PVR Wire

1. It's real good new DVD-recorder.
But I as for me, volume of HD is not so big.
The price is perfect!! I want the one

Posted at 6:23AM on May 9th 2006 by Andrew

2. It seems that 80 GB HDD are enough to edit and watch DVD-films.
You have to remember that it is DVD-device also so use DVDiscs

Posted at 8:37AM on May 9th 2006 by Tony

3. Evidently the writer of this review has a potty mouth and thinks vulgarity and crudity is normal, enjoyable and funny. However, he is right...TV Guardian does have a short coming. TV Guardian is unable to edit idiotic remarks from reviewers who try to be funny.

We've used the TV Guardian for years inspite of it's quirks an are glad to have it. If you're tired of hearing increasing vulgar language, TV Guardian is something that will make shows more enjoyable.

I hope the writer of this review doesn't quit his day job, he won't make it as a comedian.

Posted at 2:29PM on Jun 5th 2006 by Doug

4. Bought one today at "Wally World" (Walmart) for 212.00. For me HD is fine because I'll just transfer it to DVD anyway.

Takes some getting used to, setting up that is. May as well not had a manual, it is TOO basic...need more detail.

I'm satisfied so far. Better than the RCA I had.

Posted at 4:36AM on Jun 12th 2006 by C Wilson

5. The remote control range and angle are horrible. You must line it up just perfectly or you won't be able to use it and must be no more than 6 ft away from the unit. If you have a glass door cabinet for your set up, be prepare to have the glass door open in order to use the remote. The fan is very noisy and the unit gets pretty hot after recording just a couple hours of video. The manual was poorly written as it doesn't even explain icons you may come accross as you are navigating the unit. It is a low price unit, but as the saying goes "You get what you pay for" Luckily I just bought it and I will be taking back for a full refund. I could have lived w/maybe the noisy fan but not w/a crappy remote because it makes it really hard to program the unit, navigate through it, even turning it on/off... just a big hassle. To the Polaroid folks, great effort but someone in Quality Assurance should have tested the remotes before shipping any units. To the folks that are looking to buy one of these units, do a couple searches there are a lot of postings reporting the same issues I just did.

Posted at 8:27AM on Jul 8th 2006 by Unhappy Customer

6. Bought one 2 days ago and connected it. It looked great for a moment with DVD playback, but then it locked up and I could not turn it on, off, or eject my DVD. I called Polaroid and without even trying to troubleshoot, they said something was definitely wrong with the unit and I should take it back. They could only suggest that I very gently try to open the tray to retrieve my favorite Star Wars DVD. I suggested to the tech that I could pry it open, but gently would not begin to budge the tray open. They mentioned that of course I would not get my money back if I did so and then returned the unit. I ultimately had to remove/replace the cover and DVD drive housing to get my DVD out.
The second and third units that I tried both had extreme color issues and progressive scan would not work. I used the component video out jacks, once with a $70.00 Monster Video cable and once with the component video cable that Time Warner included with my cable box. These cables worked perfectly with my cheapo DVD player and my cable box. Progressive scan worked on my DVD player, and HD worked on my cable box with both of these cables. But the DRM-2001G had such high brightness and weird colaration generated in DVD, HDD, DV and monitor modes that I had to turn the brightness down on my HDTV all the way. No matter what settings I ajusted in the Polaroid's menu, I could never achieve a level that would even allow me to read the wording in the setup or navigation menu's without squinting and moving around the room at different angles. Tech support could only say that it was a brand new unit and they did not know much about it. They tried to blame the problem on my component video cables and said they could only guarantee the unit worked correctly using the cheap analog cables they included. I mentioned they did not include any digital cables, so I could not test it with their cables and I had no desire to keep the unit and use it with only analog connections. Long story short, I am returning the unit for a complete refund. Tech support could not tell me how to adjust color or brightness on the DRM-2001G (which can be done on my $30 DVD player) and wanted me to wait over the weekend to have an advanced technician call me back on Monday. It is my opinion that these units were tested only briefly, if at all, with digital component video in/out and were blasted into the market before problems were encountered. It may work fine with their low quality RCA cables and jacks, but I bought the unit for the low price and for its progressive scan and digital capabilities to use on my HDTV. As far as I am concerned, it is complete junk and has wasted 3 days for me. Polaroid tech support is unknowledgable and the manual is not very helpful. I will probably never consider buying any other Polaroid product again due to this experience. I do not recommend wasting time on this product.

Posted at 1:53PM on Jul 8th 2006 by Steve Crawford

7. Yes- the remote's IR footprint is stupidly small; you have to be directly in front of the recorder for it to respond. Oddly, while the poor manual leaves out tons of information on running the box, it does illustrate the tiny IR zone of sensitivity.

The menus are clunky and difficult to navigate. The unit is sometimes slow to respond, if at all, and sometimes a second key press is needed to get a reaction in the menus.

The auto channel programming is maddeningly slow. When you start the channel search, go make yourself a sandwich as it takes almost 20 seconds for it to find and lock on to each channel.

Naming those channels would be laborious, if not for the fact that the channel tag couldnt be changed by us. Yes, the ability to change it was in the menu, but it never worked. Even if it did work, it would have been a nightmare since character selection involves scrolling up or down thru an achingly slow dropdown, and having to s l o w l y scroll through upper & lowercase and numbers. To add insult to the injury, the channel tags are limited to 5 letters.

Video quality is lousy- with some colors, especially magenta, blooming and fringing. Live output video is noisy and sometimes pixelated.

The slow and sometimes intermittant key response, coupled with the odd menu system, makes programming timer events almost as challenging as programming a pre-90's VCR.

Indeed, when on, the recorder makes a high pitched whine which we attributed to the hard drive. The cabinet tends to get pretty warm, even when the system is in standby.

This unit is capable of time shifting, and can be set to enter the time-shift mode by default, when powered on. The remote has a button to turn off the timeshifting, and you'll have to turn it off to access some of the setup menu functions, but the timeshifting will turn itself back on moments after youve turn it off.

In the lower right hand corner of the image, a small icon appears when, we assumed, the timeshifting is on. We cant prove it tho', because the manual doesnt mention it.

My recommendation is to avoid this dog, even at the Walmart pricepoint of $219. Wait a couple weeks and save up another $60- go to Walmart and get the Philips.

Posted at 5:41PM on Aug 2nd 2006 by Chimp the Vid Monkey