Samsung DVD-VR325 DVD/VCR Recorder

I've had this unit a few years now, and it's done what I wanted it to do flawlessly. I don't use the HDMI connections on this, I hook it to an old CRT TV set and my older 4-speaker surround audio system. It records and plays BOTH DVDs and VHS tapes, and I've experienced exceptional picture and audio with both media on this unit. I converted a few tapes to DVD with that feature, which is quite handy. I did have the remote problem that others mention, but I drilled a small hole in the end of the remote to expose the IRLED and switched to Lithium batteries and no more problem. I only payed $200 for this brand new. I purchased this product when my old DVD player died, I wanted a 2-in-1 unit like this and wanted to record DVDs. If that's all you're looking for, this will do it for you.

I will never buy any Samsung product again. I bought this one new and for a while at least it seemed to work ok, but then the audio skip problem started up and unfortunately I recorded quite a number of disks before I became aware of it. I tried downloading the patch which did nothing to fix the problem and Samsung customer service was of no help at all. Ok, fine so a year ago I bought a Panasonic DVD recorder which I am quite pleased with, however now I am trying to close down with the V325 by finalizing all the disks that I made with it before the skip problem came up....and now it will not finalize about half of those disks. I keep getting a disk error message. Talk about one last kick in the teeth from this absolutely horrible piece of JUNK. So basically I have been recording DVDs for a couple of years and half of them are worthless. I would simply play them using the Samsung with the Panasonic hooked up to rerecord them, but then I have to worry about the audio skip problem. I will NEVER EVER purchase a Samsung again.

I've had several DVD recorders that I've used to transfer VHS to DVD. This is the easiest one yet and it has lasted more than 6 months. The picture quality is very good and I can record DVDs from TV shows. The other DVD recorders I've had didn't last 6 months and I never overused or abused them. I bought this one with a warranty and, of course, I probably won't use it! The reviews either seem very good or bad. Maybe it's just hit or miss if you are lucky enough to get one of the good ones!?!I'm thinking about buying a second one.

First it stopped recording DVDs, then it stopped recognizing DVDs it had recorded. Now it doesn't recognize any DVDs. I've had it for about 10 months.

Basically a $300 piece of junk. DV input does not work and locks up the machine. Firmware update did nothing. Many DVD movies that play just fine on other players hang and get stuck. After about 6 months of use the DVD recorder burns nothing but coasters. The is a very poor design. Samsung should be offerring free replacement/repair. A similar experience with a Toshiba model resulted in Toshiba repairing the unit for free even when out of warranty. I'll go back to buying Toshiba from now on. Pass on Samsung products unless you like to waste money.

I could not afford this beauty new. I got it for a song refurbished. It does everything I wanted it to do. Great DVD from my old VHS tapes and great DVDs from movies on TV. I use it like we used to use VHS and have had no problems. I have had it a month and have made 30 to 40 DVDs so far. Way worth the $100.00 I paid. I probably will not use all the features this recorder offers but it works just fine for my needs.

After trouble with several DVD players, I decided to invest in this higher cost unit. The option to record from VHS tapes held a big appeal. The unit worked very well for 10 months. Then, the DVD would not open. I don't know why DVD units tend to do that, but I have had a couple that did the same thing. With the cost of this unit, I had hoped to avoid problems. So much for getting what you pay for. Does anyone know why DVD's stop opening or how to fix the problem? Thank you.

This model received high ratings when we looked around at several sites in early 2005 so we decided to buy it. What a mistake. It's a pain to copy vhs to dvd with menus. Very confusing. First problem was the unit freezing during recording.This should have given us a hint. Next, DVDs would stop playing mid-movie - they would get stuck and we would have to forward several frames to be able to continue the movie. Now, it doesn't even recognize DVDs anymore. We just dumped it today. Not even going to bother paying to get it fixed - we bought a new non-Samsung model.

I've owned this for about 6 months now, and it still works just as fine as it did the day I got it.
The big cool feature of this is the VCR-DVD conversion, which is quite easy. Only problem is, if you wish to have "chapters" you have to time code it like record 00:02 to 02:35 then 02:36-04:57, other wise it will record as one continuous disc. I haven't had a problem yet burning a disc with this.
This also plays the burnt DVDs i make and my friend make very well, very few problems ever arise.
The VCR side is hard to hold high, this of course being compared to the left side DVD player, but it's actually the highest quality VHS player I've ever had. Fastest rewind I've ever had.
The remote was a bit difficult to navigate at first, and I still have to turn on the lights in the room at night if I have to hit certain keys.
Playing mp3 cds is great, except unless you have your TV, you won't see root folders and track titles.
Overall, this is a great DVD recorder for beginners, and very easy to transfer stuff, you just need to read up a little. This might not be the top shelf model, but it definetly isn't garbage.

THIS PRODUCT DOES NOT WORK !!! Many of my DVD's when played in this unit stick, skip, video signal breaks up into illegible squares, audio signal drops out. These DVD discs play without a problem in my other machines. I called Samsung tech support, who told me to update firmware, which I did. Problems remained the same. Then I sent it in to their repair center (they charged me $30 for this). It came back in 2 weeks UNREPAIRED -- same problems. Then when I called and asked for my money back they refused and said I need to send it to another repair center. I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER SAMSUNG PRODUCT AGAIN !!!

Ken Meyer

I just got my VR325 last night and hooked it up. The basics worked OK - I tried DVD play, DVD-RAM record, VCR play, and record from camcorder over 1394/Firewire. So far so good. Then I went to hook it up to my Tivo and found no digital audio input! I should have researched better. I downloaded the manual and looked at the I/O but missed the fact that while it has a S-Video (this is digital, right?) input, there is no digital audio (fiber or coax) input.

I guess you can get digital audio over 1394/Firewire; but I don't have any way to get 1394 out of my Tivo or my Hi-Def TV receiver.

I can also confirm that the response to the remote control is finicky/slow, and the discs take a long time to load.

Probably going to return it and get a separate DVD recorder & VCR...after reading all the hassles people have with the combo machines (and this one seems to be one of the more trouble-free) and now the limitations even with it, I am going to separate components.

8-Apr-06 update:
I decided to keep the machine and am pretty happy with it. After further research I wasn't able to find any DVD recorder with digital audio in! I'm sure they are out there, but not as common as I thought.

My machine had a note in the box saying it had been updated to support faster DVD's. It didn't say how fast; the manual still says 4X. I have used it regularly with Sony 16X DVD-R with no problem. I've also used it with Maxell 8X DVD-R and Maxell 3X DVD-RAM.
I have used the machine regularly with DVD

I think overall this product works very well. The biggest problem I had with it was that the tuner only goes to 150 channels and I get up to 999. I don't know how this compares to other models but a pretty good buy overall

Regarding Design:
HDMI-page 19, use HDMI for "best quality images and sounds." "Set the audio output to PCM. See p. 29." (Does this screw-up audio-out using component instead of HDMI? See below.)

Page 31, Using SETUP screen, change resolution from 480p to 720p to 1080i.
Or, "press the P.SCAN button while the unit is in Stop mode to select HDMI resolution as follows: 480i>480p>720p>1080i." Note: "HDMI/DVI does not support 480i. Video with 480i resolution can only be viewed through the analog inputs (Composite/S-Video/Component)." Catch that? Only the P.Scan button, not the setup screen, can get you back to 480i, and then the HDMI is unusable.

Page 63, "copy function is not allowed in progressive scan mode." Another gotcha: if you set any progressive mode, required in order to use HDMI, you cannot copy.

Page 64, "copy function from VCR to DVD does not operate if resolution is set to 1080i using HDMI or DVI."

Regarding Quality:
First unit returned due to audio drop-outs while using HDMI-no further testing, only one evening use. This second unit has dropouts every 4 to 6 seconds at 480p, every 10 to 15 seconds at 720p, and every 20 to 30 seconds at 1080i

Audio from DVD of very poor quality; TV required setting volume at max to hear at all, and background noise excessive. However, the audio was still set to PCM as required for HDMI, even though now using S-video + audio (3 cables in lieu of one HDMI.)

Playback of VCR, either for direct viewing or for copying, has VERY low resolution, and excessive contrast. Full blacks, and full whites visible, but no details visible in hair, grass, trees, etc.-all look black. Black Level was adjusted, as on p 30, but both settings were bad-just different. Audio useable, but seemed to be of a low level.

Recording from external VCR to a DVD-R on the DVD-VR325, unit stopped recording when stop button on remote pressed, but DVD not finalized. When playback was attempted, only low-quality audio was output, no video. Tried recording again on same disc for 10 seconds, stop button caused finalization to take place. Of course, this ruined the remainder of the disk. (ten-year-old VCR has better audio and video than this new DVD-VR325.)

Three Cassettes were copied onto DVD-R with no further loss of quality than that apparent on VCR playback-poor as this was, may not be a valid indicator of quality of recording.

I made the mistake of ignoring all the warnings regarding the poor HDMI audio . . cuts in and out constantly . . I bought this unit from Circuit City and to my shagrin, the audio went in and out from the get-go. . Really frustrating trying to watch a movie!! I will say though that the video on my Panasonic 50" Plasma HDTV looked great, the upconverting IS the way to go, but just not with THIS unit or THIS (Samsung) brand! Also, contrary to what Samsung claims, there really is no appreciable upconverting the signal for VHS tapes that I could see, they actually looked worse!!. In short, DON"T BUY THIS UNIT, it has a widely experienced defect. Shame on Samsung for releasing a product with known defects in the HDMI audio without a recall or warning to consumers. This thing cost over $350 bucks! I've lost all trust in Samsung and will avoid this brand from now on . . You would be wise to do the same given the number of reviews like this one . . .

I just got my unit. Works easily out of the box but when I made a DVD from a old home VHS tape it played easily with the Samsung but not in my DVD player for my other TV. Guess there is some format issue I am not aware of.

I'll reiterate some of the previous comments, both good and bad points.
The manual might be over simplified, perhaps, because I redid a VCR to DVD playlist before I realized I had to use Copy All after creating a playlist or else I'd lose the remaining segments I laboriously set up (still not positive if the playlist segments themselves are only recorded or entire tape might be! Yesterday was first test.). Manual does state that a VCR playlist can't be "saved" but I thought it was saying the DVD-VR325 (somewhere it calls it DVD-VR320) wouldn't do a second copy after the first (six segments are possible) DVD is recorded, so I ended up with two disks having only a first segment and the other five segments disappeared when the initial recording ended. Another rather important fact, if you don't rewind the tape yourself before selecting to Copy it'll rewind in play mode, taking forever! Should be a note about that.
As to the HDMI audio dropouts... I'm awaiting delivery of a Samsung LCD this week before I'll know anything about that, but sure am counting on that connection to be okay. That was a main part of my decision to buy these Samsung products together (also got Samsung HT-DB600 home theater 5-disc player-- I have had a good Samsung 27" CRT since the late 1980's).
Something I found out right away about the audio is that DRC (dynamic range compression) causes out-of-synch sound. Not sure why. I use the optical output connected to the HT-DB600 input and set to bitstream, as suggested in the manual. I just don't know enough about these digital things to help myself. So the DRC is kept off on both units. Curious thing about that optical setting is that PCM seems to be what the manual says VCR and non-digital sources needs but I still get audio through the Home Theater speakers okay with it set to Bitstream instead. Again, I don't fully understand this stuff.
Well, now about the 4 star rating I chose to give this DVD/VCR recorder combo. It is definitely a nice device when going from a heavier DVD(non-recorder)/VCR combo that always baked the discs and tapes. A pleasant surprise, since I figured the cooling fan was there because it would still be hot. It's quiet, too, my notebook computer is noisier.
Also, compared to any previous VHS tape machine I ever had this one does tracking very well, showing a slider on-screen as it adjusts automatically. My other VCR's would never stay aligned even if they initially tracked okay.
Only had this a few days so I plan to update my long-winded review here if I discover anything to change my mind about the generous rating but, if not, I think a rating just above average would apply anyhow.
Paid $337 and some change (from Amazon itself).

this product has the best picture I seen,BUT!!!! the audio has dropouts every 20 seconds,through the HDMI,or digital outs,in other words,is buggy,being refurbished (,and I purchased it here,through Amazon,)i Cannot send it back,so I have to go through Samsung to have it fixed,hope they have the fix,this piece has potential for a good seller

DVD playback picture was very sharp (see below). Intermittent audio drop-outs were experienced when using HDMI cable, but not component cables. After unit had been turned on/off a few times, however, this problem went away.

The following issues remained:

1. Picture qualities (sharpness, color) at 480p, 720p and 1080i resolution settings were indistinguishable to my eyes. I was originally happy to see good 1080i picture quality, but was surprised to find out that at 480p resolution, the picture quality did not significantly degrade. I wonder if the "upconversion" was really effective afterall.

2. At 720p and 1080i resolution settings, standard aspect ratio (4:3) VHS and DVDs were stretched to widescreen, i.e. people look fat and shorter. There is no way to correct this with my TV setting. Level 2 Samsung technician could not help. This is inherent in the design.

To watch standart TV format (4:3) movies in their correct aspect ratio, you have to reset the resolution to 480p. This means that upconversion cannot be used for standard format DVDs and VHS movies. 720p & 1080i output signals are set to widescreen format.

I Decided to get this Combo player for two reasons initially. #1 the upconversion of both the DVD AND VCR and #2 It matches my Samsung LCD TV.

Performance of this ubit so far has been exceptional, Great upconversion through the DVI output. It showed significant inprovement over the TV's built in upconversion for the VDD and incredible improvement over my exixting 6 head toshiba VCR.

One thing that was nice that they don't mention in the literature is that the VCR is SVHS compatible so you can take advantage of the higher image quality. Basically this unit exceds my performance standards that I was looking for picture and sound wise.

Now for the issues:

#1 - You cant really stack anything on top of it or it fouls the loading mechanism of the VCR. I placed my LCD TV (23" Samsung 21lbs) on top of it and the top bowed enough so that the loading mechanism would get caught on the case. I fixed this myself with a little inginuity but it could cause others issue.

#2 - The Second issue which is a little more irritating is with the recorder. If you wish to record from VCR-DVD or visa-versa you MUST turn off the Progressive scanning. This is not an issue if you use the normal component video out however, if you use the DVI you cannot get a picture on your monitor (I had to connect a second line to my TV to get recording to work). The other issue is that no where n the directions do they tell you this, I had to figure it out on my own. The DVD recording quality is very good though once you get it figured out.

Other than that this unit is worth the money to me.. Though the manual could be much better and of course the stacking issue, but that is a minor thing.