It plays every format of CD, DVD and R or RW, and jpegs, etc.. It will only handle the first 250 jpegs or mp3's it finds on a disk you insert. This is a potential nuisance. It records only the DVD+R and DVD+RW formats but can also play the "-" formats. A majority of DVD players and PC's will play the + format but some will only play the - format. A few older players will only play factory DVDs. DO NOT BLAME THE RECORDER for an industry with multiple standards. The RW discs are simpler to use than R discs, but cost more.

While recording, the pause contol works very nicely, but plan ahead for STOP. This results in a long delay while the disc index is written and you cannot resume or anything else until this step is complete.

You can choose the compression to record with to yield 1,2,3,4 or 6 hours on a single-layer single-sided disc. The 1 and 2 hour modes are very very good. Three hour mode is acceptable VCR quality, but the 4 and 6 hour modes suffer from the high compression.

Be sure you let it format the new disk when you first put it in. This takes about 90 seconds. Also allow about 20-30 seconds warm up when you program it to record TV broadcasts. I just set the system clock 30 seconds fast.
Editing takes some practice. I strongly suggest you practice first with material that can be discarded.

The menus need to be made more user friendly, but there is not much else to criticise. Recorders will surely become faster and easier to use in the future, but are already much easier than using a PC for recording.

I am transferring my 10-20 year old home videos to DVD before they go bad. The DVDs will also take up less shelf space.

this maching stinks (Rating: 1.00)
Review : this is the worst piece of electronics i have ever seen and owned. timer recording doesnt work all of the time. seems like it works only if it wants to. its slow in every process it runs. my warranty has expired so no help there. DO NOT BUY THIS RECORDER!!!!!!!!!

Same problem as all the other reviews (Rating: 1.00)
Review : I all so bought this machine as have had luck with other cyberhome products it worked one time, and then chinese writing no disc error message, and then nothing will not even power up after 3 months cyberhome have offered to replace with newer model I guess thats the best I can ask for because never kept receipt, or original box. Learned valueable lesson. We will see if they keep their promise or how long it takes it took me 3 months to get to them

Problems (Rating: 2.00)
Review : I bought this DVD Recorder about a week ago. You can't beat the price, which is the lowest I've seen, but I have problems with the sound going out when I try to do a timed recording, and at various other times for no obvious reason. I'm going to return it and try another brand. Even when the sound is working, it moves very slowly through the menus, takes up to 10-15 minutes to finalize a DVD-R disk, and often has long waiting periods when you do a simple function, like press "stop."

Piece of Junk (Rating: 1.00)
Review : I bought this machine in November 2003 I copied five old home movies from my vcr tapes to DVD. Then I got busy doing other things around the house. Then on January 25, 2005 I decided to get back to coping my old movies to DVD so I got all set up to start and I could not get the DVD door to EJECT then it finally did so I put a DVD in to practice first because I had not used it since November 2003 it said reading disc then it said no disc so I tried to EJECT and guess what it would not EJECT. So I went to their website to see what I have to do to get it repaired and I filled out the request for pick-up request number. Then I came on here to read some reviews and I could not believe what I was reading about everyone having the same problems. I think this is crazy how can we all just get our money back. There is surely a defect in this machine. "DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF JUNK"!!!!!!