*Rebate Dead* RCA Scenium (DVD/PVR) @ Circuit City: $183 ~ $194 AR

[Atrac]

*NOTE* The $50 Rebate for this deal ended 10-04-03. So the final cost is now $233 ~ $244.

I'm not sure how excited to get about this Clearance Item at Circuit City, but I bought one because it's cheap. They have the RCA Scenium DVD Player/Personal Video Recorder (PVR) Model DRS7000N at the reduced price of $233 ~ $244 (depending on which CC you go to). Currently CC is offering a $50 rebate on all DVD Recorders/PVR's, so that brings the price down to $183 ~ $194. The website shows it at ~$296, but if you order online the price should be automatically adjusted *if* you select in-store pickup. At lot of CC's are already sold out.

RCA Scenium DRS7000N

Link to Circuit City Website

I say that I'm not too excited because, although the markdown is quite substantial (it used to sell for over $500), I've read some really good reviews and some really really bad reviews of it on the net. But overall, it has not been talked about a lot.

So if the idea of a "no service fees" TiVo/ReplayTV type device excites you, then this would be a great deal for you.

I'll be trying mine out tonight when I get home. I've been using TiVo since it first came out, so I'm sure I am going to have harsh opinions on it. But, you never know.

Apparently Tripp1269 on "another forum" found this deal two weeks ago, but I thought I'd post it here since it hasn't been mentioned yet.

 

[artist99]

careful on CC rebates, they have major financial problems

 

[grandeCC]

CC Rebate not so hot? Really???

 

[r01axb]

I was looking for this, It seems like a good deal, mixed reviews though, a great feature this has is it can record one show while you are playing back another one you previously recorded. please come back and post your review.

 

[Atrac]

Originally posted by: artist99
careful on CC rebates, they have major financial problems

CC just finished remodeling the stores in my area about a week ago. That'd be quite strange if they suddenly went out of business!

*shrug* Maybe they used rebates to finance the remodel! heh heh

 

[darth maul]

Atrac, I am very interested in what you have to say for this PVR, as I may pick it up if I can find one.

 

[GnatGoSplat]

I bought one for $194AR.
For the price, it's great!
Once, it recorded with no sound. We thought it was technical difficulties at the station, but now someone at FW says his does it regularly (like every 8th recording). Ours is used every day, so we haven't had the problem as frequently, but it has happened once.

As far as PVR's go, I think its features and Guide don't compete with Tivo or ReplayTV. I think those are probably far superior based on reviews. We just bought ours because my wife records her favorite shows every day, watches them, and deletes them after she's watched them. We basically just bought it to replace the VCR which with that kind of usage, started showing many mechanical problems and the VHS tapes have started to wear out. The Scenium does great as a VCR replacement so long as you want to watch what you record on the TV that it's plugged into. It has several timers that you can set like a VCR, or you can select shows from the Guide.
That's basically it! Saves up to 30hrs, but we've never needed anywhere near that capacity.

It also lets you pause and rewind live TV up to 45-minutes. Limitations are the guide only shows 3-days ahead, and it only has 1 tuner so if you want to watch something else while recording, you need to use your TV's tuner.

Anyway, awesome VCR replacement for the price. Falls a little short as far as PVR's go, but hey, no monthly fee anyway! I've heard if you use a cable or satellite box, that it can get annoying as it turns those devices on at night to download updates to its guide. I wouldn't know, we use broadcast TV.

I can't really say anything bad about it for this price. Just consider when you read those bad reviews, that most people had to pay $400-600 for it. There's no way I could have paid that much for it and been happy. For $200, I'm very happy.

 

[Atrac]

GnatGoSplat, I have to agree with everything you've said. I messed around with mine last night and must say, for ~$183 after rebate, it's a steal. It's definately no competition for Tivo or ReplayTV, but as a "ghetto" version of a PVR (in terms of features), it's very nice. Definately if I had paid $500 - $600 when it came out though, I wouldn't be too impressed. But for ~$183, it's a steal!

Although quite slow, the ability to copy mp3's and jpg's to the internal hard drive is a nice feature. You can't do that with stand-alone Tivo's and ReplayTV's (although Toshiba has a new Tivo/DVD Player that I'm sure supports it).

I tried the region hack listed at DVDRHelp.com and indeed, my unit is now region-free (always an added bonus). I also tried DVD-R and DVD+R discs of various manufactuers that I had recorded and they all played just fine. The unit does not support SVCD, but with DVD recordable working so well now, that doesn't bother me any more.

In terms of the picture quality of the PVR recordings, it's really really good. I was afraid that the sound quality was suffer (as it did on the original ReplayTV unit I owned), but in this case it sounds just as good as the original. Fast Forward speed goes up to 60x (FAST...and it does this speed for DVD Playback too).

Another thing I like about it is the build quality. It's a solid unit with a great LCD display on the front (something that Tivo and ReplayTV don't have...it shows elasped time of the recorded program you are watching!). You can tell that they were mindful of the fact that they would be charging $500 for the unit. It doesn't feel cheap like a lot of the Apex models currently available.

So far, I like it a lot. Provided that the sound doesn't start dropping out on recordings or it drops dead after a week, I'm very pleased that I took the plunge.

 

[loup garou]

hmmm...might pick one of these up for the bedroom tv.
Thanks for the headsup atrac!

 

[darth maul]

Review <----I stumbled across this reveiw

Seems like he gave it a thumbs up for the most part.

 

[darth maul]

I just got mine hooked up, looks good so far.

 

[Atrac]

Cool...looking forward to your impressions of it darth maul!

I'm rather stunned that more people aren't jumping on this. I think the Progressive Scan DVD Player & jpg/mp3 copying to the hard drive abilities alone make it worth the price. Adding the PVR features puts it way over the top for me.

 

[GnatGoSplat]

Yeah I know! I even want another one for the entertainment center I'm going to build around the Infocus X1 I bought earlier this week.

 

[bradolson]

nice deal. thanks.

Brad

 

[thefish]

The website shows it at ~$296, but if you order online the price should be automatically adjusted *if* you select in-store pickup. At lot of CC's are already sold out.

A few in the Atlanta area have it but I cannot get the reduced price if I select instore pickup. They all are still priced at $296 when I am about to enter my card number and checkout. Any ideas? Was the reduced price from the shelf sticker at the store or was it on your receipt for the online purchase?

 

[darth maul]

I got mine for $233 in store before rebate, I say just hike on out and see what they have for an in store price.

 

[Atrac]

When I purchased things from Circuit City in the past that were more online, they did the adjustment in the store. So you have to go through the full checkout process (which looks like you are going to pay more). Once in the store the adjustment is made as a credit back to your account for the difference.

Of course, if you go into the store, you won't have to deal with that. The fact that it lets you checkout online means that they are available in the store so you should be safe.

A note to those teetering on the fence about this deal....the $50 rebate ends tomorrow (Saturday, 10-04-03).

So buy it now before it's too late! You can always return it if you don't like it.

 

[GnatGoSplat]

Something kinda cool I discovered is any digital camera that shows up in WinXP as a USB DISK DEVICE and doesn't need any drivers can be plugged directly into the 7000's USB port and accessed as a "JPEG PICTURE DEVICE".

 

[darth maul]

I have been playing around with my new PVR, and like it. Not a big baseball fan, but I have been using the replay abilities during the cubs game and replaying close calls at 1/12th speed is not only cool, but fun. I have a DISH 501 PVR and this RCA is no worse of a unit then the DISH unit is. Which is to say they aren't as cool as TIVO or Replay TV are, but for my needs and wants they full fill their duties just fine.

 

[Smackattack]

the reviews that talk about problems with RCA satellite recievers has scared me off. I was about to jump all over this. How does RCA let this happen? maybe thats why its on clearance.

 

[darth maul]

Its on clearance because a new model is coming, the DRS7005N. Half the negative reviews are from newbies and the other half are from TIVO/Replay TV owners IMHO, and the fact they prolly paid $500 for it. For the price its a class leader cause there is nothing else in its price range. Throw in a progressive DVD player and there is nothing out there in its price range or feature set.

 

[Atrac]

Well put, Darth Maul.

...and the deal quickly slides into "Dead" Status as the clock ticks down to the end of October 4th (in which the $50 rebate expires).

On a sidenote I did try to buy the display model from several stores, but they wouldn't let me! The managers consistently said because it was "orderable" from other stores, they could not sell it until they were also sold out (of course none of the "local" stores in my area still had any new ones in stock...it would have been a long drive out to BFE to get one in the box).

Personally, I think they were waiting for the rebate to expire so they wouldn't have to honor it directly (since these displays had no box).

Honestly though, I'm happy to have a brand new one. Sometimes it's nice to have the box, manual, and cables.

 

[thefish]

Atrac, thanks for the deal.

Went to thge local CC this morning and picked up their last new one and the display. Price on new one was $194 after rebate. After they rang me up, the manager told the salesperson to mark down the display for sale. Hmm. My impulse took over to buy the display also and later return the new one.

They said they would sell the display for $210 before rebate but could not locate the box, manual, or video cable for it. The manager said I could not get the rebate without the box so he reduced the price to compensate for that to $175. I tried to push him down to $160 ($210 less rebate if they had the box), but he wouldn't budge. I still took it because it was $20 less than the new one without the hassle of the rebate. So I left with the new one and the display.

I got home and read the rebate form which says they need only a copy of the UPC. I suppose I could copy the UPC from the box of the new one and send it in with the receipt for the display. Then I can return the new one and wait for the $50 on the display for a potential net cost of $125.

This all depends on liking the unit though. I have tried both TIVO and Replay lately but didn't want to pay $200-250 for the unit and then the service on top of that. If I had satellite I would go with DirectTV TIVO, but my whole house is wired with the old cable lines - so I have stuck with digital cable. Both Replay and TIVO had their pros/cons but the playback on the Replay seemed less distorted (on a 65 inch WSTV). I would have kept the Replay, but I heard Charter might offer a digital cable box with the PVR built in sometime soon. But for $175 or $125 out the door with no monthly/lifetime service, I can live with this unit with built-in DVD until the cable company steps it up (if they ever do).

Thanks again for the deal.

 

[GnatGoSplat]

Ugh, you're smarter than I am! I went to CC and all they had left was the display. The salesman talked to the manager and let me have it for $199.97. Told me I could get the rebate and everything (even printed the rebate). The whole time it never occurred to me that I'd need the original box for the UPC! DOH!
I looked at the UPC on the one I bought last month, and it has the serial number on it, so if they scan the serial # into any kind of computer, I doubt that UPC will work.

I'll call the CC rebate center on Monday and see if they can make an exception for me. If not, I'll talk to the local CC store and see if they can give me a credit.

BTW, I was able to get a $12 price adjustment on the one I bought last month, so if anyone bought this when it was $244 before rebate, go back and get your $12 back!

 

[Atrac]

Hmmm...it requires a copy of the UPC only, so just copy the UPC from the box. The serial number is on a separate barcode below it. Just copy the side of the box, cut the UPC from the copy, then copy the UPC copy and send that in with the rebate.

Hopefully that makes sense. It should work for you though.