Yamada DVR-8000 Review

Good Points
Cheap

Bad Points
Noisy, slow, poor compatibility, tempremental, poor customer service from Yamada, no scart.

General Comments
I bought the Yamada DVR8000 because of good reviews and a low price. I wish I hadn't bothered. It sounds like its about to grind itself into oblivion every time it's turned on, takes for ever to start up and once it has started takes ages to recognise that any disks have been put into it. So far I've been unable to find ANY disks which can be used for long play recording for more than two hours without the machine throwing a hissy-fit and refusing to co-operate. Yamada's "technical support" can only suggest a rather unhelpful web-link which tells me that the disks I am using should work, but if they don't to read the same website over again. So I am left with a machine that does half a job in a half-hearted way, from a company that is next to useless at helping customers.

On the plus side, if there is one, it can record fairly adequately for two hours, but I bought the machine to archive a lot of old videos, and will not be able to do so for programmes which last for longer than two hours. If anyone can suggest a type of disk that works, I'd be grateful. TDK, Maxell, Memorex, Mitsubishi, or Mirror don't!

Avoid buying this machine and spend your money on a more compatible one.