For the price, this unit does exactly what I expect of it. This is my second purchase of this model. The other is still working fine after two years of relatively light use in my childrens playroom. I chose to buy another when I needed a replacement for a broken DVD player for the small video system in our family room. The menus and features are not great but get the job done. It can record to VHS but I've never needed to or tried so I can't comment on the quality of the recording. A few reviews criticize the fact that it does not have a tuner for recording TV directly from a coax input, but that is clearly stated on the box and in several reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. All things considered, it is a good value, has been reliable under light use, and I expect it would be a good choice for a secondary or budget playback system. Read more
Our Panasonic VCR died a few weeks ago and we needed to replace it. The TV we used it with is a 25-year old GE. This player works with our old TV and we can play VHS tapes, record VHS tapes and watch DVD's. I am using a cable box from Comcast. This unit does not have a tuner, so you will need an external one like a cable box. Also, your TV MUST have RCA jacks on the back: 3 colored sockets--yellow (video signal) and red and white for the audio. You will need to purchase another set of RCA cables if you plan on recording. A few things you need to know to get today's progressive scan players to work with an analog TV. 1. You MUST turn progressive scan off. On this player there is a small light on the front labelled P Scan. If that light is illuminated, progressive scan is on. To turn it off, press and hold the play button on the DVD side until the light goes off. 2. There is no TV/VCR button on the remote or front panel. So, to view a tape you must switch to video input on your TV. How you do this depends on the brand of TV you have. For my GE, it amounts to setting the channel to channel 91. This can be done using your TV's remote or by just pressing the channel up button on the front of your set if you are using a cable box. With Comcast's boxes, the channel controls on the TV are limited to 4 and 91 on my set. I suspect that even if you do not know how to switch the video mode, just pressing the channel up button will probably toggle through your options. To find out more about your specific set, download the manual for this player. Go to Google and type magnavox dv225mg9 in the search box and click on the manual. Download it and go to p. 6 where they list the various TV models and ways to switch the video input. Once you have switched the video input, you never need to change it again. My Comcast box works fine with the TV set to channel 91 instead of channel 4. If you find that you suddenly don't see your tape playing, it's likely because the video input was reset somehow, just switch it back and all should be well. 3. Now set the date and time. Using the VCR's remote, press the Setup bottom, which will bring up a menu and the familiar blue screen. Follow the manual instructions. Hooking the Unit Up--Recording and Playing 1. I recommend hooking up your TV directly to your cable box using the coax. Then use one set of RCA cables to go out of the cable box and into the VCR's input jacks. 2. Use the second set of RCA cables to connect the VCR's output to the video input on the back of your TV. 3. VERY IMPORTANT--you must use the rear inputs on the VCR to allow it to record, the so-called L1 input. 4. Pages 12-13 of the manual describe how to program timer recording. You will note that part of the process involves selecting the input. You must choose L1 if you want to record something on TV. 5. It may seem obvious, but the cable box MUST be on. Some of Comcast's boxes are always on like the simple analog-to-digital converters. But the on-demand boxes can be turned off and if the box is off, all you will record is snow, like you lost your cable connection, which of course you have! 6. To activate the program you just entered, you must press the Timer Set button on the remote. Toshiba also works like this. This locks you out of viewing VHS tapes and only allows viewing DVD's. 7. Finally, make sure to turn off the power to the VCR. It will not record if you leave the power on. It must be able to turn itself on. Hooking up the unit for playback only: 1. If you are not interested in recording TV shows, then the set of RCA cables supplied with the unit will suffice. I suspect that since this unit has no internal tuner, that is why only one set of RCA cables is included. 2. Hook one end up to the VCR output jacks on the back of the VCR and hook up the other end to the matching color jacks on the back of your TV. 3. Make sure your TV is set to video input and you should be good. Whenever you want to playback a VHS tape or DVD, just press Play on the VCR remote and your selection will be viewable on your TV. 4. You can skip setting the clock, etc. since you will only be playing back and not recording. I only rated this unit a 4. Although I am very pleased that Magnavox's manual addressed the compatibility early in the manual and that the manual is available online, so you can check it out before buying the unit, I am less impressed with the design. The visibility of the unit's front panel controls and the remote buttons are rather poor. White lettering on a sliver background does not make for easy reading. Be prepared to have to use a flashlight to read the front panel controls. The lack of a display means you'd have to check the time on the unit before using the timer record function, unless you just want to cross your fingers. For me, to rate a 5, Magnavox would have to make 4 changes: make the controls on the front of the unit and on the remote more legible by changing the color of the background and/or characters, include a digital display which not only displayed the time, but also acted as a time counter when playing back VHS tapes or DVD's. It took me about 2 weeks of research to figure out how to make these new VCR's work with our perfectly functional, albeit antiquated TV's. Hope this info helps others with the same problem we faced. Questions, just ask. I personally have learned so much from Amazon's customer feedbacks that I really want to share what I can to help others navigate the tech swamp. Pam Read more
This unit does a great job of playing both our DVD's and our many older VCR's. We have a very large collection of Disney movie VCR's, and didn't see any reason to spend more money buying them on DVD's. But, the only VCR player we still had was in a small older TV in the kids bedroom and the VCR player was not working very well anymore. So, I got this new unit that will play both DVD's, and VCR's that we still enjoy watching. The pictures are clear and crisp, the sound quality is good, and both work perfectly. Now we can have the best of both worlds. We didn't need any cables other than what that came with the unit. I would recommend this unit to anyone looking for a dual player system like this. The price is reasonable and the quality is good. Read more
I purchased this in April to replace a VCR that was probably ten years old. Less than seven months later and this thing is completely DEAD! For $75 dollars I didn't expect it to last forever but SEVEN MONTHS? They really don't make things to last anymore. Just in case anyone is still considering buying one of these - it was easy to hook up and worked great for 6 1/2 months. Then it started to whack out. Powering off for no reason. Making weird noises. You get the idea. Off to shop for ANOTHER replacement. Wish me luck! Read more
I hesitantly ordered this product after reading many negative reviews. It came sooner than expected, was extremely easy to hook up (I'm a little old lady who doesn't do well with tech. products), and so far is working great. I bought it just to play DVDs and my old video cassettes and it does that very well. Simple process to do that - not complicated at all. I usually have trouble finding electronics that do the basics well. This is one of those "you get what you pay for" products. No bells or whistles. The remote control and the buttons on the player are cheaply made, but they do the job well. The only criticism I have is that the print on the remote and on the player itself are very hard to read. That won't bother me because I will only be needing a few buttons and I'll use them enough that I'll know where they are. For the price, it's hard to beat. Read more
