Editorial Review:

Item Description:
CONSUMER ALERT: This television receiver has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009 to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the U.S.'s transition to digital broadcasting. Analog-only TVs should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products. For more information, call the Federal Communications Commission at 1-888-225-5322 (TTY: 1-888-835-5322), or visit the commission's digital-television Web site at: htttp://www.dtv.gov.

Amazon.com Item Description:
The Magnavox MRV640 is a first-rate DVD player and recorder, a state-of-the-art source component that's also fixed to displace your VCR. Now you can archive your home movies and edit favorite scenes to share with loved ones: use recordable DVD+R and re-recordable DVD+RW media for compiling home-video highlights or for storing TV programs, then mail them to loved ones or, with TV programs, watch them at your convenience. The MRV640 stores up to 8 hours of audio and video at varying quality levels, from sub-VHS quality to VHS/S-VHS quality, DVD quality, and full DV quality.

Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of 'someday,' the MRV640 stands ready to deliver the full potential of your DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 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.

The MRV640 also performs 3:2 pulldown detection. DVD mastering introduces a common distortion when adjusting 24-frames-per-second movies to 30 fps video; reverse 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects this distortion, removing the redundant information to display a film-frame-accurate picture.

Top-of-the-line component-video inputs and outputs help minimize digital and line-scan artifacts on compatible advanced televisions, while composite- and S-video inputs/outputs bring compatibility with nearly any input source and television. One each RF coaxial video input and output simplify hookup with antennas, older VCRs, and cable boxes. The unit's front panel sports a set of inputs for your temporary AV connections.

What's in the Box
DVD recorder, remote control, remote batteries, an RF coaxial A/V cable, a stereo analog audio interconnect, a composite-video interconnect, a user's manual (English/Spanish), a quick-use guide, and an AC power cord.

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Rating: - * Programed not to open \"BLOCKED\" ... Same problem as many others. The month after warranty expired it wouldn't open and said "BLOCKED". I called and was told to unplug it and press "ON" when replugging. "BLOCKED" again came up. It does not even have screws you can unscrew yourself without special tool. I lost hours of recordings when it would shut itself off during record or play modes! Over priced even if it did work for more than a few months. I'll NEVER buy Magnavox again because of bad product and run around service guy who said "It is probably past warranty, they all should be" It shouldn't have been on the market. Rating: - * Don't waste your money!! ... I bought one of these little jewels new and after recording maybe 3 hours total, I couldn't eject the disk because it was "blocked". I sent the whole thing back to Philips for repairs and waited. ... and waited ... and waited. Finally, after 2 1/2 months of waiting and several phone calls (answered in India by people I couldn't understand well) and at least three people telling me to call back in one week I finally made a big enough stink to get transfered to a supervisor. The supervisor and every other operator I had spoken with to that point had verified all of my information including name, address, zip, etc. Then the supervisor told me that they hadn't sent the repaired or in my case remanufactured DVR out because they didn't have my address! Well I finally got the remanufactured one back and it lasted for get this, 95 days. That's five days more than the "renewed 90 day warranty" that came with it. Now it won't come on at all and won't eject again. OH, I have to give Magnavox credit though, this one did record for twice as long as the new one... 6 WHOLE HOURS! Save your money and save yourself a headache. This thing is a piece. I'll never buy Magnavox again. Rating: - * pretty good....functional ... The interface is a bit difficult to use - definitely not user-friendly. I had to read the manual to know how to use it. It's a pretty good machine for functionality - I haven't done anything special with it other than record and play. I've done that at different speeds and haven't had any problems. No complaints. Rating: - * Purchased 2 - Only 1 works ... I purchased two of these as gifts for my sons. One set up quickly and works great a month later. However, the other one will not read a disc; any disc; even the rescue disc sent to us by Magnavox. They are very helpful at Magnavox, but am disappointed to know that we have to pay shipping to the repair center. Also, I "thought" I read that we could purchase an extended warranty on these. That is not the case. Magnavox will not sell extended warranties on refurbished items. Also, if you send them for repair, they do not give you another 90 days to see if the recorder works okay; you only get the original 90 days, so if it doesn't work this first and only time, we will be out of luck. However, I should have connected the recorder prior to gift time to be sure they both worked properly. Rating: - * Worthless ... I recently bought this recorder, and after only 35 days, the DVD drawer would not open due to being "blocked" by some sort of internal mechanical device. Additionlly, when I tried to turn the DVD player on it would automatically turn off while trying to retrive the cable signal. Also, when I would record a TV show, sometimes it would only record and play for approx. 2 minutes although the Disc would show 1 hour of recording. Take if from me, save your money. This is the most worthless product on the market today.