CyberHome CH-DVR 1500 Progressive-Scan DVD+R/+RW Recorder and Player , Silver
Dumb DVD Recorder
I bought the CyberHome CH-DVR-1500 DVD recorder about two months ago. I naively assumed it would operate like any DVD+RW drive for a PC and be able to randomly separate recorded shows into multiple empty areas of a DVD+RW.  WRONG!  This is a surprisingly stupid device!<br />For example, suppose you have recorded three one hour shows and two 30 min. shows on one DVD+RW in EP (4 hour total) mode.  So, a title screen view will show you those three one hour shows on the first title screen (three titles to each screen) and the two 30 min. shows on the second title screen. Now you erase the first one hour title on the first title screen, leaving one hour of free space on the DVD+RW.  If you set up the timer to record one 30 minute show, you will find that the recorder recorded nothing, when you come home and check.  It only knows how to record in free area AT THE END of the title list (and I suspect at the end or inside track of the DVD+RW itself.<br />Or start with the same full DVD+RW, erase the last 30 minute show and the first one hour show on the title screen (so 1 1/2 hours free space), and set the timer to record for 40 minutes.  When you come home you will find that the recorded has recorded for 30 minutes and stopped.  It can only begin recording in a free space at the end of the title list (here 30 min.), and it can not string the rest of the recording time to other free space on the DVD+RW, unless that space is continuous. So, erasing the two 30 min. titles at the end of the title list would have worked.<br />There is also no way to combine free spaces that you have created by erasing shows on a DVD+RW to get around this problem.  In most cases it is safest to record a TV show or whatever to a totally empty, formatted DVD+RW, or you may be surprised.<br />After several conversations with CyberHome support I finally learned that &quot;that is just how the recorder operates&quot;.<br />So, the recorder is usable and does deal well with playing a wide variety of formats (CD+R, CD-R, MP3's JPEG's, etc), but I would say Buyer Beware!