RCA DVD and VCR Recorder Incorporating DVD recording, progressive-scan DVD playback, and a 4-head hi-fi VCR, RCA's DRC8300N offers numerous features to enhance your viewing and recording. The player/recorder gives you a choice of recording your favorite television shows and home videos straight to DVD or to VHS tape. It stores digital video in high-quality MPEG2 and encodes audio in space-saving MP3. For playback, Scene Again instant replay accesses previously viewed DVD or tape segments in 10-second increments, and a 30-second "advance" function lets you skip ahead to preferred scenes on either DVDs or tape. With just a couple button presses, you can transfer your home videos from a VHS tape directly to a DVD with no cables to connect, no levels to set. More sophisticated editing is also a snap with programmable tape playback, letting you select only those scenes you want to copy before recording to disc. You can even split titles or hide unwanted chapters after recording the content to a DVD+RW disc.
Incorporating DVD recording, progressive-scan DVD playback, and a 4-head hi-fi VCR, RCA's DRC8300N offers numerous features to enhance your viewing and recording. The player/recorder gives you a choice of recording your favorite television shows and home videos straight to DVD or to VHS tape. It stores digital video in high-quality MPEG2 and encodes audio in space-saving MP3. For playback, Scene Again instant replay accesses previously viewed DVD or tape segments in 10-second increments, and a 30-second "advance" function lets you skip ahead to preferred scenes on either DVDs or tape.
With just a couple button presses, you can transfer your home videos from a VHS tape directly to a DVD with no cables to connect, no levels to set. More sophisticated editing is also a snap with programmable tape playback, letting you select only those scenes you want to copy before recording to disc. You can even split titles or hide unwanted chapters after recording the content to a DVD+RW disc.
The RW format offers numerous advantages. These discs can be played in most computer DVD-ROM drives and DVD players, and you let you append, edit, and overwrite video right on the discs themselves. This means you can record video using the DRC8300N and record data with a PC drive, all on the same disc. There's only one recording mode for both video and data, and the finalization time for a DVD+R is the fastest of all DVD formats.
Special features include DVD title and chapter creation for easy access to recorded materials; chapter hide/unhide, which lets you skip playback of selected sections of a recording; text title labeling; user-selectable disc write and title-write protection, and quick disc erase. Recorded discs will playback on most DVD players, and the unit itself plays all DVD and audio CDs.
More than just a recording device, however, the DRC8300N is also a first-rate media player, offering MP3 music file decoding and Digital PhotoView, which displays JPEG files (from recordable CDs only) in a rotating slide show format--with MP3 playback during the slide show.
And, whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the DRC8300N is ready to deliver the full potential of prerecorded DVDs. Progressive scanning, called 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.
An onscreen DVD library stores up to 400 titles so you can easily sort and locate any title you've recorded using the DRC8300N. You can even find the discs with the most available blank space for new recordings. The onscreen keyboard makes it easy to create and edit program names for all your personal recordings. Choose from six recording modes, from 1 to 8 hours, while SmartRecord automatically adjusts the quality of the recording to fit the available remaining space.
Other features include S-video inputs for simple recording and playback from camcorders, a time-base corrector, and digital noise reduction circuitry, which eliminates picture jitter and even reduces noise from videotape playback to significantly improve the quality of recordings from videocassette recorders or camcorders.
Easily integrated into an existing home theater, the DRC8300N includes a Dolby Digital and DTS-compatible optical digital-audio output, 2 composite-video inputs, 1 composite video output, analog audio inputs and outputs, an RF coaxial input/output, and a component-video output.
1 RCA DRC8300N DVD VCR Recorder Combo
I bought this DVD VCR combo recently to convert my old VHS tapes to DVD. The VCR part of this combo does not work too well. The quality of VCR play back of old tapes (10/15 years) is poor. However, the same old tapes play quite well in another stand alone old RCA VCR. So I am using my old VCR to play the old tapes and using the DVD part of the combo to record it. The manual is neither well written nor well organized. RCA could do a lot better job than that.
2 A good idea but....
A dvd recorder is a great idea and I would like to say this RCA is a great recorder but the truth is somewhat different. I purchased mine from a local dealer about a month ago. It records fine, the picture is great and the vcr in the same unit is handy. Now for the bad news. After the disk is recorded it needs to be finalized to be able to play in other dvd players. I am experiencing a failure rate as high as 3 out of 4. This is a big waste of time, and disks, as I have to try, try again and hope for the best. My dealer tried to help me but didn't have much experience with the dvd recorders. RCA is no help! Their website is a disaster and out of date, it doesn't even list this model and they have been selling them since June. They doesn't have a 800 number for contact and as for emailing them remember keep the message short. They don't give you room to explain the problem. If I knew then what I know now I would have researched a lot more brands and would probably brought something else. BUYER BEWARE.
3 Too bad I thought it was great but it's not!
In my orignal review I was in love with this unit. Last week however the unit started freezing up while recording. I would unplug the unit and reset it and it would work fine and then for some reason it would lock up again. Finally, it locked up completely just because I tried to open the dvd door while in the TV mode. Not a good sign. I am returning the unit. May look at the new Sony combo.
Original review below:
I could not imagine a more straightforward way to record from VHS, Satelite or even your camcorder. I use the one remote to operate everything, including my TV, Direct TV and of course the DVD/VCR. So far it plays my home made and purchased DVD's as well as my photo cd's. And it has recorded wonderfully from my Direct TV. I am using S-video cables for my connections so the picture is clear and bright. My only regret is that I can not plug in my digital camcorder using a firewire port and will have to rely on S-Video only.
The manual is clear and concise and the onscreen menu is a breeze. I was up and running in about an hour and that was only because my unit was in an entertainment cabinet which does not make things easy to connect.
It is funny to me how these reviews can vary so much from one reviewer to the next. I would recommend this to even the most electronically handicapped. You are guided every step of the way by the manual, or by the onscreen instructions.
4 RCA DRC8300N DVD Player/Recorder and VCR Combo Defective
I have to concur with the above review of this product while it does have many, many connection options the risks far out weight the benefits I too am returning this item.
I did not even have it out of the box for a day and already one of my disc for the second season of The West Wing failed during
playback I decide after that experience that it was not worth taking the risk of trying out a dvd recording or vise versa.
Take my advise if you are looking for good dvd recorder/ vcr combo do your research and buy a brand that is reliable and performs well no matter what types of disc you are using whether they be pre-recorded dvds or blank dvd+ r disc I have learned my lesson with this unit.
5 Pretty Decent for the price
I previously reviewed this item in August of 2004,so here is an update:
I bought this unit several months ago and there was a $50 rebate, so for under $400 I think it was a good deal. This recorder is not for those who can't figure out how to program a VCR or are not electronically inclined. It takes some trial and error to figure out exactly how to operate the many features, and the manual can be confusing. Since DVD recording is still pretty much in its infancy, I would imagine that most, if not all, DVD recorders in this price range on the market today have issues with compatibility (with blank DVDs)and other technical problems.
Like other reviewers, I had some issues with freezing and things like that. I've learned that I have to be patient with this recorder and not try to press different buttons on the remote too quickly (you know how some people click the computer mouse too much before the computer has a chance to respond which causes the computer to freeze or act up? This recorder is sorta like that). But I have recorded nearly 70 DVDs and I've had few problems.
I like the idea that I can finalize DVDs when I want to. For instance, I recorded some camcorder tape footage onto a DVD but there was still space left on the DVD so I can add more later until I finalize it. Each time you stop a recording, the recorder will add a new title (which you can delete if you want)to the DVD when you start recording again, so you can have a DVD with say, "kid's party", "baseball game", and "backyard BBQ" which will be separated on the disc so you can playback only those parts you'd like to see or show your friends.
I've recorded many movies off the Satellite onto DVDs and they come out as good as what you'd see on the TV--and much better than a VCR tape. I have about 50 movies in my collection now that I recorded onto DVDs which more than makes up for the cost of the recorder. Overall I have to give the RCA recorder 4 stars instead of the previous 3 just because of that.
6 Regions
Has anyone figured out a way to make this region free??? If I could it would be perfect
7 Manual & on screen menu very difficult to interpret.
I purchased the DRC8300N a few weeks ago from another on-line
company (not Amazon) and shipped it back today. It was a very frustrating experience...trying to get the unit to record with
the remote that came with it. To get it to work (record) I had
to use two remotes, the universal remote that came with it and the remote from my TV. (Not supposed to use 2 remotes).
A technician tried to walk me through the menu, but it
didn't work for him either. The on-line tech agreed that the manual or something was misleading. Told me I could return it.
Good luck if you buy one.
PS: Amazon has a Sylvania Model DVR90VE that I may buy soon.
