Customer Reviews
Great Price for A great Recorder 
2006-03-23
I bought this at ebay last month as a refunished unit and have not had any prolems at all. Of course you can't record DVs or Video tapes tey are copy protected but you can still recorded your home movies and movies/TV shows/Sports to DVD.
I have yet to have any of the problems that other people here seem to of had, Maybe I was just luckly. But from my experience I wouldhave no problem telling someone to buy this machine.
Fourth time and it still doesn't work 
2006-03-20
I am on my fourth (3rd directly from the factory) replacement.
1st time - would not record or respond - bad DVD assembly
2nd time - no sound via HDMI
3rd time - HDMI worked for approx 3 hrs and then nothing
4th time - back to RCA for another unit.
So far, I haven't had one that worked and I have been trying to get a working unit for the last 6 months.
Quality or engineering design is severly compromised with this piece of electronics.
Local service vendor is GREAT, but so far, this whole experience is something all should avoid.
This unit is a total piece of sh!t 2006-01-25
I bought this model at Sam's Club about 1 year ago and I've had most of the problems described by previous reviewers. The problems started early on and performing the reset procedure
usually seemed to resolve the problems. I always thought it was me messing something up until recently. The problems keep getting worse and more frequent, and now I read other's reviews and learn they have the same issues. The most irritating problems I have include:
> "Bad disk' error (even on new media)
> clock jumps +-1 hours or +- 1 day
> system lockups
> won't eject disk
> won't record on demand (i.e., by pushing "record" button)
> won't playback what it records, but disk plays on another machine. <<< you heard right!!!
Even though it's out of warranty, I'm going to raise hell with RCA and the manufacturer (Thompson). At a minumum they should do a free firmware replacement. Obviously a bad programmer and bad QA on this one. This model should never been put on the market. This is a good cause for a class action suit if you're a lawyer. Too bad only lawyers make the $$$'s though. The rest of us will get a coupon for 10% off on a new [POS] unit. BIG Deal :-(
My title says it all - TOTAL POS. Look elsewhere if you haven't already bought this machine.
Thanks for reading my rant. -am-
Do not Buy This Unless you Want an Unreliable, Waste-of-Your-Time DVD Recorder. 2006-01-22
This DVD recorder (8005n) was fine at first. I'd had it for about 4 months when I started having problems. Now I wouldn't give it away to my worst enemy.
My first sign of trouble is when at the end of recording several programs on the DVD and I clicked to finalize. It took longer than usual amd when it finally stopped, it had erased ALL the programs I had recorded! I thought it was me (maybe I pushed the wrong button) or maybe it was my TV (it is about 2 years old). I wasn't happy, but again, I thought it was me. I had already deleted the programs from TIVO so I had to start all over again with recording them and saving again! After that, I never erased anything from the TIVO until the disk was finalized. When it happened again and I knew it wasn't me, I moved it to a lesser used TV and bought the Panasonic DMR-ES10S, which I've had for about 5-6 months and it is fantastic (see my other reviews).
Before I got the Panasonic, I was not aware of the limitations the RCA had but now they are glaring. Here are my pet peeves about the RCA, besides it erasing everything you recorded without reason or warning.
1) Sometimes it locks up and you have to unplug it to get it started again. If you were finalizing, it will probably erase everything.
2) Sometimes the disc won't eject when you click open/eject and paper clip won't work
3) The amount of space you get for entering the name of program is VERY limited. I tape a lot of decorating shows and I like to put the name of the show, plus what it is about. On the RCA you might have space for the name if it is less than say 20 characters
4) If you push the pause button while recording, it requires you to push the REC button to resume versus pushing the pause button again to remove the pause (very irritating).
5) Main problem: it will sporatically erase everything on your disk that you recorded.
DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE! Your efforts and time will be wasted. Even though I put the machine on my less-used TV (as far as recording goes), it did it again after I had invested 6 hours of recording time. I was so upset, I went out and bought the Panasonic DMR-ES20 yesterday at Best Buy. The ES10 is no longer available in stores. I'll let you know how that one is in a few months.
Repeat after me: DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE! DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE! DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE! DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!
Look anywhere else first! 2006-01-07
This recorder (8005n) was great for about 3 weeks then everything went bad. The drive inside the unit is a Ricoh and the firmware on it unique to RCA, this means that any other drive that you may want to use to replace the Ricoh one with will not work. When the drive went bad the price to replace it was over three hundred dollars. The drive would no longer track on any dvd placed in the unit. The new 8060n no longer uses the same drive so this may warrant a new look at the RCA line of DVD recorders.
Delete your library, free up space. Here's how to do it. 
2007-10-10
A way to delete your disc library is while the unit is powered up press the POWER button and STOP button at the same time and hold for 3 seconds. The unit will delete everything in the library and go back to the factory settings. You will need to reprogram the player but at least you'll be able to record disc again. I was on the phone with 2 case numbers from RCA before we got the problem solved. Hope this helps anyone who has run out of space!
As Bad As It Gets ! 2007-07-03
The RCA DRC8005N is every bit as bad as all the reviews say it is. It is enough to make me stay away from anything RCA. I grew up watching the great RCA color TVs. I used to work at a repair shop many years ago. RCAs were well built. Those days like many others are gone. Today, I see that apparently you can't delete a title unless you have the DVD. The worst ever!!
DVD recorder 2007-02-24
I have had a few problems with the product but it gets the job done, I am happy with it.
RCA is the worst. 2006-07-14
I have to agree RCA is the worst. I dropped my unit at the local repair shop and waited a few weeks. Heard nothing. Called them, they said they were waiting on the part which was on back order. I called RCA Customer Service (HAH!, what a joke!) and got the run around from them. First, the part was no longer in stock. Then, they were going to replace the unit. It took them two weeks to figure out there aren't any, so I have to get the next version which is the 8040N. Well, they said it take a few weeks to ship out. I called them again, guess what??!!! No action has been taken. Any Business majors want a textbook case on how not to run a company, RCA is it! I'm still waiting on my friggin' replacement unit and it's been almost 3 months.
Not that bad. Use for copying Tivo resident video. 2006-03-25
I've had this unit for 2 years now and it has just started to act up. I can still write DVD+RW. I never have been able to write DVD+R. What is new is it cannot play commercial DVDs. It can play it's own DVD+RW disks.
I use this almost exclusively to creat DVD+RW from DirecTV Tivo. Love it. Especially at today's prices.
