GoVideo R6530 Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder
By: Go Video Average Rating: 1.5 Total Reviews: 23
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 On: 2007-10-21
Sometimes works only with DVD+RW, never reuse the same DVD+RW are only for one use
 On: 2006-10-23
GoVideo was a pioneer in the DVD Recorder industry and Ive owned other GoVideo equipment that have worked well for years. This unit has most of the features I wanted, though the manual was a bit tough to decipher. If youre willing to put the time into reading it though, I dont think youll be disappointed. This is one of the two brands of DVD Recorders Id give top ratings to.
On: 2005-09-06
I purchased the R6530 a year and a half ago. I was happy at first. The unit made fewer coasters than my computer dvd burner did. I stocked up on blank DVD+R media at Christmas when merchants drop the prices to get you in the door...different brands at different recording speeds. I was in the middle of a cake box of Memorex 4x DVD+R media when the unit decided it could no longer recognize my blank disk. I tried disks by Fuji, Imation, Ridata, and none of them worked. I called Go Video and told them of my problem and they said that since I was in the warranty period they would send me a new unit if I would send them $75 dollars. I did and they did. The new unit would not recognize my disk either. I again called Go Video and they said another new unit was on the way, just ship that one back. I packaged it up and sent them several disk that had failed to work in the unit along with a letter describing my difficulties. I hoped they would develop a firm ware upgrade for the unit. The have not.
I have found the unit will only work with high grade 2.4x DVD+R media (although their tech support says 4x media is compatible). Unfortunately, you cant find media that slow anymore unless its Dual Layer. Ive got about 4 blank disk left and then I guess this unit will become a paper weight. I would feel guilty if I even gave it away to a stranger. I am dumbfounded that no one at their technical support seems aware of this problem and there is no effort on their part to find a way to make higher speed blank disk compatible with this recorder.
Buyer Beware of this unit!
On: 2005-08-23
I AGREE WITH ALL THE REVIEWS PREVIOUS SAID OF THIS PRODUCT. POOR PRODUCT. I BOUGHT ONE UNIT SEND IT BACK AFTER 3DAYS WAS REPLACE WITH A REFURBISH ( FRONT PANEL WAS BANG UP). AFTER THE WARRANTY RAN OUT IT WOULD NOT ACCEPT 27 OUT 30 DISC AT ALL. EITHER IT SAID NO DISC OR AN ERROR MESSAGE SHOW UP. I ALSO HAD DIFFICULTY RECORDING A TV SHOW IT SHOW THAT IT WAS RECORDING BUT THEN WHEN I WAS ABLE TO CHECK THE DISC IT WAS STILL EMPTY. I CALLED THE TECH TWICE & WAS DISCONNECT BOTH TIMES. IT WILL PLAY ANY RECORDED DISC SO I QUESS I WILL KEEP IT AS A SPARE PLAYER. I SINCE THEN BOUGHT A DIFFERENT BRAND & HAVE HAD THIS UNIT FOR 2WKS WITH NO PROBLEMS YET. ALSO HAS A 1 YEAR WARRANTY ON PARTS & LABOR. SO PLEASE DO NOT BUY GO VIDIO RECORDERS ITS NOT WORTH THE TIME OR MONEY.
On: 2005-06-09
6 months old and I have an over-priced dvd player only.
Yeah, sure... I technically could record with it, but its so cranky and annoying that I dont bother. Im actively looking for another option. Too bad I didnt give it a full check-out during the initial return period. :-(
The remote - all the buttons feel much the same, but thats OK as the deck will not recognize anything you push unless you hold the remote out in just the right place to get the signal through that annoying mirrored front panel.
User interface - mildly disjointed. I could live with that.. if... and only if... it would actually respond as you do anything in record or edit mode. You push a button, wait a second to see if you had the remote in just the right spot for the system to see it, and then it will consider doing what you tell it to.
Media - I had heard that this unit was a bit particular on the media it will accept. Thats an understatement. It doest seem to like anything faster than 4x. Now you have to find 4x it likes. Ridata is supposed to be pretty good - I bought 100 4x printables. They dont work. In fact, most of the media I bought to test doesnt work. Heck - even finding 4x media is becoming a challenge anymore.
There are several newer Go Video models listed here. Too bad - After this experience Go Video is on my Dont Buy, Take to the range for 12g percussive therapy" list. If it didnt actually play disks Id have taken a sledgehammer to it before its fourth month in my house. As it is, Ill just use it as a player and let the bitterness for the wasted investment in Go Video grow.
I hear the Panasonic EMR ES10K actual does what its advertised to do..... Hmmmm.... maybe.....
On: 2005-06-04
About the worse designed electronic component Ive bought in many years.
The programming features are about as advanced as a 1985 VCR. I bought
the unit knowing that, and figured that I would trade off programming
convenience for digitial quality and the durability and convenience of DVDs... wrong.
People mentioned that the remote is very picky. That is an understatement.
The remote doesnt work for shXX. If you stand right in front of the unit and
point it at it, it usually works. Other than that, you have to click over-
and-over-and-over-and-over. They also chose to use frequencies which both
conflict with other devices, and which no universal remotes work with (we
have tried many and even the remote vendors say to forget about it).
It always took the unit a long time to start up, but, after the warranty
ran out, it sometimes will not start at all.
Sound and video quality were good when it was new, but both have deteriorated
drastically. It now humms loudly (for all audio output modes) for the
first 10 minutes after turning it on (even if just watching broadcasts directly).
It is now completely useless as a recorder since the audio is so fuzzy that
you cant hear words. Video of recordings looks like you are
watching a 1968 TV.
On: 2005-05-25
I bought this item, refurbished, a month ago, from a local vendor here at El Salvador, they gave me a 1 year warranty and the system was very cheap. I know from experience my vendor honors their 1 year warranty, because they will change the system or give me my money, on their own, they have nothing to do with GoVideo.
Well my system works fine and the sales man had the knowledge and the kindness to tell me to use only DVD+R at 4X. Not 8X, or other speed. I know it is weird but it was good he told me, he was right and I know just what to buy. I have gotten good results from any brand that is a DVD+R or DVD+RW at 4X.
I bought it knowing that and accepted it, for the price was the best I had seen for a DVD recorder.
I have owned other GoVideo equipment that has worked great for years.
this has been my experience
On: 2005-03-12
Same symptoms as other reviewers. Bought the extended warranty for $95. GoVido apparently loves to sell you this extended warranty, but hates to honor it. No response from tech support, Jonathan King, Sean Wang, and other execs I tried to contact via email. No dice. They DO NOT BACK THEIR OWN PRODUCTS. I WILL NEVER, EVER BUY A GO-VIDEO PRODUCT AGAIN !!!!!!!!
On: 2005-03-11
I did not purchase the recorder from Amazon. It was an impulse buy from another on-line merchant due to the low price: $169. Tried it out immediately and successfully recorded a couple of half hour shows. Did not use it for 3 months. A couple of days ago, I decided to "tape" a show. The recorder would not record. Spent considerable time on hold, talked finally with a technician who said I would have to send it in for repairs. Unfortunately, I did not realize the warranty was for only 90 days; I thought that was only for refurbished items. I have decided not to send it back for repairs---no telling how much it would cost. No more impulse buying without researching. A check of the Amazon reviews would have saved me $169.
On: 2005-01-20
I bought this 10 months ago. Spent $300. Wasted $300.
The purpose was to dump videos off the TiVo onto disc.
And to record shows that were on at the same time as something else I was recording on my TiVo.
About a month ago, it stopped recording.
It takes forever to decide to open the tray.
Never records when its supposed to anymore.
I would buy something else if I had it to do over again,
and I am replacing the unit today with something more reliable.
Menus stink, too.
Sent an e-mail to support 3 weeks ago, they never even acknowledged they got it.
On: 2005-01-17
Heard good things about GO VIDEO, so i bought it. Nothing but JUNK - wasted a whole weekend trying to figure out the Disc+R.
recorded on the media and upon loading says "NO DISC". even if the disc was loaded. I returned the discs and bought memorex compatible +R. still the same problem after recording.
Display does not work while recording. PBC ? what is it no mention of it in the manual. it is just a button on th eremote.
I will never buy this piece of crap again. stick to Pioneer, Panasonic or Sony.
On: 2004-12-20
The DVD recorder seems to have a mind of its own
If its temperament is positive it works well enough to get by
When its being obstinate, it may respond to a command or it may not
Or it may wait ten minutes to respond
Or it may respond as it did this morning prompting me to write this review
On Wednesday, I turned it on and pressed the open/close button.
The "Open" message was displayed immediately.
The tray opened this morning, Sunday, four days later
gat
On: 2004-11-25
My Sister bought this model and had nothing but trouble.
Seems it doesnt like the same disc twice.
Plays once then not again.
Blank disc OK, then not OK.
You can keep buying other brand disks and trying to write
to them until you go crazy.
Just bad electronics..
Dont waste your time & money.
On: 2004-11-24
My Sister bought this model and had nothing but trouble.
Seems it doesnt like the same disc twice.
Plays once then not again.
Blank disc OK, then not OK.
You can keep buying other brand disks and trying to write
to them until you go crazy.
Just bad electronics..
Dont waste your time & money.
On: 2004-10-02
Wow!!! I should have read these reviews before buying mine! I echo pretty much everything everybody has stated already. The only reason I went with GoVideo was because I had already purchased and was using a home theater DVD/VCR combo unit that has performed perfectly since day one (I have had it over a year now). I figured they were a good (not great) quality brand at a bargain price, so I got the DVD recorder. I dont know how a company that makes one thing so great can make something else so lousy. The problems I encountered were: DVD Rs not being recognized, drawers sticking closed, slow reading and response times, not recording on the pre-set record date and time, etc, etc, etc. I guess I will read more reviews before my next purchase!
On: 2004-10-01
Wow!!! I should have read these reviews before buying mine! I echo pretty much everything everybody has stated already. The only reason I went with GoVideo was because I had already purchased and was using a home theater DVD/VCR combo unit that has performed perfectly since day one (I have had it over a year now). I figured they were a good (not great) quality brand at a bargain price, so I got the DVD recorder. I dont know how a company that makes one thing so great can make something else so lousy. The problems I encountered were: DVD Rs not being recognized, drawers sticking closed, slow reading and response times, not recording on the pre-set record date and time, etc, etc, etc. I guess I will read more reviews before my next purchase!
On: 2004-08-30
The first unit I bought in February skipped constantly when just playing DVDs, it was replaced. The second unit is now 6 months old (and out of the 90 day warranty) and the DVD tray will not even open although messages still appear saying "loading", "reading", "no disc". Neither the remote nor the machine buttons work. Even when it did record, strange pauses kept appearing on the recorded disks. I have used it 20 times to record and about 10 times to play a DVD and it is now worthless
On: 2004-08-29
The first unit I bought in February skipped constantly when just playing DVDs, it was replaced. The second unit is now 6 months old (and out of the 90 day warranty) and the DVD tray will not even open although messages still appear saying "loading", "reading", "no disc". Neither the remote nor the machine buttons work. Even when it did record, strange pauses kept appearing on the recorded disks. I have used it 20 times to record and about 10 times to play a DVD and it is now worthless
On: 2004-08-07
Paid $349.00 for this on the Home Shopping Network and thought I had gotten a bargain - UGH!! - Warranty only good for 90 Days from Go Video and after changing batteries several times because of slow opening and closing it stopped working altogether - this was of course just after the 90 days!! When I called Go Video they said I could send it back for repair at a cost of $75.00 plus my cost to ship and they would extend the warranty for another 30 days thereafter - BIG DEAL!! So now I have a useless piece of junk that I will probably try and have repaired - cant see spending another hundred dollars to have the same thing happen over again - What a Ripoff!! GO Video? No Way!!
On: 2004-07-29
I bought the first unit and it wouldnt recognize the R dvds. I could only record on the RW dvds. It would not finalize either the R or RW dvds. Customer service said it was probably the brand of dvd and to try other brands...NOT. I sent it back thinking it was probably a bad unit. Low and behold, I had the same problem with the second unit.
Everything in the other reviews is true...very slow response from the remote, plus I always had to get up and point the remote directly at the unit at a close distance. Poor layout of buttons on the remote.
So, Ive wasted my time, endured a lot of frustration and Im out of return shipping costs for two units. Save yourself the time and frustration.
On: 2004-06-29
The other reviews reflect exactly what I have experienced with two of these units. Poorly and cheaply designed, there are problems with remote control lag, skipping, customer service (their "White Glove" customer service person was of no help at all), and other problems you can see in the other reviews. Costco is getting them both back and I am done with GoVideo. I wouldnt buy any of their products after seeing what they did with this unit. Can you say, "CHEAP"??? There must be a truckload of these things at Costco going back to GoVideo. A friend of mine bought one as well, and his has already gone back for the same problems, so this cant be just a few units. Very disappointed. Avoid this machine.
On: 2004-06-26
I had high expectations for this recorder. Archive my family VHS tapes and share with family and friends. I recorded my first tape 8 times using three diffrent mfg. media - none would play in any other DVD player. I returned it back to QVC today and got a refund. Dont consider this unit...
On: 2004-04-05
I bought the recorder at Costco, and began experiencing problems as soon as I started using it. The setup was easy, the picture quality was fine, and the controls for navigating the DVD were great. Too bad it wasnt enough to make up for all the problems.
As one reviewer noted with his unit, one of my first recordings skipped about 10 minutes whenever I played it, although you can see that the 10 minutes had recorded when you rewind.
The unit is also a problem if you use a TIVO Series 2 standalone unit. The recorder responds to the TIVO remote. After many hours of experimenting to identify the problem, I discovered that, if I pushed virtually any button on my TIVO remote 3 times (e.g, fast forward), the recorder reads it, and will pause if its recording, and will start recording if its in pause. I tried a universal remote instead, and fortunately the DVD recorder did not respond to that remote. The universal remote does not have certain functions that the TIVO remote has, so I had to keep switching between the TIVO remote and universal remote.
The recorder also tells you only what percent of your free space is left, not the minutes left, so you have to add up the minutes of all the recordings you have already made to find out if you have room to squeeze in the next recording you want to make.
When I ran out of room, the recorder froze on me, then refused to see the disc anymore.
The recorder also skimps on useful features, which would have been acceptable if not for the functional flaws and unreliability.
As noted above, it will not tell you how many minutes you have left on the disk. Unlike many other DVD recorders, you cant insert your own personalized titles or delete bad recordings from +R disks. Hitting the DISPLAY button does not display anything on the screen while you are recording, like how much time you have left on the disk.
The remote buttons are ridiculously small, and are not bunched intuitively (e.g., the tiny record button is several buttons away from the tiny pause button, so cutting out commercials requires much fumbling), and it is very difficult to use the remote in bad lighting. Inexplicably, Go Video decided not to bunch together and emphasize the buttons required to record.
The troubleshooting in the user manual is for very basic problems only (e.g., did you put in the disk upside down), and the Go Video website has no troubleshooting information beyond that.
All-in-all, not worth the money.
 On: 2004-02-09
I liked the specs on this item and the price at Costco was right, but unfortunately this is a very cheaply made recorder. It connects to your TV just like a VCR, but like an ultra cheap VCR the remote control and on screen menus are very poorly implemented. Even with fresh batteries you need to be close to the recorder to get it to respond to the remote. Sometimes buttons must be pushed again and again. The remote contains a lot of buttons, but Go Video skimped on size so the buttons are small and close together. On screen menus are blurry and use small print so you need to be quite close to the screen. Youll be near the screen anyway given the remotes very limited range. The video quality appeared to be worse than the VCR I replaced it with. There was none of the sharpness that youd expect from a DVD even with a store bought DVD movie. Timed recordings went well. The last straw for me was the media. The manual states that it will work with all DVD+R and DVD+RW media that adhere to the standards, blah blah blah. I bought HP DVD+R disks and the unit responded with an error. This unit is priced relatively low for a home DVD recorder, but if this is the best they can do for the price, skip it until they get the bugs out and bring the quality up.
by: Anonymous On: 2004-01-13
I just sent back my second GoVideo R6530. Consistant problems of unpredictable frequent repeated skipping, sometimes several chapters at a time. First one did it on two different brands of DVD+RW blanks, including the one that came with the unit. Thought it was just a dud unit and sent it back to the vendor for a replacement. Second one the same. Tried it with 4 different DVD blank brands, including RiData blanks (the same as came with the unit) and it was even worse. I dont know if it was a bad batch of units sent to the vendor or what. My demands on the unit are not that great - copy some VHS tapes to DVD and some movies from TV (got a PERFECT copy of The Day The Earth Stood Still off of satellite - GREAT movie! - that is, until the last 15 minutes where the whole story comes together - when the DVD began hanging up, then skipping all over the place making it unwatchable - oddly enough, when I played it in reverse, it went just fine - but thats a tough way to watch a movie!). Overall, the feature set of the unit was fine. I particularly liked the JPEG capability (it showed all 1000 of my last trip images just fine, even though they were divided into subdirecties - although it didnt obviously recognize the subdirectories, it just continued from one directory to the next without a break. Didnt particularly like the remote. It was small with small, closely spaced buttons, twitchy, had to be aimed directly at the receiver, and the unit often didnt always give feed back ("...I pushed the button...is anything going to happen...? - Oh - there it goes..."). There is one button that doesnt appear to do anything at all. I sent a detailed email to their tech support about my problems and got an automated reply of Frequently Asked Questions. Telephone help was quick and responsive but not much help either ("...never heard of that before..."). They did offer to immediately send me a replacement unit, but, after two bad ones, I decided to try another brand. Finally, I cant say the looks of the unit particularly excited me - a full mirror front with a tray and a couple of buttons, one of which turns of the unit completely, as if it were unplugged (rather than just a standby mode) which was a pain if I had turned if off and forgot about it. Just when I get into couch potato mode I realize I have to get up agan to punch the On button. Not serious beefs though. Clearly theres a problem with my particular units - no one would deliberately sell something like this that simply doesnt work. However, with that said, I feel I cant chance it again. Too much of a pain. From now on, if I cant find a (positive) review of it in a popular A/V magazine, then I wont get it.
On: 2003-12-24
QVC impulse purchase. Returned it. Primitive controls on front panel. Little sh*tty primitive looking // shaped buttons on front of unit. Slow, slow, slow. Most operations there is a noticable delay lag of .5 to 5 seconds. The plugs are extremely tight - though that was the least of the problems. Had a hard time inserting and removing the progressive scan and s-video plugs out of the back.Terrible remote control layout. 2 tiny up down channel on a horizontal layout on the top left of the remote. Cant tell if it is the remote control that is unresponsive or if it is just the unit that is so slow. What do volume controls do? Only nice thing is good picture quality and 2nd higest recording setting (2 hours). It is just a bad overpriced, unresponsive VCR with good picture quality if you pay for the DVD-Rs. Save your trouble and get a 2nd generation DVD recorder/HDD hybred unit. Im waiting for my Panasonic DMR-E80HS.
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