Samsung SH-183M – DVD Recorder What To Buy

Executive Summary about Samsung DVD Recorder by Tom Q Jackson

samsung dvd recorder

DVD recorders are becoming extremely common today as their price continues to decline. When purchasing a DVD recorder you will be faced with the difficult decision of choosing which DVD recorder best suites your needs.

1. Speed – One of the most important factors when shopping for a DVD recorder. DVD’s range up to 9 Giga-Bytes (GB) and the speed of a DVD recorder is enough to make or break a purchase. With sizes up to 9GB it may take hours to completely burn a DVD with a slow recorder. The Samsung SH-183M does quite well in this category with its 18x burning speed – It sure burns those DVD’s fast.

2. Buffer Under Run Technology – Another major factor to look at when looking to buy a DVD recorder. The Samsung SH-183M has a special technology that not only does this but increases the life of the DVD recorder.

3. Price – As with anything, price is an important factor when shopping for a DVD recorder. DVD recorders can vary widely in price ranging anywhere from $40.00 to $200.00 or more.

4. Brand – A good brand of DVD recorder is important to look for when purchasing. – Going back to the Samsung SH-183-M, Samsung is a big company with a big name.

5. Light-Scribe – Light-Scribe is not a mandatory thing for your DVD recorder, however, if you burn a lot of DVD’s or CD’s it will save you time from creating labels and make your DVD’s look nice. The Samsung SH-183-M supports light-scribe.

I hope this article has been useful to you as you are looking forward to purchasing a DVD recorder. I would definitely recommend the SH-183M DVD recorder from Samsung if your looking for a great recorder at a reasonable price.

Samsung DVD-VR357 Combined Recorder (DVD/VHS)

Executive Summary about Samsung DVD Recorder by John Sunier

This may be the age of hi-def recording hard drives for time-shifting TV programming, and computer-related DVD burners for burning DVDs of non-copy-protected videos. There are a number of combo DVD/VHS recorder units out there, but the Samsung seems to be good solution for those looking for something inexpensive in one box which they can integrate into their AV system, use for both copying VHS tapes and TV time-shifting, can record twice as much material onto Dual-Layer recordable DVDs if needed, and has both upscaling and HDMI output built-in.

The DVD-VR357 has no tuner – either analog or digital – just an AV1 IN composite jack on the rear.  I used the S-Video input for connections to my old Laserdisc and BetaMax players when burning DVD-Rs from those sources.

Dubbing Videotapes or Laserdiscs to DVD-R

I can’t image why anyone would want to dub from a DVD to a VHS videotape, but the Copy function on the DVD-VR357 can go either way. My experience seems to indicate that for simple copying of other already-edited video material to DVD, your best bet is to purchase standard single-layer DVD-R blanks and record at the SP speed.  Then you will be able to play the resultant discs after finalization on most DVD players. There are two different modes for DVD-RWs: V Mode and VR Mode – the latter allows more editing operations but is less compatible on other DVD players. After finalization the DVD+RWs will be more likely to play on other DVD players than the DVD-RWs, but are still not as compatible as DVD-Rs.  When dubbing VHS tapes I didn’t use either.

I used the Info button on the DVD-VR357 remote to display the start times and remaining times on both the DVD and the VHS tape.  You select either DVD or VHS with another button on the remote.  When the tape got to just before the portion I wanted to dub, I put it in pause, switched to DVD and then pressed the Copy button indicating copying from VHS to DVD. Finally I pressed the pause button again to start the VHS tape. At the end of the videotape or laserdisc side the DVD recorder will stop, allowing you to dub from another source until the DVD is full. Info displays the remaining time on the DVD-R.

Time Shifting of TV Programming

For time shifting you have more flexibility in selection of recording media. I haven’t worked with them, but the DVD-RAM format seems to offer the greatest options for this purpose, provided you play the discs back on this same recorder on which they were burned, or have another DVD-RAM player/recorder, since they will not play on standard DVD players. The other option is either the DVD-RW or DVD+RV format – either way you will have to purchase the proper blank media, and they are more expensive than DVD-Rs and will not play back on as many standard DVD players. The Samsung has a feature allowing you to unfinalize a finalized DVD-RW or +RW if you have second thoughts and their is space remaining on the disc.

If you are recording programs over 2 hours you will need to use the LP or EP speeds on the DVD recorder.