Pioneer DVR 310-S - DVD recorder
See it at Amazon.com for $189.95Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First
(5 out of 5)Outstanding and outstanding value...
I bought this unit as an open-box special at the local big-box store, but I'd pay full price for it. After having read lots of DVD-recorder reviews, I was a bit scared that I might not be able to get a unit that would record reliably, be easy to use, or be of high quality.
This recorder is not unattractive. It was easy to cable up. The front panel offer easy to use controls and the on-screen menus are fantastically easy to use. I recorded my first DVD within an hour of getting it home and it played beautifully on my Sony DVD player. Since then I've been downloading all my long-term saved TiVo recordings and have not had a bad recording episode--not one. So I strongly recommend this recorder.
(5 out of 5)Wonderful product, great price
I considered several other brands & DVR units before purchasing this Pioneer DVR310. I've had it for about 3 weeks now and I am quite pleased with the product. It is fairly easy to set up and use and the quality of recording is great.
*** Pluses *** (things I like):
Easy to set up, easy to record, compact size, great quality recordings, can record DVDs that play on other devices (Video Mode recordings)
*** Minuses ***
- Cannot tape to hard drive and then burn to DVD - only records directly to DVDs (either DVD-R or DVD-RW)
- Inputting titles and disc names is a tedious process - you have to enter letter by letter using the remote control. (Would be nice to be able to hook up a keyboard to the unit!)
*** Other things to know before you buy ***
- "Chase Play" feature - that is, watching a show while it's recording, is only available if you use dvd-rw disks (not dvd-r). This is not misrepresented, but good to know!
- Can only record up to 4 hrs at a decent quality per dvd disk - this is not a shortcoming of the unit but rather of the DVD (R, RW) technology.
(5 out of 5)Worked right out of the box!
It is extremely rare that I get a high-tech product that works out of the box like the Pioneer 310 did for me. I hooked it up to my home theater in a matter of minutes, began dubbing home videos from my collection to a DVD-R, reading the manual as I went. After copying 12 videos for a total of 90 minutes, I entered the editing process where I was able to grab snapshots for the menu and apply titles to each item. I told the player to finalize the DVD, and VOILA! My first DVD burned successfully.
(1 out of 5)Did not last very long
This was a very capable recorder while it worked. I bought it in 2006. It is now 2008 and I am without a working DVD recorder. It will not load the DVD so it will not play, much less record. I think the drive failed. The exact model drive is not available so I purchased a Plexar which list the same specs as the Pioneer. The symptoms changed but it still would not work. I installed the drive into my computer and it would not work, whereas the Plexar did. For the price of the piece of equipment, It should have lasted much longer. This is not to say all of these units are bad. I have owned a lot of Pioneer equipment over the years and have never had a problem until this one. I would not advise anyone to buy this model as it may have a design flaw.