Cyber Home CH-DVR1600 price and reviews

I think that the Cyberhome CH-DVR 1600 is an okay, entry level DVD recorder, but if you're looking for great quality and a lot of features, I'd look into getting a more expensive model. It definitely does the job saving me from having to use inferior vhs tapes, but it also comes with it's own slew of annoyances and idiosyncracies. I can't complain much though because I got mine at an incredible price after finding it on sale online and then using a gift card I had gotten. But, I must admit I am disappointed, especially because as someone who admittedly knows very little about electronics, I had hoped that Cyberhome had been more helpful addressing my problems. I wanted a dvd recorder but I didn't want to spend a ton of money on it, one, because I don't want to end up spending a lot of money on a dud, and two, I don't want to spend a lot of money on something that's going to be obsolete in a few months. DVD recorders are still fairly new and eventually the prices will bottom out, but I needed one now and this does suffice (for the moment anyhow). My advice is do your own research. Check out C-Net and Consumer Reports and any other sites you can find. Compare professional, technical reviews to customer reviews. A product may be good in theory and easy for an adept technical person to understand, but my experience has shown me that you should always check out what your fellow buyers thought. If they thought it was a piece of junk or incomprehensible, think twice before buying.

So, let me start with the Pros. This is a pretty inexpensive brand and I'd really avoid any cheaper dvd recorders out there because the quality of the device is only going to diminish with the price. Also, if this is your first dvd recorder, do research online. This is as cheap as I'd go, even without sales or gift cards. It does an adequate job as far as recording goes. The quality is better than vhs assuming you use the lower recording modes (the longest recording mode, I think it's EP, isn't the best quality).

It has a nice, sleek, efficient appearance. The silver will blend in nicely if you have other silver components but if you're like me and have more black components, it looks just fine. It's not too big, it's actually shorter in length, although taller than my other dvd player.

The CH-DVR 1600 offers a variety of functions other cheaper, and even some more expensive, recorders don't provide, including the ability to edit discs, pause during a recording to omit commercials, chapter markers (you can pick how long you want your chapters to be or if you don't want them at all), you can record directly from live tv with the built in tuner, you can record from a dv recorder, and you can record your vhs tapes to dvd to preserve them for years to come.

Now for the cons, and there are sadly several. There is a discrepancy in the advertised length of recording modes and the actual length of time you end up being able to record for. Upon contacting Customer Service I was informed that this is "not a defect" and that you should allow for this error in reported recording time when you choose to record something. The problem is, when you record in HQ mode for what you think is 1 hour, you end up getting 58 or 59 minutes. When you tape in the SP (the most common mode), you're supposed to be able to get 120 minutes (or 2 hours) out of it, but instead, you get 115 minutes. The same goes for the LP and the EP modes, where you lose more space per each recording mode you move to (from HQ to SP to EP to LP). I personally find this annoying and on some level fraudulent because in both the manual for the dvd recorder and the DVD+RWs that Cyberhome recommends you buy, it says clearly that you should be able to record for 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, or 6 hours so if this isn't the case, then it should be listed somewhere for the consumer to see so that he/she can factor that into their decision to buy or not to buy. I was told that the dvd had to format and that always a certain amount of space would be lost to this, which I find unacceptable. Cyberhome should have allowed for that in the making of the CH-DVR 1600 so that even after formatting, you could record for the advertised lengths of time. This may not be a factor for many of you, but when you tape a 2 hour movie on the SP mode only to have the last 5 minutes cut off, you get pretty annoyed.

The device often hums during recording and sometimes there is an audible hum on the finished dvd which I find bothersome.

When you press record it takes what seems like forever to actually begin recording so don't press the record button at the beginning of your show or movie because you may miss up to 20 or so seconds of it (which in the world of tv, can add up to a lot). It also takes a while to stop recording and you have to wait until it's done finalizing until you turn of the dvr.

The display on the dvr itself is annoying and poorly thought out. The little window indicating the function the recorder is performing isn't at all impressive. When it says "Load" it looks more like "LORd" because there's a mix of lower- and upper-case letters. Not a big deal at all, but still tacky.

The remote is horrible. It's way too teeny-tiny and light. The buttons are all too small and there are row after row of the same size buttons, mixing up those that perform an important function with others that are pretty much useless. I don't know how many times I had to look for the stop key as there is no actual stop button on the dvr itself.

You have to buy certain brands of dvds to use with it (I would suggest DVD+RWs because you can re-record over them and if you make a mistake at least you can delete it and start all over again whereas with the DVD+Rs if you mess up or if the dvd recorder screws up, you're stuck with a dvd you can't use at all). Try Verbatim. They have slimline cases (thinner than a lot of other brands) and they work very well with the Cyberhome 1600 dvr (they're recommended by Cyberhome as well).

I hope my review helps anyone make an informed decision, whether or not you decide to buy this dvr or to keep looking. All in all, it's a decent machine and you won't find anything better for cheaper, but you may find several better brands for a lot more money. I think I'll probably keep mine because I don't feel like spending $300 on a good dvd recorder when the price will surely come down within a year or so and maybe a better model will come out within that time anyhow. For the time being, this is just fine. Happy shopping!!!