Sylvania DVR90VE DVD Player/Recorder and Hi-Fi VCR Combo
Excellent results, and the unit is going strong six months after purchase
I bought this DVD/VHS recorder in December 2004 and have recorded over 200 DVDs with it. I started with VHS to DVD transfers, to preserve VHS tapes, and now I use it primarly to record programs from cable (Turner Classic Movies, etc.). The unit has given six months' of excellent service thus far in heavy service; I record on it nearly every day.     Until recently, I was using only DVD-R 4X disks. I found an on-line source for Memorex brand 4X's for about $25 for 50 disks. However, the handwriting seemed to be on the wall that 4X's will become harder to find in the future.     I called Sylvania customer service and they shipped my a free upgrade disk, which allows the unit to use 8X DVD-R's. Customer Service walked me through the upgrade process on the phone, which took less than five minutes (they prefer that you call them BEFORE you insert the disk so they can guide you through it).     The unit can now read Staples-brand DVD-R 8X disks, which I had on hand at home for use in my computer's DVD burner. I haven't tried other brands of 8X yet, because my current Staples spindle is a 100-pack, but I see no reason to think that other quality brands won't work. DVD+R can NOT be used, however: the upgrade allows 8X disks to be used, but only DVD- (DVD minus) disks, not DVD+.     Recordings made at the one or two hour speed (SP) are of such high quality that the finished product is difficult to distinguish from a live broadcast. I generally use the 8-hour speed to cram four movies on one disk, and the results are still superior to VHS. At the 10-hour speed, picture quality begins to drop somewhat and approaches the look of SLP VHS recordings....but when one considers that five movies can be crammed onto one 40-cent disk, that's a pretty good deal. Those who need higher quality recordings can use a faster recording speed (2 or 4 hours), but of course more disks (and more storage cases) will need to be purchased.     My only two criticisms for the unit after six months of heavy use:     1. Remote control is cheap-looking and feeling, and layout/labelling of buttons is confusing.     2. When programming the unit advance to record at a later time, the unit does not seem to accept numeric input for the start and stop times, or channel number; I have to push an up or down button repeatedly to set the desired times or channel. While the programming is easy to follow, pressing a button up to 30 times is tedious. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong, but I read the manual and it did not mention using the remote control's numeric buttons to set the time.     If not for the problems listed above, I would give this model five stars.     I paid $250 for the unit, it went up to $275 around Christmas, and now is down to $212. Costco carries an equivalent Go+Video unit for about the same price. This unit has done an excellent job at the tasks for which I needed it: VHS to DVD transfer, and DVD recording. Yeah, a large hard drive would be nice, but you won't find a hard drive and VHS capability in any model at this price. Besides, with the cost of blank disks approaching 20 cents each, you can afford to make some mistakes and toss out recordings that you don't like.