You get what you pay for in this combo DVD-VCR
Written: Dec 29 '02
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Pros: $150 in Dec-02 = a good deal for a moderately priced combo DVD-VCR box
Cons: Remote is not easy to use and box is slow to load DVDs
The Bottom Line: This is a great choice for people without home theatres and who want the convenience of a combo DVD-VCR box.
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| mjlee22's Full Review: Samsung DVD-V2000 DVD Player / VCR Combo |
At $150 as of Dec-02 (BestBuy), this combo DVD-VCR is a moderately priced product suitable for consumers who (a) want to reduce the number of boxes they have to hook up to their TV, and (b) aren't interested in high end home theater systems.
The Samsung DVD-V2000 doesn't have all the DVD features you'd expect for a home theatre system, nor does it claim to support PC-burned DVDs either, so it's definitely better for the low-tech consumer (like the grandparents I bought it for).
There are only a few buttons on the console (channel, volume, and switching between DVD and VCR), so you have to use the remote to control most machine operations. Here's where the machine's limitations loom large if you are the kind of person who likes to regularly exercise all the features of a machine.
The remote is very small, so it is easy to press the wrong buttons and the text is hard to read. The worst part is that the same button is used for chapter skip and searching forward, so you often get the wrong result. In trying to navigate the DVD, several of us accidentally triggered it into French, but I didn't take the time to figure out why we kept doing that.
The DVD-V2000 is also slow to navigate a DVD, such as taking 30-60 seconds to get to the DVD menu, and being very slow to step through scene selection menus, as compared to a few seconds to do either of these functions on my 1-2 year old Sony and Toshiba high end DVD players.
The bottom line is that, if you are the kind of person who just puts in a DVD and plays it to the end, you won't be affected by these limitations, so this box remains a good choice for you.
The DVD-2000 has an interesting set of useful electronic features I hadn't seen before. It automatically sets the time on the clock and picks up show titles if the station broadcasts it. It is very easy to switch from DVD to VCR. The tuner reception on the unit was comparable to that of the Proscan TV to which we attached it. I forgot to try programming the VCR to record a show, so I don't know how easy that was. I'll update this review the next time I visit the grandparents.
On installation, it surprised me to realize that the DVD and VCR each had a set of video/audio output jacks. I thought this meant I would still have the complexity of hooking up multiple devices into the TV. However, it turned out that I could get by with just the VCR jacks connected to the TV in order to play back either the VCR or the DVD. This is good, because the box only includes one set of video/audio cables. (BTW, unlike what one reviewer wrote, it is NOT true that you can use the coaxial cable connection to feed the DVD or VCR generated signals into the TV.)
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
mjlee22
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Location: Silicon Valley, CA, USA
Reviews written: 27
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Retired HP Software Development Manager and soccer mom. Demands quality in products.
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