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There is no indication on the packaging that only 4X DVDs are required. After you search and search and finally find 4X DVDs(I had to get mine online) this thing turns half of them into coasters. No matter what brand DVD-R you use, it will only work half the time and you won;t know until after you think you've finished the recording.And if it's after 90 days, forget it. Absoulute garbage. I should have know better that to go Sharp so it serves me right that this DVD "recorder" only succesfully records half of the time and the other half it steals your money for the blank DVDs you buy.I've had this thing for a year and a half and it's been nothing but trouble. Sharp charges you to send it to them, for a diagnostics, and estimate and repair.The worst thing I ever bought in my entire life.
Like most Sharp products, the remote is ergonomic and easy to use. It also played a variety of DVD+R's, DVD-R's, DVD-RW's, and regular DVD's. These machines replaced an old, very poor Phillips DVD recorder and all the VHS machines. Sure, DVD's and formatting takes quite a while and reading takes a few seconds, but nothing longer than my expensive Pioneer Elite DV-37. It did play a DVD+R/DL, but only one with just the movie and no menus (store bought DVD's played just fine).
Tuner and timer recording work great and menus are easy to navigate. I found it easy to use and had no problems with 1x, 2x, and 4x DVD-R's and 1x-2x DVD-RW's and they played fine in other DVD players. I just bought two. I don't know where the other reviewers shop, but I had little trouble finding both DVD-R's and DVD-RW's for this machine online AND at Office Depot, CompUSA, Staples, Best Buy and even Big Lots, and all at reasonable prices (CompUSA having the best selection and prices). And it is a change from VHS, but this is not a lifetime product.
Picture is great. I do think it is a big improvement over past DVD products.
What you can not work around however is its inability to function outside of 4X media. There are no firmware upgrades available for this model.If you have a stack of 4X max. Though you may have an easier time with 2X or 1X, the proper media is DVD-R 4X (MAX) 4.7GB for this machine. disks on hand or know a source that can provide you with such media, then you will be quite satisfied. You will not find this information easy to come by otherwise. Such 4X disks appear close to extinction, as they have often been replaced in catalogs and on shelves by 1x-8x disks -- DO NOT BUY THESE -- which are not compatible with this machine. This is a very good recorder with strong editing capabilities.
It has a quirk regarding the cooling fan which is easy to circumvent. Both the DVD-R & RW format disks offer track-editing options suitable for basic or more event-specific recordings from several sources. Recording from VHS often rewards you with a quality that in fact appears better than the original. Without a firmware upgrade however, this recorder will soon suffer a fate not unlike death.
but have to choose right type of dvd. it works fine. just a few type dvd recordable is compatible with this dvd recorder.
Haven't found a DVD-R that works with it yet (it tells you in the manual which ones will work but I just couldn't find the DVD-R of the correct write speed in stores). Using a DVD-RW (Not DVD+RW) ver1.1/ 2x speed it works great and is re-recordable and simple. Recording works instantly (like a VCR) but takes between 20secs to a minute after recording is stopped to write to disc.
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