Customer Reviews
Extremely disappointed 
2007-08-25
I just wished I had looked at the Amazon reviews before buying this stupid thing. I paid for it little; it was on clearance at Target, but now wouldn't want it for free. I wonder how such a bad product could leave a factory. And Samsung is supposed to be a reputable company.
Long story short, it does something when "recording" to a DVD but you can't do anything with the DVD - other players can't play it, computers can't play it; it's useless.
Stay far away from it. Fortunately, it's an obsolete model by now.
Several problems, buy at risk 2007-07-04
After owning the product for over six months, I have had several of the problems experienced by other reviewers, most notably:
Problem 1: It can't play many rented and purchased DVD's, though my older Sony unit and computers play the same discs without hesitation. There seems to be no correlation between the amount of disc damage visible to the eye and playback reliability. A purchased movie (which had been played only once, removed from the player and placed in its container) would not play a second time a couple of months later, though it had only a couple of barely visible light scratches and no finger smudges. My son's 4 disc "Justice League" set plays fine, though the discs have been in and out of the player more times than I can count. Again, my other DVD players have no problem with any of these discs. This problem seems to have started about one month ago
Problem 2: Sound and video are not synchronized on recorded discs, like watching a Foreign movie dubbed in English. I attempted to diagnose and remedy the problem by using alternate methods of connecting my Audio Video components and using different types of connectors. It doesn't matter whether I'm recording directly from the DVR or from the TV output, the problem does not go away. Also tried different discs, other Sony DVD-R and -RW's - no luck. This problem arose about three months after using the unit.
Problem 3: The unit runs very slowly and has a tendency to hang up. Not only when the player is having difficulty reading a disc as mentioned above, but when you hit the "Stop" button while recording or try to edit discs.
Problem 4: Recording quality is bad, unless you use the highest recording quality setting (XP) which limits record time to a little over one hour.
Problem 5: It stutters farely often when playing purchased music CD's. Again, no problem playing the discs in other players.
One notable potential shortcoming is the lack of inputs with a device that may be used for recording from multiple audio and video components. Inputs include Rear: 1 Composite A/V, and 1 S-video; Front 1 Composite A/V and 1 Firewire. If you are looking to record from multiple devices, then you will have to mix up the types of connections. For example, if you record from a TV/Satellite and VCR you'll have to use the front connection for one device and rear connection for the other, even though front connectors are meant for use of video cameras, MP3 players and other portable units. If you have a third component (DVD, Gaming console, CD Player) that you would like to record from also, then you will probably need to purchase a Modulator (device that allows input of multiple devices to a single input on one device) or use an A/V Stereo Receiver with multiple inputs.
On the other hand, the unit has two composite Audio outputs. I'm not sure why more than one is needed, since you will need to connect to your TV or Stereo Receiver, not both.
On the plus side - the unit has some nice editing and recording features. Nothing more than one would expect, but nothing less. I have very limited experience using the timer recording function which worked fine on the few occasions it was employed. Also I have not experienced problems playing recorded discs on my other DVD player. So I cannot validate some of the issues others have experienced personally. However, after owning the unit and reading reviews, I wouldn't take the claims lightly. Given the types of errors I'm having, I am considering replacing the unit after just six months of use. The low price does not justify the risk of having to replace the unit after such a short time.
If I could write a review giving the Samsung R-130 no stars, I would 2007-07-03
Don't make the mistake of buying this DVD recorder unless you have money and just need to get rid of it. Problems started with this item right out of the box. I attempted to get service on this item from Samsung but, the website is so hard to use, it's probably easier to get an audience with several heads of state as to obtain service from Samsung. The Samsung DVD R130 will not even play DVDs from the video store and certainly won't play shows that I have recorded. I strongly suggest not buying this item.
If I could give it zero stars I would 2007-06-28
Worst piece of electronic equipment I have ever had. DVR recordings are not compatible with other DVD players after finalizing and are barely compatible (i.e. sometimes work sometimes don't) on my laptop. My #1 complaint is that I have had constant issues getting it to play DVD that I have rented...I often have to get out my old cheap portable DVD player to watch movies because this stupid thing can't load them -- even more fun is that you can watch a movie one day...try it again the next and all of a sudden it won't work...
Poor Product Unreliable Company 2007-05-13
My dvd recorder stopped working after less than one year and Samsung refused to repair or replace it.
Worked while under warranty... 2008-02-24
I bought the Samsung R130 DVD Recorder in August 2006 for $150 so I could record shows that I was unable to watch. The DVD recorder worked fine for a year, but 2 months after the warranty was over the DVD Recorder gave me problems such as:
1. gave me numerous error codes
2. wouldn't play purchased DVDs
3. wouldn't accept a blank DVD for me to record a show
4. would freeze up during recording and I had to unplug it since it was unresponsive
It basically will not accept DVDs and it won't record them. I now leave the DVD Recorder unplugged because it is unresponsive and makes an annoying buzzing-type sound. Of course it's out of warranty, and there goes $ down the drain.
Avoid This Recorder 2008-02-17
Have had this recorder for over a year and had nothing but problems. The lips are out of sync with the audio and is very tempermental when recording. I have had no problem getting finalized discs to play on any other players, but have ended up with way to many coasters (approx. 1 in 3 or 4 are wasted when it just records for 20 min. to almost 2 hours of shows or movies I am trying to record then stops on it's own). I use only DVD-R of different brands and it doesn't seem to matter.
I tried the fix suggested by another reviewer to hold down the up and down channels at the same time to reset the machine. It does say on screen that the recorder is reset, but it didn't change a thing.
I would not recommend to anyone to purchase this recorder unless you are looking for a frustrating pain in the butt!
Good product 
2008-01-18
this is a very good DVD player, it has a lot of options for almost anything you need...
Unimpressive 
2007-11-10
The DVD-R130 is a DVD recorder designed to record standard NTSC video. It can take S-Video, composite, antenna/cable, or Firewire feeds. It has multiple levels of quality. Outputs include composite, S-Video, and component, and the recorder can output ED (progressive scan) signals via the component outputs. Use with a regular TV that has only antenna/cable inputs requires the use of a modulator.
As this is my first DVD recorder, I don't have much to compare it to directly, but I can make a number of obvious comments:
As a DVD player, the player is clunky and poorly spec'd. There are three menu buttons on the remote, and two information buttons, one of which, apparently as a joke, is labeled "ANYKEY". This is the first player I've ever come across that doesn't play PAL discs. Cheap no-name brand DVD players generally do (if either the disc or player is region free), and will even convert it for use on an NTSC set. The Samsung's lack of support for PAL is all the more surprising given the move over the last few years from NTSC TVs to HD TVs (that generally accept most scan rates.)
As a recorder, the player is unreliable. I tried three different media types before getting anything to record successfully. The first disc I tried the recorder "recorded" on to but missed the first twenty minutes of the program being recorded, the twenty minutes playing as a black screen with occasionally bursts of audio. The second, an Imation DVD-RW, was unrecognized by the player (A second disc from the same pack was recognized, but reluctantly - the player generally takes two minutes to figure out it has a DVD-RW inserted.) The third, a Fuji-film DVD-R, was recognized in less time and the recording appears to be successful.
The user interface is also clunky. As an example, title renaming is done via an arrow-key operated "keyboard": it takes around five minutes to enter something as simple as "FAMILY GUY - BLUE HARVEST". I found frequent occasions that navigating from one menu to another involved hitting the same button twice (by design, not because of the usual remote control problems.) The device suffers also from those problems you'd expect to go with DVD recording - it's just not as simple as "hit record, hit stop, you have your recording" - you have to go through the trouble of "finalizing" discs (even with DVD-RWs where this could be automatic.)
On the plus side, the support for Firewire input (though this is documented as being a camcorder specific thing, I have no idea if it works with anything but camcorders) and S-Video is good, as is the support for four levels of quality, allowing up to four hours of video on a single layer DVD-R, is good.
In the end, I'd recommend using a separate DVD player to play your DVDs, and to use this strictly as a VCR replacement. And don't buy it for your stereotypical grandma, she'll never use it.
Highly Problematic DVD Player/Recorder 2007-10-29
We actually got this player bundled with a purchase of a Samsung LCD display. The display is great; the DVD player isn't. The player has difficulties even with store bought DVDs. For example, I have a store-bought region 0 DVD (playable on all players with any region code) that this player can't read. None of my friends and family have a problem viewing these DVDs on their players. It also has problems with reading homemade DVDs I burn myself (i.e., some work, most don't). In short, I would recommend avoiding this player and instead spend your money on something more reliable.
