Forum Archive Home -> DVD Recorders -> What's the best place to buy a dvd recorder?
What's the best place to buy a dvd recorder? | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Feb 10 13:06 | ||||
| What's the best place to buy a dvd recorder? Who has the best deals at reasonable prices? | ||||
| jameshgross posted 2008 Feb 10 13:10 | ||||
| WALMART | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Feb 10 13:22 | ||||
| Can you give a reason as to why Walmart? | ||||
| redwudz posted 2008 Feb 10 13:36 | ||||
| Probably because it's convenient and they sell cheap DVRs. If you want a better DVR, look to one one of the major manufactures, Panasonic, Pioneer, Toshiba, JVC, and others.
And BrokenOne, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:
Thanks, Moderator redwudz | ||||
| edDV posted 2008 Feb 10 16:47 | ||||
| Costco and Sam's Club have limited selection at good prices. Walmart is more low end "trendy" in this area with greater selection and newer models. Walmart can move a lot of product with exclusive distribution.
The major retailers (e.g. Best Buy) tend to discount older closeout models. Smaller specialty retailers like Fry's can offer better deals to clear closeout manufacturer inventory. If you do your research and decide on a short list of models, then use Google and shop online. | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Feb 10 17:03 | ||||
| Well, I am looking for something in the price range of
100 to 175 bucks. I have had only one DVD recorder that crapped out on me a few months ago. It was a refurbished JVC DR-M10S. It lasted me 2 years and had great pq. I want something close to that. Maybe a Panasonic. I don't need a tuner or hd since I'll mostly will be recording from my recently bought DirecTV DVR. So that's really what I am asking for or/and want to know. Sorry Red. I will remember that from now on. My bad. | ||||
| Epicurus8a posted 2008 Feb 10 17:08 | ||||
| If you have a conscience, don't buy anything at Wal-Mart, PERIOD.
Read these Pulitzer Prize winning articles to find out why: http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2004/national-reporting/works Best Buy, Circuit City, and Costco have better stuff anyway. Costco has a great return policy and includes an extended warranty. They also treat their workers better. | ||||
| edDV posted 2008 Feb 10 17:21 | ||||
Why give any credence to a Pulitzer Prize? It is an award for political orthodoxy. I agree with Albert Einstein. | ||||
| Epicurus8a posted 2008 Feb 10 19:07 | ||||
Correction: The Pulitzer Prize is an award regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition. Certainly that carries more weight than some stranger on the internet... If this is going to become a pro/con Wal-Mart discussion, maybe we should continue it here: http://forum.videohelp.com/topic341407.html EDIT: BTW, Einstein was a Nobel Prize winner. I suspect he had a lot more in common with Pulitzer Prize winners than with socially irresponsible individuals. | ||||
| lordsmurf posted 2008 Feb 10 19:09 | ||||
| How did the JVC "crap out", by chance?
I recently had a Panasonic ES10 repaired local. He's going to do a friend's JVC next. I might try and convince him to repair these machines online. It takes him minutes, and the part was pennies. I gave him notes from this site plus others on the topic. Walmart has a 90-day no-hassle return policy. Fine by me. It's nice to preach against Walmart, but let's face it: too many of us are too poor to buy elsewhere, and for many of us, it's either shop there or drive many miles to the next town. | ||||
| wabjxo posted 2008 Feb 10 19:40 | ||||
Hello, stranger! What's your weight today? | ||||
| LCSHG posted 2008 Feb 10 19:44 | ||||
| I would give WalMart a try. Most stores have a good selection of reasonably priced units. There return policy is hard to beat.
I have found that they do go the extra mile when a issue or dispute comes up. The other stores would be Costco or Sams Club. I’ve seen and heard much of the bad mouth about WalMart I wanted a tool box for just general use A local store that pays its employees the same as WalMart, had one, it was $22;95. Plastic and made in China I went to WalMart and they also had one in fact, while a different name, it was IDENTICAL in every way including made in China. It was $8.95 [Now $6.95} So who’s the rip off store | ||||
| RKelly posted 2008 Feb 10 20:54 | ||||
| Costco in the Chicago area is selling a Toshiba upconverting dvd recorder (plays DIVX, HDMI cable included) for $99.00. I bought one but took it back because I didn't really need a recorder. They were really surprised I hadn't even opened the box. I asked him about the return policy. Although vague, he said they would take it back if opened/used/etc, as long as it wasn't "2 years old" or something of the like. I suppose that's a perk of paying for membership!
In either event if you're a Costco member I would check that deal out. | ||||
| JohnnyBob posted 2008 Feb 10 21:07 | ||||
| Like many others I use Walmart (mostly), Kmart, and Sears, looking for lower-priced bargains. Sometimes I find them. Their 90 day return policy is hard to beat, and I use it a lot! In fact I expect to take most electronic items back for a refund or exchange because about 2/3rds of them are defective in my experience. To wit, you might want something higher end, but I picked up a Magnavox MWR-10D6 at Walmart recently for 50 bucks that serves my purposes. It was 100 bucks not long ago but they've cut the price in half. As can be expected for Walmart electronics, the first one didn't work right so I had to exchange it. I used it to transfer about 25 VHS tapes to DVD and it worked OK although the quality wasn't great. I really have no further use for it as a recorder but am using it as a DVD player. It has lots of S-video inputs which I need. | ||||
| oldandinthe way posted 2008 Feb 10 22:00 | ||||
| The $50 Magnavox does a good job for 2 hr or under modes. It or the Funai SV2000 (also $50 at some Walmarts) only gets panned from people who make heavy use of timer recording who find the lack of a front panel display extremely disturbing.
I wouldn't consider spending more unless I had a strong requirement for a Digital Tuner. Walmart saves its average customer $2,000 per year. That doesn't matter to some people but it matters to a great number of others. Its opponents are principally people who are influenced by the union who Walmart has successfully kept at bay. Its opponents refuse to give Walmart credit for anything positive. When Walmart introduced its $4.00 prescription program, its critics said "Big Deal - they were already selling that cheaply". $4.00 is less than the copay on my medical insurance for generic drugs. Its not the only place I shop, but it certainly is a store where I find pleasant and helpful employees, good prices on the items they stock and management and policies which are oriented toward providing the customer with accomodation, respect and courtesy. | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Feb 10 23:12 | ||||
| Thanks guys for all the info.
I couldn't find the 50 dollar Magnavox or the Funai on their site. Maybe it's an in store only thing. But I did find a combo Magnavox BZV420MW8 model. Anyone has any experiences with that model? | ||||
| Epicurus8a posted 2008 Feb 11 05:37 | ||||
:lol: :lol: :lol: That's precisely why I provided an informational link... @BrokenOne.... You could also try Amazon, B&H, Crutchfield or J&R for your needs. | ||||
| oldandinthe way posted 2008 Feb 11 10:41 | ||||
| The pulitzer prize is named for one of the famed "yellow journalists" who helped start the Spanish American War and had little respect for governments, individuals or the truth. Its amazng how it has returned to its namesakes standards. | ||||
| KeepItSimple posted 2008 Feb 11 11:15 | ||||
| Yeah. | ||||
| wtsinnc posted 2008 Feb 11 18:17 | ||||
| It's listed price is slightly over your stated budget, but you might look into the Magnavox H2080MW8 DVD recorder with an 80GB hard drive. Walmart lists the item on their website at a price of $198.84 and they may have it in a store near you. I have no idea about it's performance, but here is a link to the page.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=8054241 | ||||
| Epicurus8a posted 2008 Feb 11 18:51 | ||||
| @ oldandintheway: Please click the link below for my response.
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic341407-30.html#1812071 @BrokenOne: Target is another good source for the item you're looking for. | ||||
| orsetto posted 2008 Feb 11 19:52 | ||||
| Like it or not, Wal*Mart is the best or only choice for a lot of people due to (oddly enough) technical reasons: not only are they the cheapest, for most USA shoppers currently looking for a DVD recorder with HDD they are the ONLY retailer anywhere that sells these things anymore. Granted they are the bottom-feeder Funai/Magnavox/Polaroid models and the 2nd-tier Phillips 3575, but no one else is carrying this type of recorder AT ALL aside from a few scattered Best Buy locations. Since the US market is now indefinitely limited to only the lowest-end DVD/HDD recorders, you will need Wal*Marts generous return policy to guarantee any chance of obtaining a correctly-working unit.
If you can live without the HDD and want a slightly more upscale brand, you can still get current-model Panasonics and Toshibas at all the usual TV/Electronics dealers. But even those have had huge teething pains because of the complex new ATSC tuners they are required to have this year- and they are wicked expensive with more restrictive return policies compared to what's at Wal*Mart. Until the US "Digital TV Transition" wraps up next winter I would be leery of putting more than $100 into any new US-model DVD recorder: they're still too buggy, and now that DVD recorders in general have completely tanked as a retail product category in the US there's a much smaller consumer base of guinea pigs to help identify and work out those bugs. I'm not thrilled that Wal*Mart has become the most sensible place to buy these things: I usually avoid shopping there if at all possible simply because of the trainwreck they've caused in the entire mfr-retailer-consumer chain. One can argue endlessly that their low prices benefit people with lower budgets but those bargains come at a cost: ever-cheaper prices can only be sustained by ever-cheapened merchandise. Wal*Marts dominance has lowered the quality spectrum and range of choices on many consumer products, and indirectly helped wipe out such categories as DVD recorders themselves because good ones were "too pricey". Absolutely, steep sustained discounts have an immediate impact on everyone's wallet, one can't argue against that, but there is a larger context we blind ourselves to. What Wal*Mart gives with one hand, it takes away with the other. I would rather pay an average $20 more for a DVD recorder and still have Pioneer and JVC in the game at multiple retailers, than have a half dozen Wal*Mart rebadge models from Funai at $50. (Yeah, I know, Funai would probably be making the JVCs and Pioneers anyway, but there would likely be a few more differences by brand than we see now.) It would be nice to have the "good-better-best-deluxe" concept return for most product lines, but I doubt we'll see this again anytime soon. Seems we're stuck with the extremes: $50 or $500. | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Feb 15 15:57 | ||||
Target sells dvd recorders? | ||||
| Epicurus8a posted 2008 Feb 15 16:14 | ||||
| They did the last time I was there. Unfortunately I didn't think to write down the brand names. | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Feb 15 18:35 | ||||
| I will have to check on that. Thanks for the heads up, Epicurus. | ||||
| jjeff posted 2008 Feb 15 20:22 | ||||
| The one near me sells the Panasonic EZ-17, along with some other Philips units, not the 3575 w/hdd though. | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Feb 19 07:09 | ||||
| I have a question whats the limitations/return policy for buying online from Wal-Mart? Can you return in-store? | ||||
| Webster posted 2008 Feb 19 08:37 | ||||
yes. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/catalog.gsp?cat=538459 http://www.walmart.com/returns/returns_how.gsp | ||||
| classfour posted 2008 Feb 19 20:31 | ||||
| I've picked up two off ebay (Panasonic) over the past few years. I usually lurk about until the last minute and snipe one. If I know that I won't be watching at the last minute, I'll bid a set price (bottom dollar) and see if I win the thing. The last one that I bought that way was a Panny DMR-ES15S, and I ended up selling it to a co-worker. I just wasn't thrilled with it - loading speeds were too long, made in China, recording quality was fine. Went ahead and kept the DMR-E55 that I bought a couple of years back - just liked it better. The used ones on amazon go for about double what I've paid on ebay (just don't forget the risk - and you can't get a return like Wally World). | ||||
| zoobie posted 2008 Feb 19 22:50 | ||||
Well, you have to go to a store to pick it up so I'd think you'd also return it to the same store | ||||
| LCSHG posted 2008 Feb 20 10:41 | ||||
| You can pick it up or buy at any Wal Mart store and return it to any Wal Mart store
If you have no reciept but have the bar code to vaify purchase. They will give you a in store purchase card for the price and the LOCAL TAX, if any. It can be used in any store | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Mar 04 18:48 | ||||
| Ok today I went to Wal-Mart and bought a Magnavox ZC352MW8, because it was the cheapest they had and I needed to get a dvd recorder today to get some of my programs off my DVR for room/space.
So far I have been somewhat disappointed with the purchase. I have tested the image quality of the recording settings. Maybe it's because I am picky but the recordings on 1 hour and 2 hour are good. But I noticed macroblocks in both recording modes. I am going to try some new settings which I hope will cure it but it looks like I will be taking this back as soon as I can. | ||||
| jjeff posted 2008 Mar 05 05:07 | ||||
| Not surprising. Most DVDR's will record the 1 or 2 hr speed ok, but anything above that will crap out.
This is why I use Panny's. You'll get the full resolution up to 4hrs, but try and keep it under 3 hrs for less macroblocking. Note the current Panny offerings EZ-17-47 are VERY unreliable IMO. I would not consider them. Since you are just looking to backup your DVR you could wait for the EA-18 Panny. Hopefully ???? it will have all the bugs and quirks of the EZ line worked out, and it also does not have a tuner, which you do not need. Should be priced a little less than the EZ-17. That or try and pickup a used (or Sams still has some new) ES-15 Panny. It has the analog tuner and is a few years old model. It should also work for your use, and at $99-129 it's a steal right now, if you can find one. I have several and they make great recordings via line inputs. | ||||
| lordsmurf posted 2008 Mar 05 09:44 | ||||
| Panasonic machines have the most noise of any DVD recorder out there, especially beyond 2 hours.
The best machine at the moment is the Philips 3575. | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Mar 05 09:55 | ||||
| The unit I picked up has a SDTV Tuner and there was the same unit with a digital tuner that was like 10 dollars more. My question is would that affect recording from my DVR?
The thing I noticed is the recording keeps the picture up front clear and nearly crisp but if you stray to the background you can see the macroblocking really badly. This is from recording an old episode of WWE RAW (which was back from February), incase anyone is wondering. Lord, how much do the Phillip 3575's go for? I do think Wal-Mart had a few of these not to sure though. So I might exchange this one and try a Philips. | ||||
| oldandinthe way posted 2008 Mar 05 10:02 | ||||
| Site to store is an option, not a requirement. You can pay to have it shipped to your home.
Returns are accepted in the store. walmart.com has a good description of their return procedures. For the larcenous out there - Walmart records and checks serial numbers. | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Mar 10 15:42 | ||||
| Can anyone tell me about the Philips DVDR3475/37 and Samsung DVD-R135? I saw both were advertised for the same price 119.00 but at two different places (Best Buy and Frys). Any help here will be greatly appreciate since I did not like the magnavox I picked up. | ||||
| edDV posted 2008 Mar 10 15:51 | ||||
| [quote="BrokenOne"]The unit I picked up has a SDTV Tuner and there was the same unit with a digital tuner that was like 10 dollars more. My question is would that affect recording from my DVR? [quote]
No. If the digital tuner supports clear QAM, you can record unencrypted live channels direct off the cable. You can't access the DVR disc. If the digital tuner supports ATSC only, it will only tune off an antenna. | ||||
| BrokenOne posted 2008 Mar 10 17:01 | ||||
| Thanks edDV for that info. Much appreciated. | ||||
| KeepItSimple posted 2008 Mar 11 06:26 | ||||
The Philips Outlet website has refurb 3575's for $199 with free shipping. www.outlet.philips.com Or you could pay $288.54 for a new one at Wal Mart. | ||||
| Epicurus8a posted 2008 Mar 12 05:26 | ||||
| Check Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=amb_link_18311901_13?ie=UTF8&node ... _i=1065836 | ||||
| LCSHG posted 2008 Mar 12 13:29 | ||||
| Epicurus8a
You seem to have a real hard nose for Wal-Mart. I don’t have a great love for them as I don’t have for any store. Quite frankly I’m tired of providing benefits for others when it becomes a burden to even provide basic health care for myself, much less keep up with the increasing cost of living. You quote Pulitzer Prize winners as thou they speak the absolute truth, and the Prominent Baptist Ministers on Health care. I don’t see them speaking to the lack of my or many peoples health care Let me give an example I needed a reasonably priced toolbox. I went to a local independent merchant who doesn’t pay employees better. They had a plastic one that wasn’t bad. It was a Name brand at $22.95 I went to the Wal-Mart store. They had the Very SAME, IN All RESPECTS, ToolBox but a different. Major Name Brand. The price was $8.95 [now $6.95] Both MADE IN CHINA Now you tell me who’s the RIP OFF in this issue and I could give you many more including the price of groceries. Our Wal-Mart doesn’t have a large grocery selection and I really do hope it builds a super store. I buy a lot at the Grocery Outlet where I can get the same item for $2.59 that costs $5.69 at the big-ticket grocery store. PS If you think Target or Amazon is any better. You live in a dream world | ||||
| Epicurus8a posted 2008 Mar 12 15:14 | ||||
| :sleepin: :sleepin: :sleepin:
Wal-Mart = :devil: PERIOD! | ||||
| lordsmurf posted 2008 Mar 13 23:44 | ||||
| LCSHG, it all comes back to the inevitable reality that we're a world community. The era of financial/commercial isolationism is over, and some people can't deal with the notion that overcharging is not "better for Americans". I don't like our financial situation either, but attacking Wal-Mart has never struck me as a solution either.
The real problem is spineless wimps in other countries that allow themselves to be whored out at 10 cents per hour. Mix that with asshats millionaire CEO's, and you end up where we are now. Doesn't have a damned thing to do with Wal-Mart -- they're just one of many. In fact, I'd guess they're down the chart of "worst offenders". We're importing a lot of foreign products. But I think we need to export some American balls -- there seems to be a definite lack of "cahones" in some places. As a victim to the current financial screwjob, I have no problems buying Walmart, which stretches my dollars. I don't even mean for junk -- but to better supply myself with food, clothes and other needed items. If I'm lucky, I can afford a few out-to-eat dinners and a new DVD or two each month. Not this month, however, not after spending $200 on gas. :evil: |
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