Cyberhome CH-DVR1600 DVD Recorder
An abomination
My mother desired to copy her old VHS tapes to DVDs, so we got this recorder because it was so cheap.  Well, you get what you pay for, as they say.<br /><br />After spending two hours recording from VHS, we \\"finalized\\" the disc, but the recorder shortly thereafter said \\"disc error.\\"  Despite this error, the recording seemingly worked out.  I was able to play the movie on my computer, but the disc was indeed messed up, as I was unable to copy it due to a cyclic redundancy check error late in the recording.<br /><br />So, we tried again.  We recorded basically the same thing again, and attempted to finalize again... disc error!  But this time, it didn't seem to work at all, and I was still able to edit the contents, so I resolved to try a higher quality piece of media than I'd been using.  That didn't happen, though, as all my work was lost when I attempted to switch out the blank DVD+R for another.  This disc is officially only playable with the DVD recorder; my computer thinks it's blank.<br /><br />Frustrated by all this wasted time, I attempted a much smaller project.  This time I made a disc that was just a few minutes long (what a waste of a DVD!).  It seemed to be a success, as I was able to play it in my computer and even rip it so I could edit it with DVD-creating software on my computer.<br /><br />With that success, I thought maybe the disc error could be avoided by not filling such a large amount of the disc as we'd been doing, so I lowered the quality level (but still above VHS) and embarked on yet another large project of copying VHS tapes to the DVD.  I spent all afternoon doing it, and finalized the disc... success!<br /><br />...Or not.  I wished to be able to take this disc to my computer (using the Nero suite), rip it, and splice the video data to get rid of static and other stuff that inevitably got recorded onto the disc.  That is seemingly impossible, because the \\"chapters\\" of the DVD, save for the last one we recorded, are nowhere to be found.  I can play the DVD on my computer and access everything on it, but only the latest chapter seems to have been put on the disc in a standard manner.  I have no idea why this is, but it is.<br /><br />There are plenty of other things wrong with this recorder.  As others have mentioned, the remote is irresponsive, with evenly spaced buttons all the same size; I always find myself hitting the wrong button.  The interface is counterintutive, too; I regularly had to study the remote for several minutes to try to figure out what button would take me to the menu I wanted to go to since they obviously couldn't put a button legend on the screen.  And in addition to all that and the created DVDs being barely recognizable to the Nero recoding software, there appears to be no way to seek on a standard DVD player; you can rewind and fast forward, and that's it!<br /><br />This product is an abomination.  You really get what you pay for.  If you want a standalone DVD recorder, get something a little more expensive; at least it might work.e found.  I can play the DVD on my computer and access everything on it, but only the latest chapter seems to have been put on the disc in a standard manner.  I have no idea why this is, but it is. <br /> <br />There are plenty of other things wrong with this recorder.  As others have mentioned, the remote is irresponsive, with evenly spaced buttons all the same size; I always find myself hitting the wrong button.  The interface is counterintutive, too; I regularly had to study the remote for several minutes to try to figure out what button would take me to the menu I wanted to go to since they obviously couldn't put a button legend on the screen.  And in addition to all that and the created DVDs being barely recognizable to the Nero recoding software, there appears to be no way to seek on a standard DVD player; you can rewind and fast forward, and that's it! <br /> <br />This product is an abomination.  You really get what you pay for.  If you want a standalone DVD recorder, get something a little more expensive; at least it might work.