Samsung DVD-R122

The Samsung DVD-R122 is a good bit of kit for not that much money. It is quick and easy to use although a bit on the big side.

Samsung DVD-R122

Something I've noticed with modern digital devices that replace our old analogue ones - they're great in most respects, but sometimes they just freak out on you and fail to achieve their most basic of design briefs. This is something I've experienced in recent years with MP3 hi-fis, washing machines and to some degree my freeview set-top box. I write computer software for a living, and know that it takes time, effort and skill to write reliable software that works day in day out, and that the prettiest of appearances can disguise the ugliest, nastiest and most appallingly crash-prone software (anyone remember Windows 98?). I am also confident that a lot of the strange glitches that we all see on our new fangled digital devices are down to imperfect software living inside said devices. So, when I decided it was time to replace the trusty VHS video recorder with a digital counterpart, I was fearful. Was I about to complicate my life with fatal crashes that wipe my discs and erratic behaviour, or could I expect VHS reliability but with a crisp picture and super-lovely sound?

Well, given that I've learnt to distrust all this modern digital stuff, I figured that rule number one had to be that I bought it from Argos. If it had the slightest niggle I could return it in the 16-day return period. I also figured that for once I would skip the cheaper recorders, even though they might easily be up to the job. My reasoning was that if the software guys at Alba were working on too tight a budget, perhaps that might result in wobbly software. The obvious choice seemed to be to go for a Sony - they're always good, if a tad over-priced, right? Well, the Sony listed in Argos had received a proper slating in various places on the web, so it ended up being the Samsung DVD-R122.

So, out with the basic stuff. The Samsung records to DVD-R discs - including the rewritable and write-once types and DVD-RAM discs. I haven't been able to find it mentioned in the manual, but I think it's pretty safe to presume that anything larger than a standard 4.7gb disc will fail to work. I can't claim to have tried a DVD-RAM disc in my machine, as they're not as cheap as the DVD-R ones, and I suspect won't offer any significant advantages. The machine can also play mp3 audo files, DivX video files and display jpeg images from CDs or DVDs. While I've not seen any mention of it in the manual, it also seems quite capable of playing VCD and SVCD formatted CDs. Considering this, I was surprised that it seemed incapable of playing back MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video files. To be fair, it never claimed it could and for what it does support it appears to do an excellent job.

The unit itself is attractive enough and the layout of the remote control is quite natural and easy to work with. Around the back of the unit are all manner of ins and outs - two SCART sockets - one for use as an input and the other for use as an output, analogue audio outputs and both optical and coaxial digital audio outputs, a composite video output, component video outputs, S-Video outputs, and a socket for your TV aerial together with a pass-through socket. The on screen menus are attractive and easy to navigate, and both these and DVD playback give what I consider to be a good quality picture. Obviously, though, given that this is a DVD-recorder the quality of recordings is important too. This is where I found what is possibly the only fault with this unit...

Given that I would be recording from a digital freeview box that I already knew outputted outstanding quality using RGB signals, I knew my source material was good and clean. This was connected via the SCART input. You can also record directly from analogue transmissions using the built in tuner (although your picture quality is likely to be poorer). Watching the freeview box through the Samsung, the picture quality was good, but still noticeably inferior to plugging the freeview box directly into the TV. After forking out for a £30 SCART cable to be sure, I concluded that the Samsung was ignoring the RGB pins of it's SCART input and instead showing the video from the composite video pin. The technical specifications at the back of the manual certainly imply that the machine is capable of recording in RGB from it's SCART, but there are no relevant menu options to switch and it seemed to be ignoring the RGB signals I gave it. I called Samsung's customer services but they were unable to shed any light on the matter. I wonder if a software update could fix this ?

So as far as I can tell, the recorder is flawed at it's crucial input stage. I'm not aware of any other way of providing it with a video signal, so I guess this is just a limitation of the unit. The recordings are still of a good quality, but if you can get hold of a DVD recorder that records using an RGB signal, it's likely to be better. DVDs can be recorded in either XP, SP, LP, EP or FR modes. The quality of recording in XP mode is good but limits you to one hour a disc. SP is still good and gives two hours. LP offers a reasonable quality four hours and EP offers up to eight hours. Artefacts are visible in LP and EP mode, but both are probably still better than a good VHS recorder will offer. I have found EP is particularly useful for lengthy VHS camcorder footage. FR mode is a mode available only when you use timer recording, and it simply looks at the length of the programme you've asked it to record and selects the best recording mode, taking into account how much space is left of the disc.

As mentioned previously, this unit supports the DVD-RAM format as well as the more common DVD-R format. I've not laid my mitts on a DVD-RAM disc yet, but when a DVD-R disc is inserted, it is by default initialised into "DVD-VR" mode. This appears to give you all the abilities of a DVD-RAM disc, but using cheaper DVD-R media. As far as I can tell, this amounts to better editing. For instance, it's possible to do rudimentary editing (e.g. removal of adverts) on a DVD-VR mode disc. I wouldn't recommend trying to edit wedding videos or anything though - you'll have to be pretty skilful to get frame accurate editing! (Rip it off to your PC and try the demo of "MPEG Video Wizard" from womble.com)

The alternative to DVD-VR mode is "DVD-V" mode. This is the mode I have now settled on for day-to-day usage. It doesn't offer any clever editing, but what it does offer is compatibility. A DVD-R disc formatted in DVD-V mode, will work in most other DVD players or on suitably equipped computers. In most cases a DVD-VR formatted disc will not. Unfortunately, when you first insert a disc, your options are to either format as DVD-VR or eject the disc. To use DVD-V mode, you have to reformat the disc a second time from the "Disc Manager" menu.

The thing that strikes you most, coming from VHS to recordable DVD, is that it really is no hassle finding space to record something at all. You can check the remaining space on a disc with the press of a button, chose a recording mode (SP is my favourite) and press record. It starts recording immediately. No faff. This is no doubt true for all recordable DVD players, but when you're used to looking for space on a VHS, this is a serious improvement. On this particular model, if you press record again once recording, you are given options to automatically stop recording in half an hour, an hour or what-have-you. That's not bad either.

Where this machine loses out to VHS is in the necessity of prepping discs before you can use them. When you first use a disc, it needs to be formatted (initially to DVD-VR) before use. It probably takes about twenty seconds. This isn't really a big deal, but if the program you urgently want to record is starting, it could be annoying!

If you want to share the DVD with a friend, then you also need "finalise" the disc (don't worry there's nothing "final" about it!). This can actually take quite a long time on this unit, so it's possibly worth making a cuppa in the meantime. I think I might have waited four or five minutes sometimes. Actually, I've waited much longer, but it turned out that the disc's data had been damaged. I should probably stress that this has only happened to me once, although it did result in a completely blank disc! (another point for VHS, I guess!)

So what about reliability? I can honestly say, that except for the aforementioned failed finalisation session (which wasn't necessarily the Samsung's fault anyway), I have had no trouble with the machine at all. I don't recall it crashing or doing anything weird whatsoever. In fact I was so pleased with it's reliability, I decided I would forgive it for it's slightly dubious video input abilities and that it wouldn't have to go back to Argos at all. Well there's nothing on telly worth videoing anyway, what does it matter?!

Multi-region hack (allows you to play U.S. DVDs etc.):

1. Without a disc inserted, press "0" four to five times.

2. Press "Repeat".

3. Press "3","8","7","6" and then "7".

4. After that you should see a number "2" (the European regional code) at the upper left corner of the screen.

5. Press "9" and then the "2" will be changed into a "9".

6. Press "Open" and then "Close".