Samsung DVD-R120 DVD Recorder

Samsung Brand name reason for buying. Ease of use reason for liking.

Strengths: The ease with which one can record a show with one button and have the machine find the blank space on the disk and start recording is wonderful. Very simple method of programming.

Weaknesses: Unit is silver. Would have liked black to match current components. Remote is a cheesy grey color. Black would have been better.

Summary: Recording is a snap. Whether you press Record to record RIGHT NOW or program the recorder for future shows, it is simple to use. I like that you can edit the names of recorded shows to something useful. To edit is simple. I had received some DVD-R disks for Christmas, store brand. They work just fine. Although Samsung recommends several name brand disks that they say will work. I've not had a problem with the store brand disks. The price I got on this unit was better than any I have seen. It got it for $129, no rebates. The cheapest I've seen it is $149 + shipping. I got it at a national discount store.

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Good value, great recording quality

Strengths: Easy one-touch recording. DVD-RAM recording

Weaknesses: Very touchy remote buttons. Seems very slow starting up and finalizing.

Summary: This is my first DVD recorder. Paid $99 at Sams. It takes a long time for the drawer to open when unit is turned on. It takes a long time for disc to be recognized once inserted. Forget about slapping a disc in and tring to record right away...it won't happen in this unit. Not sure if all DVD units are this way as this is the only one I've had so far.

I applied firmware update with no problems.

The remote is cheesy and the Input button is extremely sensitive...if you push the button for longer than a split second, the button sends a signal that changes your choice before you let up on the button. You have to really quickly peck the button to avoid this problem.

I do have one problem with the scheduling of programs. When I enter in the repeat recording every Friday, for instance, it always changes to the day after. So if I want to program a show to record on Friday at 8pm, the recorder changes it to Saturday at 8pm. In order to record on Friday, I have to program it for Thursday and then the recorder changes it to Friday. Wacked.

Hey for $99 I'm not expecting the world, but this is a little screwy. I'd probably not highly recommend this one but would suggest you buy the Liteon 5005 instead. It's a highly reviewed, budget recorder that records in all formats...DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, CD-R, CD-RW.

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Samsung DVD recorder

Strengths: Excellent design - grey unit with black insert; Great price; Great picture quality

Weaknesses: only DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW functions; no full support for DVD-RAM; not all types of "-" disks can be used (refer to user manual on samsung's website for the full list of approved brands and speeds)

Summary: Overall quality and look of this product is excellent. This DVD recorder fits nicely with all my other audio/video components on the shelf. It took less than 30 minutes to set it up for the recording of my favorite show. Be careful what disks you buy to use with this unit. There is a list of approved DVD media to be used with Samsung DVD-R120 Recorder on Samsung's website (look for the User Guide)

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Very tempermental

Strengths: One touch recording, ease of menu use, nice looking, price very affordable

Weaknesses: Length of disk loading, recognition of disks iffy, recognition of space after deletion

Summary: This was a Christmas gift from our in-laws, our first DVD recorder. It looks nice (although the remote is rather cheap looking), and fits in with our other components. Recording on DVD-RW disks is no problem, but this unit (for us, at least) won't recognize any DVD-R disks except for the freebies manufactured by Samsung and offered to us as incentive for purchase. I've tried many of the types described in the manual (and yes, they are DVD-R disks, not DVD+R or DVD+RWs). I've purchased several types of disks that are supposed to be supported by this player, only to have to return them rather sheepishly by saying my recorder won't work with them (and then having to say yes, I know the difference between types of disks and yes, those are the ones I'm supposed to use. I've now taken to bringing my manual with me to the store to avoid these conversations...).

The disks take a long time to load, and sometimes pre-recorded disks give an error. (Example: this morning, I inserted a disk that was recorded and finalized yesterday. The menu said the disk needed to be formatted. I ejected it, re-inserted it, and waited - then the disk was read correctly, and we could watch the program. Go figure, this happens all the time.) Also, as others have said, if you erase a program from a DVD-RW, you may have to re-insert it several times before the free space is recognized. I learned this the hard way, and threw away several disks I thought were toast before I realized that reinsertion was the way to go.

Also, you can edit the programs and manually set up chapters if you like, but I'm thinking I don't have time for such things, would rather just use chapter creator and let the chips fall where they may (chapters created at even intervals throughout the recording rather than based on scene breaks) if I feel the need to do so.

So, the summary is that this thing is rather persnickety... I'm still waiting for an answer from Samsung support on the DVD-R reading issue, and I'm tired of returning opened packages of disks and being looked at as if I'm a doofus (although I might be... just not for these reasons... :) ). However, when I've used it to record on FR (flexible recording) or SP settings, it seems to work fine.

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Solid Buy

Strengths: ease of use and price

Weaknesses: remote, no macrovision hack?

Summary: This was a good buy. Got it at Best Buy for under 100 on Black Friday. One of the cheapest yet most efficient DVD Recorders out there under 100. I have a Cyberhome and this is much more reliable...finalizes disk correctly and does what it's suppose to...record on DVD's

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Nice unit IF you can live with some problems

Strengths: Works like a VCR. Easy to use. Quality of picture. One touch recording. Price.

Weaknesses: Takes a long time for disc to load. Only displays the time when unit is off. No "Time Slip" feature. Several problems.

Summary: Overall I like this unit. It is very easy to use. The manual is comprehensive, but it is sometimes difficult to quickly find what you are looking for.

The picture quality is very good, but deteriorates noticeably when recording in Extended mode (EP). Recording in High Quality mode (XP) will only record for about 50 minutes. Obviously, you can't record an hour show at the highest quality.

Now for the problems:

The playback of a recorded show almost always has the sound and picture out of sync. Sometimes it is perfectly in sync, but most of the time it is not in sync. This is very annoying! I contacted Samsung about this via e-mail, but have never heard back. When the sound and picture are horribly out of sync, I noticed that if you press stop and then play, the sync usually improves.

Another problem involves errors with scheduling timer recordings. I have set up a schedule for all of my favorite shows. One of the scheduled recordings is every Wednesday at 7 pm. Even though it is set to record on Wednesday, it records every Thursday at 7 pm instead. To see what would happen, I tried scheduling every Thursday at 7 pm and it complained that there was a scheduling conflict. This issue is very annoying especially since it is not always a day off (example: every Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday schedules record on the correct day).

Another annoying problem relates to the unit recovering space after deleting recorded programs. When you delete something, the space does not immediately become available. To make the available space known, I need to either power the unit off/on or eject the DVD. Here is an example, let's say that I have four 1 hour shows recorded. If I watch one of the shows and then delete it, the available time for recording remains the same. I would expect the available recording time to increase by 1 hour.

I tried to update the firmware, but I didn't need to since the firmware update was the same version already on my unit. I hope that these issues can be addressed in a future firmware update.

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• I have exactly the same problem with the Samsung DVD Recorder. W...

samsung dvd recorder

Strengths: name brand

Weaknesses: no mpeg4 support, not region free

Summary: Bought it on black friday sale, compare with my LiteOn LVW-1105GHC, it is more expensive, yet has less features. It may have better quality that I cannot tell for now, but my liteon is region free and supports mpeg4.

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Easy, but can't play in other DVD players

Strengths: Very easy to use, nice design, light

Weaknesses: Not DVD+R compatible, can't play on other DVD players.

Summary: This is my first DVD recorder. I was very excited about getting this DVD recorder, because I trusted Samsung products. Unfortunately, the DVD won't load in any other my DVD players. It plays well in the DVD-R120. I'll update this once I find out how to get it to play on my other DVD players.

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Samsung Recorder

Strengths: Looks Good, Fits in with other components, stylish

Weaknesses: DVD-R,-RW,-RAM is what it records on. Does not like all DVD-R discs.

Summary: Overall this is a good recorder. It looks great and it is easy to program. The biggest drawback is the fact that it can only burn DVD-R media. It can however, read DVD+R. I have also noticed that some of the recorded shows do not play back or have limited features on standalone DVD players. I have had the best result using CMC media (Imation) or TY. When I recorded a show using Velocity (Prodisc 8x) I could not view it in any standalone player, worked fine in the Samsung DVD-R120 and on my PC but would not play in a Samsung standalone DVD or Cyberhome. Another drawback is the long time it takes to load a disc.

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You get what you paid for

Strengths: Very cheap. Relatively easy replacement for VCR

Weaknesses: Format compatibiliy problem. Not Divx/Xvid format. Quality of video recorded very average.

Summary: If you want a cheap vcr replacement, this is an ok choice. If you really want a digital recording system, then just go with a real HD base recorder. Make sure you identify a compatible DVD brand that does not gi e you any problem before recording thew foavorite show you don't want to miss because some DVD just won't work.

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samsung dvd recorder

Strengths: good functions

Weaknesses: single disc function

Summary: it is a great dvd recorder for the price. it has worked good everytime i have used it. the main advantage it has is the name and good quality recording. the weakness is single disc function.

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Excellent DVD Recorder

Strengths: Sharp image quality, many input and output jacks, reads every type of dvd (dvd+rw only exception, Good menu design, very easy to use, excellent manual, DV input, great value for the money...

Weaknesses: Not DVD+RW compatible, Doesn't burn DVD+R only reads them, Disks take a while to eject... Nothing else

Summary: I shopped around for a while and finally got this recorder among a handful of others.. I couldn't trust panasonic because of software problems and thus didn't get one with a harddrive... This Samsung was the cheapest well known brand recorder with a DV link and component output.. I also wanted to have DVD-Ram compatibility as they are superior for media production (basically adding and subtracting stuff is much easier).

First impressions: The image quality was very good, and recording was very easy as menu's are well designed and the one touch recording works like a charm.. Also the manual is very helpful, everything is explained 'step by step'... so it was a great gift for my dad too..

Even though i couldn't find any info about dvd+r compatibility, this recorder was able to read those kind of disks.. which was also a nice surprise..

I certainly recommend this recorder.. It is very cheap for what you are getting..

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Not worth the price

Strengths: Nice & sleek, Easy menu navigation system, picture quality is excellent

Weaknesses: Too many usability issues

Summary: I was very excited to get this DVD recorder at BestBuy's thanksgiving sale for about $100. The DVD recorder was nice and thin with decent number of input/output options.

First disappointment - no media included in the box. Fortunately, I had a Panasonic DVD-RAM disk at hand.

Second disappointment - upon first power up, it did not come up with an option to automatically setup the clock using the PBS channel even though the manual says that it should. No big deal since clock setting is not an everyday thing.

Inserted a Staples brand DVD-R disk. The R120 generated an error. Tried the DVD-RAM disk - did not recognize the disk either. At this point, I upgraded the firmware from Samsung's web site. On the staples DVD-R disk, it partially formatted and then generated an error. It did recognize the DVD-RAM disk. The quality of recording on the DVD-RAM disk in LP mode (4 hr mode) was excellent even with my grainy cable input. In fact, the recorded image looked better than the original signal coming in.

Now I tried a Verbatim DVD-RW disk. Formatted and crapped out halfway through with an error. My only usable medium at this point was DVD-RAM. You could probably hunt down the exact DVD-RW medium that Samsung recommends - but I personally didn't like such a finicky player. I had left the half formatted DVD-RW disk in the player. The player locked up and I had to unplug & reboot the unit to get my disk out.

The menus were generally very easy to navigate. The remote can control a TV. However, the remote feels cheapy and the button layout is somewhat confusing but one could get used to it.

I had also bought a Panasonic recorder (DMR-ES20S). I will post the review of that in a few days. Couple of really nice things about the Panasonic relative to the Samsung - the Panasonic shows the recorded programs as DVD chapters - i.e. you can visually select the program. Also, the Panasonic lets you record and and timeslip and watch the same program or an alternate recorded program. I also liked the "erase" button on the Panasonic - very easy. The Panasonic also handled my Verbatim DVD-RW with no hassles. By the way, in my personal opinion, the quality of recording on the Samsung seemed better than the Panasonic.

Everything considered, even though the recorder was cheap and is Samsung branded, I definitely don't feel that this unit is worth the aggravation.

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Samsung DVD-R120 DVD Recorder

Strengths: So far it has done a good job with recording shows.

Weaknesses: None so far, great price after rebate.

Summary: This seems to be a well made product. I was against getting a non-brand product so I felt comfortable with a Samsung. Time will tell if it can hold up. I have used it for a few days and am happy with it so far. I will have to update this in a few months for a true test.

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GREAT ITEM FOR THE MONEY

Strengths: EASY FUNCTIONS AND GREAT PRICE

Weaknesses: GUIDE

Summary: THIS IS A GOOD DVD RECORDER FOR THE PRICE YOU PAY. IT COMES WITHT HE RELIABLE SAMSUNG TAG ON IT AND DOES SOME GOOD RECORDING. SOMETIMES IT DOES HAVE DIFFICULTY WITH CERTAINLY DVD MEDIA BUT OVERALL IT IS A GREAT ITEM FOR ANY HOUSE.

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