Philips DVDR75 review and performance

ronnybuck:

I bought the Sima GODVD and it helps if I set it to dark but, you loose some of the details. I'm going to return the Philips and the GODVD and buy a Panasonic. Amazon.com has the DMR-E55S model for $249.94 with free shipping. $50 more than the Philps but, hopefully no brightness problems.

 

You may also want to checkout the Pioneer DVR-220, its $248 at Walmart. Its an excellent unit. It has several video adjustments including black level. I wouldn't buy a DVD recorder mail order. Too many of them have issues, too hard to know until you try them out. Need to get it somewhere with a good return policy.

 

I recording now using the Panasonic. No brightness problems. Another stupid problem the Philips has is when you hit the fast forward on the VCR while it's playing a tape, the Philips shows a blank screen. The Panasonic does not do this. I should have bought the Panasonic first! The Philips is a piece of junk!

 

RolandL--
Ain't it so true! I've compared the Panasonic with both the Philips and Zenith and found that it's so far above the competition. Zenith had a lot more features for reading other formats, but in my opinion, the Panasonic had a clearer rec. I took the Zenith back, but it was too late to return the Philips.

 

to all: Well I am glad I bought the 3 year warranty for the Phillips at circuit city. I am seriously thinking of taking mine back and get a Panasonic too. I am presently recording some Scifi Channel stuff and did not like the way it started up. If I don't get it my son will be mad just need to wait. I had been doing it simultaneouly with the cyberhome but have been sucessful the last several weeks with the Phillips and they worked for my son in Japan. My son agrees I should get a panasonic from his own experiences in Japan. Or I may got back to VCR tapes. They always worked but more expensive to mail. I did call Phillips about the brightness problem and they are sending a CD. I understand it is a waste of time to fix the brightness problem. For now I am copying all my VCR Tapes with Videos my son made on a Sony digital Camera and the results are not bad at all.

 

Hello,

What is the latest firmware for this player? Where can I download it? Is there any instructions how to upgrade the firmware? I am new to this so I would appreciate the help. Thanks!

 

Celo--
If you are talking about the Philips 75 firmware, go up about 14 or 15 threads and you will see that I provided a long link to the Philips site. You can follow instructions from there and find the firmware.

Personally, I was unable to get the download to work, so I ordered the disc from Philips. That might be a better alternative for you.

As to the latest version, I'm not sure which that would be. I would guess that would be the one on their site and also the one they send out.

 

If you are talking about this, http://www.consumer.philips.com/glo...ubCatId=DVD_RECORDERS_SU&productId=&strokeId=

The link does not work. Thanks.

 

OK, finally I found it, thanks!

 

celo--
Glad you were able to find it. I tried to find the old download page on the Philips support and noticed that they no longer had the firmware listed for the DVDR75. Did you have a new link to that?

 

Here is the DIRECT link:

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/...IDEO_GR&ctn=DVDR75/99&slg=ENG&DCT=FUS&DID=ENG

 

Here is the DIRECT link:

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/...IDEO_GR&ctn=DVDR75/99&slg=ENG&DCT=FUS&DID=ENG

 

I am sorry for the double post, did not mean to.

 

I have a Phillips DVDR 75 stand alone DVD player/recorder.

My problem is I purchased new disks and they do not work. no disk is the read out I get. Is thre a firmware
disk that I need so that I can these 2X DVD RW disks.

Thanks

 

I have had good luck with my DVDR75 so far. I use the 4X made by Memorex. The new 8x ones work but had a couple to fail. It gave a "Unexpected Data" error. Not in the book either. My Cyberhome believe it or not uses the 8x OK. I am trying a Panasonic and believe it is the way to go. The Phillips will not play any DVD's made by the Cyberhome. It starts and after a few minutes it stops and shuts off. DVD's by the panasonic it plays but now and then it will pause and go again. Kind of irritating. I believe they will come up with newer technology to record with before they ever get the DVD players standardized. The old VHS units are hard to beat, just bulky media and more expensive to mail especially overseas. By the way I understand Cyberhome will replace all 1500 models even if out of warranty with another model. It's a shame as it is a well built unit. I will try the firmware upgrade first. The timer will only do one program at a time and the sound is muffled because the tuner is Mono. I put a fan in and have been using a VCR as the Tuner and works in a pinch.

 

For Buddy304: Make sure you have the right type media. The Phillips uses Plus (+). The minus (-) or dash will not work. The Panasonics use the dash. Some units can record both. I used the RW pack that came with my phillips and it did fine. Sometimes the RW's don't work in other units. I use the R's and the last 50 I bought were about 35 cents each. Some prefer the ones with the cases and sometimes I get them for about 75 cents each on sale. Watch the Adds in sunday's paper. I have done over 250 DVD's and have about 20 bad ones or coasters. I had 4 in a row out of a pack once. Must have been a bad day at the factory.

 

Hiya, i bought the phlips dvdr75 i reccieved it yesterday i used it today, i connected it with my video to copy a home video on to dvd, the sound taped fine but the picture came out in black & white i'm thinking of returning it back, Or is there a solution to fix this so i can get it in color like the oringinal sourse Pls ASAP
thanks
best wishes
K

 

for kr2004: I use my 75 to record off the air and having pretty good luck. As to using Video from another source it is not the best. It seems to have a contrast problem. Are you using a Camera as the source or a VCR? If you are using a camera you may want to try it direct to your TV to see if it is the problem. The 75 is not the best to dubb tapes with as many have indicated. I have done some dubbing but had to use a video conditioner to minimize the washout effect. Still not satisfied with it. I bought a Panasonic unit with the vcr and DVD recorder which has a simple dubbing operation. I still have my old cyberhome and it will at least allow me to record beyond the 2 hour setting. Some tapes will go a few minutes beyond what they say and the cyberhone allows me to get it all. The phillps will come up short and that is why they have a 2 and half hour setting. I have spent many frustrating hours dealing with DVD recording and 4hrs is usually the max for quality. Until they come out with the double layer recorders this I feel will the the limit. Good luck

 

kr2004:
I've had my dvdr 75 for almost a year now (I'm a 2x ex-cyberhome victim). Out of around 200 discs created, maybe 4 to 6 have been b&w, unexpectedly. When I finally got around to asking tech-support about it, they sent me the latest firmware update on disc at the time. i don't think I've had another disc burned b&w since then, although there was one time I went to "monitor" to confirm what channel I was on and it was in b&w. Switching back to "disc" and back to "monitor" cleared it up I think. I have satellite. Thankfully it's happened rarely, but on the other hand, I haven't pinned down what the problem is. So far I've been able to tolerate the ratio of good to bad discs, especially since many of those discs have multiple episodes / recordings. That makes successful recordings off the air more like in the 400 range.
I guess my point is, you may find it to only be a rare problem.

 

Ok, it seems that the firmware updates have been removed from the philips website for the DVDR75/17. All that they have now is a pdf file on how to do the update. They used to have the firmware there. Does anyone know where it has been moved to?