Philips DVDR75 review and performance

My DVDR75 should be delivered today. When I copy DVD's, is there any way to make them region free or do they just come out region free?

 

To ralfdog: When there are bright scenes it is washed out. I am going to try a different VCR to be sure that is not the problem. It seems ok using the Tuner. I am doing a non-copyprotected DVD now to see how that is. When trying to copy protected DVD's the cyberhome is more sensitive. If you run the video through some filters the phillips will record. There are ways but don't like to get into it as it is illegal. I don't do that anyway. There is a site on the internet that lists DVD Players with possible ways to disable the protection codes. I record mostly SciFi stuff for my Son and tonight is one with SGI and Atlantis. The Cyberhome is not to bad but hope the phillips is better especially with the Stereo Tuner. My comparison of the two was based on coping a Video Camera tapes. The Phillips seems to have problems with bright areas overriding other areas. Do I need to set the black level on? I have a lot of testing to do yet. One of these days I will find the perfect DVD recorder which is like finding the perfect wife.

 

For the perfect wife, go to - http://www.brandsonsale.com/ms-wonderful-doll.html

 

Ronnybuck--
I know exactly what you mean about that washout problem. I thought I was imagining it at first, especially since there wasn't any mention of it in some of the other forums. If I'm going to replace the original VHS tapes, I certainly want something that maintains the same clarity. I just purchased a Panasonic DVDR. Unfortunately my TV doesn't have the video out and in connections that the recorder requires.

Incidentally, my understanding of copyright laws is that you can make backups for your own personal use. Do some searches on this forum and you will find some good discussion on it.

 

To ralfdog: Thanks for your replys. As to copyprotected stuff, I have a GE 1105P DVD player. I found on the net a site that lists players that have a secret way of turning off the macrovision and country code. I ran a dvd through it and plugged to the ext2 of the Phillips it did rather well. It was sharp and clear. I only did this this way to see what is going on. It was very contrasty but still not too bad. I have done the same with the cyberhome and the picture is pretty good but more of a smooth texture. Not many people around me fool with this stuff like I do. There are better and faster ways to back up your DVD's with the new computers and DVD writers. Plenty of stuff on the internet sites to do this. Our wonderful government shut down Studio 123 thinking they would scare people, but I got news for them they actually screwed some folks that were really on their side. Any copies you made with their software has traceable stuff on the DVD to who did it. The free stuff on the net is untraceable and works just as well. Go figure, I think they shot themselves in the foot just to satisfy the Entertainment Industry. It was just plain stupid what they did. What studio 123 did wrong was put it on the shelves in BESTBUY. Today I tried some certified 8X blanks in both the cyberhome and the Phillips and they worked fine. My endeavor is to have enough ways to get the scifi, CSI, ER and many others for my son. It took 2 vcr's to allow for stuff on at the same time to do this and hope I can do the same with the cyberhome and the phillips. I use a VCR for the cyberhome so I get better sound. As soon I get the nerve I will do the firmware upgrade to the cyberhome that is supposed to correct the tuner problems and the stupid 24 hour clock. There is a problem with the timer settings but I can live with that. Do you know how I can find out if my Phillips needs an update?

 

RonnyBuck--
Concerning whether your Philips needs the firmware, I wondered that about mine also. I decided to call the service dept and ask about that and also the brightness problem. They suggested that I try their firmware, which I requested to be sent to me. From what I understand, this is usually their stock answer for anyone having any kind of problem. After reading some of the posts, I was a little cautious about installing it, so I decided not to do so.

So how do you know if your machine needs firmware? According to the instructions that came with my disk, it gives the models of the recorders eligible for upgrade: DVDR880, 890, 980, 985,990, and 1000. (Since my model number isn't among these, it makes me wonder why they suggested it in the first place. ) Another way you can tell if you need the upgrade is given in the instructions. When you try to load the disk, the display will show "Bad Version", "Sys Unsupp", "Error", or Engine Error", if the system version of your DVDR doesn't need this upgrade. Incidentally, the upgrade is supposed to adjust the recording process for various new types of discs such as DVD+RW and DVD+R, reducing the chance for disc error during recording. It also adds two service functions for recovering corrupted DVD+R discs. (Given this reason for the upgrade, I am further baffled as to why the technician suggested this as a fix for my machine's brightness problem.) In my humble opinion, I wouldn't do this upgrade unless I was having disc corruption problems with my recorded discs.

 

To ralfdog: Got the Sunday paper and guess who is selling the cyberhome 1500 for $198, Target! Going to go and look to see what the manufacturers date is. Thanks on the update info. Best to leave it alone. Never did find anything on it anyway. When I get brave enough I am going to try the Cyberhome update and anything is better that may help the tuner and timer. Will let you know. Saw a dual layer driive at Bestbuy for $99 by liteon. I have spent too much money and time for now. As long as I can backup leagally my DVD's I am happy. My biggest project is my camera video tapes to DVD. Got a lot to learn on that too. Talk later.

 

I finally got my Panasonic DMR-E75V working. In my opinion, it far out performs the Phillips DVDR75. The manual was a bit difficult, but once learned, all the functions were much more intuitive than the Phillips. The most important improvement is that I no longer have that brightness/ contrast problem when dubbing from VHS. The clarity was just incredible. I have to now get used to the change in format to R- and Ram. I just record everything in R-, I understand that this is the format that is most versatile anyways. It was a small financial investment, but I think it was well worth it.

Ronnybuck-- Before you purchase your Cyberhome, be sure to do a search on it. I believe there had been a lot of bugs with this company's product and service. The newer models may be improved, but I just don't know.

 

I received my Philips DVDR75 a few days ago. I started recording from DVD's in the 2 hour mode and the recorded DVD's look great. I tried a VHS tape and noticed the brightness/contrast problem as the VHS tape was blank at the beginning and that's the first thing the Philips saw. So, I had the VCR tuned to a TV channel (instead of the video input which had no signal), turned on the Philips, selected the input for the VCR, pressed play on the VCR, then record on the Philips and everything looked fine. I will be using the Philips to record from DVD's and VHS tapes only. I'm happy so far with the results. $199 is a pretty good deal.

 

Some of the VHS tapes I'm recording are now too bright. So, I downloaded firmware (hope this fixes the brightness problem) for my Philips DVDR75 DVD recorder. It created a file called dvd75_17_fus_eng. I used WINZIP to unzip the file. Now I'm trying to use CDRWIN to write the unzipped files to to a CD-R. The CDRWIN asks first that you Load Cuesheet which is looking for a .txt file. I select the "unzipped" folder, dvdr75_17_fus_eng then, open the CPRGHT txt file. I get the error message as it's reading the file "Error:Invalid CUE SHEET command at line 1 Illegal cuesheet command syntax". If I right click on the file and select open, it has the following in it. This is the only file that does not have a .001 or .002 extension on it. It does not look like a Cue Sheet file but I don't know how to create one that the CDRWIN needs.
###################################################
# (c) KONINKLIJKE PHILIPS ELECTRONICS N.V. 2004 #
# #
# All rights reserved. #
# Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited #
# without written consent of the copyright owner. #
###################################################

 

I noticed the same problem but think the problem is the video signal from some vcr's is not high enough. I ran mine through a signal conditioner that has a higher video output and doesn't look too bad. I have not had time to use a camera as the source yet. My Cyberhome did a pretty good job for this and I duplicate the DVD with my computer. As soon as I can I will do some more testing. The first tape I used was so bright it was washed out. I have to get it back from a friend who borrowed it. It is a training tape and I was given permission to put it on a DVD as the company was not planning to do so. The cyberhome did a pretty good job of it but I had used a different VCR when I did it on the Phillips. I will pass on what I find as soon as possible. As to the firmware upgrade where did you get it. I am having trouble even finding anything on the DVDR75 upgrades at the Phillips site.

 

ronnybuck--
It was a little confusing for me when I found the adware. I'm not even sure I remember how to get there. I tried to download it and had all kinds of problems. I would recommend calling them and getting the disc free of charge.

 

ronnybuck--
I found the Philips site for you. I think you can just fill in the blanks for the DVDR model and it will direct you to the download.

http://www.consumer.philips.com/glo...ubCatId=DVD_RECORDERS_SU&productId=&strokeId=

 

Ronnybuck - where do I buy one of these signal conditioners? How much do they cost?

I just called Philips to have them send the firmware. How long does it take to get it? I live in Connecticut. Has anyone upgraded with the firmware and noticed that it fixed the brightness problem?

 

For Rolandl: There is a signal conditioner made by Sima that does remove the copy protection. I am using something similar and it does help the brightness situation. I am in the process of doing a Tape on the Phillips and will do the same on the Cyberhome for comparison. I will use the info also to see what I can find out from phillips. I saw the Sima unit at a Circuit City store yesterday and it is $129. They say the Feds may make them take them off the shelf so you may want to go to get one asap. Good Luck

 

I am able to record on DVD media using the DVDR75 & am able to see the FINALIZE menu option. However when Finalizing discs, it gives me a DISC ERROR message & the disc is then permanantly damaged.

Anybody else experience this? Frustrating as I spend time editing up home videos only to have the Finalize function not work...and yet the recording works & I am able to play the unfinalized discs in the recorder.

 

For Ronnybuck:

I bought one of those "Signal Conditioners" years ago and I think it was Sima. $99 and it also allowed you to adjust red, green, blue, contrast, brightness, etc. My only problem is I have to find it! I looked yesterday and could not find it. I moved into a new house 10/03 so it should be in a box somewhere. I hope and I can find it tonight and it fixes the problem. The only thing is, the tapes I'm using are not copy protected. They are just blank tapes that I copied movies to.

 

bobhvb- I only experienced losing a disc in the finalizing process only once. I haven't had that problem ever again, so I attributed it to a fluke. Does your's do it all the time?

RolandL
In regards to correcting the brightness problem, I tried the Sima filter, with color adjust and brightness adjust. I didn't like the results, as I never could match the color and contrast quality of the original VHS. Even when I turned down the bightness those washed out areas were still present. I sent it back. If you want to find the device, just do a search for Sima. You may get better results than mine.

I did finally solve my problem, but I had to switch to a Panasonic DVD recorder.

 

Yes I am losing about 50% of the discs upon finalizing. Very very frustrating. If anybody has had this problem & knows a fix please advise!

 

So far I haven't lost a disk yet but I will check 3 I just finished to be sure. I have a LASONIC player and if it plays in it without too much trouble it will play most other players. I have a 3 year warranty 100% on mine and if it starts giving me coasters I will exchange for a Panasonic. Mo money but I have had Panasonic VCR's for years. All work except for one that had lightning run in on it. They repaired it and lasted for another 3 years and now will not take a tape. Makes a good tuner for the cyberhome. I have bought some cheap VCR's and they lasted about a year.