Pioneer DVR640HS DVD Recorder (DVR, 160GB Hard Drive)

Pioneer DVR-640H-S

DVR640HS DVD Recorder (DVR, 160GB Hard Drive) Review, by Jon L. Jacobi November 17, 2006

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• Latest User Reviews 1 review
• Reviewed by: 8442634

  Duration of ownership: 8 Months

  Strengths: Ease of use, ability to edit

  Weaknesses: No TV Guide programming, although it's easy enough to program yourself (just have to type in titles)

  Overall: I've used this DVR to transfer all of my video to DVD and it's worked perfectly. The editing feature is easy to use, even if you have to edit out commercials. Transfer from HDD to DVD is simple. I'm totally satisfied with my purchase.

• Reviewed by: kwkkwk

  Strengths: video quality, capacity, DVD compatability, ease of use

  Weaknesses: VCRplus is a bit tedious to set up

  Overall: I had been eying HDD/dvd recorders for a while. I built a multimedia pc for the living room that I use for these functions, but it's a little complicated and uses several different softwares to record, edit, and write DVD's. (My wife won't use it.) The 640, on the other hand, is near perfect. The only thing missing that would make it perfect is tight integration with my cable company (this capability doesn't actually exist). I have the cable company DVR and the dual tuner, series manager, and scheduling are just too convenient. However, it fills up and you have to delete things. With the 640 you have much more space to begin with and you can write video to DVD's. The DVD's I've produced have played perfectly in my PC, a couple of set top DVD players, and XBOX 360. OK, I confess. I love this device. I've been using it for about 3 weeks. It's very easy to record from the built in tuner and also from my cable company box or other sources. Then it's very easy to edit out commercials, title, and thumbnail. Then you can leave it on the hard drive or do a high speed copy to DVD, or both. A full movie took about 13 minutes to write to DVD from the hard drive. The default quality setting (SP) produces very good video quality. This gives you about 2 hours on a standard writeable DVD (both + and - type media). It will also write dual layer media for somewhat less than double that capacity, but I haven't tried that yet.My only minor gripe is that the VCRplus is a bit tedious to set up. You basically have to go thru every channel in the VCRplus list and enter the corresponding channel for your system. So, if VCRplus shows SciFi channel as 87, you look up SciFi on your system and find that it is channel 67, then you go to the VCRplus setup and enter this info. Then repeat the process for 100 channels or so. AND, don't make any mistakes or scheduled recording may not work correctly. All the channel entries are initially blank so VCRplus won't completely work until you enter the channels. (You could use the VCRplus codes and then manually enter the correct channel number when you set up the recording. VCRplus will still set the recording time parameters and ask for the correct channel.)Perfection remains elusive but this unit is fantastic! It's functional, compatable, easy, and produces great results. Highly recommended.

• Reviewed by: emailbidon2002

  Strengths: Chase play, play dvd while you record on HDD, manual commercial skip

  Weaknesses: Title name problems, Do not play DivX from DVD

  Overall: Pioneer DVR-640H HDD 160Gig, I own it for a month.(Another good choice might be the Panasonic but it?s more expensive)I think this recorder is one of the best, I have three different DVD players from Pioneer, I think they do good product, my first one has ten years and is still working great except for some new movie with too much copy protection. The good points:That machine is like a jukebox, you can store on the hard disk some CDs, MP3, jpg pictures and even porn DVD movie since they usually don?t have protection against copy.You can even store regular copyright DVD movies if you remove protection with something like anydvd (I did it with Dora).Make less noise than a VCR.You can watch DVD while you record on the hard disk.You can skip commercial by increments, 0:30 sec 1:00 min,1:30 2:00 3:00?If you plan to record from 8:00 to 9:00 and decide at 8:10 that you want to watch your program you can start to watch it while you record it, this is really cool, and since you can skip the commercial you catch up pretty fast.You can record on almost any kind of media including double layer.The bad points:There are a few minor flaws that I don?t understand from a company with such experience and good product but those are not big problem it?s just annoying.For example:When you enter some program to be recorded you can give them names, that?s cool since you can have up to 32 programs it could become confusing but once the program is record, it doesn?t have the name you give it, instead the name is the date and time and you have to rename it manually. The display button has no use while watching a dvd (usually I use it to see how much time is remaining or how long is the movie)When you change the language or caption during a movie you see only numbers like 1, 2, 3 instead of English, French, Spanish?You can play CD with DivX but not DVD with DivX (same problem with Toshiba but Philips, Panasonic and Sony don?t have that problem) There is a usb port but you cannot play DivX from usb memory stick.I hope they will have a firmware upgrade at least for the display button and the title name lost, anyway that recorder is a very good choice, maybe the best one.By the way 160Gig is a minimum.

• Reviewed by: zgenerale

  Strengths: Multitasking, Dubbing Speed, Ease of Use

  Weaknesses: Remote, Firmware, Key Frame editing in Video Mode

  Overall: A solid unit at a great price (low $300's: includes a 160Gig HDD). Burns DVD-R/+R; +/- R/W, D/L, RAM Multiple-recording speeds (approx 32): much more choices than strict XP, SP, LP, EP Multitasker: Can edit while HDD recording, can dub (also play DVD, or previously recorded HDD shows) while recording new HDD program -- make sure the other units you are evaluating can do all of this VR Mode, Video Mode (most compatible) recording capability Fairly simple to use (record, edit, dub) Remote is bulky, hides the numeric keys. Many other owners purchase programmable remote or older Pioneer DVR remotes to use. Timer recording Program names not saved in recorded program (need firmware fix if that ever comes). {1/11/07} FIRMWARE FIX APPARENTLY IS AVAILABLE. FROM WHAT I HEAR, ONE NEEDS TO SEND UNIT IN FOR THAT FIRMWARE FIX. Also FFWD speeds are at FF1, FF2, FF3 and FF4 which is insufficient as FF3 is about each 7 seconds and FF4 is too fast (needs something in between). For frame accurate editing, have to edit in VR (Video recording) mode which is not as widely compatible with older DVD players.

• Reviewed by: Wildcard500

  Strengths: Hard Drive, Easy to use, Picture Quality and thank God no TV Guide Feature at all.

  Weaknesses: DVD do not auto start, and no auto chapters but there is a work around

  Overall: The Pioneer DVR-640 is a Dream come true, if a show has commercials, I just record the show to the hard drive and edit out the commercials and then just burn it to DVD as a Video mode DVD so it will play in any DVD players. If you have a VCR hook it up and record those old family movies to the hard drive edit out those parts you don't like, if you recorded lets say 5 VHS tape you don't have to put them in any order because you can select what order you wont to record them in on a DVD cool. I have recorded all premium movie channels with no problems at all.

• Reviewed by: Puzzzzler

  Strengths: Easy to edit shows saved on the hard disk.Easy interface to learn.Easy and fast duplication of your existing noncopy protected DVDs.

  Weaknesses: Finalized DVDs do not autostart to show the menu. All other DVDs do.Recorded audio volume is low.No DV input for digital camcorders.Cannot pause live TV unless the show is being recorded.

  Overall: For some reason Pioneer at the last minute decided not to include the TV Guide in this unit. That is the main reason I bought the unit. Anyone know why it was dropped?Even without the TV guide, this is an awsome unit. You can record shows, split the shows into chapters, erase some chapters, and then rearrange the chapters. The editing is fairly easy. When you're all done editing, you can transfer the show, or a group of shows, to a DVD disk. The menus created on the finalized DVD are crude, but functional.This unit does a decent job of creating DVDs, but don't expect it to approach the functionality of a Replay TV or Tivo for watching live shows. For instance, delayed playback of a current show is only possible if the show is being actively recorded. Also, you cannot pause live TV unless the show is being recorded. However, you can watch one prerecorded show while simulaneously recording another.