Product ReviewsMagnavox ZV457MG9 DVD Player / VCR Combo

Great Product

This DVD/VHS player/recorder allows you to watch what you want when YOU want to watch. Free yourself from the mind-numbing effects of live TV! Also watch commercial DVDs or VHS tapes, or use the dubbing capability of the machine to store those VHS tapes on DVD.
If you live in a city, the reception off an indoor antenna is excellent: rid yourself of the cost of cable and the dozens of channels you never watch.
If you have an analog TV, you can connect the D/V recorder/player to the TV using RCA
cables for playback of recorded TV programs or simply use the recorder/player in DTV/TV mode to serve as a digital tuner for my analog TV and thus watch live TV on all the local channels.
If you have cable TV service, you can connect the machine directly to your cable.
The instruction manual is thorough, and after you have programmed the machine a time or two, it's a simple product to use.
One slight limitation is that you cannot record two simultaneous TV programs, only one after another. If that is a significant limitation for you, buy two machines.
The machine is very durable and trouble-free. One in the same series has functioned trouble-free for over 6 years.
Highly recommended!Read full review...

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: mo-sinbad

A lot of features for the price

I have used a few of these units, mostly for converting my VHS tapes, and am still impressed by the number of features on the unit. Good picture and recording quality on DVD and even on VHS, although, as expected, you can see lowered resolution with longer recording times. Synchronized recodings from tape to DVD were easy, and building menus was OK. I found that the recorder could be a bit finicky with some DVD-R/W and DVD-R brands (unit supports both plus and minus modes). Try a few different brands if you encounter issues when recoding. It pumps out DVDs that are compatible with every other unit I played them on.

The RF antenna-in and -out are simply pass-through and serve to send the signal on to your TV and to the DVD/VCR. You cannot play back from DVD or VHS to the RF output. You can, of course, use the composite video+audio outputs. This is only an issue with older TVs without line-in sockets.

Overall, a good pick, and especially for the price it can be found on the web.Read full review...

Magnavox ZV457MG9 stable better than expected

Like:
A lot of features, Digital tuner, HDMI upconversion, recording to VHS from tuner or DVD, recording to DVD from VHS, digital tuner, front input, rear input, front DV input. Picture quality is very good up to 3 hours, 4hours is a little bur but very acceptable to many.

Love:
Love price on eBay compared with expensive Panasonic EZ48V. Has many features better than EZ48V such as recording to VHS with tuner and from DVD which EZ48V does not have. No freeze so far as compared with EZ48V's occasional freezing. With Panasonic's price, you can buy 2 ZV457MG9.

Dislike:
Not much except the remote button is small and initializing DVD+RW and finishing recording is slow. The physical build is cheap.Read full review...

Great product

This product is designed to play and copy home VCR tapes onto DVD. Does this pretty well if your home tapes are in good shape. Easy to use remote.

Verified purchase:  Yes | Condition: pre-owned | Sold by: changes7770

Magnavox ZV457MG9 DVD Recorder / VCR Combo STAY CLEAR

Kinda ironic that ebay wants me to write a review about this thing 2 days after it ate a tape and 1 day after the dvd recorder failed to record another program.

well i've had it for about a month or so, up until recently the only problem i had with it, other than the lousy button layout, 45 second load time for ANY dvd, overall stupid interface, and the fact that u CAN'T set up the dvd and vcr to record at the same time, is that the dvd did not record a program. i've had 1 dvd recorder before this and it too seemed to have an occasional problem recording to a disk. i expected this to happen every once in a while, which is why i had half the programs recorded on the vcr part. i feel that vcr's are way more reliable than dvd recorders, mainly because i have a jvc vcr that has lasted me over 8yrs. well just the other day the vcr part started eating tapes. luckily i was able to get the tape out. i switched all the programs that i record on the vcr over to the dvd. the next day, when the dvd was set to record a program, i checked to make sure it started and was recording, which it was. when i tried to watch the program the next day, it did not record. "error writing to disk". i am so glad i didnt pay full price for this, but i wish i'd gotten the warranty. i would advise ppl to not only stay away from this dvd recorder, but dvd recorders in general. i've never had dvr, but i'd bet they are more reliable.

one last annoying thing about this unit. the audio out is on the dvd side, which means if u have it hooked up to a home theater, only the sound from the dvd will come out through the speakers.Read full review...

Read the Manual, Then it's pretty Easy to Operate!!

Have only had the unit a short time. I bought it to record show from my satellite DVR. Once you read the manual and get it setup properly, it is relatively easy to operate. Haven't own Magnavox products before, but my brother-in-law has and he hasn't had any problems. For the money, I'm happy with my purchase. May also use it to dub from some old VHS tapes to DVD.Read full review...

Magnavox ZV457MG9 DVD Recorder/VCR Combo

There are several reasons why I bought this DVD/VCR Recorder. Listed in no particular order.
1. So I could transfer over 200 VCR home recordings to DVD format.
2. The digital tuner. In case my cable goes out. I have used the digital tuner several times. I ran a 75 ohm cable into the house from an outdoor antenna. I used a two way splitter box (A-B selector box from Radio Shack). On one side I used the Cable input. (i.e. Comcast) On the other input I used the input from the outdoor antenna. I am receiving an excellent picture using the outdoor antenna. Of course I do not receive an many channels, but there are some local stations here in Houston that I am able to receive that are not on cable.
3. This unit also has some additional recording speeds. Normally many DVD recorders have 1 hour, 2 hour, 4 hour and 6 hour recording speeds. Of course the quality of recordings on some units drop off in the 4 hour mode and 6 hour mode.
This unit also has SPP 2 1/2 hour and LP 3 hour recording speeds. I find that the quality at those two speeds to be of very high quality. For those of you over 40 might recall that some VCR's besides the SP 2hour and EP (also called SLP) 6 hours recording speed, there was also LP 4 hour speed that Panasonic
et.al had that I found very useful and did a good job recording. JVC the originator of VCR's unfortunately did not incorporate this speed, but of course all VCRs would play it back.
Yes, I have rambled, but in closing I think that this is a good recorder. In fact I only paid $99.00 for it, wheras some people were asking $89.00 for the Magnavox, that only had the analog tuner.
Good features:
1. HDMI output.
Bad features:
1. No DV input in the front.
2. No fiber optic audio output in the rear.Read full review...

magnavox ZV457MG9 DVD Recorder/VCR Combo

If you are like me, I tend to put things off for awhile. I have a lot of VCR tapes that I would like to save. Some of these recordings are over 30 years old, and are original. (of course a copy is a copy!) I looked into a DVD/VCR combo recorder years ago, but the prices were too high. Not too long ago I again looked, and found very few even existed on the shelves of those Big Box stores. The prices? still too high. So I looked on E-Bay, compared the prices to other sites and found just what I was looking for. It was on auction, I bid, and won. I am now in the long process of "saving" my VCR tapes. Only one problem I found, there was no guide book with the item. But the Magnavox Co. Came through for me. Oh, and did I mention-- I got the item for a steal!Read full review...

Magnavox ZV457MG9 DVD Recorder / VCR Combo

I have really enjoyed using this dvd recorder/vcr combo. It's easy to use and plays well. My only problem is the slow loading of pictures and having to go to the menu page every time I need to add subtitles, otherwise I can recommend this product to anyone looking for a basic unit.Read full review...

Happily ever after.......best deal I ever had.

My brother is a gifted guitar player and singer, but he lives in Texas and other family members are spread out in other states, even one in England. I have rarely had the chance to video him since we seldom get together, but my sister was coming from England and we all agreed to meet at my Mother's house in Louisiana. I have an old camcorder that films with small tapes that have to be played in a VCR adapter. Naturally everyone wanted copies. I've taken these tapes to stores to have them copy for me, but that is very costly and takes a long time to get back. I saw this unit on Ebay and went to the Magnavox website and checked it out thoroughly, including the price for reconditioned factory direct. I knew when I saw this exact unit with a lower price and the seller's rating, that this is what I wanted. I am so pleased with this purchase. Everything looked brand new and it operates like brand new. The manual is 107 pages and didn't come with this purchase, but I had no problem printing it from the Magnavox website. For me, who is electronically challenged, the manual is a bit overwhelming. My husband had no problem hooking it to our Surround Sound unit and then I was off and running with it. I love that it edits easily and now I can continue to use my old camcorder and transfer the tapes to DVDs. This has a built in tuner which I chose over the lesser one that doesn't. I wanted the best, and I'm pretty sure I got it........at a bargain at that! I recommend this seller and this product to you all. Ebay...thanks for asking.Read full review...