Cyberhome CH-DVR 1600 Review

Overall Rating

Small footprint
Lightweight
AV + firewire on front (where they should be)
2 x SCART's
Plenty of I/O ports on the back panel
Easy to use menu system
Cheap at £70

Little options for managing recorded titles
Disk compatibility issues
Lack of useful controls on the main unit
Not a quality remote control
Lithium button battery for remote

My trusted VCR packed in just before Christmas, so there was a good excuse to venture out and grab one of the latest offerings from the sea of cheap DVD recorders. My eye caught the Cyberhome DVR 1600 in Asda (honest, I was just in for milk and bread). At less than £70 it was worth a gamble - after all it was replacing a £300+ VCR (well, ten years ago). I was impressed with its sleek lines, numerous I/O ports, and how little space it would take up compared to the mammoth VCR.

Setting up the unit was easy, but that's when the Cyberhome started to show its colours. I put in a new Philips DVD+RW disk (on the Cyberhome approved disk list) and after a bit of mechanical whining the OSD told me there was no disc present. Immediately I thought I will have to format it. The manual says you format a disk by using the edit function. Unfortunately, the edit function is disabled when there is no (or no recognised) disk in unit. Not willing to give in just yet I formatted the disk on my PC. This enabled the disk to be recognised on the Cyberhome, resulting in a format prompt on the OSD. I later discovered that opening and closing the disk drawer four times with a new unformatted disk would yield the same prompt. This didn't work with the new Memorex +RW disks, however. At this point I knew the unit would have to go back for round two. After all, what good is a DVR if it doesn't recognise new disks? I downloaded the firmware via the German site (http://www.cyberhome.de/de/Downloads-index-req-viewsdownload-sid-21.html)
which I will replace before taking the unit back.

If this is the Cyberhome's only flaw and it is correctable, then it has to be said, there are a number of items in its favour. The picture quality is very good, and there is no shortage of quality settings. To setup scheduled recordings is simplicity itself (sorry no VideoPlus here). The menu is largely intuitive, although if you want to understand the unit's LED (VFD) readout best to have the manual at hand for interpretation. It plays just about every disk there is, and although it doesn't mention it in the manual, many say they can record on DVD- as well as +. Some forums even provide a hack to make the unit multi-regional.

On the downside, there isn't much in the way of disk management. Once you record your title you have a laborious task if you want to rename your programmes from Title1, Title2, etc. Once the Cyberhome formats your disks it appears to set permissions on the disks preventing you from moving/copying the files from one disk to another using a PC. Unfortunately, this unit doesn't seem to acknowledge any RW formatting other than its own (it does play other recorded disks after finalisation). Anyone have a quick way around this?

I would recommend you have a spare lithium battery on hand as the unit is useless without its remote control. Those that are far sighted better have their glasses at the ready if you want to know what you are pressing on the RC. One last annoying quirk is that you have to set the source of the recording first, as just hitting the record button alone will leave you making embarrassing excuses why you can't record tonight's airing of Crimewatch UK.

I said I wouldn't recommend this DVR, but at this price there may be the odd occasion I could mention it. We'll see how round 2 goes.