JVC DRM-1SL DVD Recorder

Amazon Customer Reviews

(5 out of 5)

Very happy with my purchase

Having searched long and hard for a DVD recorder that had everything I wanted at a price I could afford I settled on this JVC and I haven't regretted it for a moment.
It has the ability to use DVD-RAM disks so you can do "timeslip" recording (start watching the program before you have finished recording it) which is very useful as a "pause live TV" feature. It has an advantage over the Panasonic R70/75 in that it will take DVD-RW disks as well as DVD-R so I can record programs, be able to play them back on other DVD players and still reuse the disk as well as archiving the program if I wish.
The quality is excellent (even on LP mode giving you 4 hours/4.7 GB disk) and better than VHS on EP (6 hours/disk) mode.
It is very easy to catalogue the programs on the disk with editable titles, programme classification and splash screen for the index. I am very pleased with the ease of deleting adverts from the recordings with everything being done using play/pause and it allows you to preview what you will get after you have deleted the selected scenes.
The "Just" quality mode is excellent for making a recording fit into the space left on the disk - you tell it to use this and it adjusts the quality of the recording to ensure that all you have programmed fits in.

(5 out of 5)

JVC DR-M1SL - Review

I bought a dvd recorder for home family use only - recording from the TV and home camera/camcorder stuff. I have no professional interests for this type of thing. I didn't ever buy a dvd player, relying on a vhs recorder, so knew little about dvds. I favoured the JVC DR-M1 above other machines because it handles a wide range of media including the playing of CDs with digital still pictures (JPEGs).

In terms of the performance of the JVC DR-M1 I have been thoroughly impressed, if not a little confused at first. The instruction manual limits itself to telling you the basics of how to play, record etc rather than full explanations. The manual is big enough as it is, so this is probably sensible, and after you start operating the machine a few times, you build up an understanding of how it all works. For example, I was puzzled where on the disc would new programmes be recorded and making sure you don't record over existing material. My thinking followed that of vhs recording. But the brilliant thing is that the dvd recorder takes care of this. It arranges storage and a "navigation" screen displays a link for each programme recorded which allows you to click on your choice to play. You no longer have to worry about cueing up the vhs tape. The only thing to do is check there is enough space remaining on the disc. This is easy and you have different quality/time settings for a disc ranging from 1 hour (best quality) to 6 hours - nb 2 hours is set as standard. The JVC DR-M1 has another setting "Just" which sets the amount of time you know you need for a programme and gives it the highest quality possible.

Before buying the DVD Recorder I had read some reviews of several machines which warned against the poor picture quality of 4 and 6 hour recordings. Some people claimed to have returned machines (not the JVC DR-M1 I hasten to add) to the shop because of this. So I didn't expect much. However, I have to say I am pleasently suprised. Not only is the picture quality vastly superior to vhs video, if there is a difference between the 6 hr dvd setting and the 2 hr, it is miniscule, certainly on our 21 inch television.

The recording from my camcorder mini dv tapes is good. With dvd-r discs you can do a minimal amount of editing - really just giving names to differnt clips. With dvd-rw discs you can do a bit more including deletion and insertion of scenes and sound dubbing. I have recorded about 8 hours of material so far, but haven't had time to really use the editing features yet, but I am very impressed with the results so far.

The JVC DR-M1 will also record on RAM discs, but I've not tried this yet.

In terms of being able to play recorded discs on other machines, it is necessary to go through a procedure to "finalise" the discs. So far I have only tried a DVD-R disc which was finalised on one other DVD player and it played fine.

The playing of CDs with digital stills works well. You can navigate which directories/files on the disc you want to play. The picture quality is good and you can set the time interval for a slide show.

The only negatives I've come across so far are that the record pause button, once when I kept it on for about 10 minutes while recording a camcorder clip it made the recording unstable. Also, many shops seem to have sold out of the DVD-RW discs

(5 out of 5)

Don't buy any other DVD recorder

I have spent 3 months choosing which DVD recorder to buy, Philips; cheap but very limited in it's performance. Panasonic; very versatile, but it only records on -R or ram. Ram dvds are very expensive, and hardly any other manufacturers support it. Eventually I decided to spent a little extra and buy the JVC, ok it's a little ugly but the spec is superb. -RW video mode for playing on other machines. -RW vr mode for day to day use, and RAM for when u want to watch a program slightly time delayed (to cut out adverts?) You can connect it optically to an amp if you want home cinema, and yes it does JPEG too. Buy a DRM1, buy a dozen -RW dvds and a couple of RAM dvds (forget about -R they are no cheaper) and you will be very happy.