Home > Consumer Reviews > GoVideo R6530 Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder

I liked the specs on this item and the price at Costco was right, but unfortunately this is a very cheaply made recorder. It connects to your TV just like a VCR, but like an ultra cheap VCR the remote control and on screen menus are very poorly implemented.

Even with fresh batteries you need to be close to the recorder to get it to respond to the remote. Sometimes buttons must be pushed again and again. The remote contains a lot of buttons, but Go Video skimped on size so the buttons are small and close together.

On screen menus are blurry and use small print so you need to be quite close to the screen. You'll be near the screen anyway given the remote's very limited range.

The video quality appeared to be worse than the VCR I replaced it with. There was none of the sharpness that you'd expect from a DVD even with a store bought DVD movie.

Timed recordings went well.

The last straw for me was the media. The manual states that it will work with all DVD+R and DVD+RW media that adhere to the standards, blah blah blah. I bought HP DVD+R disks and the unit responded with an error.

This unit is priced relatively low for a home DVD recorder, but if this is the best they can do for the price, skip it until they get the bugs out and bring the quality up.

I just sent back my second GoVideo R6530. Consistant problems of unpredictable frequent repeated skipping, sometimes several chapters at a time. First one did it on two different brands of DVD+RW blanks, including the one that came with the unit. Thought it was just a dud unit and sent it back to the vendor for a replacement. Second one the same. Tried it with 4 different DVD blank brands, including RiData blanks (the same as came with the unit) and it was even worse. I don't know if it was a bad batch of units sent to the vendor or what.

My demands on the unit are not that great - copy some VHS tapes to DVD and some movies from TV (got a PERFECT copy of The Day The Earth Stood Still off of satellite - GREAT movie! - that is, until the last 15 minutes where the whole story comes together - when the DVD began hanging up, then skipping all over the place making it unwatchable - oddly enough, when I played it in reverse, it went just fine - but that's a tough way to watch a movie!).

Overall, the feature set of the unit was fine. I particularly liked the JPEG capability (it showed all 1000 of my last trip images just fine, even though they were divided into subdirecties - although it didn't obviously recognize the subdirectories, it just continued from one directory to the next without a break. Didn't particularly like the remote. It was small with small, closely spaced buttons, twitchy, had to be aimed directly at the receiver, and the unit often didn't always give feed back ("...I pushed the button...is anything going to happen...? - Oh - there it goes..."). There is one button that doesn't appear to do anything at all. I sent a detailed email to their tech support about my problems and got an automated reply of Frequently Asked Questions. Telephone help was quick and responsive but not much help either ("...never heard of that before..."). They did offer to immediately send me a replacement unit, but, after two bad ones, I decided to try another brand.

Finally, I can't say the looks of the unit particularly excited me - a full mirror front with a tray and a couple of buttons, one of which turns of the unit completely, as if it were unplugged (rather than just a standby mode) which was a pain if I had turned if off and forgot about it. Just when I get into couch potato mode I realize I have to get up agan to punch the On button. Not serious beefs though. Clearly there's a problem with my particular units - no one would deliberately sell something like this that simply doesn't work. However, with that said, I feel I can't chance it again. Too much of a pain. From now on, if I can't find a (positive) review of it in a popular A/V magazine, then I won't get it.

Wow!!! I should have read these reviews before buying mine! I echo pretty much everything everybody has stated already. The only reason I went with GoVideo was because I had already purchased and was using a home theater DVD/VCR combo unit that has performed perfectly since day one (I have had it over a year now). I figured they were a good (not great) quality brand at a bargain price, so I got the DVD recorder. I don't know how a company that makes one thing so great can make something else so lousy. The problems I encountered were: DVD R's not being recognized, drawers sticking closed, slow reading and response times, not recording on the pre-set record date and time, etc, etc, etc. I guess I will read more reviews before my next purchase!

The first unit I bought in February skipped constantly when just playing DVDs, it was replaced. The second unit is now 6 months old (and out of the 90 day warranty) and the DVD tray will not even open although messages still appear saying "loading", "reading", "no disc". Neither the remote nor the machine buttons work. Even when it did record, strange pauses kept appearing on the recorded disks. I have used it 20 times to record and about 10 times to play a DVD and it is now worthless

Paid $349.00 for this on the Home Shopping Network and thought I had gotten a bargain - UGH!! - Warranty only good for 90 Days from Go Video and after changing batteries several times because of slow opening and closing it stopped working altogether - this was of course just after the 90 days!! When I called Go Video they said I could send it back for repair at a cost of $75.00 plus my cost to ship and they would extend the warranty for another 30 days thereafter - BIG DEAL!! So now I have a useless piece of junk that I will probably try and have repaired - can't see spending another hundred dollars to have the same thing happen over again - What a Ripoff!! GO Video? No Way!!