Magnavox MRV700R DVD Player/Recorder and VCR Combo

Comment: I'm astonished at how loud the fan noise is in our model. It emits a high pitched wining sound. It's tolerable during the day but at night I find myself turning off the power strip. Operating the DVD wasn't too bad after reading the manual. It took some patience since the manual or menu features aren't entirely user friendly. Another annoying quirk is when we turn on the unit to use the VCR, the VCR will come on and then immediately switch over to the DVD. We have to hit the VCR button to put it back in VCR mode. We've had this model for a few years and decided to keep it since we got it for a terrific sale price.

Comment: I used ours to record occasional shows and play DVDs. All told, we probably used it about 4-5 times a week -- very little for a DVD/VCR. Once we installed it, we never moved the thing, so it was virtually undisturbed. Yet the VCR playback heads went kaput after only 6 months of use.

Learn from our experience -- find another brand!!

Comment: Hi! I am reading these reviews and laughing at how frustrated everyone is. READ the manual, yes. PUSH a button, yes. This deck has been a god-sent for me as I am transferring all of my undergraduate work to digital media. The extra fun features are neat if you're a couch potato. Initial setup was nothing at all, Pro Scan automatically scanned every catv channel and pretty much did everything on its own. If you KNOW what you WANT, the challenges of learning new electronics give great benefits. :-)

xx~

Comment: an irritating constant humming noise when unit is off

clock always fast

takes too long to start up, miss out on first minutes of recording a show "on demand"

sometimes dvd menu freezes up so i either have to unplug unit
or wait until the off button eventually kicks in and the unit shuts off and start all over.

however, the playing/rewinding modes for dvds and vhs are good

Comment: This is the SECOND time I'm packing this thing back up to return in the last 30 days. When we initally bought this, we came home & after about 2 hours of trying to figure out the hookup and installation, I contacted Magnaxox only to find out I had a "defective" player. The VHS wasn't working (I could hear sound, but picture was only black & white wavy lines) and the DVD would not play at all (No disc message). It also made a very loud noise when a DVD was inserted. SO... we drive back down to the store we purchased it, which is 45 minutes away (we live in a rural area), and exchanged it for another one. I get home, hook it up (quicker this time), try a VHS tape. It was working, so I was optimistic...tried the DVD player... YES, it works. I was very relieved and put away the box and paperwork, feeling very happy that it was just a defective player the first time. Well.... that feeling was pretty short lived. Three weeks after use, I went to put a DVD in & started getting the message "No Disc". Uh-oh... I tried several others, just in case it was the DVD. Nope-same message. I put a VHS tape in to see if that was working alright. It began playing but within 3-4 minutes, it stopped. When I tried to eject the tape, it would not eject. When I tried to open the DVD player to remove the DVD, it would not open. Oh joy.. I unplugged it, and was going to try again, but at that point the player would not even turn on. At all. So... I unplugged it for the evening with intentions of returning it immediately. My husband plugged it in the next day and it came on & he was able to remove our movies (thankfully). The DVD is still not working, the VHS works but now there is this mysterious "snow" on the television whenever we turn this on. Hmmmm..... I believe this player is a dud. I am returning it this weekend and am buying another brand. This DVD/VCR Recorder combo has created a good deal of stress for me and probably raised my blood pressure as well:) Seriously though, I would not recommend this one. I would give it zero stars, if that were an option :)