What Hi Fi Sound and Vision
19 JUL 2007
Samsung DVD-R150
Of the sub-£150 recorders on the market, this effort from Samsung distinguishes itself straight from the box. For the money, build quality is excellent, as is the design of both fascia and remote.
The buttons, unlike most budget rivals, are slick and responsive, while the menus are fairly appealing and easy to use – though not as slick and efficient as the interfaces provided by the more expensive machines out there.
Editing functions are, however, sensible and intuitive to use, and the overall experience of using the DVD-R150 is refreshingly free of fuss and frustration.
The DVD-R150 records to DVD-R/-RW and DVD-RAM, but not DVD+R/+RW. The sockets on the back panel are, as you might expect at this price, not exactly cutting edge, although Samsung does provide a set of component video outputs to complement two Scarts and an S-Video socket.
The tuner is analogue only, so we’re making do with just the five terrestrial channels (yeah, we know, poor us).
A proficient recording machine
Off-air performance is impressively stable and solid. There are traces of noise and grain, but it’s a distinct improvement on a lot of the rivals out there.
Fast motion, the bugbear of cheap tuners everywhere, is handled reasonably well. However, the Samsung’s picture is at times soft and prone to bouts of dot crawl.
Recordings are proficient: on the whole, it’s a fairly easy machine to use, and the highest of its four recording modes (XP, SP, LP, EP) provides results with no degradation of the broadcast signal.
The story continues using the DVD-R150 as a straight DVD playback machine. Again, there are some visible picture flaws, but some impressive virtues, too: contrast is decent, while colours are respectably rich without unnecessarily tinting things with a lurid and unrealistic sheen.
A good recorder for the money
All in all, then, the Samsung is a very decent unit considering its low price. But still, there are enough flaws in the ’R150’s performance to rob it of that fifth star. Still, if £130 is the extent of your budget, you could do worse than give this neat machine an audition.