[Jim Bob]

My Pani. EZ 28 died a few days ago and in doing research here the 513 or 515 is the way for me to go to record OTA at night for daytime playback.

I just ordered a 515H from Walmart's WEB site and a few minuets later I received an E mail back from them saying product is no longer available. Can anyone here shed any light on this or give me another source to purchase one.

Any other options for recording broadcast TV?

 

[Tulpa]

Amazon.com still sells them.

 

[Jim Bob]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Tulpa /forum/post/20821431


Amazon.com still sells them.

Thank you for your reply......I'm an old Dino and have not really done business over the internet.....is Amazon reliable to do business with?

 

[Rammitinski]

Totally, especially if it's Amazon that's actually selling them.


(I see it's a third party - "Electronics Club" - reviews are 98% favorable, and they have the full backing of Amazon. So it should be alright.)


With the difference in price, I'd probably go with J&R refurbished, myself. But it's your money.

 

[Jim Bob]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Rammitinski /forum/post/20821547


Totally, especially if it's Amazon that's actually selling them.


(I see it's a third party - "Electronics Club" - reviews are 98% favorable, and they have the full backing of Amazon. So it should be alright.)


With the difference in price, I'd probably go with J&R refurbished, myself. But it's your money.

For the price I would like to go with the refurb....I'm retired and on fixed income, but have had no prior experience with purchasing refurbished equip. As I see it people have a multitude of problems with new in the box equip. let alone refurbished.....but if you folks suggest it I would be tempted to go with it for the big price difference.

 

[Westly-C]

The refurbs at J&R are typically recorders someone bought, tried to use, decided it was too complicated, and returned to Walmart (the exclusive seller of these 'new in box' Magnavox HDD units). They have very low usage, practically brand new. When they get returned, they are sent back to manufacturer Funai, who checks them out, cleans them up and sells them to outfits like J&R. There may be a slight scratch on some from customer handling, but again nearly new in all other regards. Plus J&R has a 90 day return policy should you get a unit that isn't up to par.

 

[CitiBear]

FWIW, over the last three years AVS members have bought more J&R Magnavox refurbs than any other recorder since Panasonic ruled the day in 2006. My family and friends alone bought seven of them. The J&R refurbs have proven to be 99.9% brand new, I can recall only one or two reports here of a minor scratch or dirty remote, and those seem to have been exceptions to the rule. J&R will exchange them if you ask.


Since you mentioned a tight budget, I would recommend the previous Magnavox MDR513 refurb over the newer 515. You save $50 and they're exactly the same recorder aside from the 515 having a slightly larger hard drive, a somewhat nicer remote, and the ability to program title names into weekly timer recordings (so new episodes automatically have the show name instead of just a date). These features are all nice, and worth the extra $50 if you can afford it, but non-essential. If you mostly record>watch>erase, and don't make many DVDs to keep permanently, theres no great advantage to the 515. The 513 has a somewhat better track record in terms of reliability and has fewer reports of problems shortly after purchase. Choose whichever price and feature set appeals to you.

 

[Jim Bob]

Thanks for all the great information. I called Walmarts 800 number to see what was going on and it was their error....they do have them in stock and my order will go thru. I'm sure I'll be back here looking for set up assistance. Thanks all again.