JVC DR-MH30SE

Advantages: Excellent pictures, supports DVD-Ram, good with Sky
Disadvantages: Does not write DVD+R/RW, no CD-Text. JVC's poor reputation.

...the cause is, but I know it is a resistor change and firmware update. Worse still, this crash confused the analogue tuner, which now thinks I live in Eastern Europe and won't properly tune to UK channels (no sound). Mine's out of guarantee too! But Richer Sounds, bless them, have agreed to get it repaired for me anyway. ..... JANUARY 2005: Back from Richer Sounds, suitably repaired. Happy again..... JULY 2005: Still working well. I've found it is occasionally possible to crash the machine during a recording if the input video is extremely unstable, such as from totally worn out video tapes. If this happens it reboots and carries on recording a few minutes later. Not really a criticism because it takes an attrocious signal to make this happen. OCTOBER 2008: I've now migrated onto the JVC DR-MH200 DVD recorder with built in hard disk... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: auto dub of whole vhs tape to hard drive
Disadvantages: unreliable unpredictable

.../DVD/HDD option and now they are ALLunavailable. Dubbing a complete VHS tape to HDD worked ok but trying to dub just part of a VHS tape was uncontrollable/unpredictable ie unreliable and often failed and I tried to avoid doing this.... Then dubbing from HDD to DVD - worked ok for about 100 discs - then started to play up. It would spontaneously shut down. Finally today I was deleting a few programmes on the HDD it crashed frequently and finally would not boot up. I now power on and it says LOADING and goes no further. I removed DVD drive makes no difference. Put DVD back and remove Diamond Maxtor HDD in case it was corrupted - still says LOADING. will not power up any more So an expensive failure just out of warranty. I will NEVER EVER buy JVC again both my MV1 and MX1 are a waste of money.... Read review

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Advantages: Perfect picture, recorded onto DVD from video-tapes, TV, or from Sky.
Disadvantages: Fairly complex instruction manual; knowledge of different DVD formats helpful (see other review).

...was guided by the Comet salesman towards TDK DVD-RW discs, and Panasonic 120 min DVD-RAM. If you just want to make a temporary recording, e.g. from the TV, you can record over and over again onto these formats, just as you have done in the past with video-cassettes. The difference is the picture and sound quality. Both these DVD types provide outstanding quality. The picture and sound is immaculate, an exact replica of the live broadcast. The TDK DVD-RW discs are capable of recording 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours or 6 hours of material depending on your choice of setting on the JVC Recorder. The manual recommends that you use the 6 hour setting for slow-moving pictures, eg dramas, as there is a slight reduction in picture quality. You will need an uninterrupted afternoon if you're going to read the instruction manual! But it is worth it!... Read review

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