We were looking for a VHS / DVD player recorder that would enable us to copy our family's vacations and the childres lives as they grew from our VHS taped onto DVD's. Samsung gave us the opportunity to do just that. We now have a collection of disc's that our whole family can enjoy for years. This machine performes beautifully. it's also possable to copy VHS tapes from DVD disc. What more could we ask for. Samsung DVD-VR375/DVD-VR375A Tunerless DVD Recorder VHS Combo
I loved my DVD Recorder when I got it home and set it up. I recorded some VHS tapes to DVD with absolutely no issues. And the picture quality was GREAT (and I LOVED the HDMI cable set-up option)! But, suddenly, you cannot see the picture on the VHS tapes...you can hear sound, but no pictures. I called Samsung (I didn't buy a warranty with the machine...unfortunately!) and they were very nice. They extended my included labor warranty (it was still under warranty for parts) and sent me a packing lable to ship it back to them, which I did. It was returned to me in a couple of weeks, and wouldn't you know? The stupid VHS picture goes out AGAIN! I hadn't watched five minutes of a tape when the picture disappeared! I call Samsung, again, and they send me another shipping label (I had to ask for it this time...there were no more offers from their Customer Service Reps. When I told them that the machine was broken again, already, they actually asked ME what I wanted THEM to do!). I mail it off, and get it back three weeks later. Again the stupid thing dies (it made it through one video, this time). The DVD portion of the machine still works great...but if I had have wanted a DVD Player, I would have bought one, and at a MUCH cheaper price! I cannot get a hold of Samsung, now, but I say: Buyer Beware! Do NOT trust Samsung's products to be high quality and do NOT expect them to stand by them when they die! Buy a warranty with their products or buy some other brand!
Since there are few to no choices in reasonably priced DVD/VCR recorders containing an ATSC digital tuner, I purchased three of these Samsung DVD-VR375 recorders and matched them to three Channel Master digital converter boxes.
I bought them expressly to record over the air TV programs on DVDRWs so that I could record programs for my wife. I already was using two Magnavox units for this purpose and had a group of dedicated DVD+RWs which allowed me to record, erase and re-record more programming.
I was disappointed to find that the preferred disk for these Samsungs are DVD-RW blanks which required setting up another group of formatted disks. For my purposes, they had to be formatted in the Video(V) format. There is a VR format used for data and/or other purposes.
I find that they do a credible job of recording my DVDs (I didn't buy them for the VCR recording function) as long as you limit the recording time to two hours. Any time beyond the two hours and the resolution gets really soft. On the other hand, recording an HD program, then playing it back using the HDMI outputs to the TV so that it takes advantage of the unit's upscaling capability results in a very good looking picture though no DVD, regardless of how recorded, will record actual HD.
Since my recording needs are pretty basic, the setup and use was pretty much intuitive which is good because the User Manual could use a good rewrite. Some of the more advanced capabilities of these units including non-video uses would require careful reading of the user manual.
One other negative is that, after a recording has been viewed and is ready to be erased, it is a two-step manual operation which is not clearly explained in the User Manual. I have all units preset to finalize the recordings upon completion since they will always be played in another player-only machine. To get it ready to re-record, you must manually unfinalize the disk and then manually erase the titles.
All in all, though not perfect, they do record as well as one should expect from a budget recorder and, so far, after learning the correct procedures, have worked reliably. The only mishaps have been user induced.
Jim B.
I've had a Samsung DVD-VR325 for a little over four years, and recently some of the buttons on the remote stopped working and the recorder was giving me a few too many disc errors, so I replaced it with the DVD-VR375. Now the 325 had three inputs (not counting DV for camcorders): RF/coax, Composite Video, and S-Video. With the 375, the RF input is gone of course because there is no tuner, but I was really surprised to find that the S-Video input is gone too. I have an HD cable box and it only has DVI, Component, and S-Video outputs, so basically I can't use the 375. As a former Samsung employee who used to work with their DVD line, I never would have thought that the unit wouldn't have an S-Video input since so many earlier models did. So before you buy, check your set-top box and make sure it has composite (red, white, yellow) outputs, or else you'll be returning it too. - Samsung Vr375 - Dvd Recorder - Dvd Vcr Combo - Dvd Recorder Vcr Combo'
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