Cyberhome CH-DVR1600 DVD Recorder
Using the Cyberhome is an exercise in frustration
I bought this unit at Wal-Mart on sale for just $78, and I was sure I had gotten the deal of the century.  That opinion was soon to change. Setup was fairly straightforward, and I was able to begin recording after an hour or so of trying to decipher the somewhat confusing manual.  The first and second discs I recorded went flawlessly, and played back with beautiful quality. Disc number three was different.  After spending about 4 hours transferring and editing an old Sony 2-hour 8mm video tape to a formatted DVD+R disc, I hit the \\"finalize\\" key.  The unit churned for about 5 minutes, then announced that the disc was \\"unknown\\".  No amount of effort on my part was successful in resurrecting the disc, so I had lost over 4 hours of effort.   <br /> <br />This pattern began to repeat.  The unit would record nicely for a disc or two, then suddenly it would destroy the next disc during the finalize operation.  After losing about 3 more discs in this manner, I decided at that point to use this unit only as a playback unit, and to buy another DVD recorder for my recording needs. <br /> <br />The very next day, I had some friends over, and decided to show them one of the discs that I had made with this recorder.  The disc had been successfully recorded and finalized, and played well.  I popped it in the Cyberhome unit, hit \\"play\\", and waited.  Nothing happened.  After a couple of minutes, the unit announced that the disc was \\"unknown\\".  Say what?  I had already played this disc back before, and it was fine.  Now, the Cyberhome unit has destroyed yet another disc, even though I pressed the \\"play\\" button only. <br /> <br />Since I have misplaced my receipt for this unit, it is now sitting on the workbench in my garage, awaiting my 16 year old son.  He enjoys taking apart electronic gadgets and examining them to see how they work.  I hope he gets at least $78 worth of enjoyment out of this project. <br />