Editorial Review:

Item Description:
Samsung's DVD-VR335 Hi-Def Conversion VCR with DVD Player gives you the very best of two different worlds. With its Hi-Def Conversion VCR, you'll get a top-quality picture from your VHS tapes. The built-in DVD player lets you see top-quality digital video on the latest recording format.The DVD-VR335 plays VHS tapes on its 4-head Hi-Fi VCR and lets you save them on DVD. Use the Dual Layer Recording feature to transfer hours of home video onto one disc. Play it back on HDTV, via 1080i/720p HDMI output (hooks up both VHS and DVD to your TV). The single hookup technology allows the end user to hook up both the VCR and DVD with one cable. The DVD-VR335 is an invaluable adition to any home theater. One Touch 2-way dubbing (Between DVD&VCR) HDMI 720p/1080i output STB control 4-head Hi-Fi VCR EVQ (Enhanced Video Quality) CM advance / Auto Chapter Creator / Quick Startup recording / Remote Control Slim design (77mm) Unit Dimensions (WxHxD) - 17x3.1x10.6 inches Weight - 9.9 lbs Manufacturer's One Year Parts /90 Days Labor Warranty

Amazon.com Item Description:
Samsung's DVD-VR335 provides the best of both worlds, with the ability to record home movies and TV programming to a wide variety of DVD discs while enabling you to continue playing your vast VHS library. Additionally, the DVD-VR335 is also an 'upconverting' DVD player, which boosts the standard 480 lines of resolution from a DVD disc up to a high-def 1080i (interlaced) picture. The 4-head VCR also offers a full complement of standard recording and playback options as well as the ability to easily convert VHS tapes to DVD.

A front-panel DV (FireWire IEEE 1394) input enables you to connect the family video camcorder and edit and record footage directly to a DVD disc--all via a single cable and without losing image quality. The EVQ (Enhanced Video Quality) feature provides sharper images and truer color reproduction for both movies and home videos. EVQ reduces pixel noise produced during digital signal processing, mitigates the cross color phenomenon occasionally produced by separation of Y & C signal.

To produce an upconverted picture, your high-def TV must have an HDMI connection (and HDCP support)--the 720p/1080i choice is only available when using the HDMI cable (which is not included). Also note that the DVD-VR335 is not a high-definition DVD player (i.e., not to be confused with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players, which play specially formatted high definition discs), so it will work with your existing DVD library.

It offers a full menu of DVD recording options, including DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW as well as DVD-RAM discs--a very flexible format that allows you to re-record on the disc up to several thousand times. Additionally, it offers recording compatibility with DVD-/+R discs--enabling you to store up to 8.5 GB of video on these two-sided discs.

You can program recording via the timer, or choose easy one-touch recording (initiating playback at 30 minutes and adding 30 minutes with each additional press of the button, up to the available disc time or 240 minutes, whichever is sooner). Chapters are created when you record your favorite TV show or video clips from a camcorder onto a DVD disc. The chapters are automatically created, which eliminates wasted time searching the whole DVD to find the right spot. Up to 99 titles can be recorded onto one disc. With the simple and easy edit function menu, you can delete, copy, rename, and lock, among other things. You can also create a playlist and edit video in a specific sequence.

It offers the following connection options:

• HDMI: 1 out
• Composite video: 1 out
• S-Video: 1 out
• Component video: 1 out
• Firewire: 1 in
• RF: 1 in, 1 out
• Analog audio: 2 in, 2 out
• Coaxial digital audio: 1 out
• Optical digital audio: 1 out

Tech Talk
HDMI is a lossless, uncompressed, all-digital audio/video interface to link any audio/video source (such as a set-top box, DVD player, or AV receiver) with your TV--all over a single cable. HDMI supports standard, enhanced or high definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio on a single cable. It supports all ATSC formats--standard (SDTV), enhanced (EDTV), and high (HDTV).

Component video (also called Y/Pb/Pr) features a three-jack video input, which provides separate connections for luminance (Y), blue color difference (PB) and red color difference (PR). This results in increased bandwidth for color information, resulting in a more accurate picture with clearer color reproduction and less bleeding than you would get with S-Video or composite (RCA yellow video plug) connections. You will need a separate RCA left/right audio cable for sound.

What's in the Box
DVD/VCR combo, remote control (with batteries), printed operating instructions



Accessories:
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Accessories:

• 3-Year Extended Service Plan - Covers Electronic Items $201-$500 - Repair

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Rating: - * I pretty much hate this piece of equipment ... It works, I'll give the designers that. But it's one of the most frustrating pieces of gear I've ever bought...maybe the MOST frustrating for a unit that works. The remote is impossible! It's made up of tiny buttons that require an inordinate amount of pressure to activate, and the remote has to be aimed pretty much straight at the unit to work. With so many excellent remote controls to inspire and educate the designers (such as the TiVo remote) why does anyone still design a remote that's so hard to use? The basic operations of recording a DVD have many steps and are almost totally non-intuitive. Everything has to be "just so" in order to do something as simple as, say, retitling a recording or finalizing a disc. Even the "one-step" controls don't work intuitively when I try to do something as simple as recording from the built-in VHS deck to the DVD. I can not imagine that Kun-Hee Lee (the Chairman and CEO of Samsung) has ever tried to operate this piece of gear. If he had, he would have fired his engineers, right after tossing this unit into the Han River. I really hate this unit and regret buying it and look forward eagerly to the day when it dies and I can replace it. But I give the unit two stars because it does work...if you can figure it out (keep the manual handy) and get your fingers around that godawful remote. Rating: - * almost all good ... I'vw owned a -335 for about 2 months now, and really like it. it features some nice options for the recordings that it makes, like the ability to "split" one show into two (yes, you get ot choose WHERE the split happens). the only two disappointments that I've founds are (1) it will only record on the free space at the END of the disc. if you have 3 shows on a disc, and erase the first 2 (on an RW disc), you still can't record on the newly freed space. only when you erase the last show on the disc can it recognize the space at the start of disc. in fairness, the manual warned me of this, so it is no suprise. just REALLY inconvinient, it turns out. and (2), there doesn't seem to be any way to disable automatic time-syncing w/ cable. since the gov't decided to move DST this year, that was quite annoying for a few weeks. the manual suggests nothing for this, but I've gotten reasonable results from having it sync to a non-station. clumsy, but not a deal-killer. all-in-all, I can happily recommend this unit. Rating: - * Works great! ... Easy to set up & works great. The remote is a bit confusing at first. Easy one-touch recording to DVD. Rating: - * Not For Home Theater ... This recorder has many excellent features as described above, but if you want to have the up-converting to 720p or 1080i feature ALONG WITH 5.1 AUDIO then an annoying in-your-face error message saying "HDMI Audio not supported" pops up in the center of the screen for several seconds. It can also pop up in the middle of a movie at the layer change. The only way to get rid of this message is to switch to 2.0 PCM audio and lose your 5.1 surround or not use the HDMI output and stay at 480p. What's so frustrating is that the unit WILL supply 5.1 audio out of one of its other jacks along with the HDMI video - it just bugs you constantly with this stupid message. Another smaller annoyance is if you have a DVD that uses different angles then the word "Angle" appears onscreen with no way to remove it. I have read online that Samsung issued a firmware fix for one of its other units to cancel all on-screen messages (that you have to reset whenever you re-start the unit) but they went ahead and included the message in the VR335 anyway! Since upconverting was one of the major reasons for choosing the DVD-VR335, I am seriously considering returning it. Rating: - * hd up dvd recorder ... I had my doudts if the hd up function actually work, but to my suprise it takes a standard dvd makes it appear to be hd. The only thing I notice that I don't care for are TV show played through the unit, the picture size shrinks. The same thing happens with TV recordings. I may have a setting incorrect, I'll contact samsung.