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Philips DVDR75 review and performance
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swynne
Newbie
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21. July 2004 @ 10:24 |
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Steph,
I read the bad feedback on the DVD75. Over the last two months I've dealt with 3 DVD75. The first was an open box from Best Buy that I got for about $250, but there was an audio problem. Then the model was discontinued so I brought a floor display model that didn't work with RW disks.
I took it back and bought another floor model and I haven't had problems.
I would say stick to Maxell disks. I believe it is a good unit, however I wuldn't opay $299 when you can get the DVDR615 for aboutr $350.
Goodluck
swynne (steph too)
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ret27m40
Junior Member
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21. July 2004 @ 10:41 |
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i read those reviews, i dont know about them but i have had my DVDR75 for awhile now have done well over 150 novies and i love this thing, its the best money i have ever spent.
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dmelgar
Junior Member
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21. July 2004 @ 11:53 |
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Generally, I'd say those reviews are unfair. Maybe they refer to early models.
The Philips is generally reliable, has good quality recordings and makes compatible recordings.
Many of the people on this thread owned Cyberhome before. The Philips is miles better than the Cyberhome in just about any respect.
That said, I have to qualify my praise some. The Philips does have several minor bugs and sometimes poor usability that can be annoying, but nothing dramatic.
Nonetheless, I returned my Philips and bought a Pioneer DVR-220 at Walmart for $297. It supports the DVD-VR format which is much easier to use as a VCR than the Philips because it support random access. All DVD+R/RW recorders write sequentially. If you delete something in the middle of the DVD, you have an open slot in the middle, if you record something there thats too long, it starts overwriting whatever comes next. The end result is a mess trying to repeatedly reuse a DVD+RW to record daily shows and watch them at night. With a DVD-RW, it writes like on a harddrive. Wherever it finds room it writes that piece of it, jumping around as needed, until the disk fills completely up. You can't accidentally overwrite another recording. Its really nice.
The Pioneer also supports chaseplay, where you can be recording a show while watching something else on the same DVD. Really cool.
And best of all, I haven't found ANY problems or bugs no matter how minor with the Pioneer.
If you're set on the Philips DVDR75, you should also check out the replacement model, Philips DVDR615. It adds an 8 hour mode, not sure what else.
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dmelgar
Junior Member
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21. July 2004 @ 11:57 |
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Forgot to mention, if you are interested in the Pioneer, Bestbuy also sells it as the DVR-225. But I'd avoid Bestbuy. The DVR-225 is built in China vs. the DVR-220 is built in Japan. Bestbuy has a 30 day return policy vs. Walmart's 90 day. And I'm upset at Bestbuy's customer service for telling me that open box items have special warranty limitations that are not documented in the store. I'm out of luck with my defective open box item and not happy about it.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21. July 2004 @ 11:58
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StephSh
Newbie
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21. July 2004 @ 22:22 |
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Thank you guys for the info. Since all I need is something to backup some tapes, I guess DVDR75 is all I need. I am ordering one from tweeter tonight for its free shipping and $50 rebate. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks again.
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RolandL
Newbie
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5. August 2004 @ 13:18 |
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Best Buy has one for $139. It was for display in the store. Does not have anything with it - no manual, remote, cables, not even a power cord. I have a power cord that will fit, extra cables so, all I'm missing is the remote and manual. The salesman said I could download the manual from the Phillips web site. So, do I need the remote for anything that it can only do?
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dmelgar
Junior Member
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5. August 2004 @ 14:25 |
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You most definitely need the remote. There are very few functions available on the front panel.
An alternative is to get an upgradable remote. I bought a OneForAll URC8910 remote for $45 that can be upgraded via phone to have pretty decent support for the Philips. Still not everything, but pretty close. Philips charges a lot for a replacement remote, look back in the previous forum entries here, but I think it was $40-50.
I'd also beware of buying anything from Bestbuy, especially an open box item. I recently had a problem with the very remote I'm recommending. I had bought it open box. It failed just before its 90 day warranty was up. The manufacturer said to return it to the store for a replacement. Bestbuy wouldnt accept it. Bestbuy headquarters was very unresponsive, first saying they'd check with the manufacter and return my call, then saying they'd call me back, then denying any record of needed to do anything with the complaint. They stated that open box items purchased from the store are NOT covered by the manufacturer warranty. That Bestbuy warrants the item themselves, but its much reduced from the manufacterer. They said that this isnt posted anywhere in the store. I have this conversation recorded on tape because I didn't believe it and found it to be an amazing fabrication.
I have since had the remote replaced via the manufacturer (despite what Bestbuy said), but it cost be a bundle to send it back to get the replacement.
Walmart has a much better return policy and a good selection of DVD recorders.
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RolandL
Newbie
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6. August 2004 @ 05:46 |
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Thanks for the info! I asked the salesman and he said the warranty is good for only 30 days.
I also went to Circuit City. Funny, they had the same unit out of the box with no cables, remote or manual and they wanted $217 for it!
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krinkov
Newbie
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6. August 2004 @ 07:09 |
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My Philips DVDR72 has been in the repair shop for over a month (the platter tray would not stay closed with a blank disc). I would not touch any expensive piece of electronics that didn't have a one year parts and labor warrenty. While waiting for my Philips unit to be returned I purchased an AKAI DVD recorder from Amazon for $200 plus tax (I live in Washington) and no shipping. This one seems to be working ok.
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RolandL
Newbie
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11. August 2004 @ 05:07 |
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krinkov
Newbie
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11. August 2004 @ 08:43 |
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I am always on the lookout for recordable DVD+R media. If you live in or near a large city which has OfficeMax and OfficeDepot look in the Sunday paper for specials. For example, about three weeks ago OfficeMax was selling 10-disc packs complete with jewel case for about $5.00. You didn't even have to apply for a rebate: the normal $10 per pack price was instantly reduced to $5.00. There was no limit as to the number of packs you could buy. I think $0.50 per disc without a jewel case is a good purchase. Sometimes you see brand name 25 disc spindles being sold for about $20, or $0.80 apiece, which I do not consider to be a good buy.
If you live near a Fry's they often sell house brand DVD+R for about $0.50 per disc.
If you need a large quantity such as 100 and either don't live near OfficeMax, OfficeDepot or need them in a hurry go to meritline.com and buy a spindle from them for about $50. This typically includes the shipping cost so your price is $.50 per disc. Folks don't realize that this is cheaper than VHS tape media.
The brands that work with my Philips DVDR 72 (same thing as the 75 except that it has fewer recording times): Maxcell, Philips, Khypermedia, Imation, and Sonix (sold by meritline). I have not encountered any brand of DVD+R that does not work. I don't record using DVD+RW media so there are no recommendations or warnings here.
Have fun with your Philips. I love my machine except for the fact that it has been in the shop for nearly six weeks. With the Olympics coming up I bought a AKAI DVD recorder from Amazon for $217 (the $17 is for Washington State sales tax) and I will be getting a $50 gift certificate so the net price is $167.
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gijski
Newbie
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12. August 2004 @ 00:57 |
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I was wondering...
Does anyone know how to make the dvdr75 automatically switch off / go to standby after a while?
(I keep forgetting to standby it after programming it in order to record something)
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ronnybuck
Junior Member
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12. August 2004 @ 16:55 |
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I just bought a DVDR 75 open box from circuit city. I also have a Cyberhome DVDR 1500 which has problems. The reason I bought the phillips is so I can take my time to update the firmware in the Cyberhome. If is dies I still have the phillips to record stuff for my son overseas. My DVDR 75 was manufactured in May 2003. How do I determine it needs an update also and where do I get it. The two units are night and day as to operation. I have put a fan in my cyerhome and keep it off when not in use. I just have the same problems with the tuner, timer and the stupid 24 hour clock. Cyberhome claims the newest upgrade dated june 04 will fix them but I just need to be sure the Phillips works just in case. If I get the Cyberhome OK then I will concentrate on the phillips. I did notice that recording from video tapes with home movies is not as good on the phillips as the cyberhome. Not sure why. Compatiability among DVD players is long way off just as HDTV is. The supposedly good stuff is still too expensive and probably not much better. Appreciate any help.
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ralfdog
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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12. August 2004 @ 20:31 |
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ronnybuck--
I was curious how the recording on the other machine was clearer. Could you describe the difference?
I have noticed that my Phillips doesn't do a very good job of capturing the brights and colors when I record from some of my VHS tapes. I originally thought it was some copy protect, but discoverd it was not. I wondered if there are DVDRs out there that has better recording quality.
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dmelgar
Junior Member
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12. August 2004 @ 21:18 |
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gijski:
I don't know of a way to get the Philips to go into standby automatically. You have to make sure to but it in standby. You also have to be exceedingly careful what you last played to make sure it doesnt get overwritten. You also have to be careful if you have a power outage before the next recording because it can affect where the recorder will decide to start recording. The auto resume setting affects this.
Bottom line, its hard to make sure you get the recording you want in the spot you want. That's the main reason that I went with the Pioneer DVD-VR recorder that doesnt have these issues. It just records whereever there's space and will record even if its turned on.
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RolandL
Newbie
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13. August 2004 @ 07:31 |
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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?
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ronnybuck
Junior Member
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13. August 2004 @ 14:23 |
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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.
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RolandL
Newbie
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13. August 2004 @ 14:56 |
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ralfdog
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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13. August 2004 @ 23:11 |
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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.
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ronnybuck
Junior Member
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14. August 2004 @ 16:52 |
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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?
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ralfdog
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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15. August 2004 @ 05:23 |
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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.
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ronnybuck
Junior Member
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15. August 2004 @ 17:53 |
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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.
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ralfdog
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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16. August 2004 @ 06:27 |
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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.
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RolandL
Newbie
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16. August 2004 @ 07:36 |
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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.
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RolandL
Newbie
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22. August 2004 @ 05:50 |
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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. #
###################################################
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