GoVideo VR4940 Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with VCR
By: Go Video Average Rating: 2.5 Total Reviews: 33
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 On: 2006-10-26
Im surprised to read all the negative reviews on GoVideo VHS/DVD recorders; Ive now had mine three years; it remains turned on 24 hrs/day, and Ive used the VHS > DVD recording function frequently, and Ive never yet had any problem. The quality of the copies is excellent, and its easy to use. My only complaint would be that the fan is a bit loud, similar to, for example, and older laptop computer; but this is a minor complaint.
 On: 2006-08-25
This is now my second 4940 from go video. I dont know how many of these they sold, but, this is my 2nd one in 2 years that has had problems.
The first unit would not record to DVD in any format. The VCR side was OK though. I contacted them and they sent me a factory refurbished replacement. Up to this point I have only used the unit for viewing. I am now experiencing picture problems when viewing a DVD !! Cleaned it and still the same trouble. I have emailed go video to see what they say, but, I am getting kind of gun shy at this point and I do not think they produce a reliable product inthis 4940 recorder / player.
It is a nice unit when it is working and they did back their product somewhat by replacing it but not with a refurbished model. Caveat emptor. May the force be with you, etc., if you go with go video.
 On: 2006-05-17
I purchased a VR4940 directly from GoVideo in December of 2005. It stopped working the second time I used it. GoVideo had me mail it back to them. They sent me a new item but UPS lost it in shipping. GoVideo has refused to reimburse me or send me another unit, even though they were paid for the lost unit by UPS. In effect, they got paid twice for the same unit and I got squat. The company uses a third party support system to handle all complaints. This insulates them from dealing with customers from outside of Arizona.
On: 2005-12-06
Very poor performer. My replacement unit just stopped recording on the VCR side. Go Video support is useless. Also it only reads DVDs when it feels like it. And locks up to the point where you have to unplug it to wake it up. Then there is no battery backup, so you have to set it up from scratch. Go ahead and buy one if youre into S&M.
On: 2005-11-30
Granted, I havent had it long, but thus far, this product is an excellent dvd recorder. Recording from VHS to DVD is very quick, with the push of a few buttons, as is from DVD to VHS. The manual is very detailed with exactly how to do what you need to do, step by step. Hookup was also very simple, whether you want to use the simple video/audio cables, or run your cable hookup through the unit, each way is very simple and also explained in depth in the manual. The only complaint I can find so far is the DVD record time, which limits you to 1, 2, or 4 hours, but for me, that is a minimal complaint. If youre looking for a unit to be able to transfer your old VHS tapes to DVD without a lot of complex instructions, this is the unit for you.
 On: 2005-11-13
Title says it all -- this unit does exactly what I expect of it. I decided not to give a full 5 stars simply because I havent tried to use every feature of the unit. (For example, Im not really interested in transferring old VHS tapes to DVD.) However, it records DVD-Rs perfectly, which I can then play in any other DVD player I try using, including older standalone players, PCs, and Macs. I can even delete or rename recorded tracks before finalizing. My setup is as follows: Dish Network DVR -> GoVideo -> TV. Im an archivist, I love archiving shows I enjoy and trying to get friends hooked. This setup allows me to buffer up shows on the DVR hard drive, and if I so choose, to dump them down to DVD, at higher quality, higher durability, and a fraction of the space of VHS tape. Picture quality is also quite high for DVDs playing on an HDTV. I like the integrated VHS for those rare circumstances when I do want to play a VHS, and the fact that it allows me to dub either direction (VHS->DVD and DVD->VHS) is an added bonus.
Biggest complaints: I wish the unit were smaller so I could fit it into a specific tiny space I have in mind for it, though the dimensions are in line with other A/V components. Also, I wish there were a faster way to type or capture episode titles. It would be great if it were also able to burning TV episodes in native PC formats like QuickTime or Windows Media, but I dont expect this. And, again, I havent tried dubbing, so your mileage may vary.
On: 2005-11-06
I have read many negative reviews on this machine but decided to give it a try. For what its worth the manufacture date on the back was April 2004, although I just purchased the unit in October 2005, at BrandmartUSA in Georgia for $179.88. For the price I thought it was worth a try. I have been very pleased with the results. It has also been written that the device is sensitive to which brand recordable media you use. The top recommended brand is Imation, and the unit came with two Imation disks so there seemed to be some consistency to the reports. I have however been using 8x Memorex DVD-R media with excellent playback results on this unit, my home Sony player, the Honda Odyssey factory DVD player, the Polaroid portable DVD player and the cheapo Norcent DVD player we bought for our childs room. We had bought a cheapo COBY that was supposed to play DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW, and this player did play DVDs recorded from my PC but not from the GoVideo. The COBY brand seems to have problems playing back as I took the COBY back to the store and we tested others. The Norcent was the same price $38.88 (cheapo) and plays the GoVideo VR4940 created DVDs just fine - no skips or digital blox just perfect.
The unit itself feels very solid and is very heavy - which makes it feel like its built like a tank. It also has a cooling fan on the back which to me suggests a quality build. It may mean that runs hot, but honestly I have not felt that it runs abnormally hotter than any other a/v gear.
Copying VHS tapes has been a breeze. Our main purpose was to get rid of all the VHS in the house, and copying childrens tapes to DVD. Its only VHS quality as expected but the kids are just fine. Apparently the childrens videos we have are not macrovision protected even though they were purchased videos because the unit has been copying them just fine - Teletubbies, Thomas the Tank Engine, Elmo etc.
Tape transport and handling is very good. Very fast rewind and fastforward, yet slows down when nearing the ends of the tape.
I am usually only moved to write a reveiw to warn people off of a bad product but this time Ill have to say that this product has really lived up to what I expected.
Recordable DVD is a bit of a nightmare all its own with the different formats and various players playing recordables better than others and some not at all. In my opinion the sub $100 sony player that plays all 4 formats has never had a problem with anything weve thrown at it, and makes a good unit to play the videos back.
The unit has a DV input on the front. Once I am done transferring all the VHS - the primary function of this unit will be to transfer DV from the camcorder to disc.
I did not give it 4 stars because there are a few excusable but undesireable things. Big one - no S-Video input on the back. Oops - whats up with that? They have one on the front. Also its a bit slow to "boot" up.
I would also like to see a feature where by the copy process could stop based on time counter memory for unattended copy process. As it is I have to keep an egg timer clipped to my belt to return to the unit to stop it when near the end of the program. Best thing to do here is fast forward to the end of the VHS material you wish to copy then clear the counter to zero - rewind to where you want to start the copy. This way you have a negative time count on the disply which counts down until zero which is the end of the program. I use a digital kitchen timer (Pampered Chef) to set the count down time less 1 minute so I have time to return to the unit and stop it when appropriate. Seems to me that GoVideo could have a feature to have the system stop on its own when it reaches zero. That would have been a HUGE convenience and probably would have gotten the fifth star from me. As a leader in this space youd think they would have thought of this too. Still an Excellent unit and I do recommend it.
Maybe more than you were looking for but thanks for reading.
On: 2005-09-24
Although I purchased a different unit, the GoVideo 8440 Portable DVD Player, it played exactly 6 movies before dying. GoVideo replaced it with a refurbished model, which arrived in non-working condition. I received a THIRD replacement unit (new)from GoVideo, which failed within minutes out of the box. Please note that I have since discovered that GoVideo Inc. is NOT a member of the Better Business Bureau of Central/Northern Arizona and has MULTIPLE complaints against the company. Purchase at your own risk!!
On: 2005-04-14
My first attempt to copy a movie on VHS to DVD-R went smooth. The 2 hour movie played fine on my other DVD player. Second attempt was to copy a movie and cut the commercials. The instructions say to pause then fast foreward and press copy twice to resume. It doesnt work. All that I got was disc error after the resume.I could do it only by re-starting the copy process. Third attempt was to record a DVD from a live broadcast and cut commercials. Pause wouldnt work. I had to re-start the recorder after each break. Fourth attempt was to time record 3 shows on VHS. The manual says that it has to finalize after each recording so you will miss the beginning of the next show. I found that it would not change channels between shows and I got 3 hours of one channel, not the 3 that I programmed.
I shure hope Costco will take it back!
On: 2005-03-23
expect it to break. i paid so much money for this machine...and guess what.. right after the warranty was over.. it broke! i transfered maybe.. and i mean maybe 10 tapes to dvd. after that, it simply wouldnt read dvds. there is really something wrong with the machine or the company that makes them. I cant say I paid for what I got because I paid a whole lotta money!! i wonder what kind of operation they are running! looks like a con game to me!
 On: 2005-01-06
I bought this device because it was (at the time) a reasonably priced way to get a DVD Player/Recorder with a VCR. Ive owned GoVideo DVD/VCR combo players (not recorders) in the past, and Ive been pleased with them. I wanted a device that would actually record from the TV to DVD, however, so that I could watch programs later with greater clarity than those recorded on a videotape.
The good news is that it does just that, and the pictures it records are sharp. It also functions as a good DVD/VCR player.
Here are the problems:
1. When attempting to record timed TV programs, you must make sure that the DVD starts with its power OFF (it will turn itself on with the timer.) Otherwise, the DVD will freeze after awhile.
2. In general, you need to keep the device powered off when not in use. If you keep it on, it will "freeze" the TV picture (but not the audio.) As a result, when you are watching TV, you will see a freeze frame, but hear the ongoing audio.
3. I have had a problem transferring my own personal camcorder (three-hour) tapes from the TV to the DVD. The DVD recorder simply cannot absorb a long recording session -- it is unable to record to file afterwards. I address this problem by stopping the DVD after an hour and a half and letting it "record to file" before continuing.
On balance, I am happy that I own a DVD recorder. If I had to do it over again, however, Id wait for the next generation, so that they can get the kinks out.
On: 2004-12-18
I enjoyed this product for three months. The day before my warranty expired, the unit froze up. My only option was to ship it back at their expense in return for a refurbished unit. It is an outrage that an expensive product like this dies in such a short time and you get stuck with some other unit that also broke down. I guess I am lucky it didnt break down one day later. I hope the repaired unit they send back lasts longer.
On: 2004-11-28
I used to be a recording engineer for a professional recording studio and have some fairly high end electronics in my home. I purchased this product as a gift for my parents and regret it every time I try and use it. Im surprised my father hasnt pitched it into the lake in frustration. The controls are not user friendly, the documentation is less than useful, and the remote refuses to accept entry of numbers. On top of all of that, after very little use the DVD refuses to read any DVDs - ones that have been played on all 3 of my DVD players without any problem. The whole purpose of the purchase was to provide them with a DVD player aside from the one in their computer. I could have purchased a stand-alone DVD and a stand alone VCR for less than I paid for the combo and not had all of these issues. Personally, I will not purchase another item made by Go-Video.
On: 2004-11-27
I used to be a recording engineer for a professional recording studio and have some fairly high end electronics in my home. I purchased this product as a gift for my parents and regret it every time I try and use it. Im surprised my father hasnt pitched it into the lake in frustration. The controls are not user friendly, the documentation is less than useful, and the remote refuses to accept entry of numbers. On top of all of that, after very little use the DVD refuses to read any DVDs - ones that have been played on all 3 of my DVD players without any problem. The whole purpose of the purchase was to provide them with a DVD player aside from the one in their computer. I could have purchased a stand-alone DVD and a stand alone VCR for less than I paid for the combo and not had all of these issues. Personally, I will not purchase another item made by Go-Video.
On: 2004-11-24
I like the picture quality when transferring non-copy-protected VHS tapes to DVD. DVD recordings of broadcast TV are pretty good too.
However, one problem that I had initially had was that the unit would freeze up after making a DVD recording (the units clock would stop, and you couldnt turn on the device) -- and I had to unplug and replug the unit to reset it. After trying various things, doing some Internet searches, and finally reading the manual carefully, Im pretty sure the problem was overheating.
I had put the VR4940 in my TV cabinet with all my other AV equipment (TiVO, DVD player, AV receiver, etc.). But according to the GoVideo manual, "This product should not be placed in a built-in installation such as a bookcase or rack unless proper ventilation is provided or the manufacturers instructions have been adhered to." They also say "Do not block any ventilation openings" and "Slots and openings in the cabinet are provided for ventilation and to ensure reliable operation of the product and to protect it from overheating."
When I took the unit out of my cabinet, put it in a well ventilated location, and used it to make DVD recordings, it seems to work fine and does not lock up.
Bottom line: be prepared to put this unit somewhere other than inside a closed AV or TV cabinet or closet.
On: 2004-11-06
You always have to be carefull about buying combonation items as they never work as well as the single items do. This product wroked fine for 2 monts then started to cause the color to wash out on the TV. We have and A/B swith and when we swiched to TV mode the color was fine. Go Vido only warrenties products for labor for 30 days. Since I was over they wanted $99 to send me a refurbished item. Not new as I had purchased. So I was to inherit someone elses headache!! I guess Ill stick with the devil that I know but buyer beware product just barely outlasts warrenty. Not worh it.
On: 2004-11-05
You always have to be carefull about buying combonation items as they never work as well as the single items do. This product wroked fine for 2 monts then started to cause the color to wash out on the TV. We have and A/B swith and when we swiched to TV mode the color was fine. Go Vido only warrenties products for labor for 30 days. Since I was over they wanted $99 to send me a refurbished item. Not new as I had purchased. So I was to inherit someone elses headache!! I guess Ill stick with the devil that I know but buyer beware product just barely outlasts warrenty. Not worh it.
On: 2004-10-16
I received my GoVideo VR4940 Progressive-Scan DVD player/recorder. I am very happy with it. If you read the instructions carefully you can not go wrong. I highly recommend this model. It was very easy to install. Very user friendly. I like the GoVideo reputation.
On: 2004-10-13
Have owned the 4940 for four weeks now. It easily transfers recorded material from VHS to DVD-R or -RW. It beautifully does timer-recording on DVD-R or -RW. The Owners Manual is much more complete, detailed, and easy to follow than most.
Everything Ive recorded on this machine plays on it, and on my computer. Ive not asked it to edit, or do anything more than the above.
Im writing because the negative reports above almost kept me from buying a machine that does everything I need to do. Perhaps manufacture has improved in recent months. My machine was made in March, 2004.
Simple Soul
On: 2004-10-12
Have owned the 4940 for four weeks now. It easily transfers recorded material from VHS to DVD-R or -RW. It beautifully does timer-recording on DVD-R or -RW. The Owners Manual is much more complete, detailed, and easy to follow than most.
Everything Ive recorded on this machine plays on it, and on my computer. Ive not asked it to edit, or do anything more than the above.
Im writing because the negative reports above almost kept me from buying a machine that does everything I need to do. Perhaps manufacture has improved in recent months. My machine was made in March, 2004.
Simple Soul
On: 2004-10-10
The one step dubbing from tape to DVD works ok. Entering title info is overly complex and non-intuitive. I have has it refuse to record a whole tape because of a tape glitch but not often. You can use Ulead DVD Moviefactory 2 or later to read the DVDs and edit the footage from a Video Mode DVD-R and burn a new fancy disk. That was more expensive awhile ago but blank DVD costs have fallen so its less than 50 cents now.
Go suggests these media at 2x, 4x would be better:
DVD-R:
1. Imation
2. Apple
3. Promedia
4. Ritek
5. Liquid Video
6. CompUSA (CU)
7. STI
8. Optodisc
9. DVDPRO
10. DVD-ON
11. ProDisc
DVD-RW:
1. Comp USA (2x verified ok)
2. Optodisc
On: 2004-10-09
I have had 6... count em... 6 of these units. All were defective... and all in multiple ways. Most had some of the same problems, but some were excentric and barely worked at all. GoVideo customer service is a joke and the combined IQ of everyone there wouldnt be high enough to post a score on standardized test.
I spent approx, 30 hours on the phone with tech support with my 6 units. They frequently told me that features described in the manual did not work, "but we have a work around!" Well, isnt that lovely! I love buying a $500 piece of equipment that out of the box is defective.
I could go on and on and list the problems with these machines. But let me simplIfy it for you. At some point in using it, absolutely NOTHING actually works on this machine. For those of you who think you have succesful recordings... I can guarantee if you have tried to record anything of length (like 30 mins or more) your great looking video will break up or stop playing or pixelize or just freeze whatver dvd player you are using.
I can not stress what a terrible machine this is. Again... units that work DONT WORK. You may have to really experiment to find the flaws, but you will. I have experimented with many of the dvd recorders out there (I work in the film industry.) and the pioneers and toshibas work perfectly.
AVOID THIS AT ALL COST!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT BUY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DO NOT EVEN SIT NEAR ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
On: 2004-09-06
Am disappointed that the VR4940 does not support closed captioning. Having it is important to me and lots of others when we watch dvds. The GoVideo customer support said it was not a defect of the machine...that their machines do not support it.
The dvd recording quality is very good but would never have purchased it without being able to use closed captioning. Lots of DVDs do have English subtitles but many dont. Am shocked that a company would not include that option.
On: 2004-09-05
Am disappointed that the VR4940 does not support closed captioning. Having it is important to me and lots of others when we watch dvds. The GoVideo customer support said it was not a defect of the machine...that their machines do not support it.
The dvd recording quality is very good but would never have purchased it without being able to use closed captioning. Lots of DVDs do have English subtitles but many dont. Am shocked that a company would not include that option.
On: 2004-08-17
Zero stars..I have had three of these VR4940 and all were defective and now trying to get rid of this one and get my money back, they dont seem to be able to get me one that works.
Do not buy this item.
On: 2004-08-07
I do not own this exact model. I own the DVD Recorder + VCR VR3930. I am writing my review on this models page because Amazon does not have a page for the one that I own. It does not seem like there is too much of a difference between the models
First, transfering VHS tapes to DVD is simple once you read the manual. I have only used video mode because I do not have DVD-RW discs to record in the VR mode which adds more options, like chapters and thumbnails. Video mode has very limited features: Creating titles, and renaming them. I have not been able to find an option to change the chapter intervals, which it does automatically.
A couple of times, while I was recording from VHS to DVD, I noticed the picture would freeze and the sound would continue for a few seconds, then the unit would turn off. I found no glitch in the tape and cannot figure out why this happens.
I have sucessfully been able to transfer my old 8mm tapes from my camcorder onto DVD.
***My parents have a really old tape, probably from some time in the 80s. On our Panasonic VCR the tape was almost unwatchable, the tracking was so bad(The Panasonic VCR had no option to adjust the tracking, but was supposed to do it automatically). But I put it in this Go video recorder and the picture was beautiful. It takes a few seconds for the tracking to sink in however, and unfortunately this is the case on all tapes, even new ones. I put the 20 year old tape on to DVD and the quality is like that of a tape taped on the lowest quality (slp) which is not perfect, however is very close to perfect, in comparison to the fuzzy skipping picture that I had on my old VCR.
It does take a long time to turn on, so do not turn it on too close to the begining of the show you want to record, or you will miss part of it.
Overall this product is not perfect, but is worth it if you want to save some old VHS tapes from deteriorating.
On: 2004-08-06
I do not own this exact model. I own the DVD Recorder + VCR VR3930. I am writing my review on this models page because Amazon does not have a page for the one that I own. It does not seem like there is too much of a difference between the models
First, transfering VHS tapes to DVD is simple once you read the manual. I have only used video mode because I do not have DVD-RW discs to record in the VR mode which adds more options, like chapters and thumbnails. Video mode has very limited features: Creating titles, and renaming them. I have not been able to find an option to change the chapter intervals, which it does automatically.
A couple of times, while I was recording from VHS to DVD, I noticed the picture would freeze and the sound would continue for a few seconds, then the unit would turn off. I found no glitch in the tape and cannot figure out why this happens.
I have sucessfully been able to transfer my old 8mm tapes from my camcorder onto DVD.
***My parents have a really old tape, probably from some time in the 80s. On our Panasonic VCR the tape was almost unwatchable, the tracking was so bad(The Panasonic VCR had no option to adjust the tracking, but was supposed to do it automatically). But I put it in this Go video recorder and the picture was beautiful. It takes a few seconds for the tracking to sink in however, and unfortunately this is the case on all tapes, even new ones. I put the 20 year old tape on to DVD and the quality is like that of a tape taped on the lowest quality (slp) which is not perfect, however is very close to perfect, in comparison to the fuzzy skipping picture that I had on my old VCR.
It does take a long time to turn on, so do not turn it on too close to the begining of the show you want to record, or you will miss part of it.
Overall this product is not perfect, but is worth it if you want to save some old VHS tapes from deteriorating.
On: 2004-07-11
The good news is it does make good quality recordings onto DVD-R. The XP (high quality mode) beat the best I got using encoder software on my PC, and the resulting disk played better in standard DVD player. That would be worth 5 stars, if only it were accepted as usable by my family (including me).It does have some problems reading S-VHS tapes from my video recorder, which it is specd to do. It seems to take a few seconds to get into the correct mode so I lose the first few seconds which is irritating, but after that it works fine. There is no S-Video input at the back, only the front. Rather odd, but maybe they reckon the only S-Video device in a normal household is a camcorder. The bad news is it is complicated. The remote has dozens of small buttons and is modal. The modality is very confusing when dubbing from tape to DVD or vice versa, since at that time both devices are in use and you have to wonder which one is being controlled by the buttons. It is not really a universal remote it can only handle a very small number of TVs and not much else. So, it has definately not done the #1 thing needed of it in my household, which is to simplify the A/V setup. When you play a DVD and pause it, incredibly it does not freeze frame on the screen. It switches to blank screen. If you like the ability to freeze frame and step frames forward and back, which is on every other DVD player I have used, you will miss it here. One final problem, the DV input is useless from a computer. The recorder has minimal editting capability, so if you try to use your computer software to edit your DV home video then uplink through the front panel to make a tape or DVD, forget it. You cant even manually start the tape or DVD to record and then switch on the computer to send the video. The VR4940 (aka Zenith XBR413 etc.) just complains it cant control the DV device and refuses to do anything with it. The DV capability is input only, a reasonable limitation but disappointing. So, because of complexity this does not satisfy people who just want a simple DVD-tape recorder combo, and because of lack of features it wont satisfy those who want a high end gadget. The manual seems accurate and fairly clear.
On: 2004-06-29
There are certain key things you need to know before you purchase this product. First of all, let me explain that I was extremely excited about receiving this product because I thought it was going to eliminate the need for me to buy a PC with a dvd burner and editing software. I currently own a Sony Handycam digital camcorder that uses a IEEE 1394 DV input (firewire). Since my PC does not have a IEEE input, I looked into ways to upgrade my PC to accommodate this; however, in the process, I discovered that my PC did not have the minimum requirements that it needed to edit videos and was going to take even more upgrading than I had originally planned. Therefore, when I saw this product on Amazon and read the product description, it sounded as if it fit perfectly with what my needs were, so I decided to purchase. I was very happy also because I have home videos that are already on VHS tapes that I have been wanting to convert to DVD, which this product has the capability.ADVANTAGES TO THIS PRODUCT: ? IEEE 1394 DV input on the front panel for digital camcorders
? Ability to put in a DVD and have it play automatically without going through the menu system (advantage when you have kids too young to go through a menu)
? Ability to view picture CDs containing JPEG images
? Ability to play MP3 files
? Progressive scanning for HDTV WHAT THE PRODUCT DESCRIPTON DOES NOT TELL YOU: ? Yes, you can transfer VHS tapes to DVD and DVDs to VHS tapes, but depending on what format you use, you may not be able to play your DVDs in all recorders.
? This product uses two types of DVDs: DVD-R and DVD-RW (DVD formats are DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW)
* DVD-R will play on all DVD players
* DVD-RW will play on MOST but not all DVD players IF AND ONLY IF you record your video in "Video Mode" rather than "VR mode".
*There are only certain brands of recordable DVDs that work well with this unit; I found this out after buying Memorex and the disc would not initialize, I called customer service and they informed me Memorex always had problems. Customer service informed me to use these brands of recordable DVDs: Philips, Imation, Verbatim, Samsung ? VIDEO MODE: LIMITED, AND I MEAN LIMITED, EDITING FEATURES 1) Basically, it will produce a title and automatic chapters at intervals that you choose from a list: 3 min., 5 min., etc. 2) THERE ARE NO THUMBNAILS!!! The thumbnails that you usually see on a DVD are replaced with titles. 3) If you use a DVD-R to record in this mode, this DVD is playable in all DVD players. 4) If you use a DVD-RW to record in this mode, it will play on MOST but not all DVD players. 5) Personally, I was extremely unhappy to know that I could not do advance editing (with thumbnails and chapters) under video mode so that I could play the DVD in all DVD players. It is also a nuisance because you have to wait around for the end of your tape in case you dont want to record additional material (like fuzz when the tape is over) because you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO EDIT THIS OUT ONCE IT IS RECORDED UNDER THIS MODE. You can delete the last recording and try, try again if this happens (DVD-R remaining recording time will go down when you do this and DVD-RW remaining recording time will remain the same). ? VR MODE: ALLOWS FOR ADVANCED EDITING USING A DVD-RW
1) Uses thumbnail for titles (yeah!)
2) Gives you the ability to cut portions of the video
3) Add chapters where you choose (yeah!, you can start a new chapter at each new scenes, so during playback when you skip through chapters they will be at the beginning of the scenes rather than at pre-determined intervals as is done in "Video Mode")
4) Change title names
5) Add additional content
6) ...BUT EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO KNOW...you can only play this DVD in this GoVideo unit or an RW compatible player (which are high-end players not common on the market).
7) Personally, I loved the advanced editing and was extremely happy with it until I found out that I was limited with my options for playing. After all, I want to be able to pick up a DVD that I made and take it to family and friends homes or other DVD players in my house and be able to play it on those DVD players, also! All-in-all: for as much as this product costs it failed to live up to my expectations and I would have returned it if it had not been day number 31 of the 30-day return policy. Now if you are looking to pop in a tape and transfer it to DVD just to have it on DVD, then this would be a good product for you to use because it does have that ability and is fairly easy to understand. However, if you are like me and are a stickler when it comes to home videos...then more than likely, you will not like this product because the advanced editing features are only available on DVDs that you will only be able to play in this DVD player. Therefore, I am stuck with having to use the limited editing functions without the helpful thumbnails and chapters, just so I can play my DVDs in all DVD players. Disappointing.
On: 2004-06-25
Ive read some of the negative comments about this machine, which is what made me decide to write a review. Ive only transferred two tapes to DVD, both to the same DVD as I wanted part 1 and part 2 on the same source. I couldnt figure out how to do it without the help of the manual, as I usually can, but the manual was clear and easy to follow and the results were great. I now have a single DVD that I can play on this player, my other DVD player as well as my computer DVD. There are a lot of steps, but I have another DVD recorder and the steps are the same to create a DVD that will play on most DVD players.
Bottom line, the machine works great. I leave it on for weeks at a time, use it to watch DVDs often and record only occasionally and it has never failed to work as its supposed to. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because the internal fan does not ever shut off on its own and its noisy. I think it should have been designed to shut off automatically, after a couple hours of none use.
On: 2004-06-11
I was really excited about getting this new item. Could hardly wait to start transferring tapes and start recording in a dvd format. I was actually waiting for GoVideo to introduce this product before I would purchase one. I have an ten year old (at least) GoVideo dual deck vcr which has never let me down. Worked great and really simple to use.
This new product is a mess. Really bad, complicated design which was surprising.The really bad news is that the machine locks up all the time, and I have to unplug it constantly to unlock it. But why bother...it only does it again a few minutes later.
Granted, I have a defective product. Not sure if I am willing to try it again. What happened to that GoVideo quality?
by: Anonymous On: 2004-06-10
I have had this unit for three weeks, and I sent it back to Amazon today. The unit locked up from time to time, and had to be powered off and back on again. Sometimes it would lock up just watching cable. Today it simply quit working, and does not recognize any blank media. I have unplugged it and powered it back up, but it simply quit working. The discs that I have burned playback flawlessly on the GoVideo unit itself, but I have noticed that it does not playback on one of my home DVD players. The burned disc does play in the computer DVD drive, but without audio.
by: Anonymous On: 2004-06-03
This is a very nice unit that does just what youd expect it to do. Very easy to dub VHS tapes to DVD-R or DVD-RW, just like the older Go Video VHS only dubbing dual decks. So far, its been able to dub anything Ive tossed at it, and the interface and menus are very intuitive and easy to use. The only downside so far is that the dvd-r have not been universally compatible, but I think that may have to with me using fairly cheap dvd-r, because the bundled dvd-rs seemed to work in everything. This may take some trial and error to be sure to purchase dvd-r disks that are universally readable. Great time and effort saver to archive old vhs tapes over computer based interfaces...
On: 2004-06-01
I am very pleased at the quality and ease of this machine. I have taken old VCR tapes of personal items I had taped over ten years ago and transferred to DVD. The quality of the picture is enhanced by the DVD and when done correctly is very compatable with other DVD players. I have no problems with the machine or the price. This is my Second GO Video machine (the first being the dual VCR) and as long as they make it easy I will continue purchasing from them.
by: Anonymous On: 2004-04-08
I am not sure wants is wrong, how the machine records to the disk or something else but I have not been able to play a signal DVD created from the GoVideo VR 4940. I have used the Sony DVD-R discs and the default LG disc that came with the unit, I have finalized both and none of them play on my Panasonic DVD player, or anthers Sony DVD player. One should be able to play media on a DVD-R format virtually on every computers DVD Drive, I have not. I tried it on 23 Dell machine some with DVD-Rom drives, some with DVD/CD-RW drives, some with DVD+RW drives all of those drives should have played but they did not. Dell had no really solutions I even replaced on the computer DVD drives still did not play. Oddly enough I have used a MAC to digitize films and burned it to a DVD-R and that plays on all the machines, even the 23 dell computers. I contacted Go Video and their support staff only says to follow what the manual says and check to see if it finalized. I have not been able to fix the problem at all I was wondering if anyone had a fix of this.
On: 2004-04-02
I finally decided to get in the "digital world", and convert hundreds of VHS tapes (mostly recorded from HBO\\Showtime over the years) to DVD. The first thing to understand is: If you have bad VHS (low sound or picture quality)...you will have a bad DVD. It simply transfers the contents of a VHS direct to a DVD in the same manner it was on VHS. You just change the type of media its stored on. It does not improve the quality of the original VHS. With that being said, most of my tapes are recorded from satellite dish in standard 2 hour play and are in dolby stereo. My DVD record quality has been excellent from this player. I have copied several dozen hi quality VHS tapes to DVD, and they play perfectly on my other 2 DVD players. No skips, etc. But this is only on -R DVDs Note: It will ONLY record on DVD -R & -RW DVDs (not + R or +RWs), so buy the correct DVD format. I have noticed that some copies Ive done on -RW DVDs (even in the compatible Video format) will not play at all on one of my DVD players. So I dont recommend -RW DVDs. Operation is simple; manual is good on simple one touch recording...but is quite complex in the sections of custom DVD chapter editing. This is my second GoVideo Product (also have their dual deck VCR). So far I am a very satisfied customer with its performance.
On: 2004-03-16
I bought the Zenith XBR413 from Best Buy. It is the exact same as the Govideo VR4940, manual is same page for page, machine is same except for front cosmetics.As for these types of machines, I only found the Zenith, Govideo and Sansui which is $100 cheaper. As for the Zenith, there help only knows what the manual says. Sometimes when I dub from VHS to DVD on a Verbatim or TDK DVD-R disk, (I play the VHS, pause it and press Copy on the remote and select a speed) it will say "Cannot copy due to bad disk" if I happen to pause the VHS, jump to a new location on the VHS and press Copy twice as the book says. I them have to stop the process which forces me to have a title (every time you stop the process a title is created). If i start again it works. No one can help me with this. Has anyone had this problem witht the Govideo?
On: 2004-03-12
Nice picture. Easy to use. Go Video will even talk you though your first dvd recording. Pretty simple to use. Only draw back is the warm up time is about 30 seconds.
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