Review by clio22:

There are so many things wrong with this unit that it’s unusable and I have to buy another, different brand. It’s the worst VCR I’ve had in 35 years.

Connectivity is limited, as noted by the previous reviewer. In my case, the hookup is RCA only so I can’t connect it to an older TV with an RF coax.

Timer recording is so convoluted (actually, EVERYTHING is so convoluted) and you can’t watch TV through the VCR while it’s recording – it locks you into the DVD mode. In other words, if you set the timer, you can’t watch TV or spot-record in the VCR mode. You have to shut off the unit to watch TV.

The sound level drops *depreciably* from the sound level of the TV, not only when playing VHS/ DVD tapes, but even when you just turn it on.

There’s no auto-tracking and the tracking buttons do nothing to adjust the picture. The sound drops even lower playing VHS and you can’t get rid of those rolling tracking lines. I haven’t checked to see if this also happens on tapes recorded by this unit or if it just happens on tapes I’ve recorded on another unit.

The open/close button on the remote doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do. It either stops the action or else it cycles back and forth between open/close. I have to get up from the couch and manually press open/close from the unit itself.

Moving through/selecting the menus is primitive and so counter-intuitive. It takes forever. And the manual is totally useless.

The remote is convoluted and not user-friendly. It’s also cheaply made – there are several spots where the plastic is splitting and I’ve only had it one month.

Rewind is excruciatingly slow.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some other really annoying problems. This unit is almost as primitive as VCRs/DVD players when they first came out. I bought Toshiba to get away from the SONYs I’ve been buying that die within a year, but it looks like I’ll have to check out other brands now.

Review by Edward A. Krivoniak:

I bought this recorder to replace my Sony VCR that went bad after 8 years. This was probably one of the worst purchases I have made. Amazon got me the VCR in 2 days and the setup only took minutes but that is the last good thing I have to say. The remote control is extremely poorly designed. The rewind is slow under both modes. The search function was very difficult to use due to poor documentation. There is no slow playback function in either forward or reverse. The buttons on the remote are not in logical places causing a lot of hunting for the right keys. The lettering on the remote is very small and hard to see. The function I really miss is the one to let you know how much tape is left to be recorded. All in all, I am sorry that I bought this and will probably never buy anything from Toshiba again.

Review by Tony Polito:

I recommend buyers look at the Amazon reviews for defunct JVC VHS/DVD

dual deck products before they purchase any current dual deck model.

They have a proven history of extremely poor build quality. JVC keeps

rapidly changing model numbers, which makes this more difficult for

the consumer to discover. However they all look very similar with

only slight cosmetic differences.

Search on these item numbers and see for yourself:

JVC SR-MV40US

* Built Defective, I bought and returned three of these units (12/2007)

* Faulty DVD Drive is a known inevitable problem on every unit (11/2007)

* Worked well while it worked (10/2007)

* Disk Error on most discs after 5 months of owning the unit (08/2007)

* No luck with this (06/2007)

* Problem unit (05/2007)

JVC HRXVC27U (5 1-stars out of

* 1yr and 1/2 and it died (02/2005)

* Worst home electronic device I’ve ever owned (03/2006)

* Barely outlived the warranty (10/2005)

* the J must stand for Junk (05/2005)

JVC DRMV5S (8 1-stars out of 16)

* Do Not Buy The JVC DRMV5S DVD … (09.2007)

* JVC DRMV5S is defective! (03/2007)

* Total Junk and they Know it ! (12/2006)

* There’s got to be something better (03/2006)

* JVC should be ashamed! (01/2006)

* Died after two weeks (10/2005)

A search on “Jvc Hi-fi Vcr/DVD Combo” search yields the following models:

JVC HRXVC29S

* I had the unit for under a year, and one day … it just froze (04/2006)

* What a disapointment after only 2 years (03/2006)

JVC HRXVC15S (1 1-star, 1 2-star out of 2 reviews)

* Factory Defect….Look Elsewhere (09/2007)

Here are some model numbers that WILL NOT come up on a search but CAN be

accessed by working through “see all of my reviews”

JVC DRMV1S (>>> FIFTY-TWO

Review by Martin S. Kunitz:

I got this to transfer VHS to DVD. I was going to use S-Video output for the video portion. Despite the specs on this website indicating that there is one there is no such output jack. I’m thinking of returning it.

Review by Richw:

I bought the Philips DPV3340V today. It’s true, there’s no tuner, but in a couple of years analog tuners will be obsolete anyway. If you have cable or Dish/Direct TV you can record incoming signals. There are instructions on the box, but you cannot watch one channel and record another unless put the cable box line to the VCR and have another connection to the TV tuner (RF or composite).

This unit is a VHS recorder. You can copy directly from DVD to VHS but it will not go from VHS to DVD. (VHS to DVD is a more expensive unit.)

I bought this unit primarily to play my old VHS tapes and to record TV programs. While there is no tuner or cable connection (RF coaxial) on the back, there are the RCA (composite) type connectors. (All newer TVs have this type of connection; the red, white and yellow connectors.) If you do not have the composite connections on your TV, only the old RF coax connection, you can’t connect a DVD player to your TV anyway.

My cable box has both the old style RF coax and the newer RCA composite connections. I used a splitter and connected the composite red, white, yellow cables from my cable box to both my TV and to the VCR. I can play DVDs, VHS tapes and I can record TV shows on tape. The cable box is the input.

You do not have to have the TV on to record programs unless you are using the output from the TV to the VCR. This is a backwards connection and I’m not sure why anyone would do this unless they didn’t have cable or dish. If that’s the case then you need the TV to be on, using it’s tuner and the *TV-OUT* composite jacks to the VCR input jacks. (Not all TVs have an “out” connection.) You cannot record digital to VHS unless you create a DVD first, then you can use this player to make the copy. Output from your cable box will work as input to this VCR.

The VCR was easy to set up, I haven’t even read the manual. It comes with a quick start guide. The VCR delivers a good picture and sound. The DVD player has progressive scan if your TV is capable. If not, it still gives a good picture. It also has component video connections for TVs with that capability. You can copy from DVD to a VHS tape in one operation, if there is no copy protection. Sound is HI-FI stereo. It will play WMAs, MP3s and displays .JPG pictures from a DVD. There is an S-Video connection, one front input, one rear input. There is one set of cables (Red, white for sound and a separate yellow for video.) If you want input for recording you will need to purchase another set.

It has a small remote with small lettering. (The remote comes with 2 AAA batteries.) If you have vision problems it may be hard to read. There is a child lock. It does not glow in the dark, a feature on my TV’s remote. There are buttons to switch between DVD and VCR but several buttons work in either position. (I briefly had a Memorex and the controls were very confusing, locking the DVD door and refusing to open unless you pressed the DVD button.)

I’ve had it for only a few hours but so far I’m satisified. My old VCR died and I opted to replace it and the DVD player with one unit. The zoom on my old DVD player displayed on the screen unless you weren’t zooming. This unit zooms and the display goes away. I don’t have widescreen yet so I like to zoom to fill the screen.

I can’t speak to the longevity but this is my fifth VCR. Quality seems to be an issue with VCRs. I’ve had Pioneer, Sony, Zenith, JVC and a Memorex. All have gone belly up. It’s cheaper to buy a new one than pay for repairs.

I hope they keep making them. I’d hate to buy these movies all over again. I have a lot of DVDs now but I’ve been around for a while and have a lot of VHS movies that I still enjoy. Watched two today on my new Philips DVP3340V

Review by Nick:

I bought this and to my dismay, I come to find that the VCR has no TV tuner in it. This means, it will only record that which it sees on the TV. It has a “timer” function but since you can’t program a channel with it, because it has no tuner for channels, you’re basically programming it to start recording – WHILE at the same time having to set a timer (if you have one) on your TV to turn on at the exact same time, in order for a timer recording to work. You would then have to be watching whatever it was taping while it was taping. It also says the TV must be on in order to record. What good is any VCR if it doesn’t have it’s own internal tuner? They could and should have made it more clear that this very important feature is missing, which is why I give it 1 star.