anyone try cheap Emerson DVD-R recorder at Walmart?

[spiritgumm]

The Emerson EWR10D4 (manufactured by Funai) is the first really cheap DVD-R recorder I've seen ($225). Anyone try it yet?
If DVD-R is so much more compatible, why are the majority of cheapo brands all making DVD+R recorders? That implies that their dvd players will play both +an-R.

[johns0]

Emerson is the worst type of crap to buy,run away from it.Look for better brands.

[cahusker]

If DVD-R is so much more compatible, why are the majority of cheapo brands all making DVD+R recorders? That implies that their dvd players will play both +an-R.

My guess would because the major manufactures are the first to get their product on the market. However the are many more smaller companies that are using the +. So I think it would be safe to assume that in time that as the smaller companies flood the market the + very well might be the major type.

[KDH]

http://www.globalsources.com/am/article_id/9000000049901/page/showarticle?action=GetArticle

[Captain315]

A very interesting article KDH. It appears from reading this and other articles about the DVD+/-R debacle that the end of -R is just over the horizon.

[tag]

A very interesting article KDH. It appears from reading this and other articles about the DVD+/-R debacle that the end of -R is just over the horizon.

Yep, sure looks that way from the following statement in the article:

"Most makers contacted have adopted DVD plus."

"Most" meaning makers other than Panasonic, JVC, Pioneer, Sony, Toshiba, Sharp, and Samsung, of course.

[lordsmurf]

I learned long ago that anything marked "Emerson" is a warning to run away. I have NEVER EVER had a good product from them.

Test it out if you want.

[xtreemkareem]

Are you kidding?!! But lordsmurf, I though you expressly reccomeneded Emerson for VHS capture!!! You said it was top tier and worth every penny!

- X-Treem

P.S. I'm bullshitting

[KDH]

[quote="tag"]

"Most" meaning makers other than Panasonic, JVC, Pioneer, Sony, Toshiba, Sharp, and Samsung, of course.

Global Sources is a Chinese/Taiwanese export information site-therefore unlikely to mention Japanese makers!

[spiderman2k1]

about 15 years ago I bought two emerson VCR's never had a problem with they lasted over ten years. But I would not buy a DVD recorder from them I just would not buy any cheep DVD record from any company right now. Alot fo them are having heat problem's. They will get better over the next two or three years.

[dmelgar]

I'm trying the Emerson recorder. I've previously tried the Cyberhome 1500 and Philips DVDR75.

Overall, the unit is much better than I expected. The unit runs very cool, it doesnt seem to generate any heat. It has a fan. Everything seems to work (amazing these days!).

It supports 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 hour modes. The 10 hour mode is surprisingly adequate. IMO its better than the Cyberhome 6 hour mode. The worst problem with the unit is that recording quality does not obviously improve at the higher bitrates. The 6 and 8 hour modes don't seem much better than 10hour. 6, 8, 10 are all at 352x240 resolution. 4hour mode looks better because it kicks in a higher resolution.
On many recordings, I get jerky recordings, ie stutters, not smooth all the time. When this happens, it seems to happen at most quality settings. Only the 1 hour did not exhibit a problem. At other times the video is smooth. I can't figure out the pattern. The Cyberhome would do this too, but the Philips was always smooth.

On the whole + vs - debate, I've been in the + camp. My understanding of the technology seems to indicate that DVD+RW is superior to DVD-RW when writing data, ie as a DVD-ROM. It is better at random access writing and does not have to be finalized before being used.

For video its not so clear. There are + and - video logical formats that are written to the corresponding media, ie DVD+VR on DVD+RW and DVD-VR on DVD-RW. Both allow you to add, delete and modify video's dynamically. The big advantage of DVD+VR is that the resulting DVD can immediately be played in most any DVD player. DVD-VR does not look like a normal DVD at all and won't play in almost any DVD player. DVD-VR does have some advantages. All the DVD+RW recorders I've seen organize videos on the DVD like a glorified video tape. Its a sequential series of videos. If you delete one, you end up with a spot of available space. You can record something new in that space, but if its longer than that slot, it starts overwriting whatever comes next. Just like overwriting something on a video tape.

DVD-VR supports random access. Acts more like a harddrive than a video tape. As long as there's room on the disk, you can record video, regardless of where the free space is. It doesnt overwrite whatever comes next.
This gives DVD-VR a huge advantage. Enough to make me like the Emerson.
There are programs that let you convert or copy from DVD-VR to DVD compatible formats. So far, I've found Cyberlinks PowerProducer 2 and Ulead MovieFactory disc creator 3 can read DVD-VR and convert it to DVD-Video. Some other packages including the latest Nerovision, and TMpegenc claim to, but cannot on my system. I've heard the Windows XP has a problem reading DVD-VR. I'm using Windows 2000. I have a DVD+RW drive in the PC, I don't know what's causing the problem with some software packages.

[The village idiot]

Like many, I will look forward to your thoughts of this machine when you are finished testing. Too bad it doesn't have a hard drive for that price, even a little 40GB would be a real competition killer.

EDIT: No longer on the Walmart website.

[lordsmurf]

That review doesn't sound real promising. I plan to make another buying round here in a week or so, grab up about 4-6 machines that are new. This testing thing is kinda fun. An expansion of the hobby.

[Marvingj]

Emerson is the bottom of the Barrel. Its Like buying the cheapest wine , no taste, no aroma, just gasoline. Some people like Gas?

[dmelgar]

Followon to my earlier review on the Emerson.

I ended up liking the video quality. I've figured out that all DVD recorders when recording at 352x240 generate recordings that are jumpy, skippy depending on the input source. I think its an interlace problem but haven't read for sure.

The 10 hour mode provides so much video at acceptable quality that I can deal with jumpiness sometimes. If I don't want jumpiness I can use the 4 hour mode (352x480).

Overall, I liked the recorder.... with one huge exception. After recording onto a DVD-VR for a while, eventually the recorder scrambles the recording. Most often the time index will go nuts while watching the recording, and pieces of the recording are skipped. This has happened on 3 of 3 DVD-RWs that I tried, 2 different brands (Sony and Memorex), and two different units (I returned the first one and tried again). Sometimes the scrambling is so bad that different titles ended up intermixed.

Emerson support was not aware of the problem. I'm not sure if its something fixable in firmware or if the drive is simply not good enough and has read/write errors.

I've since moved onto the Pioneer DVR-220 from Walmart ($297). Its video quality is just ok. The Emerson 10 hour mode is not much worse than the Pioneer 6 hour. I can sometimes clearly see distortion in the Pioneers 4 hour mode which I don't recall seeing in other units.

Feature wise, the Pioneer is good. Has chaseplay that actually works. Its very interactive, rarely prevents you from doing something. When its writing out to disk or switching modes, you can often still change channels etc, the unit stays responsive. You don't have to power down the unit for timer recordings. If its on, it will switch channels and start recording. If you're playing a title, it will seamlessly start recording. Pretty neat stuff.

Most importantly, it seems to work. I've been using it for a week and haven't found a problem yet. (Doesn't mean I won't find a problem eventually).

Interestingly, it runs substantially warmer than the Emerson even though it has a fan.

[handyguy]

It's certainly NOT the first cheap recorder. I recall a Mustek at $150 at hsn.com after rebate....

Even a Panasonic e55 should be around $229 or so at buydig.com

[lordsmurf]

6-hour mode does not have to be bad.
It'll never be "DVD" quality, but MPEG at decent size/bitrate

Most recorders suck ... they drop fields.
Death of the video.

Some PAL Panasonics use an adaptive deinterlace (best way) or x288 interlace.

The NTSC LiteOn 5001 (test on hacked fw 1163) does adaptive too.

The results are nice, but only on HIGH QUALITY sources, like recording tv broadcasts, not beat up old video tapes.

An adaptive deinterlace is still not perfect, but it much better than simply dropping fields.

[waltchan]

I may consider getting the Emerson or Sylvania DVD recorder, which is made by Funai. I will wait for a while to see whether anybody has any problems with it. It is possible that they are reliable, so let's just hoping that they last just as long as my 19 year old Symphonic (Funai) VCR.




Walt(er) Chan

[waltchan]

Anybody has any problems with their Emerson DVD recorder so far? I'm also considering the Emerson DVD recorder. I haven't hear any complaints so far. What's your opinion?



Walt(er) Chan

[yotehunter]

Hello All,

I purchased the low cost Emerson EWR10D4 DVD-R/W recorder from a local Wal-Mart here over a month ago, and must say I am quite surprised by its performance and the video quality. I honestly thought I'd end up bringing it back, but it is still here and works fine.

The reason I opted for the Emerson brand was partially because of low cost, but also because I have had an Emerson VCR for about 15 years with no problems.

I haven't noticed any scrambling problems or loss of video as I saw one other mention here, I am using Maxell DVD-R disks. BTW, the date of manufacture on my unit is March 2004. Some frames are jittery in the 6 - 10 hour formats, but reasonably smooth in the 1 - 4 hour formats. The 4 hour format to me is real close to broadcast quality from my DirecTV satellite box (using the S-Video jack). The 6 hour format is as good or better than 2 hour (SP) VHS. The only problem I encountered was when I tried to use Memorex DVD-RW disks. 4 out of 5 disks would not reformat. I wrote to their support and they acknowledged the problem with that particular disk and had recommendations on what disks to use. Here is their reply:

Our DVD Recorders have been known to have compatability issues with MEMOREX DVD-RW Discs. The Following is a suggested list of DVD Discs which have been tested and are fully functional.


MEMOREX DVD-R (Non-RW DISCS)
FUJIFILM DVD-R
FUJIFILM DVD-RW
IMATATION DVD-RW
IMATATION DVD-R 2.0
TDK DVD-RW 2X
TDK DVD-R 2X

Funai Corporation
Customer Support

[handyguy]

"6-hour mode does not have to be bad.
It'll never be "DVD" quality, but MPEG at decent size/bitrate "

E55's do 8 hours per disk now.

[The village idiot]

E55 cost more than $100 more too. I have the cheapo Emerson too, and it has been working very well for the past 2 weeks. Mostly using Sony -RW disks, and mostly in 1 hour mode, though 2 hour mode looks very good too. Don't really care about the 4-10 hours modes. Also used with cheapo DupEZ 4x -R disks with no problems.

Only thing I don't like is that the power must be off for the timer record to function.

[waltchan]

It sounds like that the Funai-made DVD recorders seem to be more reliable than the Apex, Cyberhome, Lite-On, and Memorex so far. I have never really thought that Funai can make products with absolutely no bugs in their DVD recorders. Very impressive.

[kosekjm]

Hi all,

Since the most recent post here is from July, are there any long term follow ups from the emerson owners? Have they gone boom since the last comments, or are they still recording fine?

Thanks.

[rroberson]

Hello,

Yes I've used the Emerson since early August. I'm pleasantly surprised with the quality. It's been very reliable. I use Imation and Optodisc -RW (only the 1-2X speed).

Menu interface is excellent. Very intuitive.

Pic quality is very good, on 1 and 2 hour, and not bad on 4 hour. (I'm judging this playing DVD on an Onkyo DVD player using a 65inch HDTV, so flaws are readily apparent. ( I did view some recordings on a 13inch laptop screen and pic quality was excellent, even at 4 hours).

I had some initial problems, first week of use, but none since then, so they may have been user error ( when I was testing out unit and tried recording all speeds for 5-10 min chunks, on one DVD).

Typically record from either Dish via s-video, or from OTA antenae.

I'd certainly invest in one, particluarly with WalMarts 90- day return policy. (I had tried an Aspire from WalMart.com, but returned it to the local WalMart after two weeks).

I'm satisfied with the Emerson, though I would have like both a 3hr mode, and the ability to record on 4X -RW's, but I knew these features werent supported when i bought it.

Rick
Rick

Rick

[yotehunter]

Still using the Emerson EWR10D4 over 1 1/2 years later (purchased June, 2004) but did run into an issue recently with it not supporting many of the newer DVD-R disks available . I have been using the Legacy 4x DVD-R disks from NewEgg.com (30 cent cheapies) but they must have changed something because with the latest bundle I ordered, none of the disks would load in the unit.

Found a flash upgrade at Afterdawn forums that is supposed to help it support up to 8x DVD-R disks (doesn't upgrade DVD-RW compatibility). If you have one of the newer units it probably already has this newer flash software. After I flashed the unit it was able to read the new disks.. I wouldn't recommend doing this if you're a newbie and when I did this I accepted the possibility it could damage the unit. I was getting ready to buy a new unit anyway but since this worked I am going to wait a while longer. Here is the URL where I found the flash upgrade for the EWR10D4:

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/5/105106

One other problem I had with the unit (my fault) is it started having errors recording disks. We were doing sheetrock work in the house and a lot of dust settled inside the unit on the lens. I took the unit apart and could clearly see the dust built up on the lens. I lightly brushed the dust off with a soft lens cleaning cloth and it fixed the problem. Has worked perfect since then until the new disk issue.