Philips DVDR75 review and performance

I never understood why folks care about how hot the unit runs if it works. I've used a Cyberhome for almost 3 months with no problems and plenty of heat (being in an enclosed glass cabinet with limited airflow). The DVDR75 does run substantially cooler. But I've read some reviews online of folks complaining about failures with it as well.

Has anyone looked at the DVDR80? Its supposed to be the high end model, supports an MPEG2 8 hour mode and some other additional capabilities. I've seen it online for $368 which isn't much more than the DVDR75 despite a list price that's $200 more.

I'm also curious if anyone has heard of a followon model to the DVDR75. I think it showed up April 2003. I've noticed several stores are starting to run low on inventory, wondering if they will be clearing out for whatever the replacement model would be.

I've just upgraded my sound system with new surround sound speakers and receiver at half price cause of clearances. The Cyberhome's lousy sounding TV tuner sounds really pitiful with a great surround sound system, so I've decided to take it back. But haven't quite decided to fork over the extra bucks for the Philips.

 

okay so I'm back...I came to give you all a buzz
All I know is this,...for the Cyberhome DVD Recorder (which went back to Walmart) after I recorded 80 movies in 55 days I used these 5 packs of Sony DVD+R Worked like a charm, of course there were those few instances with the Cyberhome.....anyway, so I still use them with my Philips DVD Recorder 75....!!!!! What a cool brand!!! Also, the great big spindles I was told are sold @ www.staples.com....but I get my 5packs with individual cases at Target for $12.99***
woo hoo!
-Catherine darling

 

oh yes and as for the Philips DVD Recorder 75, as far as I know, www.6ave.com is still going strong sellin them out of good old New Jersey****anyway, with the cheapest shipping it would be $331.50
that's all for now,
Catherine darling

 

Cyberhome went back to Walmart and 6ave ship me the DVDR80. When I ask earlier in the thread what was the difference between 75 and 80 KOOLBREW replied "The DVDR80 has guideplus. It records on dvd-r and dvd-rw as opposed to the dvdr75's dvd+r/+rw " I thought I saw that elsewhere too.

Great! I have a DVD-R drive (I bought it before the dual dropped in price). Perfect. When I got the box, I saw on the manual DVD+RW. OK perhaps same manual for 75 and they didn't change the manual. Then I looked on the 1 free DVD+RW. Perhaps they are talking about the DISC being rewritable. Then I went on the website " DVD Rewritable Compatability
Playback of the most compatible DVD recording format in the world, DVD+RW and DVD+R." Doh!

First impression. The Box was cleaner then Cyberhome. Pro for Cyberhome:I was able to setup Cyberhome fairly easily. Philips wanted to scan for channel (Wasted about 20min)While it scanned. Once the setup was finish, the first thing I noticed was it didn't degrade the sound like Cyberhome did. It was just as loud without the recorder being in the middle.Great! Next it waned me to setup Guide Plus feature(Useless with a Satelite System)Second Doh! Recorded with various speed so I compare the quality. The Red LED that comes on when it's recording is pretty nasty. Very cool looking but scary when all you see is red glow. About the Menu system, I got used to it but they need to shoot the guy who design it. Cyberhome had menu system with English words like "Finalize" where it's all strange graphics here. I bet the Engineer cheated on his engineer test and the Q&A guys who approved the Menu are in on it.

Cyberhome was a +R Recorder and I was able to use the 3 DVD-RW that came with the unit on my DVD-R burner. I burn some stuff on the 1 free DVD-RW that came with Philips and my burner didn't like it. It may have something to do with the media speed or the brand. I should not have to to finalize for DVD-RW. I sure didn't do it with Cyberhome. I am in bad shape. Perhaps it's time to just go out and buy a dual burner. I could have done it with DVDR75

 

I also found out that the PhilipsDVR80 Lets you manipulate the bitsetting, lets say you want to record a movie that is 2 hr 41 min, you can set it to record 2 hr 41 min. And it will record up to 8 hrs. That is a nice feature, I still love my 75 tho
So the 80 seems to be a good buy also.
By The Way i really like the menu setup

 

[bold]dmelgar[/bold]

The concern about heat is that the hotter you run any solid state device the shorter it's lifespan. The hotter it is the greater the chance for failure. Also consumer electronics tend to have "flaws" in them during manufacturing which tend to cause failures & when something runs hot then you turn it off & it cools, the expansion & contraction causes these flaws, such as poor solder joints often found in consumer stuff, to break contact & cause failures. I work in electronics & see this a lot. Thats why I returned the Cyberhome & paid $120 more for the philips. It's not worth $120 less if it's going to fail & I have to screw with it or do wothout it. And yes, You will see reports of failed philips dvdr75's, and you will also read about $5000 Sony plasma tv's failing which doesn't make them a bad buy, as long as the frequency or percentage of failure is low. Pretty much 5 out of 6 Cyberhome writeups or forum comments were about failure. Yes, you may have the exception & it may last 10 years, but based on what I've found, thats rare.

 

how do record a copywrite protected movie on the dvdr/75recoder.thank,s.teebone1230@yahoo.com

 

TeeBone, you need to buy a device that turns off the macrovision, email me and ill tell ya how to get one.

 

FYI, Philips announced new DVD recorder models in January. Most of the models don't show up until the summer, but the DVDR75 replacement is scheduled for April (now).

The new models are,
DVDR615: Entry level DVD recorder. Available April 2004. I've seen it advertised for presales on the web already for $338. Suggested retail $499.

DVDR600VR: A DVD recorder, VCR combination unit. Suggested retail $599, available summer 2004.

DVDR740: Supports digital 5.1 audio recording and some TV listing facility. Available September 2004, suggested retail $599

DVDR755: Supports HDTV recording. Available summer 2004, suggested retail $799.

HDRW720: 80gig hard drive and DVD recorder plus features from other recorders. Supports time slip. Available summer 2004, suggested retail $699.

 

Forgot to include the link to the announcement, http://www.ces2004.philips.com/downloads/press-releases/home-entertainment/DVD Recorder.pdf

 

Just got my dvdr75 and hooked it up seemingly with no problems. I ran Coax cable from my cable box, through a VCR and into the coax in of the dvdr75. I can record from TV OK and if I play a VCR tape, it will record from there also. It plays DVD's, no problem. However, I'm trying to hook up a DVD player to copy some of my brothers home movies he has on DVD. I'm running audio/video cables (sets of red, white, yellow) out of my old Pioneer VCR into the dvdr75 and out of the 75 into the TV. But I can't record from the DVD to the Philips. When I play the Pioneer and hit record on the Philips, I just record what ever is on TV. Is there a place to select your video source like there was on the Cyberhome?

 

FYI: Best buy online has the DVDR75 on clearance for $319.

More info on the DVDR615 replacement, it supports an 8hr recording format, manages a list of DVDs in a library. Similar sounding functions to the old DVDR80. Still has the firewire port, coax digital audio out, component video in/out.

 

drivers
just go from your pioneer out jacks into philips ext1 or ext2 or cam1 or cam2 in jacks and use chan up or down buttons to get there. hope this helps, if not re-read your manual.

 

Thanks for the reply, RET. Seems I had everything connected OK but I didn't know to press the monitor button before doing the the chan up/down to get to the source to record from. Was really frustrated for a while until I read the manual, as you suggested. I'm not real smart but I'm learning about the 75, little by little. Thanks again!

 

KOOLBREW, Thanks for the heads-up on the Facet Video Clarifier. Bought one and it took about 45 seconds to set up and it works perfectly. No more Macrovision.

 

I broke down and bought a Philips DVDR75 again. Circuit city has them on clearance for $280 and have an open box for $250.

I'm using this unit more and have notice some issues with it. I've updated to the latest firmware dated 5/3/2004.

- 8x fast forward is erratic and generally much faster then 8x. 32x is fine. This is an M6 recording. The Cyberhome had a similar problem.

- Wierdest thing, when I watch ABC primetime, the TV goes into letterbox. Why the heck is it doing that? This was during Harry Potter, something about it being simulcast in HDTV, dunno if the Philips is getting confused with some funky signal. Some commercials are displayed letterbox, others fullscreen. What gives?

- I'm apparently watching the recorded video more closely. It behaves differently than the Cyberhome. The Cyberhome 6 hour mode is fuzzy, blocky and jerky. I thought the Philips was perfect, but I've started noticing in scenes with rapid movement, the video goes from crystal clear to suddenly very blocky. Its very disceranable because its usually so clear and sharp.

- I'm running the Philips in an enclosed entertainment center and its getting quite warm, maybe not as warm as the Cyberhome, but close.

 

Ok, I've read all the posts. I'm among those who've traded CyberHome for Philips-- though I hadn't read this forum before I did so. The cyberhome required hard resets to eject discs that had been inside the unit for a while...

Anyway, I've had a chance to play with my Philips slightly. Using coax, the only tape I've tried to copy copied flawlessly. Either the tape didn't have copy protection, or the DVDR75 doesn't pick it up on the coax input.

The menus do take some getting used to, but I must say that I have an old HP calculator that uses "Reverse Polish Notation" that is extremely hard to use at first, but now I hate using calculators that don't use it... I imagine it'll be the same.

I've tried the update, but it fails on all three discs I've tried. I'm following the recommendations as closely as I can. I used Nero 5.5 to burn a "disc-at-once," "single session" cd-r of the files. The only thing I can't seem to find is a place to force the other settings that it says. I can only assume that they weren't the format options that the upgrade requires, because although the disc verifies and the recorder recognizes the disc, it never advances past Init Disc...

Anyone had similiar troubles? I wonder if I contacted Philips if they would mail a disc...

 

To Eboy123, I had no problems uploading a new flash to my system. Did you follow the directions to the letter when you burned your copy. I used NERO also with my burn.
You can download the instrutions from:
http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/d/dvdr75_191/dvdr75_191_fur_aen.pdf

 

When I tried upgrading the firmware, at first i was getting 'bad disk' or something like that. I used Golden Hawks CDRWIN (www.goldenhawk.com) to reburn the CD following their options exactly. The philips read the CD and verified the files before upgrading. I'm really glad it verifies the files, the Cyberhome does not.

I never saw a list of problems solved by the newer firmware. I upgraded as soon as I purchased. I hadn't noticed any problems before (but didn't use it much), but have noticed problems afterwards.

I had another problem yesterday where I was recording, hit pause. The Philips crashed again. The display ends up showing some numbers and letters. Some internal error code. Then poweroff and back on it was ok although I lost the whole recording. Can't reproduce it. Doesn't make me feel very confident.

I emailed customer support yesterday, waiting for an answer.

Does anyone else notice 8x FF is messed up?

 

Well, I called Philips and they said they would gladly mail an unpgrade cd. So they are. I imagine the reason Philips isn't telling what the 'upgrade' IS is because they might be correcting things we wouldn't want corrected, say if copy protection was faulty as an example. Nevertheless, I'm going to apply the update, and hopefully I don't have problems 'introduced' into the system like the last poster.

So far only one thing has irritated me with the Philips, if you use DVD+r instead of +RW, the 'edits' don't play on other players. The Cyberhome was able to finalize the edits on more than just the cyberhome recorder. Although I know that the cyberhome was going to last 3 months and 1 day based on how it acted...

Also if you compare the three different recorders on Philips web site, they say that the 75 doesn't encode in Dolby Digital stereo, but the manual and specs sure give the impression it does, I haven't toyed with it enough yet to truly know though. I think I recall seeing the dolby digital symbol on my receiver when playing a recorded disc, but not certain.

Otherwise, I generally like the thing. Seems RW discs are the better way to go IF you have a computer dvd burner to transfer to permanent R discs (so you keep your edits). I bet there are a few out there doing this exactly.

Like I said, I do like this burner. It may fritz out in 6 months, but it doesn't 'feel' like it will...