Pioneer DVR-533H DVD Recorder

1 DVD Recorder hits, Showing 1 to 1 DVD Recorders

DVD Recorder

Write support

Read support

FireWire
VCR, HD

Price

Best

Rating

Comments

Pioneer DVR-533H

Write
~~CDR~~
~~CDRW~~
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD-R DL
~~DVD+R~~
~~DVD+RW~~
~~DVD+RDL~~
~~DVD-RAM~~

Read*

CDR
CDRW
DVD-R
DVD-RW
DVD-R DL?
DVD+R
DVD+RW?
DVD+R DL?
DVD-RAM?

*based on user reports.

Desktop, Firewire, 80GB HDD

$400

7.5/10
12 votes
Read 14
comments
(25240 views)

Post comments

DVD Player features:
Video formats:
JPG?
Audio formats:
MP3
Other features:

Visit manufacturer's site
Region code free hack

DVD Media comments for this DVD Recorder (click on the link to read the comments):
1 Dataware 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Imation 8xDVD-R (CMC MAG. AE1) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
Post your DVD Media comments here

Comments

14 comments, Showing 1 to 14 comments

dux5977 from United States reported March 31, 2007:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	120 days	7 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
bought this unit very happy with it ...until the clock jumped ahead 4hours ...the TVguide doesnt work. I have a motorola (mod#: DCT2244)cable converter box. I was okk with TV guide not working, even the clock jumping ahead 4hrs. Now since i tried resetting the clock ...I can't record more than one show on a single DVD disc. I get an error unable to record. I'm no sure why and have looked at all the trouble shooting guide lines in manual with no luck. has anyone had trouble with recording more than one title on DVD's? If anyone has any idea's or help, that would be very much appreciated. Thx

Jason V from Canada reported December 27, 2006:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	over 1 year	8 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
Finally, I found the secret codes to reset the TVGuide! After many months of happy use, the on screen TVGuide mysteriously lost all functionality and I could only set manual recordings. Frustrating! I quite liked the TVGuide functionality when it worked properly, so I'm glad to have it back! I have the model DVR-533HS, and this worked like a charm! Here's the procedure I followed: "...Pioneer has finally come up with some help for TVG problems. cnetbuys called Pioneer for help and got "codes" to enter... 1-Go to TVG "SETUP" in top Service Bar ("go to Service Bar" in side Menu, then left in Service Bar to "SETUP"). 2. Down arrow once to "Change system settings" and HIGHLIGHT. DO NOT press Enter button. 3. With "Change system settings" highlighted, Enter 1st code with number keys: 753159852. 4. When grey menu screen appears, enter 2nd code: 653274147. 5. Turn unit OFF. 6. Turn unit ON. 7. Redo TVG Setup. Go to SETUP again and, this time, select (Enter) "Change system settings." 8. Select the bottom choice, "No, repeat Setup process." 9. Enter your system/location info. again, even if it's there from before. 10. Turn unit OFF. 11. Wait 24-48 hours for results. 12. If this doesn't work, call Pioneer again and ask for "Advanced" help. They will "escalate" your problem (whatever that entails). They say this should work for any system set up with RF In connection...direct cable, cable boxes, etc. just not for "satellite"..." Quoted from http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=253998 ... f0b9e64c6b

Paul in Calgary from Canada reported December 13, 2006:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	30 days	3 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
What an overly complicated device! The remote has 3 buttons for 3 types of menus! Top menu, menu and Home menu, that's nuts! It makes you wait when you power it on. I can't switch it to DVD from HDD, very poor design. WHat is EGR on the device mean? Nothing in the manual to explain it. The video recorded quality I found is superlative. I HATE the TVGuide, would have preferred VCR+ but bought it for the DVI input from my digital camcorder. Bought it at Costco, $329. CAN SOMEONE EMAIL me how to get rid/turn off the TV Guide? It confuses us with our Shaw guide. Overall very disappointed with it and I can barely make it record a show. Thank goodness Costco will take it back no questions.

Maple_Leef from Canada reported April 12, 2006:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	30 days	8 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
I think this is an fundamentally excellent unit - flexible, powerful and easy to use once you grasp some of the finer points with modes (VR versus Video mode) and the TV Guide. Inputs and outputs are sufficient for most applications, you get what you pay for, right? I know DRM issues loom large for recording content these days, so they don't want you to have too much capability, it seems. I ran into an issue where this unit's TV Guide stopped updating and showed a message that said, in effect "Updating listings based on your setup change" which didn't go away, leaving me with a useless, inaccessible guide. I checked the user manual, after which I decided to reset the unit using the prescribed "stop and standby" button presses. THIS WAS A MISTAKE! Why? Of course, I lost all my scheduled programs, and the guide didn't come back to life! After some digging on the 'net, AVS Forum contained a rather lengthy thread outlining this issue, and various attempts by others to solve this issue. In the end, I found a marvelous little reset code that would clear the TV Guide settings and allow me to re-enter my guide info and get going again. BEWARE! BTW - the TV Guide can be disabled for those that can't use it, and this allows you to still manually set recordings. Makers other than Pioneer implement the TVGOS EPG, but aren't having issues - enought to make you go hmmm. If the TVGOS worked perfectly, I would be darn close to giving this unit a rating of 9+!

Scot Crowner from United States reported April 05, 2006:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	1 days	No rating
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
I would love to get one of these units. It seems strange I am unable to buy one of these DVR-533HS systems. All the retail shops I visited in the Washington DC area were recently sold out and did not know when new supplies would be in. Additionally, there may be 2 sites that have this unit at a $500 price - which seems higher than what I expected. Did Pioneer recall these things or are they upgrading software based on comments I have seen? I would love to get one but simply are not available.

Derek_From__Toronto from Canada reported February 21, 2006:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	4 days	8 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
Thanks to Lyverbe for pointing out that you can indeed sort the TV guide. I'll try that as soon as I get home. But the way the manual reads, it's not clear if you are just moving the positions around on the list only, or if you're actually moving channels themselves. I really need to sort the list so it matches the TV guide on the cable box, which is in proper order. Overall, I like the unit. The only other unit that I've had a chance to try was the Motorola 6412. I won't go into it, but it went back! It is not a good unit when it comes to overly compressed digital signals. Lots of audio dropouts and pixelation. The one complaint I have with this Pioneer DVR-533-H is the over abundance of artifacts on an HDTV. Plus, due to Pioneer's implementation of their MPEG encoder, any movement causes portions of the picture to sort of pause and then jump as the movement occurrs. This even happens when recording at XP+, but not quite as much as lower speeds. I do like the Chase Play function. Very handy while watching that really good show and you just have to make a trip to the toitie! ;) The TV guide? Don't go there! LOL I agree that Pioneer has to really improve on this feature. In my case, it took 3 days for it to find and populate the guide. In fact, it first finds sources that are not even related to the cable company I deal with. On the 3rd day, it finally found the right cable source and worked from there on. Things I'd like to know: 1) is it possible to upgrade the hard drive to something larger? 2) if so, do you need special "service codes" to prepare the drive in the unit? Or does the unit just detect a new drive automatically and prepare the drive itself?

Bruce Wampler from United States reported February 10, 2006:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR CDRW	DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	180 days	6 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
The main problem with this recorder is that it is TOO smart for its own good. My main intent was to archive MiniDV recordings, but it is pretty poor for that. It decides that the tape has a blank spot and stops recording far too easily. Then takes too long to decide a signal is there again. You have to babysit the whole process. The TV GUIDE thing is really awful if you don't get it. I have analog cable apparently without the TV GUIDE signal. So I can't select which channels to not show. The whole design expects the TV GUIDE, so it is really hard to make this unit work the way I want it to. Multiple calls to Pioneer yield the same result - wait a few days, and the TV GUIDE will show up. It's been 6 months! The unit turns "OFF", then enters EPG mode, which seem to force the hard drive to stay on. Not really noisy, but not silent either. On the plus side - the editing of stuff on the hard disk is pretty easy, but be careful when you cut. Even though the data should still be there, once you cut something, it is gone. Can't undo anything. I've had no difficulty with DVD compatibility. Will read the DVD+Rs I've recorded previously. Quality of playback and recording is very good. You get lot's of control on quality. Just wish they gave as much control for channel set up.

Lyverbe from Canada reported January 07, 2006:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR CDRW	DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3 CVD?	60 days	8 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
I've had this unit for 2 months now and I'm satisfied. A couple of negative things, but not serious enough to return the unit. As mentionned here and there, the Pioneer 533 is a bit noisy, but not enough to distract you while listening to your shows. Being barely noticeable, you very quickly get use to it. So much worse than the noise is that I sometime have the very annoying "Wait" message when the unit is turned on. For some unknown reason, it locks the unit in this mode for about 30-40 seconds before it enters a normal mode. This is far from being cool when the phone ring in the middle of your show and you want to record it so you don't miss anything. That 30-40 seconds delay is unacceptable. Also, when turning the system off, it sometimes lock the system (no "wait" displayed) for 30-40 seconds before powering off. I sent a query to Pioneer asking why it does that, but I never got an answer. That's what I hate the most from the Pioneer 533. The TV Guide is slow, but pretty flexible. You can sort the channel positions, activate/deactivate channels, quick jump between hours or channels, etc. Some people complain that it's annoying to have it appear each time you turn on the system, but this feature can easily be disabled. Fortunately, you can manually set recordings which is essential because the TV Guide can't hold every day of programming. After the second or third day of your current day, the TV Guide displays "No Listing". Still, I use the TV Guide from time to time. Once, while playing with the settings, I accidentally went in the "Set your area for TV Guide" screen. Since that's not where I wanted to go, I hit the "Return" button on the remote. From that moment, I had completely lost the TV Guide and the only way for me to get it back was to do a system reset on the unit. Bad bug :( The shape of the remote is not well designed because its bottom is a 'U'. I'm used to put the remote on the table next to me and push the buttons, but with this remote, it flips when I hit buttons that are near the sides. As for the buttons, they are well positioned and it's an universal remote compatible with my ~10 years old Goldstar TV set (yay!) Quality is great! I have it set to SP (second to best quality) which gives me 17 hours of recording and I have not a word to say about the quality. No blocks, no artifacts, no pop in the audio. Not a single problem with DVD-RW too. Most commands can be done on the unit itself. When you have kids, you realize how much this is important in case you lose or break the remote :) Played CD (Princo), CD-RW (Verbatim), DVD (Princo), DVD-RW (Sony & Emtec). Played MP3s, but never could play a JPEG CD. According to the instructions, the system is pretty picky about the JPEG CDs, but I'll never use that anyway. The disc navigator has the cool feature to sort programs in categories. For example, you may have a category for each member of your family making it possible to list shows only recorded for you. Unfortunately, it is not possible to set the categories at recording time. You can only set the category on a show that is already recorded, making it a pain in the butt to set each time. Also, the system displays "All Categories" by default, so you need to specify the category each time. The cool feature quickly becomes an unusable feature. Future Shop had it for $499 CND, but it was down to $449 for Christmas. I used an 'Opened Box' which gave me a nice 10% rebate for a total of $405.

Happy Gilmour from Canada reported December 30, 2005:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	2 days	8 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
Just got this unit on boxing day week for Cdn $375 at Futureshop. This is my second choice since I prefer the Cdn$445 DVR-633H-S at 160GBHD, which was out of stock. I agreed that the TV-Guide is not very useful for people like me that have cable TV (Rogers). The harddrive seems to be constantly grinning and it made some noise in my bedroom at the middle of the night. Not very friendly for people who prefer some quiet time. IS THERE ANYWAY TO TURN OF TV-GUIDE UPDATING? I like this model have most switches on the unit, including toggling between HDD vs DVD recording. I like to have most switches available vs on the screen. This unit also plays PAL but sometimes in black & white.

flatlander from United States reported December 16, 2005:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	14 days	9 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
After a couple of weeks of use, this seems to be a great unit. I agree with the other reports - the TVGuide thing is slightly useful but slow to scroll and not sorted in any particular order that I can tell. I was surprised that the guide works on Cox analog cable even though Cox only claims functionality with digital. The unit is on all the time with a fan running and some hard drive activity. Newsgroup reports that it's noisy are overstated. The unit makes some noise, but it's not noticable when in an entertainment cabinet or a room with normal noise levels. In a bedroom in the middle of the night you might notice it. Contrary to what Pioneer claims, the unit will read +R/RW media - at least for DVDs I have burned myself. Standard complaints about remotes. Nobody's seems to make me happy for controlling other devices. The unit functions well for handling the player itself. TV control is on/off and will select sources, but volume control turns the TV up and down, not the stereo amp.

Robbie from United States reported November 18, 2005:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	30 days	No rating
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
This unit would have been fine except for the TV Guide listings. I have satellite, so I knew I would not be able to use the TV Guide listings. The TV Guide listings can be turned off to enable manual timer recording. HOWEVER...the manual timer recording menu is a tiny menu on the left side of the screen, with the huge TV Guide listing area still filling most of the screen. I would not have expected Pioneer to eliminate the very nice, simple, clean timer recording menu they had on the 520-HS with something this poor. Also, once a timer recording had begun, it was difficult to get the remote to change focus back to set any more timer recordings. It seemed to have trouble navigating around the TV Guide Listing area--I could not get it back to set another timer recording while one was already in progress. Since I do a lot of timer recordings, this was enough of a regression in functionality that I returned the unit.

Digital in Penticton from Canada reported October 15, 2005:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	14 days	9 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
This is an amazing piece of hardware. I was looking for something to record to DVD with capability of editing out commercials. This does that & more. Able to record up to 10 hours on 1 DVD at lowest quality. But HDD will record 35-170 Hours depending on quality. Yes, you can yurn off the TV Guide On Screen, and EPG is available in many markets. I'm in a small town in British Columbia with Shaw cable service. I had to leave the machine off for a few days before guide was loaded, but it did show up. (Be patient!) Does high speed DVD burning, so unlike Tivo, you can archive your recordings. Price was right. I paid $439 at The Source by Circuit City (on sale). Well worth the price, considering other units with HDD recording in town here were $699 or more!

Glenn from United States reported August 30, 2005:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	7 days	9 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
This does everything I need EXCEPT the EPG TV-Guide is a nuisance! PIONEER! PUT A SWITCH IN SO WE MAY TURN THIS OFF!

eltee from Canada reported August 13, 2005:
Read features:						Time used:	Rating:
CDR? CDRW?	DVD-R? DVD-RW? DVD-R DL?	DVD+R? DVD+RW? DVD+R DL?	VCD? XVCD? XSVCD?	SVCD? SVCDSubs? SVCDTracks?	MP3? CVD?	4 days	7 of 10
DVD-RAM?
Comments:
Good unit but TV Guide On Screen is useless in many Rogers Cable territories - not supported at this time. Hold off purchasing this unit until this problem is resolved.

14 comments, Showing 1 to 14 comments

1 DVD Recorder hits, Showing 1 to 1 DVD Recorders

Column Explanation:

Click on this for more technical information.

New comments= New comments since your last visit.
New Recorder = New DVD Recorder since your last vist.

OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer.

Chipset
The manufacturer of the main chipset the DVD writer/recorder is based on.

Write support / Read support
DVD-R = Works
~~DVD-R~~ = Is not supported
DVD-R? = Not tested

Connection
FireWire = Computer desktop DVD Writer with IEEE 1394/FireWire/i.Link connection (some standalone desktop dvd recorder supports this also but then it is usually to connect your DV camera to the recorder)

Rating
The first rating is based on a weighted rank (the true Bayesian), it requires at least 5 votes to get a weighted rating.
The second rating between the ( ) is a normal average rating.

We can Not gurantee that this list is 100% correct and don't forget to read the User Comments for more Info about each recorder.