NEW @ Walmart RCA DRC-8030N

hmm...I couldn't find this model number at RCA website. And I couldn't find it in Walmart's online listing either. Anyone with any info?

They may have some more special units like this - like the SV2000 recorder for 79.99. Maybe the makers decided that Walmart is a good dumping ground for all these analog tuner units that will be hard to sell after 3/07.

Supposedly this will appear in Wal*Mart's Dec 24-30 ad. No indication of what part of the country this ad is for. Where were these actual units seen?

By any chance did you notice if it had the "Commercial Advance" system in it?

Don't know why RCA would include it with a HDD model but you never know.

Commercial Advance is a system that "Automatically" marks & skips over commercials on playback & it's not just a Commercial Skip button on the remote if that helps. Thanks.

I picked one of these up tonight at Walmart for $198.96, and will test it over the next couple of days. So far I've found out....

1. The Menu seems basic and easy to use.
2. The DVD Recorder records at 4X
3. You can record to the DVR then transfer to DVD.
4. There are 6 quality choices for recording (So far there is very little difference between 1 and 2)

Will post more as I play with it more

Another forum post says the RCA is in a Wal-Mart ad for Dec. 24-30, listed as:

RCA 80 GB DVD Recorder/Player (#DRC8030N) $198.97 One Time offer

Currently on their web site (product_id=5030815).
According to the listing, front A/V is the sole input.
But the most important question: does it have a tuner and is it stereo?

More importantly: can you stick any HDD in there to replace the 80GB unit?

www.walmart.com now has these in Stock! The Polaroid is now gone rather then being listed as out of stock. I wonder if this is the same machine more or less as the Poloroid?

I saw a pile of these at the local Walmart. There was no display model, nor price - they're just dumped in the DVDr aisle. They were right next to the Polaroid units. It makes sense to put them there since DVDrs are arranged in price order and this unit will be only $10 less than the Polaroid unit. The features seem the same as the Polaroid unit. Come to think of it I didn't see many Polaroid units on the shelf - maybe it is a replacement.

For inputs, it has a coaxial (Cable with TV Tuner), A composite, S-Video, and an Audio input on the back, and a composite and s-video input on the front.

For outputs it has Coaxial (Cable), Coaxial (Dolby Digital Audio), Composite, S-Video, and Component.

It does have a TV Tuner and Does record in Mono and Stereo.
I'm not sure about replacing the HDD.

So far I've recorded a couple of shows to the DVR and copied them to a DVD+R and a DVD+RW without any problems. The menus are basic and very easy to use.

As far a quality, there are 6 selections. I've only recorded in the 3 best selections without much dropoff in quality.

Does it have component inputs?

Can You post what the recording modes (Speeds) are & does it have a "Flex" Record Mode? If not hopefully it's like the Funai's that Wal-Mart has.

1 Hour
2 Hour
2 1/2 Hours
3 Hours
4 Hours
6 Hours

Unfortunately it does not. It does convert any inputed video source to Progressive Scan with a touch of a button on the remote control.

1 hour, 2 hour, 3 hour, 4 hour, 6 hour and 8 hour modes.

I'm not sure what a "flex" mode is.

2.5 would be nice. But if the encoding quality is good it may not be that big of a deal.

My concern is that very few new releases are moving to component inputs. The elusive quest for component inputs continues.

My thought is that with everything moving to digital that component inputs are becoming a thing of the past.

It looks like it may become tougher to record full widescreen off of cable boxes at 480i. At least without the MPAA checking in.

The record does have an optomize/flex time recording.

Wal-Mart product_id=5030815

Don't believe the box or web site. It does not support DVD-R/RW only DVD+R/RW
I spoke to support twice, over an hour.

BTW support is through Thomson Network, not RCA. Go figure. They are looking into it. 7 to 10 business day response. I'm not Psychic but I bet their response is: Sorry, your correct. It does not support -R/RW media.

I am keeping the unit because I have over 300 +R DVD left over from an older recorder. And I wanted the DVR option anyway. I'll save my stock of 500 -R DVDs until my next purchase.

Bought one yesterday "for the wife" for xmas. So far I like it alot.
The menus are simple but clumsy. Like scroling through the quality settings
and such you can only go one direction there are a few other places like this.

As for the DVD-R issue I was a little miffed about that also the menu only
shows the +R/+RW option BUT I tried a (TDK DVD-R 1-16x) and it seemed to
work fine.

I also like being able to transfer from DVR to DVD and the other way around
BUT it sucks that it does it in real time and ties up the whole unit. There is a
transfer timer but I havent been able to get it to work yet.

Hope this thing continues to work well.
Just my $.02
Ken

I've seen today at Wally Mega-Lo-Mart three stacks of 10 each on the overflow top shelf. No display, no price. I didn't even see a shelf tag

Does it use VCRplus codes???

No. At least the packaging doesn't say so.

I just got mine today from Walmart com. What a piece of junk!!! Straight out of the box, the tuner is defective!! Also the tuner in these units is MONO ughh Why would you put a mono tuner in a hi end unit RCA you SUCK. They show divide feature in manual, no such function in unit, For those who asked no VCR Plus. This is going back pronto !!! Can someone recomend another brand comparible to this that has a stereo tuner?

For ~$315, you can get a Pioneer DVR-640H-S, with 160GB HDD, stereo tuner, 33 rec. modes/speeds, chase-play, 32-program timer, easy editing, Jukebox, PhotoViewer, superb PQ and reliability, plays and records all formats, etc., etc.

Thanks for the tip, but that's about 100.00 over what i can afford. Maybe if i keep an eye out, i can find a better price

Bought one of these units. Believe I was able to successfully upgrade the harddrive. Dropped in a 200 Gig PATA IDE drive. Unit stopped typical startup process and prompted to format the harddrive. Screen went blank during format, but seemed to work. Unfortunately, I didn't bother to check recording times available before upgrade. But with the 200 Gig drive in the unit, I have 58hrs 36 mins recording time at best quality (1), 130 hrs, 8 mins at Good Quality (3), and 262 hrs 56 mins at Basic Quality (5).

I am disappointed at all the Copyright crap in it. Can't dump a commercial DVD to the harddrive for archiving. Can't even capture anything commercial from the analog video inputs. I even tried my old Macrovision remover box on the video in, it somehow still knew I was paying back a commercial DVD. I was hoping to use this as a video jubebox for my DVD collection.

Next step is to convert my movies to MPEG2 files, burn to DVD, and see if it will recognize them and allow copying to the internal harddrive.

Hello, Im very interested in this unit but i have some questions for the ones who have bought it.

It seems the HDD can be replaced but was it simple?
DOes it have something to transfer data to PC like USB or FireWire.

Another thing...in my place Walmart is gonna sell it DEC 24 @ $240 (Puerto Rico).
Its 40 bucks more than in US but its still good.

L8R,
Kev

Information has been a little scarse outside of this forum. They haven't posted the manual online. I'll throw out some of the things I wonder about...

Can it do simultaneous DVD xor HDD playback during recording?

Regarding playback controls:
? fast & slow, forward & reverse
? frame advance & reverse
? same functions available for HDD as DVD
? resume after switching to tuner and back
? direct DVD menu access

Any details on the PIP feature?