Price Paid:  $300.00 from local retailer

Summary:
After initially purchasing this product based on industry reviews I was reasonably happy. The VCR component works great although has some problems tracking tapes recorded on my other VCR. The DVD worked flawlessly for 18 months and then began to flake out, skip, pixel, and in some cases would not read brand new DVDs at all. I checked into the warranty and found that it was only 1 year parts and labour so I was "SOL". Tried to contact Samsung Canada and was roundly ignored. Lesson learned....... Look for a better manufacturers warranty and don't buy Samsung

Strengths:
initial excellent performance, expecially the VCR portion

Weaknesses:
DVD too slow to start and then complete DVD failure, warranty support

Similar Products Used:
none

Price Paid:  $180.00 from Ultimate Electronics

Summary:
I hated this VCD / DVD combo.

The good news:
Granted, it was one of the first ever released. It always worked and it never broke. The VCR never ate a tape. I don’t watch many movies but the DVD never had a problem showing what I wanted to see. I never had to call for customer support. That’s the good news.

The bad news:
DVD:
The DVD is slow to read the table of contents. It is slow to scan forward and back. It is slow to switch chapters. It has very rudimentary ability to play VCDs. The picture quality is blurry compared to a couple of stand alone DVD players that I’ve tried.. The sound quality is below average compared to most stand-alone DVD players I’ve tried.

VCR:
The VCR is also slow. The picture quality is poor and its ability to track tapes from other VCRs or pre-recorded tapes is poor. The sound quality is poor (dialog sounds mumbled, hiss is loud, volume is compressed, etc.). Programming the VCR for recording off-air programs is very difficult.

MP3 playback.
The on screen display for MP3 playback is difficult to read. The 8 character title listing (a common limitation) is completely inadequate.

Remote:
The buttons are small and close together. Many of the buttons have non-intuitive dual functions. If you want to fast-forward or rewind, you must hold the button and keep the remote aimed directly at the DVD-V1000. Even if you have a steady hand, the unit will drop back to play mode unexpectedly. Navigating the on-screen menus is difficult.

Front panel:
Often, I will give up on the remote and try to operate the unit with the front panel buttons. More times than not, I’ve thought I was in DVD (or VCD, or music CD) mode, pushed a button, and had the VCR spring to life.

Recommendation:
I’ve read on the internet that other DVD-VCR combos have compromises as well. I have sold my DVD-V1000 and have purchased a $79.00 Panasonic VCR. This cheap little VCR is fantastic. If it breaks, I’ll throw it away and buy another.

My preamp has 5.1 inputs but does not have video switching. So, I’ve ordered a Panasonic DVD-XP50 that will be modified to eliminate macrovision. I’m not interested in pirating videos (renting from Netflix is cheaper and easier than pirating), but disabling the macrovision will allow me to run the video of the DVD-XP50 through the Panasonic VCR. If there is ever a significant amount of Hi-definition television content, I’ll upgrade my TV and run the component out / progressive scan video of my DVD into my new TV. The combined size of my DVD and VCR will be just a little more than the DVD-V1000.

Strengths:
It's a combo unit. For $200 retail, you get a cheap DVD and a cheap VCR jammed into one box made out of sheet-metal and plastic.

Weaknesses:
It's a combo unit. (The Panasonic & Sony combos are hit or miss, the Philips is ugly, the Toshiba has a defect-prone power supply, and Go-Video is a repackaged Samsung. Zenith, Samsung, Sanyo, & RCA are offering combos but there I haven't seen any feedback on these yet.)

Similar Products Used:
I have not used any other combo unit and I have not visited any retailer that can setup a combo unit for demonstration. Aside from my personal experience with the DVD-V1000, my knowledge comes from wh

Price Paid:  $200.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
Its a decent machine although the remote is not half as responsive or easy to use as my sony dvd or tv. Programming can be a bit of a hassle too.

Strengths:
Having both the vcr and dvd.

Weaknesses:
Pics not the best quality.

Price Paid:  $249.00 from Meijer

Summary:
I really only needed an updated VCR with a greater number of program channels, but decided to go with the combo unit. This unit was easy to set up. There are a lot of automatic features that are nice, but they can also be overridden manually.

Strengths:
Ease of setup and use.

Weaknesses:
Timer programming screens are busy and a bit confusing.

Similar Products Used:
None

Price Paid:  $168.00 from fred meyer

Summary:
none