Home > Consumer Reviews > GoVideo DVR5100 Progressive Scan DVD-VCR Combo

Item was defective out of the box. Customer Service wasr not helpful at all. Tech Support people know ONLY how to tell you to check the cable connections(speaker, video etc.)--Even after I insisted that the problem was "DVD Draw Does NOT open"-- This is after trying to understand them--TERRIBLE LITTLE ENGLISH!
Their So-called Service centers (in FL at least) are run by independent shops and are REALLY BAD! The shops apparently have a bad working relationship with GOVIDEO and therfore do not want to do service. CAVEAT EMPTOR! RUN when you see one of this company's products. For a couple of dollars more you can get a "REAL BRAND NAME" and you will be happier. That is what I ended up doing(bought a Brand Name). One Year later Still have problems ...It only works as a VCR not DVD+VCR

I had the same problems as the others who complained about poor quality on the VCR side of this machine. The picture has white lines or sometimes a wavy pattern when you use the RCA or coax outputs, there is no S video for the VCR. I determined problem is definitely with the machine because they are present when I ONLY have the outputs connected to the TV, nothing on the input side. I have been going back and forth with Sonic blue/Go video for since 12/2002, it's now 8/2003 and I've finally given up. There's no way they will admit anything is wrong with their machine and they won't refund me any money at all. I've sent it back to them at least 5 times, sometimes they sent a new one, sometimes a refurbished, and once the person who I talked to actually looked at the picture himself so I'm told. He and the engineers couldn't see anything wrong with the picture, yeah right, so they replaced one of the boards and sent it back. Same problem when I got it back. I started to do more research and found the reviews here that were saying exactly what I had told them. When confronted with that, they said it was not a defect just the quality of the machine I had purchased, and if I expected better quality it would cost $1,000. It's funny because this is their top of the line. They offered to look at it again but I declined because I'm tired of wasting my time and money.

Also, the pause/slow motion picture is terrible also. Beware if you want to use this on any of your existing tapes because the picture is badly distorted and jumpy. Even tapes recorded on machine, though better, are nowhere near what you would expect quality wise.

This was true of every machine they sent me otherwise I wouldn't be giving it that bad of a review. The only good thing I can say is it has a lot of features. That and it made me look for something else so I bought a Panasonic DVD recorder w/80 gig. harddrive, it's fantastic so far.

I experienced a poor quality picture with the VCR portion and returned the unit. I was also disappointed that the S-Video port was only for the DVD. Apparently most combo units are built this way - Buyers beware, if you want the higher quality of S-Video make sure the VCR portion has S-Video. The "spec" is misleading because it says "S-Video" port but does not reveal that it is only for the dvd. I will not buy "Go Video" again.

The DVD play back is outstanding, though the 360 degree round button used for fast forward and rewind is tough to master.

My unit started failing on the sound playback of Videotapes. Sound got softer then quit completely. I cleaned the heads, to no avail. It must go for repair, warranty is only 90 days for labor, one year for parts. Estimated repair labor is $60.00

I recommend not buying any DVD/ VCR without a 1 year warranty. For [item price] I would have expected this unit to function for at least a year! I have a 10 year old VCR and an 8 year old one that still work fine, cannot understand why a 6 month old VCR should fail.

Note also that the instruction manual that comes with this does not address all questions, and that online manual is just a .pdf of the printed one. This forces you to call the 800 number, with waits of up to 30 minutes on hold, to get your questions answered.

It's been interesting to read the other reviews on the DVR5100 unit, as I've used the predecessor DVR5000 model for two years now. The VCR picture quality is sometimes alittle "liney" and the VHS audio quality lacks sparkle, but no more than any other mid-range VCR machine I've ever owned, and not nearly as bad as what some other reviwers have reported. The lack of S-video from the VCR is annoying, and on the DVR5000, commercials cannot be skipped, despite trade specifications to the contrary, although I've read that the commercial skip works fine on the current DVR5100 model. DVD picture and sound quality is great, and sound quality from CDs, CDRs and MP3-formatted CDs is good, if not spectacular. In terms of reliability, my machine has been problem free, without any tape chewing, despite heavy usuage. So reading the other reviews, perhaps there is a quality control problem with these units. Is this machine a good buy? Yes, as long as watching VHS is not your priority. Also, if you can put a new machine through its paces while still under warranty, you probably don't have a unit that's defective in the ways described in other reviews.