JVC HR-XVC33U DVD Player / VCR Combo

Pros: Setup. Video quality.
Cons: Confusing operation. Eject mechanics. Poor remote design.

Despite my better judgment and reading a number of negative reviews about DVD/VCR combos, I decided to purchase one so that my wife and I could re-familiarize ourselves with our 55" TV. Our 3-year-old son has a tendency to monopolize it with his Wiggles, ...

Pros: Good picture and sound quality
Cons: Remote programming's counter-intuitive & the DVD just sucks for having bit the dust so early.

I purchased my unit in summer 2004 based on the reliable service I've had from another JVC VCR that's at least 10 years old (and which is still working, I might add). The VCR component was fine but the DVD player went south after 2 years of less-than-average use. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I kind of expect my electronics to last something more than 2 years.

Pros: Fine while it worked.
Cons: Breaks far too easily. Will avoid all JVC products in the future.

Mostly VCR use, played maybe a dozen DVDs in that time. Worked very well initially, good picture quality. But the DVD portion failed, picture wouldn't sync, JVC said, "Tough!" No repair, no replacement.

Pros: VCR can be played through the comp. video.
Cons: none

I've had this unit now for 1 year and it has served me well. No issues with playback or recording, all discs I put into this (including dvd-r, +r) work great. The vcr jammed up twice on me but all I had to do was unplug it, wait a minute, plug it back in and that was it. Best of all, every input and the vcr all can be played through the component video outputs.

Pros: DVD player is OK.
Cons: The VCR half is a breathtaking disappointment.

To record on timer you have to press the timer button which turns the unit off. If you want to use the tuner before the scheduled recording you have to turn the timer off. It won’t switch to record if you are using the tuner. I haven’t seen this feature since the 80’s!
If it is recording on timer you can’t just hit the stop button.
It lacks the LP speed leaving you with SP (short) and EP (poor picture quality).
You can record the SAP channel, it will tell you if SAP is being broadcast on a TV channel, but if you can just listen to SAP while watching I can’t figure out how. I downloaded the manual in PDF and searched SAP.
Pressing rewind or ff puts a big display on the screen until the procedure is done. You can disable onscreen display in total, but then you don’t get any information posted.
If there is a disk in the DVD it will always start the DVD player and play the disk when the unit is switched on.
This thing is going back, I can do better.

Pros: Lots of features. plays DVD and -R formats
Cons: stops working after 6 months. repair cost ridiculous. Better to buy different brand.

I thought that JVC is a premium brand until I owned this player for the past 8 months now. It was fine for the first 6 months but the last 2 have been a real disappointment. The VCR is fine but the DVD has stopped working. The movie only plays for 30 minutes before it starts to skip, pixel distortion and then freezes. You have to wait about 12 hours before you can watch another 30 minutes of the movie. It's as if it overheats or something. It might be a buffer problem but that is on the circuit board and there is nothing you can clean or do to fix this. Bottom line is that it's not worth fixing for the flat $125 charge that JVC quoted me. New DVD/VCR Combos are selling for $89 these days. It's a complete waste of money. Their customer service doesn't care either. They were no help.

Pros: Decent appearance, remote is easy to use.
Cons: Everything else.

I purchased this unit 5 months ago from Circuit City for around $149. The first unit I took home skipped on the DVD until it came up with "no disc" on the display. I tried every DVD I had, even new ones. I took it back and CC seemed astonished that I would have problems with this unit but unhappily replaced it. The second unit worked with DVD fine, but sometimes the remote would switch it to VHS and sometimes it wouldn't. Recently, it quit switching to VHS all together. When I turn it on, it goes to DVD and if it is empty, it says no disc, and sticks there until you turn it off. Trying to turn on the VCR is impossible now. In addition to the numerous complaints the last reviewer had, I had nothing but problems and frustrations with this thing. I don't know what the warrantee is, and don't want to screw with CC again, so I am kicking it to the curb. JVC, do better!

Pros: Many features
Cons: Timer feature

I'm not too sure what these other reviewers are whining about, this machine is a good one. The timer button feature is a little annoying, you have to remember to activate the timer before recording can happen. Like all DVD/VCR combo machines I guess, it is complicated to use, with a 100 page manual and a remote like a scientific calculator. So I would only recommend it to the techno savvy. But for those folks it's a good buy.