Affordable DVD recording even my Dad can use
Written: Aug 12 '03
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Pros: Easy setup
Easy to use
Affordable price
Flexible record time settings
Plenty of inputs
Cons: No Dolby Digital recording
No capability to sync with cable box/dish for recording
The Bottom Line: I'd say overall that the Samsung DVD-R4000 is an excellent choice for recording DVDs. It's price, features, and ease of use make it a solid contender.
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| robnkester's Full Review: Samsung DVD-R4000 DVD Recorder |
This past weekend my father picked up the Samsung DVD-R4000 for his TV room. He already has cable TV, a DirecTV dish, a large widescreen TV, and a DVD player. So a DVD recorder was the next logical step.
The decision to pick this particular unit was partially mine. The price was right, the features he wanted like DVD-RAM recording were there, and I felt that Samsung's name was solid as well.
The unit comes with everything you'd need to install it into your home theatre and use it. These items included the remote batteries, manuals, RCA cables, a coaxial cable, and the unit itself.
Installation itself was simple, as it uses your standard connectors. The 4 inputs include a coaxial for cable/over the air reception, 2 rear inputs with RCA and S-Video inputs, and 1 front panel input also with RCA and S-Video. This front input is nice for hooking your video camera up or a video game system.
One of the things that I liked about this variety of inputs was that it helped me to simplify his usage of his TV, be it cable, DirecTV, DVD playback, or VCR tapes. Because everything can run directly through the DVD-R4000, a lot of headaches are resolved.
For output of the signal there are coaxial, RCA, S-Video and component video hookups to suit your needs. As well as digital optical for a higher quality audio output.
Actual general usage of the unit is straight forward and simple. The remote is a little cluttered but performs nicely once you familiarize yourself with it. Recording is a simple task, requiring you to select the recording time and then to just press the Record button. It can record at your discretion, or you can setup timed events to record from any channel or source. If you are using a cable box or satellite, you have to tune your box to the correct channel manually, but this is not a deal breaker.
It offers 4 record times for a standard DVD-RAM or DVD-R disc... 1 hour, 2 hour, 4 hour and 6 hour. This doubles when using double-sided DVD-RAM discs. Note that if you record to a DVD-RAM, it can only be played on the unit itself, and cannot be taken to another DVD player. DVD-R simply require finalizing before you can use them elsewhere, which only takes a few minutes when you are ready. With unfinalized DVD-R, and normal DVD-RAM, you can record as many seperate recordings as you wish on the disc, erase them, and edit them for length. This is nice if you wish to record several shows to watch later and then want to re-use the disc. The quality of the 1 and 2 hour settings is excellent and most people will not see any difference unless viewing on a progressive TV or high definition. The 4 hour mode is quite acceptable, coming in higher in quality than your local cable looks. 6 hour recording sacrifices quality to fit more on a disc, but is still quite viewable.
The sound quality is what you'd expect from a DVD Player, with solid Dolby Digital and DTS reproduction via the optical output. However, the unit does not record Dolby Digital or DTS, it only passes it to your reciever for playback.
Once I had the unit integrated into my father's system, he got the hang of it easily. And was able to make recordings without any problem as well as view the cable and DirecTV channels at his whim.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 499.99
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Epinions.com ID:
robnkester
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 1 member
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