Samsung DVD-VR350 - VCR Recorder & DVD Recorder Combination - With Freeview

Samsung DVD-VR350 - VCR Recorder & DVD Recorder Combination - With Freeview
Amazon Price: ?179.87

Toshiba DVR17 - DVD Recorder & VHS Combi - Black
Recordable formats: DVD-R/-RW, DVD+R/+RW VHS.
Amazon Price: ?130.80
Used Price: ?99.99

Bush DVRHS02 Multi Region capable DVD Recorder / Video Combi Unit Silver
Used Price: ?150.00
Customer Review: Poor and unreliable
As a straightforward VCR player/recorder this machine is good but it was bought for more than that. Its DVD recording qualities and capabilities let it down badly. When setting it to record to DVD from TV, it will sometimes fail to record at all. When it does record, and at a later date I put the disc in the machine, it will often either fail to read the disc altogether or indicate that the disc is empty which it clearly is not. It has now started another trick - when playing a pre-recorded DVD in the machine, part way through the film, the picture froze and now the machine is refusing to read the disc. I can’t replace this machine quickly enough. The instruction book is also very poor - far too basic and not really very helpful at all.
Customer Review: Slow and poor!
Switch this on and it wants to default to DVD every time, even if no DVD is in it tries to read one; this can take up to 90 seconds and won’t let you do anything while it does this. High quality recording needs short time of recording so forget anything more than about 1 hour with perfect recording quaility. Every time I insert a DVD it wants to display subtitles and sometimes refuses to allow you to cancel them. The VCR is the best part of this device as it works every time; set DVD to record on timer and its hit and miss whether you get anything recorded or get the programme you want. In my opinion, forget this, its simply not as good as it should be.