uRater.info

Overall Rating

Perfect Machine - Great Editing - User Friendly - LOVE IT - USE IT EVERYDAY!!
PROS: Easy To Use Editing Tools - S-Video I/O Jacks - User Friendly - 1 to 8 hr Record Time - DVD-R & DVD-RW Record Capable

CONS: Only Records To DVD-R and DVD-RW discs (not +R & +RW also) - Manual Written In Broken English In Some Places - Front Controls Hard To See

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS MACHINE - BIG TIME!! I wish Sylvania would put out a similar model that included a HDD (hard disk drive) and VCR. That would be the ultimate for this TV fanatic and I would buy it in a heartbeat.

I purchased this DVR as a refurbished unit at Big Lots at Thanksgiving. I was a little skeptical since it was refurbished but it came with a warranty and for the price (about $50) it was worth a try. I have been using it every single day since then and can’t live without it.

My review is pretty detailed but I like it when someone can give me the big lowdown on a product. I am a novice with DVRs. This is my second one and I like it MUCH better than the MUCH MORE EXPENIVE RCA one I bought only a month or so earlier. (Which I am having much more trouble with both using and understanding.)

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MANUAL
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The manual is written in broken English in a few places (what manual isn’t nowadays?) so a few instructions confused me at first but I figured things out. The manual could be organized a little better and have a better glossary but it certainly isn’t the worst owners manual I have ever read. Truthfully, I figured most things out by hit-and-miss and just using the machine (without reading the manual first, just using the manual for reference second.) I loved the fact that one gets the feel and handle of this machine rather quickly and on his or her own. (I hate reading manuals since they are usually so poor.)

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DVD-R vs DVD-RW recording
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I have recorded onto both DVD-R and DVD-RW discs with no problem. (Office Depot, Memorex, Maxell brands.) Recording onto DVD-R has less editing capabilities than when recording onto DVD-RW. You can record at a variety of speeds which is great. (1-2-4-6-8 hour.)

The box said you could record onto +R and +RW disks too but if you read the manual you find out that is wrong. The only disks the machine will record onto are -R and -RW DVDs. This is a drawback as one reason I purchased was because of the dual + and - recording capabilities I thought I was getting — but I can live with only one format since the machine is near perfect otherwise.

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Editing Is A Breeze!
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On DVD-R discs you can edit the title name and chapter markers or delete the title. Pretty basic. I wish you could edit a little more (like do scene deletes even though that would not gain you back disc space on an R disc) but one can’t have everything.

On DVD-RW discs you can edit or delete title (deleting would free up more space on the disc since it is a rerecordable RW), insert or delete chapter markers (you set them for 5 or 10 minute intervals in setup), do scene deletes (use the REV, FWD, SKIP>,

Overall Rating

Great Value
This particular DVD recorder/player is known by many names. Funai Corporation, which is the manufacturer of all of them and parent company to some, sells these under numerous brand names, including the Funai brand as well. Some of these are sold exclusively at Circuit City as PYE. Some are manufactured as Sylvania and Emerson. Mine, available only at Wal-Mart, is known by the name SV2000. Even electronics giant Philips has handed over the manufacturing of their Magnovox brand to Funai! So whether yours is known as PYE, Emerson, Sylvania, SV2000, Magnavox, or Funai, they are all essentially the same machine.

As it is, this DVD player/recorder known by many names is a value-priced, budget-friendly wonder found well under the $100 price range. No, it will not go head to head with the $500 plus players from the likes of NAD, Rotel, Denon, etc. It will, however, deliver as much performance (and hopefully longevity) as such $200 machines manufactured by Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung.

To begin, all of the standard hookups—as expected—are to be found here (S-video, etc.). The player also has a “substantial” appearance and feel to it. In other words, there’s very little plastic here and a whole lot of metal! The remote, on the other hand, is cheap, plastic garbage. The buttons are miniscule and not well laid out. There’s nothing ergonomic about it either. My pit bull used it as a chew toy and I’ve not missed it at all. With that being said, budget components have to cut their production costs somewhere and this is obviously where Funai has seen fit to cut.

The sound and vision of this unit are spectacular, especially for the price. There is certainly no truth whatsoever that all DVD players perform essentially the same. They do not! This machine, however, delivers the same level of performance as what one could normally expect from a much more expensive player, and delivers a superior performance to the likes of the el-cheapo, “Black Friday” $19.99 players like Coby, Durabrand, Cyberhome, etc.

I’ve not had much experience with the recording feature of this unit, but I can at least say that “it works” and does so relatively well. I’ve not yet recorded from a pay-per-view, but I suspect this would be the best fit since there are no commercials during a ppv movie. Otherwise, owners of a Tivo unit might find a nice complement with this machine since they have the option to go back and edit out commercials and such.

Overall, this is a fine unit that will not break the budget!