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Progressive-Scan DVD+R/+RW Recorder/4-Head Hi-Fi Stereo VCR Combo - Silver - DRC8300N |  |
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| Product Reviews from Amazon.com (Rating System 1 to 5) |
| Review | Rating | Last Updated | Pathetic electronics
Wish I would have checked reviews prior to buying this product.
As it now sits on my dining room table, broken, waiting to be shipped (or driven 30 miles) to the only service center in st. louis willing to touch it... I have decided to take it to my dumpster instead. Having already had a bit of RCA/Thomson's brand of customer service, then reading the reviews here - I will avoid the obvious inevitable frustration, minimize my losses, and move on. Thanks for your input folks. | 1 | Today | Damaged Goods
I purchase this item and upon inspection I found the antenna on the cable box was bent. I spent 50 bucks to have it repaired. I can't rec more then 19 channels using this item. I brought damaged goods from seller. IT sucks!!!!!!! | 1 | Today | Low-end Quality with a High-end Price
What a piece of junk! Although I'm editing my previous review, Amazon will not let me change the star-setting. So, let me tell you: I would give this product NOTHING (zero stars).
I had previously bought a Magnavox DVD/VCR Recorder for $150. Since the recording quality from VHS tapes to DVD was so-so, I decided to return it and spend the 50 extra bucks for an RCA model at $200. Silly me, thinking that more money meant better quality.
First, the VCR > DVD recording quality is dubious, both good and bad. Good, if you play the recorded material on the RCA machine's own DVD player; bad, if you try to watch the material on another player.
I recorded from a VHS tape to a DVD+RW 4x at EP (4 hours). Everything seemed to go well: The quality of the recording was good (better than the Magnavox), although I did notice a low "boomp-ba-boomp-boomp" noise in the background of the audio. (No, the noise was not on the tape, which I have watched many times.) Then, I tried watching the same disk on my other DVD player (a Koss). As long as I did not Fast Forward or try to skip through the DVD, the disk played normally -- although, once again, that "boomp" noise was there. If I did use Skip, the recording went haywire: The picture sped forward at double the pace, while the sound remained at the normal speed. Although the Magnavox's VCR > DVD recording was definitely of a lesser quality, I never had a problem playing anything that had been recorded on it on the Koss DVD player. Nor, was the audio fouled up by some kind of underlying sound.
Second, why must I fight with the VCR to put in or take out a tape? You almost have to cram the tape into the opening before the tray will receive the video cassette. Then, after it has been ejected, it's like the tape catches on something in the tray, so that you have to really pull the tape out. Poor craftsmanship!
Then, there's the remote: a plethora of buttons all over the place. Someone at RCA (I'm sure) thought that placing the controls for the VCR and DVD player separately on the remote was a good idea: No pushing a button to switch back and forth between the two systems, or between TV and VCR to operate one or the other. This set-up was actually more disorienting for me than helpful, since I am used to the way most VCR's already operate. Not to mention that it cluttered up the remote with extra buttons that could have done "double duty" for either the VCR or DVD, like the "Play" button. Now, the same thing had to be done separately with a separate button for each device. O.K., . . . not the end of the world. But, not intuitive, either.
The manual sucks big time! Not only is information scattered all over the place, but my manual came with no less than THREE Addenda (in other words, additions/corrections to the manual) written on separate slips of paper. In fact, whoever wrote out the Addenda screwed up, so that one of them actually repeated what was covered on another!
The manual itself is written in a minimalist style: As little information as possible on as few of the functions as possible. No hand-holding here; no walking you through the instructions step-by-step. So, you want to copy a video cassette to DVD? Here's what you do:
1/ Put a DVD into the tray;
2/ Put a video into the VCR;
3/ Press the COPY button on the unit.
What if you don't want to copy the whole tape?
Is there a COPY button on the remote? (There is, but it's NEVER explained in the manual!)
How do set the copy quality for the DVD recording?
How do you watch TV while copying? (The manual stupidly says you have to "change channels" . . . which is WRONG, because that's not what you have to do.)
Etc. etc.
Nothing is answered easily by this THIN manual. Instead, you have to flip pages, read between the lines, assume a lot, and figure it out for yourself.
Others have mentioned how SLOW this darned thing is. And, it doesn't matter if you press the remote buttons or get up off your [...] and press the buttons on the machine: The machine clunks along like it's a VCR from the early 80's . . . except, this is not a VCR from the early 80's! It's a (supposedly better) DVD player. And, it's not like DVD recording technology is some newfangled thing that the Boys at RCA are still trying to work the bugs out of. The technology has been around for years. Buyers should get used to seeing "PLS WAIT" on the small view screen.
Just how bad is this product? Consider the VCR component. You CANNOT set the VCR to record something on T.V. within about 30 min.--Hour of the televised program.
For example, you find out at 7:30 P.M. that there's an 8 o'clock show on T.V. that you want to record. So, you begin to follow the instructions for setting up the VCR to record the program. You fill in all the information for Timer Program (start time; how long; channel; etc.) . . . and, receive the message "INVALID" from the machine, announcing that there's not enough time for the Timer Program function to work. Apparently, the Timer Program function needs to know BEFOREHAND about 30 min.--Hour that you would like to set it up to record something. Otherwise, you have to do it manually. (It seems to be able to handle 45 min. before, though.) Also, you can't turn the DVD/VCR machine "Off" -- or, it won't work! The manual says explicitly that the machine will not come back on to begin the taping.
Now, I can buy a $40 No-Name VCR from my local grocery store (for Pete's sake!) which is able to do timer recording at the drop of a hat as well as turn back on to do the programmed recording. Apparently, RCA's $200 product cannot handle such high-level math!
Finally, after you've followed the manual to the letter and the VCR has program-recorded and stopped . . . you get a flashing Display which says, "P00," "P00," over and over again. (Yeah, that about sums up what this product is. Ba-DUM-bum!) "P00" means that Program 1 (P01) has finished. But, it doesn't stop! Instead, the machine is frozen until you come along and press Timer on the remote control. Of course, the manual NEVER lets you in on this little secret (see pgs. 25-6); you have to figure it out for yourself. By the way, remember those correction slips I mentioned above? Yeah, that's where that little nugget of information is.
As I wrote in my previous review, the manual is typically awful.
For example, as per the manual's instructions on pg. 4, I turned to pgs. 10-11, since I was hooking up the machine to my cable TV. And, the instructions are WRONG!
The picture of the back of the machine in the manual shows the red, white, and yellow Video Cables with arrows pointing to each jack in which the cable should go. For the back of the DVD/VCR, it shows the white cable going into the TOP jack on Audio Output and it shows the red jack going into the BOTTOM jack on Audio Output. (The yellow is correctly going into Video Output.) However, look at the back of the machine! It is, in fact, THE REVERSE (red is top; white is bottom). You know this because the jacks and the cables are color-coded to eachother.
The manual also tells you to: "Connect the audio cables to the AUDIO OUTPUT L (left-white) and R (right-red) jacks on the back of your DVD recorder."
Hmm, funny . . . I don't see any indication of which side is left or right on the Audio Output. There are 3 jacks in Audio Output: red and white on the left; orange on the right. So, I guess I'll have to use my intuition. Also, funny . . . the red and white jacks are located ABOVE AND BELOW EACHOTHER, neither to the left nor to the right.
The slogan on the manual says: "Changing Entertainment. Again." Only too right . . . I WILL be changing something.
3/1/08
UPDATE: I did in fact get rid of this turd of a product, returning it to the store.
I subsequently purchased an LG (which has its own deficiencies . . . but, not as many as the RCA.)
| 2 | Today | Run away from RCA products!!
9/5/06
Thomson/RCA Unbelievable customer support!
I got a RCA DVD Recorder/VCR combo for Christmas 2005 from my girlfriend. By April 2006 it was not playing or recording half as good as it should. Around May I decided that I would try and get it fixed. Guess what. Thompson/RCA now requires the customer to deliver the unit to a qualified service center.
I called RCA and they gave me 2 service centers. Both were 50 miles from my home, the closest. I decided since gas was so high I would mail it to the center. I cost around $10 to ship it. I waited around a week and called the "service" center. They asked why I sent it to them. I told them Thomson had directed me to send it to them. They agreed to work on it because I said Thomson told me to send it. I waited another week and had no response from the "service" center. I called again and was told that the service center got an email that day from their head office to not work on any more RCA equipment, and that I needed to come get it.
I immediately called the Thomson toll free number and was given about 5 more "service centers". This time I called the centers first and all of them told me they no longer worked on RCA. I re-called Thomson again and was given 2 more centers to contact. I told the customer support rep that I was a little tired of chasing "service centers" and it seemed to me that RCA should chase the centers down and see which ones of them still worked on RCA and then contact me with the ones that did. They said that's not the way it works.
Luckily one of the two centers above said they did work on RCA and just bring it in. I called the first center and asked since I had been misled by Thomson and spent money shipping it to them, would they just ship to the new "service" center. They agreed.
I waited a week or so with no response so I decided to call the new service center. I called and talked to the owner and explained what was wrong with the unit and he said he would get right on it. I waited about a week and called again. He again said he hasn't had time to look at it but give him a few days and he would check it out. I waited and called the following Saturday. He answered and told me he didn't understand why it was still at his shop, that he had checked it out and placed a sticker on it "to be replaced by RCA. He said the girl that handled the replacement was off on Saturday and he would put a note on it for here to handle it Monday.
I called back Monday and a woman answered the phone with "Hello". I asked if this was Bill's Tv. She said "of course this is Bill's Tv!" I replied with "I wasn't sure, you just said hello, not hello this is Bill's TV, may I help you?" She then replied, "What do you need?". I told her I had a DVD recorder there and that I had talked to the owner Saturday and he said she would get on it Monday. I also told her I had a Case number to look it up but she put me on hold before she heard it.
She returned and asked me what my name was. I told her and was put on hold again. She finally returned and told me there was no units there under my name. I told her I had talked to the owner 2 days ago about it and he said it was to be replaced by RCA. She finally asked me for a Case number. I replied that I had tried to give it to her the first time we talked. She then replied that she didn't have to listen to me talk to her that way. I said let me talk to the owner. She said he was not there. I said can you page him or something because I'm tired of the run-a-round I have been getting in regards to this units repair. She hung up on me!
I called back and asked her name. She replied Serena. I asked for the owner's name. She said Conrad. She then said she didn't want to talk to me anymore. I said I didn't want to talk to her anymore either, but that I wanted my DVD replaced & returned, NOW! She hung up again.
I immediately called RCA again and reported this confrontational "service" center. The RCA rep called her, with me on the line, and she said I hung up on her while she was trying to help me. She said she did find the unit and it was to be replaced and that she had faxed the information needed to RCA that day. He asked her to fax the information again to him, and verified the fax number, to RCA to get the unit replacement started. She said she would fax it again. That was 2 weeks ago. He hung up and said to call him in a few days with the update.
I called in about a week and the RCA customer center rep told me that they were still waiting on the fax from Bill's Tv to replace it. I went over with him all the trouble I was having and he assured me he would get to the bottom of it and as soon as he found out something he would call.
I have heard nothing as of today so I called RCA again. The rep told me they still have not received the Fax. I've had it!! I asked for a Supervisor. She said none were there. I said I couldn't believe that a company as big as Thomson did not have any supervisors available. She said a supervisor wouldn't tell me anything different that she did. I told her that she didn't know what a supervisor might tell me and that if she didn't put me thru to a supervisor that I would call every five minutes today until one answered. She put me on hold for about 10 minutes and a supervisor answered the phone.
I explained to him the problems I was having and guess what? He told me he would look into it and someone would be calling me within 48 hours.
I called today to find out the update, 190 hrs. From the day I last called, with no response from the last call who promised the 48 hour callback. I was put on hold 30 minutes and automatically transferred to IBM for some unknown reason. The IBM rep had no idea why I was calling them. She said they were not associated with Thomson/RCA. I called back to Thomson/RCA and they said that IBM did handle their customer relations problems. This rep put me on hold for a few minutes and then I heard a recording that said " Sorry, Thomson offices are closed right now, please call again during business hours only" and hung up!!
I called on 9-17-06 and was put off a week.
I called today and was told another different story and was put off another week
An RCA "service" center has had my DVD since 6/28/06. I have made dozen's of calls to service centers. I have mad more dozens of calls to the toll free RCA "service" center. I have not spoken to two "customer service" agents that say the same thing. I have NOT been contacted once by RCA. I have to deliver my unit to the center and pick it up from the center, about a 150 mile journey. I have 4 Case numbers on this issue!
I reported this story to several TV stations today, 9-8-2006, to see if they can help. I've E-mailed the RCA website numerous times with no response.
Update 10-16-06
Two weeks ago my father called me and said the unit was at his house, UPS $34 COD. I told him to return it. I had a conversation with Serina @ Bills TV in MT. Pleasant Texas the week earlier. She said it was at their shop and did I want to come get it. I told her that gas being so high and it being a 65 mile round trip that even if I had to pay, I had shipped it for $12 originally and that if I had to pay it send it in the mail. When it arrived it was $34, not the price of the conversation we had had. After it was returned I waited a week and I called, as usual, Bills TV. She answered. I told her I sent it back because it was 3 times shipping as we had agreed and that I would come Saturday to pick it up. She said OK and hung up. About half way to the so called "service center" I called for better directions. Conrad, the owner, answered and said it was there but I would still have to pay the $34 to get it. I was furious. If I didn't want it for the $34 COD at my home, why did he think I wanted to drive 65 miles and pick it up and still pay the $34? Man!!! What are people thinking?
So today I called Thompson so called "customer service" again and told this story. I was told that a "specialist" would be contacting me within 3 days to discuss how to get it and that there were no guarantees that I wouldn't have to pay the COD. I told him that I guarantee that I would NOT be paying the COD. We will see what happens.
10-20-06 I called thomson , because as usual they did not call me as promised in 3 days. I called today and was told or "promised" they would call next Monday. They did call while I was out today and left a message. They determined that they would NOT pay for the shipping to return my DVD that I did NOT ever tell them I would pay. $34 to ship to my home 45 miles away is unbelievable. I shipped it 50 for $13.
10-23-06 I recalled Thomson and talked with a servise agent named Merium. She got all 3 of us, including the so called customer repair center, on a 3 way call. After about 20 minutes we decided that I would pay 14 dollars, Thomson would pay $20 to get MY unit sent back to me.
11-01-06 I called today since my unit was not here yet, 45 miles away. I was told I had to send the $14 to Bills TV in Mt Pleasant Texas first. I asked 10 times why that was not talked about 10 days ago and was told by Merium that it was my fault for not making those arrangements. After asking over and over again with no answer, for an hour, I have finally had it. I still don't have my unit. The service center does. This is it!! It was the last straw. I paid for the unit with a warrantee which is not worth using as toilet paper. I looks like RCA/Thomson just wants to sell to first time customers or something because I will NEVER purchase another RCA/Thomson product for as long as I live, I will tell everyone thru word of mouth about their service and products and at this time, I am sending an email to 20/20 John Stosel and any other media I can think of. I am now "on a Mission" to tell all I can about this incident!!!
This "customer service" is horrific!!. It seems that they are just trying to wear the customer out so that you just give up!!
This is not what "warranty" means to most sane consumers. Thomson's philosophy seems to be "we have a great warranty, we just don't apply it to anyone."
Shame on this company. Seriously, if you buy an RCA Thomson product because you think they are a well know, reputable brand, you are kidding yourself. This is NOT your father's RCA, this is like some dishonest web-based business with no physical address, no phone number, and not way to reach them that actually works.
What is up with customer service these days? It's more like "sell it and forget it! And just wear the customer down and hope they quit before the company has to fix anything.
11-12-06
Bils tv still has my unit. Its been there for weeks. I feel they are holding it ransom until I pay their inflated shipping price. I checked UPS, USPS & Fed Ex and for a #10 box from their zip to mine is from $6 to $9 to ship in 2-3 days.
Seems like something isnt right here. Thomson told me they had authorized over $40 shipping to Bills already.
I will NEVER do any busines with Bills again and others might want to try Walmart, in my opinion. | 1 | Today | Bad Buy
My recorder has not worked from day one. The VCR will not play many of the things that I have recorded in the past. Also, the unit requires me to input the date and time every time I turn it on. Once this fine piece of electronic equiptment starts to fail, you'll find that the thompson help line operators read directly from the manual. If you already looked in the trouble shooting section of the manual don't waste your time waiting for an operator, just try to return it as soon as possible. | 1 | Today | note the speed of the blank dvd's you use!
i bought this unit almost 2 years ago and am still very pleased with it. so far ive recorded over 400 movies to dvd (transferring from vhs and from satellite, tv). the quality of the picture is great and all movies susequently play well on my two other dvd players. looking at the other reviews i can tell i may be the exception. the unit has froze on me 4 or 5 times during finalization of discs, but after unplugging/plugging the unit continued to work fine. as another reviewer stated, u do need to be patient using the controls and not push too many buttons at once. the response is quite slow and too many commands seem to freeze the unit.
a month or so ago i thought my unit had gone bad, every blank disc i was putting in it would say "disc error". i had almost given up and was ready to purchase another unit, and in a last ditch effort i decided to read the manual again. come to find out this recorder only works with blank dvd speeds of 8x or lower. i had not previously been paying attention to the speed of the discs when purchasing. by looking at the store shelves, most blank dvd+r media now are 16x, and the ones i had most recently purchased were 16x. looking back, i had ran into some compatibility issues with some blank 8x dvd's as well. i now have went back to 1x-4x discs and they are recording flawlessly. i would suggest taking this into consideration when purchasing this particular unit. 1x-4x dvds are getting hard to find, and i'm not sure they will be around much longer. | 5 | Today | a few downfalls
the only thing i know is a major problem is the remotes with these units are no good!!!! and you can't get a replacement, I have been waiting for it since February..
another downfall, is there customer service sucks.. they do not follow up on anything!!! and its also outsourced to another country.. customer service tells you stuff and never follows through.. I have also another dvd recorder(RCA) that has been trouble since we had it!!! no good
| 1 | Today | Works, but Not sure about final disks
Hi,
I got a referb'ed unit from Fry's.. ($72), and the number is DRC8300NR - my guess is that it's the same unit, maybe newer firmware or something.)
So far, it has worked fine, with a (very) surprising feature.
When I recorded a TV program from DirectTV to DVD+R (or +RW), it figures out what the name of the program is! For example, instead of having the video named 'Transfer' (the default), it is named 'GREY'S ANATOMY' - very impressive, not sure if it is reading that from the video or audio, but it's using something I didn't know existed to do it.. This saves me entering that information in!
Neg. stuff? Well, it has hung once and I've had to power it down, wait 30 seconds, and power it back up...
I had problems with it recording for 30 seconds and stopping with a disk error - but then I stopped using the crappy CompUSA DVD's - which caused errors on other machines too.. (100 pack, for $14.95 with $14.95 rebate - not worth the cost!)
I created a DVD+RW, made it compatable with DVD players... And when played in another DVD player, 2 out of 3 of the video clips hung, and I had to skip over to the next chapter. Those chapters played fine! I'm going to see if I can read the data on a PC and remaster a DVD+R (or -R) from the PC and salvage the disks...
-Chert
http://www.traderhut.com | 2 | Today | Not a so good Recorder
I bought this item hoping to save space by using a combo that I could use one machine to copy the tape to DVD. But when I put in old tapes they looked terrible but when I used another DVD/VCR combo that I have had a few years the tapes looked much better. When I used this RCA to record from the TV either to a DVD or Video tape they looked very bad so now I had to hook-up my older Combo to the TV to record from the TV onto Video tape and if I want to record to DVD I have to use the older combo to play the tape in then I can use The RCA DRC8300 to record onto DVD. If I had to do it again I would never buy this item. I should of bought a panasonic. This Item is thee worst that I have ever bought never again. | 1 | Today | POS
This item is a POS <-that acronym, in this instance, does not refer to Point of Sale, (which, thankfully, was Wal-Mart,with its liberal return policy) but means Piece of Shinola. I so wish I had read the reviews here before purchase.
Or before all those futile "on-hold" phone calls to Thompson (no service "Customer Service" 800# )
Or before I dismantled, re-packaged, drove back to WM (the Thompson folks had directed me to their local "authorized repair," telling me it was not eligible for replacement, local repair declined involvement, WM was happy to give me replacement,) go home, connect Unit #2. Same "Freeze Up!" I played this frustrating game because I wanted to go get a 2d recording device, so that I could immediately take in 3 programs at a time. Never Mind!
DANGER WILL ROBINSON! The RCA dog and puppy laid a big doo-doo this time. Better choice:
Buy another one like my main unit - wait for order of Go Video VR 2940 from QVC. Sure, one must wait for delivery, but at least it will work when you get it!
/TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer | 1 | Today |
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