Magnavox 160GB DVD Recorder with Digital Tuner

A very good stand alone DVR with both analog and digital tuners. Can record to either hard drive or DVD, and copy from one to the other. Recording quality is very good. Only records 1 program at a time. Remote is not well designed. This unit is functionally identical to the Philips DVDR3576H/37.

Magnavox 160GB HD recorder works great! records in HD. It also receives channels in HD which makes a much clearer picture even on an analog set. Unlike TIVO or others there are no monthly fees you can record as many programs as you want for just the cost of the unit. Great value!

What a GREAT product! I am thrilled to pieces about just getting a DVR again, not from a cable or satellite company, but owning my own. I love DVR's because I can record my own programs and watch them at my leisure. This machine performs as advertised and although is a basic machine performs well within its scope. I wish more companies made one for the public. Thank you.

I have been looking to replace my VHS machine with a DVR and searched and searched but this Magnavox completely escaped me. I almost gave up and bought a DVD recorder. Upon looking up DVD recorders this Maggy popped up on my Google search. I couldn't believe it was priced reduced for $227 which fell well in my price range and NO subscription fees, wow. Go Walmart.

The box when delivered had a couple of tiny holes punched in it but the machined worked and I can only hope there will be no long term effects. I hooked it up and was recording my first show with my HDD in an hour. I have a Sony 52inch LCD HDTV and used a HDMI to connect the two.

The picture quality was much better than I expected, I would say equal to DVD upscale picture quality. Colors are good and fairly crisp, not HD, but very happy with picture. I set the Mag unit to output at 16:9 and my digital HD channels (extended basic cable/no set top box) come out full 16:9 on the screen. Analog stations that play 4:3 on HDTV (side bars) stretch out in the 16:9 mode. I'm not really interested in recording the analog stations but if I do I would prefer a simple button to un-stretch the 4:3 analog channels, a minor point.

Time shift recording is very easy although not as easy as Tivo machines but super easy compared to my old VHS machine. I push one button on the remote and the recording screen pops up. I enter the date, time, channel etc. and repeat it for the next show. Play back is found under the Title button on the remote, press and there are my shows. They are untitled but it's not hard to find each show by sampling the mini screens.

The clock comes preset on Auto and looks for an analog station. You must changed this if you want your clock to work without jumping four hours ahead. Either turn off the Auto setting and manually set the time date, etc. or under the Auto setting go to Manual (not the same as setting the time manually) switch to DTV and pick your local digital PBS channel (leaving off the .XX digits), which is what I did. This has worked, maybe a minute off at times but even after daylight saving time changed, my clock did to. Very happy with one less clock to Fall Back/Spring Forward.

The remote control is easy to master and much easier to understand than my old VHS/DVD player remote. The manual was not complicated but I have not finished with it yet. The HDD makes a faint clicking sound every 10 seconds which can't be heard during playing a show or movie.

This mag HDD/DVDr is the "A" version (H2160MW9"A")which Wajo from AV Forum has figured out the fix to finalizing DVDs while having shows to be recorded stored in the memory. "Press Source button on remote to select L3 (DV) input, insert disc and Finalize with Disc Edit menu." I haven't tried this yet but it fixes a problem that has bugged a lot of people here.

One nice thing about the "A" unit is the HDMI setup can be set to control my Sony HDTV so when I push the ON button on the Mag unit remote, the TV turns on AND switches to the HDMI input my Mag unit is plugged into, very cool. Push and HOLD the OFF button and it turns off both the Mag unit then the TV. Just for that feature I would not go out my way to find and older non-A version Mag unit just to get one less step in DVD finalizing.
Note: The A at the end of model number is not printed on the box but on the instruction manual. The box may have a sticker somewhere with the "A" added to the model number.

I can't believe no one else make this type of unit for under $250. If you consider what you would pay in subscription fees over a few years for a cable DVR, it's a steal.

I'm very satisfied with this Magnavox HDD/DVD recorder. It's not only a good looking piece of equipment it has the features I wanted. It's just what I was looking for.

For the price, this is an excellent DVD Recorder! I have a Panasonic which I love but which cost twice as much. Editing is quite a bit more difficult with the Magnavox, but the hard drive makes it all worth while. I haven't had any problems with the clock or other annoyances noted by other reviewers, so maybe the newer models have fixed the glitches. I would unhesitatingly recommend this recorder.

While doing research on DVD recorders for a future purchase I stumbled upon the Magnavox DVD with a 160gb hard drive.

After reading reviews on how people loved this particular DVD, I went in search of where I could purchase it from. Well, that was like finding a needle in a haystack because I kept coming up empty.

The only place I could find it was the online store of Walmart. Walmart sells the combo version of the VCR/DVD, but not the DVD hard drive.

Now about the product itself..... I LOVE IT.

This is the thrifty version of TIVO or a DVR. You can tape shows, stop live television and never have to pay a fee. You purchase the device and have access to features people have to pay a fee.

It is reasonably easy to use, and there is a very good manual to peruse if you are not a figure it out person.

The one situation I hope I do not ever want to experience is that if you loose power at any point you will lose all of your recordings. My thought is that if they update this product they have a battery backup installed internally.

My online shopping experience with Walmart was a good one. Shipped out and picked it up at the store about a week or so after ordering it. Which is the way you should order online, I read that someone received a damaged product when receiving and home delivery. Also prevents mail theft, which can be prevalent especially during the holiday season.

Other than that, I LOVE THE PRODUCT. I almost feel like ordering another one to store for the future in case it fails in years to come to have a back up. They seem as though they are phasing them out and probably due to copy write restrictions.

Overall Review: Great Product, Needs a Battery Backup, But Very Happy :) So Far!

I bought this to record TV shows without having to pay the cable company for a DVR box. This product is described as having a digital tuner, which it does, but it's not compatible with Comcast, so I can only get basic channels (not expanded basic channels like CNN, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central, FX, etc.). Anything beyond the basic BASIC channels pop up as "scrambled" channels, even though they are not scrambled by the cable company. I had a Comcast tech come out and tell me they couldn't do anything and to call Magnavox. The Magnavox rep told me the tuner just wasn't compatible with the cable company, but I could hook a set top box up to it (which defeats the entire purpose of a digital tuner).

If you only want local channels and CSPAN, this is a great product for you. If you watch regular cable channels like TBS and MTV, too bad! I'm returning this ASAP. It's too bad, I like the setup of this box, but it doesn't work as advertised.

This is great, you don't need any media to record. You can record to the hard drive or dvds. You can pause, rewind and fast forward past commercials from live tv. The tuner picks up all the channels available near me from my antenna. Wal-Mart is cheaper than Amazon.

Exactly what I was looking for to replace tape based A/V recorder. Have not been able to find any HDD based recorders that do not require more out of pocket $$$ (subscriptions..eg. TiVo) after you purchase. Would have been nice to record in actual HD. A little slow to boot up. Google reviews on Firmware issues. Great wal-mart price. Will be interesting to see how long this product will last...time will tell.