JVC DRMH30S DVD Recorder with 160 GB Hard Drive (Silver)
By: JVC Average Rating: 2.5 Total Reviews: 10
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 On: 2007-12-25
I am writing because my DR-MH30S has decided to bite the dust today. Ive had it since May of 2005.
It has locked up on me in the past, but nothing major. Lately however, it has begun complaining that it cant read brand-new movie discs. I bought the Simpsons movie on DVD the other day, and after a couple of minutes trying to read it, it determined that the disc was unreadable. To test the DVD, I took it to my old JVC DVD player (a non-recording DVD player), and the movie worked fine. The Simpsons movie was probably the second or third movie that the DR-MH30S complained about.
I wrote in to Crutchfields tech support (where I bought it from), and they recommended I try resetting it. It seemed to be OK -- a movie I believe it previously could not read was playing! -- but since I couldnt remember for sure, I put the Simpsons movie in again. It still didnt work. I tried resetting again. But now it is hosed.
Power the machine on and all I get is the JVC intro playing over and over in a continuous loop. I just wrote back to the Crutchfield folks, but I think it may not be worth pursuing getting it fixed.
This experience will ensure that I never buy another JVC brand of DVD recorder.
 On: 2007-09-26
Had this for 2 years - no technical issues.
Overall, this device has done great for use as a DVR for recording antenna TV, dubbing VCR tapes onto DVD, storing video on the Hard-Drive for watching later, and basically everything you would need from this device - lots of hook-ups (Firewire in, Component out, Composite in&out. AND there are no subscriptions fees - just set a timer and record your shows....
One con - There is no digital tuner, so to record Digital OTA channels, I had to use the IR hook-up and control the stand-alone tuner that feeds my TV.
 On: 2006-12-07
I purchased the DR-MH30S in June 2006. Everything worked great. The audio was good, picture quality really good, and it was dependable. It worked like a charm; I couldnt have been happier. The only problems I had were from operator error. That is until December 2006. It looks like the six-month curse other buyers mentioned caught up to me in the way of a near fire -- thank God I was home. Its disturbing to walk into your living room and see smoke creeping from your entertainment center. After a frantic and unsuccessful "check for heat" of all my electronics, and their wires, I cut the main power. Then one-by-one each component came off the shelves and yep, you guessed it, the JVC DVD Recorder was the only one that smelled of smoke. Funny, it was only vaguely warm. Each component was housed on its own shelf with more than the recommended ventilation. But hey, other than THAT little incident the product would have received a 5 Star rating from me.
On: 2006-11-22
If I could give this piece of sheet a zero I would.
$400 piece of sheet thats so loud its ridiculous.
Piece of sheet locked up and its going against a break wall today, piece of sheet!
No wonder JVC discontinued this piece if sheet.
Ill NEVER buy from JVC ever again ! piece of sheet!
On: 2006-01-13
This thing is only good in theory. All the specs look good, but it is unreliable. Freezes and reboots plenty. After a couple of months the DVD drive door dropped open and hasnt closed since. Program scheduling is convoluted and tempermental. I couldnt get it to record a regular program at 11:00 am M-F unless I created a second regular program to "wake it up" at 10:57.
Theres one thoughtful feature that creates a library of all the programs you record to DVD but, like everything else about this device, it is unreliable. There appears to be no ability to backup or download this data or upgrade the firmware as appears to be necessary. The JVC website was utterly worthless as help.
When I copy a program to DVD extra frames of video creep in and push the audio out of synch. MP3 audio and a few other DVDs wont play at all. High Spped Dubbing only works with SP mode. Thats just stupid. Many aspects of the navigation are poorly designed. The cable box control does not work with my Dish Network box.
Using the remote to name ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING is tedious. Television programming now has id tags but this machine does not know it. All the letters and symbols are placed on an open pallette and navigating it is very tiring and unintelligent. Picture quality is very good, sound is good enough.
On: 2005-10-25
I first bought this DVR in May 2005. I had researched DVRs for some time and this DVR got rave reviews. Dont believe everything you read.
Im not a novice (Ive been called a electronic geek - I do love my gadgets!) but it took me a week, extensive review of the owners manual and several calls to JVC before I could operate it on my TV and satellite system. It took another month before I was comfortable enough with the menus and commands to actually use it properly.
After I was finally getting the hang of it, in early September the unit decided to lock up and quit working altogether. I had to unplug it several times just to eject the DVD that was currently loaded in it. After calling JVC again, I was told to send it to the nearest service center which I did on September 6th. I didnt hear anything from JVC for several weeks regarding the status. I called them several times and was only told that the unit was received. I finally got the thing back exactly one month after I had sent it to them, October 6th.
You would think that would have been the end of the story - but NO! After reconnecting everything (no easy task), it seemed to finally be in working order. I used it a couple of times, mostly just to play DVDs, for the next two weeks. On October 23rd, it decided it would show me and proceeded to completely lock up and show me a colorful pink and green screen. Again, I had to unplug it several times to get the DVD out of it. Im having to send it back again at my expense (its not that cheap either!)
This is the most I have ever paid for a recorder to only be able to use for 6 months. Im to the point I dont think I want the thing back but Ive paid too much for it to give up now. In the meantime, I bought a much cheaper Pioneer DVR which I love.
 On: 2005-07-19
After my Panasonic DMR-E85H gave me the dreaded "U99 error", I decided to get my money back and go for a different unit. It was between this (the DRM H30S) and the Toshiba RD-XS34.
I decided to go with the JVC, and as expected, the image quality is excellent. I always recorded in "XP" mode on the Panasonic, and "SP" mode on the JVC looks just as good if not better. The user interface is really quite straight forward, after the normal learning curve. Basically, the JVC has so few features its really tough to get lost.
The calendar for recording is a nice touch, really quite unique.
The images here make the unit look really nice... too bad its a bit different in real life. The blue light on the DVD drive is REALLLLY bright. The light also only comes from one side, and theres a very obvious difference in where the light is vs. where its not. The display on the unit is tiny and dim. Its a good thing its so useless (anything you want/need to know can be seen using the on-screen button). Sure you can adjust the brightness... but its adjusts both the DVD drive light and the display light... why cant I adjust them seperatly?
But really the kicker for me is no TV Guide functionality. This was probably the single best thing about the Panasonic unit. With TV Guide all you have to do is find the show you want to record, and tell it to record. Even tell it how often, its like VCR+ on steroids. You even have the ability to see a week+ of programming. Plus it really takes the usability of the unit to a whole new level, it lets you do so much more then just record stuff. Sure, the Toshiba has TV Guide, but you HAVE to set everything through the TV Guide, which is also a VERY big downfall (since no cable = no TV Guide, and no TV Guide = non usable device). The Panasonic lets you do either TV Guide recording or manual recording.
All in all Id say Im happy with the JVC. If great recording quality is what you desire, look no farther.
If you want a feature filled unit, get something else... but if you get the Panasonic DMR-E85H make sure it was manufactured in 2005 to avoid the U99 error (...)
 On: 2005-04-25
I tried a few different models and brands before getting this JVC recorder. I have now had this for just over a month without a problem. A previous reviewer states that his recorder freezes; return it for warranty replacement. I havent had any locking up or non-working issues. He also stated that you cant record to the DVD and the hard drive simultaniously; thank the motion picture industry for that problem, not JVC.
Overall this is a good recorder with a ton of space on the hard drive for all of the shows I used to record on S-VHS tapes. Now if they would only follow Toshibas lead and integrate TIVO into this setup. Other than that small issue I would recommend this recorder.
On: 2005-04-15
On paper it looks good, but once out of the box it is a major disappointment. You would expect to be able to record to the DVD and the harddrive simultaneously, but you cant, nor can you record to one while playing a movie from the other. Several menus go a level too deep, but the real killer, is that it hangs up. It just gets confused and the ONLY way out is to unplug it, so if you decide to buy this thing, make sure the plug is accessible. As an example, last night I programmed it to record 3 one hour programs in LP mode to the DVD. There should be room for four hours of recording and even if there was not, the excess is supposed to go to the hard drive, which in my case is virtually empty. This morning the player was still turned on but in the frozen state. So I unplugged it, plugged it back in, let it go through its set up procedure, and then discovered that it had only recorded the first program and most of the second, but none of the third. If thats the kind of performance you can live with, then by all means, get this one. Oh yeah, it also turns it self on for no apparent reason, makes some kind of chattering noise like the read/write head is bouncing around, and you guessed it, the only way out is to unplug the piece of junk. Can you tell Im not happy?
It has now been six months since I made this purchase. Getting it out into the open has helped some, it generates a lot of heat, sometimes even when it is off, getting it out of the cabinet helped some. But it still goes into a chattering state for no apparent reason, lights are off indicating it is not turned on, but something inside read/write head? is making a noise that sounds like a repetitive seek action. Sometimes just turning it on and back off stops the noise, and sometimes you just have to unplug it. And yes, sometimes it still quits prematurely during a recording leaving you wondering what the last part of the program was about. Contrary to comment above, I AM NOT A PAID COMPLAINER. Just bought a Pioneer HDTV that works great.
On: 2005-03-03
Ive had this since mid-Jan 2005, and have been very happy with it. I especially like having the hard drive--I can record a home movie, then edit out all the boring parts (and the parts when the camera was on and taping the ground). Its replaced our VHS recorder, as we can program recordings to go to the hard drive, and we dont have to remember to put in a blank DVD-r. Unlike some other users of this DVD recorder (see reviews on the internet), mine has had no problems so far (as of March 2005).
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