Samsung DVD-R130 DVD Recorder

I own it for 2 years (bought in Russia, not here). It has problems with disk initialising very often recorder can't initialize disk, says "Error initialising disk", on very different DVD-RWs. Double service check and maintenance didn't help. Very disappointing model.

We got this item from Walmart and I was not jazzed about it AT ALL. When we hooked it up to record, we could not get it to record one channel while we watched another. Then the tray stopped working after one week. I sent it to Samsung and they fixed it but it still didn't work right. When it was downstairs, I had to trick the tray to open and then trick it to close (HA! I could only do it... my husband could not). Then we moved it to the bedroom and miraculously, the tray started working.
I've never been excited about Samsung products and this type of thing is why. We only kept this thing (for viewing not recording) because we already spent money on it and figured it would do until we were ready to switch over to blueray.

I got this player about a year and a half ago. I can play the disks I make in it just fine on other DVD players after finalizing. Let's keep it simple and list the problems with it:

1) Video and audio out of sync with each other on anything I record to DVD-R or DVD-RW disks. Syncing gets worse the longer the recording. This has been a problem since day one. Have tried different connections to TV but doesn't help.

2) Video quality is OK if you choose the best quality setting, otherwise it's pretty dismal.

3) Shuts itself off in the middle of recording when the recording time goes past 4 hours.

4) As of yesterday, it now says every blank disk (both DVD-R and DVD-RW) I put into it to record with can't be used. I've now tried Ritek, Fuji, Taiyo Yuden and a no-name brand and NONE of them work in the player now for recording. I've tried resetting the unit by holding down the up and down channel keys together. It shows it resets but does not solve this new problem. This thing is now a big paperweight.

5) Remote is non intuitive and needs a redesign.

The only plus side to this unit is that it has a clock on the front of it that my wife uses as our living room clock (pretty expensive clock, huh?!?)

I'm going back to my Sony and Panasonic brands for the next DVD recorder. I DO NOT recommend this unit.

The Samsung DVD-R130 DVD Recorder is the worst dvd recorder ever made; it records your shows just fine. But when you go to watch them it says it can't read the disc. It has no problem reading the disc during the recording session but it can't read what it records. Only an Idiot would buy this recorder. I for one will not buy a Samsung product again.

When it works, it is great. I love the idea of a dvd recorder. This actual recorder, however, has been a problem from day 1. Often the drawer refuses to open for no real reason at all, turns itself off and won't turn back on. We'd learned to work around a couple of idiosyncracies, but as it is aging, the problems are spreading. We have to unplug it at least once a day just to get it to open the drawer.

Since I reviewed this under the R-120 (which I don't have, I didn't realize this unit was reviewed and it was the closest thing) reviews, I'll refrain from repeating the long screed against it. Suffice it to say (and I WILL repeat THIS from that review)-AVOID THIS UNIT LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!. You will have NOTHING with problems with it, and I can ASSURE you that, having read other reviews on it from all over the 'net, they are nearly UNIVERSALLY BAD on this trash can candidate, and experienced IDENTICAL problems to myself.

I won't say 'I'd give this unit no stars if possible' like the old cliche'-it doesn't DESERVE that high a rating. A NEGATIVE-star rating is the only appropriate rating for this thing.

Purchase this garbage unit ONLY if you have money that you feel like throwing in a trash can, because that's effectively what you will be doing. If I could do it again, I would NEVER buy this unit at ANY price, nor would I EVER AGAIN buy ANY Samsung DVD unit. And I'm sure I speak for other R-130 'owners' who feel the same way.

First -- to those people who can't play their recorded DVDs in other players, you have to Finalize the DVD first, read the manual. This is not a Samsung problem - it is true of most DVD & CD recorders (even for those in a PC).

We bought one of these Samsung DVD-R130 recorders about a year ago, when the other cheap obsure brand DVD recorder we had died after 3 months of buying it. We went with the Samsung, bcse my husband had had good luck with this brand in the past, and it did work great for the first several months, we were quite happy with it. Then about 4 months ago, I started using it every day to record a 2-hour daytime TV show with the scheduled timer feature. Later during playback, I noticed that the sound and video were not sync'ed up (it was like watching a dubbed movie). It was slightly noticible during first 45-60 minutes, then became very obvious in 2nd hour of the recording. The unit was also becoming rather warm to the touch, over-heating (even though we had it well-ventilated), which I thought might be related. Then 2-3 times during this past month or so with timed recordings, it just powered off spontaniously a few seconds after starting the recording. I thought this was a fluke, until yesterday when it did it again, and then refused to record anything at all afterward -- even when I tried manually with 3 different DVDs. It does still playback DVDs though, even though sometimes it won't read the disc the first few times I insert it, but eventually does, so we will continue to use it for playback until it is totally toast. (Fortunately I did finalize all of my DVDs, and they do work fine in our other DVD player.) But in order to record, we are going to have to go buy yet another DVD recorder. Probably a Sony or Panasonic, but we'll be sure to first check the reviews this time.

Anyway, the bottom line is: Since several other folks have also experienced similar problems, this Samsung DVD recorder is just not a good choice.

I bought the Samsung R130 DVD Recorder in August 2006 for $150 so I could record shows that I was unable to watch. The DVD recorder worked fine for a year, but 2 months after the warranty was over the DVD Recorder gave me problems such as:
1. gave me numerous error codes
2. wouldn't play purchased DVDs
3. wouldn't accept a blank DVD for me to record a show
4. would freeze up during recording and I had to unplug it since it was unresponsive

It basically will not accept DVDs and it won't record them. I now leave the DVD Recorder unplugged because it is unresponsive and makes an annoying buzzing-type sound. Of course it's out of warranty, and there goes $ down the drain.

Have had this recorder for over a year and had nothing but problems. The lips are out of sync with the audio and is very tempermental when recording. I have had no problem getting finalized discs to play on any other players, but have ended up with way to many coasters (approx. 1 in 3 or 4 are wasted when it just records for 20 min. to almost 2 hours of shows or movies I am trying to record then stops on it's own). I use only DVD-R of different brands and it doesn't seem to matter.
I tried the fix suggested by another reviewer to hold down the up and down channels at the same time to reset the machine. It does say on screen that the recorder is reset, but it didn't change a thing.
I would not recommend to anyone to purchase this recorder unless you are looking for a frustrating pain in the butt!

this is a very good DVD player, it has a lot of options for almost anything you need...

The DVD-R130 is a DVD recorder designed to record standard NTSC video. It can take S-Video, composite, antenna/cable, or Firewire feeds. It has multiple levels of quality. Outputs include composite, S-Video, and component, and the recorder can output ED (progressive scan) signals via the component outputs. Use with a regular TV that has only antenna/cable inputs requires the use of a modulator.

As this is my first DVD recorder, I don't have much to compare it to directly, but I can make a number of obvious comments:

As a DVD player, the player is clunky and poorly spec'd. There are three menu buttons on the remote, and two information buttons, one of which, apparently as a joke, is labeled "ANYKEY". This is the first player I've ever come across that doesn't play PAL discs. Cheap no-name brand DVD players generally do (if either the disc or player is region free), and will even convert it for use on an NTSC set. The Samsung's lack of support for PAL is all the more surprising given the move over the last few years from NTSC TVs to HD TVs (that generally accept most scan rates.)

As a recorder, the player is unreliable. I tried three different media types before getting anything to record successfully. The first disc I tried the recorder "recorded" on to but missed the first twenty minutes of the program being recorded, the twenty minutes playing as a black screen with occasionally bursts of audio. The second, an Imation DVD-RW, was unrecognized by the player (A second disc from the same pack was recognized, but reluctantly - the player generally takes two minutes to figure out it has a DVD-RW inserted.) The third, a Fuji-film DVD-R, was recognized in less time and the recording appears to be successful.

The user interface is also clunky. As an example, title renaming is done via an arrow-key operated "keyboard": it takes around five minutes to enter something as simple as "FAMILY GUY - BLUE HARVEST". I found frequent occasions that navigating from one menu to another involved hitting the same button twice (by design, not because of the usual remote control problems.) The device suffers also from those problems you'd expect to go with DVD recording - it's just not as simple as "hit record, hit stop, you have your recording" - you have to go through the trouble of "finalizing" discs (even with DVD-RWs where this could be automatic.)

On the plus side, the support for Firewire input (though this is documented as being a camcorder specific thing, I have no idea if it works with anything but camcorders) and S-Video is good, as is the support for four levels of quality, allowing up to four hours of video on a single layer DVD-R, is good.

In the end, I'd recommend using a separate DVD player to play your DVDs, and to use this strictly as a VCR replacement. And don't buy it for your stereotypical grandma, she'll never use it.

We actually got this player bundled with a purchase of a Samsung LCD display. The display is great; the DVD player isn't. The player has difficulties even with store bought DVDs. For example, I have a store-bought region 0 DVD (playable on all players with any region code) that this player can't read. None of my friends and family have a problem viewing these DVDs on their players. It also has problems with reading homemade DVDs I burn myself (i.e., some work, most don't). In short, I would recommend avoiding this player and instead spend your money on something more reliable.

I just wished I had looked at the Amazon reviews before buying this stupid thing. I paid for it little; it was on clearance at Target, but now wouldn't want it for free. I wonder how such a bad product could leave a factory. And Samsung is supposed to be a reputable company.

Long story short, it does something when "recording" to a DVD but you can't do anything with the DVD - other players can't play it, computers can't play it; it's useless.

Stay far away from it. Fortunately, it's an obsolete model by now.

Don't make the mistake of buying this DVD recorder unless you have money and just need to get rid of it. Problems started with this item right out of the box. I attempted to get service on this item from Samsung but, the website is so hard to use, it's probably easier to get an audience with several heads of state as to obtain service from Samsung. The Samsung DVD R130 will not even play DVDs from the video store and certainly won't play shows that I have recorded. I strongly suggest not buying this item.

After owning the product for over six months, I have had several of the problems experienced by other reviewers, most notably:

Problem 1: It can't play many rented and purchased DVD's, though my older Sony unit and computers play the same discs without hesitation. There seems to be no correlation between the amount of disc damage visible to the eye and playback reliability. A purchased movie (which had been played only once, removed from the player and placed in its container) would not play a second time a couple of months later, though it had only a couple of barely visible light scratches and no finger smudges. My son's 4 disc "Justice League" set plays fine, though the discs have been in and out of the player more times than I can count. Again, my other DVD players have no problem with any of these discs. This problem seems to have started about one month ago

Problem 2: Sound and video are not synchronized on recorded discs, like watching a Foreign movie dubbed in English. I attempted to diagnose and remedy the problem by using alternate methods of connecting my Audio Video components and using different types of connectors. It doesn't matter whether I'm recording directly from the DVR or from the TV output, the problem does not go away. Also tried different discs, other Sony DVD-R and -RW's - no luck. This problem arose about three months after using the unit.

Problem 3: The unit runs very slowly and has a tendency to hang up. Not only when the player is having difficulty reading a disc as mentioned above, but when you hit the "Stop" button while recording or try to edit discs.

Problem 4: Recording quality is bad, unless you use the highest recording quality setting (XP) which limits record time to a little over one hour.

Problem 5: It stutters farely often when playing purchased music CD's. Again, no problem playing the discs in other players.

One notable potential shortcoming is the lack of inputs with a device that may be used for recording from multiple audio and video components. Inputs include Rear: 1 Composite A/V, and 1 S-video; Front 1 Composite A/V and 1 Firewire. If you are looking to record from multiple devices, then you will have to mix up the types of connections. For example, if you record from a TV/Satellite and VCR you'll have to use the front connection for one device and rear connection for the other, even though front connectors are meant for use of video cameras, MP3 players and other portable units. If you have a third component (DVD, Gaming console, CD Player) that you would like to record from also, then you will probably need to purchase a Modulator (device that allows input of multiple devices to a single input on one device) or use an A/V Stereo Receiver with multiple inputs.

On the other hand, the unit has two composite Audio outputs. I'm not sure why more than one is needed, since you will need to connect to your TV or Stereo Receiver, not both.

On the plus side - the unit has some nice editing and recording features. Nothing more than one would expect, but nothing less. I have very limited experience using the timer recording function which worked fine on the few occasions it was employed. Also I have not experienced problems playing recorded discs on my other DVD player. So I cannot validate some of the issues others have experienced personally. However, after owning the unit and reading reviews, I wouldn't take the claims lightly. Given the types of errors I'm having, I am considering replacing the unit after just six months of use. The low price does not justify the risk of having to replace the unit after such a short time.

Worst piece of electronic equipment I have ever had. DVR recordings are not compatible with other DVD players after finalizing and are barely compatible (i.e. sometimes work sometimes don't) on my laptop. My #1 complaint is that I have had constant issues getting it to play DVD that I have rented...I often have to get out my old cheap portable DVD player to watch movies because this stupid thing can't load them -- even more fun is that you can watch a movie one day...try it again the next and all of a sudden it won't work...

My dvd recorder stopped working after less than one year and Samsung refused to repair or replace it.

After figuring out how to record on this thing it turns out that it does the job just right. I dont understand how some of the other reviewers claim that their disks dont play on other DVD players after finalization. I finalized one and played it on another player and it worked just fine.

I didnt give this item 5-stars because sometimes it locks up for no particular reason. Also Samsung's customer service leaves something to be desired but thats allright, it gets the job done and thats all that matters.

HAVE THIS RECORDER SINCE CHRISTMAS HAD ALL KINDS OF PROBLEMS WITH RECORDING, FREEZING UP,RECORDING THEN NOT PLAYING BACK,HAVING TO UNPLUG UNIT SIX TIMES IN ONE MONTH.BUT LAST WEEK I CALLED SAMSUNG AND TALKED TO SOMEONE WHO ACTUALY NEW SOMETHING ABOUT THIS UNIT, AND IS EVERYONE WHO OWNS THIS UNIT READY.TO FIX ALMOST EVERY PROBLEM GO TO THE PLAYER AND PRESS AND HOLD THE CHANNEL UP AND DOWN BUTTONS AT THE SAME TIME UNTIL ON SCREEN DISPLAY SAYS UNIT HAS BEEN RESET.DO THIS WITH NO DISC IN THE MACHINE.I HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS SINCE.NO WHERE IN THE MANUEL IS THERE ANYTHING ABOUT THIS.GOOD LUCK WITH YOURS.

Didn't work, sent it back, gave bad feedback. The guy at the Samsung Mall said he'd send me a "free gift" of a Samsung MP3 player if I withdrew the bad feedback, so I did. Would you believe he sent me a bean? It was in a can that was so difficult to open I came very close to slicing my hand open. I thought it was some trendy way to send the MP3 player, but just a bean. Gee... ya think I'll order anything from this guy again? NO!

The recorded DVD can not play properly on my Panasonic player. It seems never go from one chapter to the next by itself. You have to go to the main menue all the time. Reverse, forward and skip functions work but when you press play key, it freezes and stops.

This unit is a real clunker. Right out of the box it had audio synch problems where the sound was not in synch with the picture. I sent unit out to a Samsung recommended repair shop and it took six weeks for unit to be fixed. When unit was returned it stll was not working. Samsung is stalling in sending out a shipping label so unit can be fixed a second time. The second time around I will probably have to wait another six weeks for unit to be returned. So teach yourself a lesson and don't but this or any other Samsung product, their products and customer service are terrible.

I bought this unit about 2 months ago and have used it almost daily. It is very easy to use, recording is a piece of cake, and contrary to some of the other reviews, I have had NO PROBLEMS playing back my finalized discs on other DVD players and computers - some of which are going on 4 years old. There is a quick start and setup pamphlet that comes with the unit for quick use, but the manual has everything in more detail.

The only issues I've had are that the remote takes a little getting use to and sometimes when recording for long periods the audio becomes a little out of synch with the video, but that has happened just twice.

I bought this alleged dvd recorder because it was getting hard to get tapes for my vhs. It was impossible to use. I gave it to my son and daughter-in-law, who are computer engineers, and even they found it difficult

Bought the Samsung DVD-R130 Recorder about 4 months ago and it has peformed well for my purpose. I time record about 5 TV braodcasts per week for later playback, about 4 1/2 hours per week.

Unit was easy to set up and use and produces good pictures and sound. When I fast forward through portions of programs and then return to normal play speed, the sounds is slighly out of synch with the picture. For the news programs which I record this is not a problem.

I read all the reviews complaining about the Samsung's disc's not playing on other DVD player's. I disagree. It's disc's play on all my DVD players except one. Burned DVD's play perfectly in my iMac, Macbook, DMX DVD player, Playstation 2, Xbox, JVC DVD player, and Polaroid portable. The only machine I own that doesn't seem to like the Samsung's finalized discs is the Xbox 360, which will play the discs but will sometimes lockup when you skip commercial's.

I was skeptical given the half/half reviews so I bought this product at a store instead of online. I used -R disc since I believe most DVD players can play -R better than other disc. This is good since I share most of my disc with my relatives that are out of town. I did not care of the machine can write +R or not. I recorded my first disc the evening I set it up. The setup was easy and I was recording within 20 minutes. The quality was as good as I expect DVD quality. I used the 2 hour SP mode. The only thing that you really need to do after recording is to "finalize" it so that the disc can be played by other DVD players. After that , the disc played in my other Cyberhome DVD player as well as on my laptop. Good experience overall. The only complaint was that I wanted to use the RC cable as output but it did not allow it. I had to use the RCA (Tri-color cables) to connect to my TV.

The Tech Support told me that they cannot guarantee that it works on other DVD player. I tried Sony, Panasonic, DVD player in my notebook, Apex. None of them can play the DVD.

I give it a ratings of 1 since it's a good player.

I tried four separate recordings to the Samsung-specified DVD-R media, and each yielded the same result: the DVD plays fine ont he Samsung unit, but will not play properly on any other player if you try to fast forward, skip chapters, etc. The playback skips frames and the audio drops out entirely.

I tried to play my Samsung-recorded DVDs on a 5-year-old Panasonic player, a 1-year-old Toshiba player, and my 2-year-old Mac G4 laptop. Same problem each time.

I made several calls to Samsung tech support, but they were dumbfounded, and only suggested I replace the unit. I did. The replacement unit had the same trouble.

I'd been thinking about buying a DVD recorder for a while but almost all recorders had bad reviews until I saw this one. The reviews looked good so I decided to give it a try. And I was, and still am, definitely happy about my choice.

It took me only a few minutes to set up this recorder (the usual cables and set the clock). I was able to immediately record a TV show without a problem. The images were DVD quality if you set it to SP (2 hours of recording per DVD). With LP (4 hours per DVD), the quantity suffered to slightly better than VHS but still quite good. It also has a feature that will set the speed automatically based on the amount of space left in the DVD. The interface to set up timed recording was quite easy and intuitive.

I also transferred over 20 hours of 8mm home movies to DVD. Again I encountered no problem at all. In fact I have yet had a bad CD or recording or timer not working. Everything is working just as it should. I couldn't be happier.

I do have a few gripes about the remote and the caption. Remote is not universal and the buttons are many, though no more than others. It seems to have problem record the captions in each show. If you try to use TV caption (not the caption feature on DVD player) on the recorded shows, the caption will only show sporadically. The finalized DVD from the recorder also does not show the chapters correctly in my JVC DVD player. It's not a big deal for me but might be for some of you.

I have had this machine for several months now and I have to say that I'm fairly satisfied. It performs pretty much as expected and the quality of recordings is very good - both from TV and VHS. The only negatives (and reason for 4/5 rating) I have with the product is the fact that it doesn't play VCDs and it sometimes hangs if you press a number of buttons in succession or touch a button while it is initially trying to read a disk. The remote is not much worse than any others I have used - just have to get used to the button placements and functions. I have always used DVD-R/RW disks since they have historically been the most compatible so that was not an issue.

All the negative comments about players not recognizing the disks might be due to three things:

1. Make sure the disk is finalized properly in the Setup Menu, this allows other players to understand the information written on the disk.

2. Most new DVD Recorders seem to format disks as DVD-VR by default. This is great if you're planning to do some minor editing of the footage on the DVD Recorder. If you want the disks to be more universal, reformat the disk to the DVD-V mode BEFORE YOU START RECORDING (if you do it after it wipes whatever you already have), but you loose the ability to edit the shows (eg. take out commercials) unless you transfer the footage onto an editing program on your PC.

3. DVD-VR disks are hard to read on older DVD players (both standalone and PC). I had to buy a new Samsung Double Layer DVD-Burner for my computer so that I can transfer multiple recordings from DVD-VR disks. I could not do it with an older NEC Single Layer DVD-Burner, I could only import the first recorded show, and WinDVD would only play the last recorded show! The newer DVD-Burners should state in the specification that that they read multi-session disks which is what DVD-VR allows you to do.

So before giving up on this machine, try formating disks in the DVD-V mode, and make sure you finalize the disk using the Setup menu before playing it on other machines.

Confirming other customer reviews, finalized DVD-R discs recorded on this unit will not play on other DVD players. I recorded and finalized several DVD-R discs on this unit. Although I was successful in getting them to play on my PC, I has no success playing them on any other DVD player. Check the customer reviews on the Circuit City web site for this unit. Per one review dated 6/12/06, "Recordings will not play properly on other DVD players. Confirmed this is the case (and no fix) with Samsung tech support."

I also experienced a problem with the timer recording feature. If you set up several programs to record, the unit will record the first one and then power off. Even though the manual states that "When the start time is reached while the unit is powered off, the unit will automatically power on and start recording" my unit never woke up again to record the other programs. So if you plan on scheduling multiple programs to record, either plan on sticking around to power up the unit after each recording, or avoid this unit!

This is the second recorder I purchased in what I thought would be an easy quest. After reading reviews and doing lots of research, I purchased a Panasonic recorder. Big mistake. The tuner quality was poor which translated into poor quality discs. Returned it and bought the R130. It saved me some dollars but had less features.

In particular, it can only write to -R/RW media. The Panasonic could write to +R/RW/RAM media as well. No big deal though. Sometimes the R130 takes a long time to finalize whereas the Panasonic was much quicker. Again, no big deal.

I must say the picture quality was far better for the R130. The tuner worked well and the disks were of much better visual quality. But now for the bad part, very very bad.

The disks the R130 creates can only be read reliably on itself. I tried multiple brands of disks but that is not the problem. The problem is with the format of the disk. In my tests, I created a DVD with 4 tv episodes. The R130 creates a title menu for each episode. This works fine when played on itself.

The disk though won't play properly on my Sony DVD player. When you insert the disk, it skips the menu and goes right to the first episode. If you bring up the disk and try and play any other episode, the player gives you an error. I tried creating multiple disks on the R130 and the results were always the same.

Next I tried to play my test disks on my desktop. I have two players, Plextor & Benq and both WinDVD and PowerDVD players. Sometimes the disk would hang the drive (either one). When I got a disk that wouldn read, using either Windvd or PowerDvd on any player, the DVD would start playing and skip the menu. With WinDVD, I was usually able to access the menu and use it to select episodes. With PowerDVD if I was able to get to menu, it would get stuck there. I was not able to select any episode nor go back to play.

Not being able to play the R130 disks elsewhere was a major flaw of this player. The price was great and the disc quality when played on itself was great so if thats all you need maybe this player is ok for you. I wound up replacing it with the Sony GX330. This player does what I would expect and creates high quality discs that are compatible! You get what you pay for.

I just purchased this recorder and I must say I am very impressed on how easy it was to use. It took me about 10 minutes to set it up and Bam I was recording. I set it last night to record a couple shows while I was asleep and woke up this morning and It was done. I like this player and for the price you cant go wrong. The remote is ok, its small and I only plan to use it when Im using the dvd player so its ok. Overall a good starter dvd recorder.

I was attracted to the Samsung R130 by the price and sold on the name. It's a name-brand machine that's being sold at the price of a no-name import, and I think the Samsung name gives it the promise of being reliable for as long as I want to keep it. I have a three-year-old JVC DVD player which I love, but it doesn't record. (Why not a JVC recorder? I would have in a heartbeat, but JVC doesn't make one in this price range.) Also, I absolutely love the slim line and the color. The Samsung's finish is classy and is either black or very dark gray depending on how the light hits it. I love it because it matches the rest of my simple set up, a JVC TV with rabbit ears, my DVD player, and a Panasonic VHS recorder, all of which are black. Most DVD recorders I've seen are very bulky, but the Samsung is only a hair taller than my JVC NBK50 player and an inch less deep. I do think its interface isn't as "friendly" as the JVC's, meaning there's no "hello" when you turn it on, and there's no comforting and adjustable blue light, but the starkness of it isn't something I can't live with.

It must be told that the Samsung has a HORRIBLE remote control that cannot control your television set. I found myself juggling remotes, which I hate passionately. Recording isn't that difficult once you figure out where all the damn buttons are, in fact the chapter selection is really neat. When you use DVD-R discs, you cannot edit so much. You can rename the disc and delete chapters, that's it. Therefore, I'm now looking for a good universal unit to control all my devices with.

Setting up was fairly easy, although I found out that there is an important difference between how a VCR connects to TV and how the Samsung connects. My VCR had only the two antenna connections and could transmit sound and picture to the TV. The Samsung won't do that; in fact the manual says audio and video output must be used. I wondered why this has to be, given both DVD recorder and VCR have tuners. At any rate, because of the need for an audio/video cable, the picture is as beautiful as that from my JVC player, and the sound is actually richer. I've lost my connection to my dvd player, though, because I had to transfer the Monster cable from the JVC to the Samsung.

Cable users should note that the manual has the cable box between the recorder and the TV if there are few scrambled channels, and between the cable box and the TV if there are many scrambled channels. In either case, it says you can't watch something else while recording through the cable box. Since I don't have cable, I don't have that problem.

Making recordings, at least, is very similar to working a VCR, but with a few quirks even so. It takes 15 seconds to load the disc, which is not interminable, but definitely must be planned for especially when doing timed recordings. I also noticed that sometimes if you delete a title or chapter, it doesn't register unless you first open the drawer and close it again so it can update the information. It also doesn't like for you to name a DVD before you've recorded on it, and if you use DVD-R like I do sometimes it doesn't understand that even after erasing everything on the disc, there's nothing on it anymore, and it tells you there's no more free space. So, if you've never done DVD recording before, be prepared to sacrifice a few DVDs in the process of learning. Buy a spindle of quality discs; I use Taiyo-Yuden.

Dubbing my non-commercial VHS tapes has been fairly straightforward. I find the two-hour setting, SP, the cleanest. I found the sound and picture transferred reasonably well, with no out-of-synch issues that I noticed so far. For off-the-air recording, say, 4 days worth of Oprah, LP is the best setting, although you lose some clarity in the picture. I would not record anything above LP unless it's the news or something where picture quality isn't that important.

Feature-wise, the R130 is really neat! After recording a couple snippets from the TV channels you go to menu, and there it plays a little preview of each chapter. You can set it to commercial skip, and set how much you want to skip, and I set mine to 30 seconds. I found the Samsung tends to run hot, so I put coasters between it and my VCR so that it can get plenty of ventilation.

I've only had the machine three weeks as of this writing, so I can't speak to longevity or reputation. I'm not one of those people who buys a lot of things, burns some stuff, then takes it back to the dealer or sells it, so I can't say there's anything better out there for my purposes. I don't see myself completely doing without my VCR, but I do see myself buying less tape than normal, and since I'm decluttering, that's a good thing.