Review on Efficient and Versatile Funai Combination VCR and DVD Recorder: ZV427FX4 by Andrew Agarwal

I bought this to rip old VHS tapes to DVD. It was easy to set up and use. If all your videotapes are 2 hour SP (Standard Play) you shouldn't have a problem. I have successfully copied over 50 videocassettes over 20 years old. At the recommendation of others, I've used these DVD-Rs without a single problem. CMC Pro - Powered by TY Technology Premium Blank DVDs - 8x 4.7GB DVD-R Silver Thermal in Cake Box - Pack of 100 I had trouble changing the recording mode from SP to LP and from SP to EP. The resulting DVDs had a distorted aspect ratio (so I'm deducting 1 star). I ended up burning over 2 hour VHS tapes onto a couple of DVDs. I could only eject the VHS tapes with the remote control by pressing the VCR button and then the eject button. When you do the same on the recorder, it only opens/closes the DVD tray. Another small problem I had was with a tape that contained a one-off dubbing program (a type of film) dubbed with family events. Family events were recorded over several days, with a few seconds of one-shot film in between. Funai Recorded stopped dubbing whenever a copy-protected scene was found. It was a minor annoyance that luckily I only had to deal with twice. The only other issue I had was with a couple of VHS tapes that were recorded in Hi-Fi stereo. There was no sound when playing these tapes through the TV. In this case you must 1. start playing the VHS2 cassette. Press the DVD button on the remote control, then3. Press the audio button on the remote control to switch the sound to MONO. You should now hear a tone. Now you can pause and rewind the VHS tape and then start the dubbing process. The audio will now be burned to DVD. Please note that Funai Recorded will not remember this setting. You may need to repeat these steps the next time you insert a VHS tape. Steps to copy a VHS tape to DVD (assuming the VHS is 2 hours long)1. Insert a VHS tape and a blank DVD-R. The order doesn't matter.2. Play the VHS tape to check the sound. Stop or pause the tape a few seconds before the point you want to record.3. Press the red D.Dubbbing button on the remote control to start the VHS to DVD.4 ripping process. Click the "Stop" button when you're done recording, or wait for Funai Recorded to stop automatically. Each time you start and stop the dubbing process, you create a separate title menu on the DVD. This comes in handy if you have the patience to separate the different events recorded on the same VHS.5 tape. (Optional) After dubbing, press the Setup button on the remote control and name the DVD. Then press the "Return" button twice to exit the "Setting" menu.6. Go to "Install" again and complete your DVD. After completion, you can eject the DVD and VHS tape.