Product Description
Built with progressive scan, this Polaroid DVD Recorder with 80GB Hard Drive not only records to discs, but also has the capability to record up to 102 hours of media on to the 80GB internal hard disc drive. Not only can you record, but you can also play DVD, DVD-R/RW, and DVD+R/RW discs. Plus, you can play music CDs and CD-R/RW, as well as your JPEG images. Equipped with Dolby Digital audio, the DVD player delivers clean, crisp sound.
Customer Reviews:
i love this dvr.......2007-07-09
i have had this dvr for over a yr, ilove it it is very versatile, and like other people yes the fan makes some noise, i replaced it with a blue light fan and just cost $10, it was an easy fix, after i did this the fan was very quiet i can not hear the fan at all. this dvr is well worth the money. not only does it pause,rewind live tv, you can adjust the video speed from hd-slp. you can edit, take out commercial, split.you can record live tv and and watch a dvd at same time, you can adjust the chapters to 5min intervals and up.and you can make yes videos which will look like a store bought dvd, every chapter has a picture and then you can take the dvd and make the cover online.the only thing i dont like about this dvr is the remote buttons are too small.
this dvr may not have a guide but there are not the limitations that are on other dvrs either.you can record 3 hrs per title, it will automatically break them up for you and it can record anything from any source as long as it is not copy protected
Buy something else.......2007-06-13
I've owned two of these. I returned the first one after about six months after the rear fan bearing died and started making a terrible noise. My replacement did the same thing after four months! I stuck a toothpick into the fan, not only making the squealing go away but also removing the fan noise completely (which was quite loud even out of the box). The problem now is that it freezes more often than before, and it always chooses the most inconvenient time to freeze. It doesn't burn usable disks with DVD-R, although some say that it works well with DVD+R disks, I haven't tried. The final straw is that when a timed event is activated a small icon shows on the screen ALL THE TIME. Annoying.
Noisy!.......2007-03-18
Amazed to read the many reviews and found none that mentioned the noise! Unit has a cooling fan that runs constantly and is so noisy that one has to crank up the volume to override it. I had it in my bedroom briefly but could not sleep with the silly thing in the room. It is cheap, but loud, stick with a Panasonic never mind the cost.
Half-baked software. Hardware is probably good........2007-03-11
This review covers three DVRs for comparison purposes:
Panasonic DMR-EH55S (200 GB hard drive) (Most expensive)
Phillips DVDR3455/37 (160 GB hard drive)
Polaroid DRM-2001G (80 GB) (least expensive)
Here are some of my observations on these three DVRs. I would call the Phillips and Polaroid "half-baked" and I returned them and would not recommend them. The Panasonic is nice and I recommend it, but it's not perfect.
In my review, strengths are marked with a +, weaknesses with a -.
Regarding the Phillips and Polaroid DVRs:
These two DVRs are similar. They may be the same machine. They use the same operating system and the on screen menus are all identical in the two units.
General comments first and then I will comment on the differences in the units.
+Tracks are easy to select for burning to the DVD
+As you select tracks for burning it shows you how much room on the DVD you have left.
+It's always recording, so even if you don't hit the record button until halfway thru the show you can still get the whole show.
+It pauses live TV and this feature is full featured and effective. Live TV behaves just as if you were playing back a disk with pause, rewind, slo-mo, and fast forward all available.
+Does not delete edits, but simply hides them on playback. When you write out to the DVD it does not write the deleted portions. This would allow you to go back and rethink your edits. Panasonic deletes them immediately. On commercials this is probably no big deal but on home movies it might be useful to keep those deleted scenes handy in case you change your mind.
+Allows editing tracks while recording a show. Since the machine is always recording it must support this feature, so it's not surprising, but it is way handy since we keep ours recording shows almost all the time and I am a heavy editor also. If I could only edit while not recording it would be hard for me to get it done. What is surprising is that my more expensive Panasonic DMR-EH55S does not support this feature.
+Technical support is good. I called them twice, got through to someone and they gave intelligent answers.
+Dividing tracks works well, unlike the Panasonic. It's easy to simply select "divide" instead of "view," and then divide the track at your stopping point for today and then you're ready for next viewing to start where you left off.
-Takes 15 annoying seconds to boot while you miss the kick off of the super bowl.
-fluorescent display is small with only medium readability from across the room.
-There are not many buttons on the front panel
-Track titles are only 10 chars - that's not enough
-The operating system is primitive, buggy, missing many useful features and has a generally clunky feel, as if they programmed only the bare minimum features required to allow operation. For example, holding buttons down on the remote will not repeat the key. This feature is sorely needed when inputting text with the on-screen keyboard because it's torture to have to keep repeatedly pressing the buttons on the remote to scroll from one side of the keyboard to the other. Another example, the editing screen has a bug where you hit the edit button to start an edit and the prompt correctly displays "hit edit to stop editing." Then you search forward to find the end of the commercial and you hit edit and it slices out that portion and the prompt correctly displays "hit edit to start [your next] editing." That's not a bad system, but the OS has a bug in it so that if an edit is started, when the info screen goes away it comes back incorrectly displaying "hit edit to start editing" when it should say "hit edit to stop editing." However, the edit feature still works correctly in spite of the display. But this can be confusing enough to make you forget where you are and make you exit the edit screen and start over.
-The info pop-up screen is really annoying. It's giant and it's never there when you need it and always there when you don't. There's no way to turn it off or on permanently. Especially when you are viewing something frame by frame - it's maddening.
-Text is slow/torturous to put in, made worse by the weak remote control.
-The machine crashes and locks up, sometimes without provocation, and you have to unplug it to get it going again.
-The machine crashes and trashes the DVD when trying to append tracks to a non-finalized DVD.
-remote control is weak and that's really annoying when you are editing text. You have to be close and at small angle from the sensor.
-Does not show new track time after you edit out the commercials.
-Only allows 9 characters per DVD track title.
-It has a manual, but it's not very good.
-It has a useful time shift buffer, but its interface uses arbitrary buttons on the remote, there is no on-screen help, and sometimes you have to use the hidden "hold down the button for 3 seconds" technique.
Now to highlight some differences:
Polaroid
+Has a way handy feature to jump to a specific time in a show. You just hit "go to" and then enter a time like 35 minutes, and it goes to it.
+DVD burner on this unit seemed faster than on the Phillips.
-Earlier version of the operating system - has bugs, features that don't work, and missing needed features
-No progress indicator as it burns to DVD, and you can't watch the program as it's burning
-Manual is rougher.
-Fan on this unit is too loud.
-A bug in the OS prevented me from entering the tens digit of a recording program start time.
Phillips
+Has an updated operating system with some welcome enhancements and bug fixes. More stable, but still crashes and trashes disks.
+Will show a progress indicator as it burns the DVD.
-Has a T/C (time code) button to jump to a specific time in a track, but it does not work.
-DVD burner on this unit seemed slow.
Panasonic DMR-EH55S
Over all opinion: Good. Reliable, high quality and studded with features, although missing some no-brainers. I don't expect any glitches. Probably the best available at this consumer level price point, but unfortunately has many limitations that reduce its usefulness to a heavy editor like myself.
+Text entry is very good, with great use of the remote control buttons to allow hot key shortcuts for various operations and screen positions. It's a clever system and fast and fun to use.
+Remote control is strong and the unit responds to its commands without fail.
+The scrubber for finding an edit point is great.
+The manual is very good, 77 packed pages with detailed technical information on all aspects of operation. It's much better than the "user friendly" Sony manuals that avoid tech talk. It also carefully lists the many limitations of this unit and the technology, including what burn speeds you can expect.
+The on screen TV guide is da bomb. It's far superior to the scrolling cable channel we have been watching for the last ten years. In spite of reviews here to the contrary, it worked perfectly for us, setting up with just few easy questions, one minor glitch requiring a glance at the manual, and then video nirvana. It finally makes it possible to reliably set programs for a recording device. I love it!
+The fan is whisper quiet.
+The manual warns you that high speed burn will be louder than normal. For me it's not bad. The high speed burn usually sounds like someone running water in the sink, with loud portions sounding like an electric shaver.
-In some disappointing passages, the manual points out that although this unit is "compatible" with 16X recording speed disks, "this is not the copy speed." (However, in many cases it can get better than 16x speed if you record at lower quality.) The manual also points out many other limitations such as: you can not record to the SD card, movies can not be played from the SD card, the Firewire port can only be used with digital video equipment and not computers, DVDs are copied to the hard drive only in real time, the advanced feature "flexible recording" fits the highest quality footage possible filling all DVD space but only burns in real time, the system is not smart enough to juggle overlapping record programs and will just drop earlier programs even if there is only a small overlap, it can not play DIVx files while recording other programs, it can not play still pictures while recording other programs, you can not rename/delete/edit/divide titles while recording other programs, it will drop scheduled recordings if you have the unit busy editing photos, finalizing the high speed burn may take four times longer than estimated on the finalize screen HUH? and various other limitations. I don't want all that...just make it work!
-Multi-tasking challenged. You can't edit any previously recorded tracks, not even renaming them, while the unit is recording. You can't even watch tracks while high-speed burning a DVD with finalize, which is silly, since you can watch without finalize. What's in this thing, an 8080 microprocessor? During high speed burn with finalize it won't even play TV from the tuner! This is a serious limitation for me, greatly reducing the utility of this expensive device.
-Copies DVDs to the hard disk (HDD) only in real time and with loss of a generation. The Pioneer DVR also copies in real time, I assume also losing a generation. I think what they are doing here is playing the DVD and routing its signal through the analog circuitry to allow any copy protection scheme on the DVD to confuse the input circuitry and cause that brightness fading in and out and color shifting. This is another serious limitation for me since I like to consolidate my home movies and etc.
-Will not pause live TV! Instead you have to start recording and then chase playback. That's an odd oversight on Panasonic's part and a sorely missed feature.
-When you divide or edit a track you have to do it in a small preview screen. That's silly, sacrifices a lot of usefulness, and so needless. They sacrificed screen space for useless stuff, including a useless title bar at the top, another one on the bottom, useless edit/divide preview windows, and huge on screen buttons for "divide" and "preview" operations. I like to edit and divide my programs while watching them, but since Panasonic has a special screen for editing/dividing, where the program is shown only in a small preview window, I have to view my program once, then go back and edit or divide it later. If you edit much video you know that editing time is a big problem, e.g. another reviewer mentions fifteen minutes to edit the commercials out of a one hour show. If you record many shows, that's hours of editing. So a needless time waster like this edit/divide screen is a problem. For me, this needless limitation is a fatal flaw. Today I had to bite the bullet and watch America's Funniest Videos in the preview screen because I just can't afford to watch a one hour track twice to get my edits. Also another problem, the system recomputes your track location with each edit. That's bad because it makes it impossible to have any idea of an edit decision list (EDL), where you might jot down approximate times of things you want to save or cut. Because it recomputes all times with every edit, what used to be at the one hour mark of your program will change.
-Does not show program length nor time remaining while viewing a program. The current track time is displayed on the front panel and available on screen.
Highly Recommend the Polaroid DMR-2001G.......2007-03-07
I've had my Polaroid DRM-2001G since November 2006, and am generally very happy with it. I did have to exchange it twice due to defective burners, but now I have a "good" one. It was $219 at Walmart. Make sure you fully test it during the 90-day warrenty period. Before choosing this unit, I did a TON of research by reading endless threads on several online specialty discussion boards, with postings by "Power Users" who have tested and anlyzed this unit endlessly -- most agree it's a great buy. I got mine to mostly to transfer my huge library of video camera tapes to DVD -- so far I've burned about 100 DVDs worth of home videos, the sources being VHS, 8mm, and Hi8 Digital tapes. I'm using DVD+R discs, and am burning at the SP speed (2 hrs per disc). I'm using the YesDVD feature to create the intelligent menus with thumbnails, and to print covers. I actually like that feature! I also use it to record TV shows, completely replacing my VCR, and I've also started to burn some discs from shows recorded on the HD for my kids to play in the car DVD player, with great success. It is true that the remote that comes with it sucks (poor design, bad response). The fix is to buy a replacement remote: the best choice is the Sony RM-VL600. It will "learn" all the commands from the Polaroid remote, and has a much more user-friendly ergonomic layout -- big buttons, logically laid out. It's around $25, and worth every penny! I read multiple glowing reviews of this Sony remote from the discussion groups before buying it. The "Power Users" also talk about several unique features of the DMR-2001G that may only appeal to a select group (easily replaceable/upgradable HD, rare component video inputs, etc.) The Polaroid also has some other very minor quirks and flaws (the mono tuner is my personal pet peeve) -- but overall, its a fantastic unit for the price. I highly recommend it!
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