bad reviews for this unit.    It is working great once I started using the right DVD's !!!