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| Date Reviewed: 02/05/2006 |
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 Don't buy Philips Brand! Strengths: Built-in TV guide (when it works, which is not very often!)
Weaknesses: TV guide rarely works, machine won't read discs it recorded, remote frequently stops working-it won't even turn the machine off(the light flickers, so it is sensing, it just won't respond.
Summary: This unit was sent to me as a warranty replacement for a Philips DVDR that had so many things wrong with it that they chose to replace it rather than repair it. This unit has different issues, but is plagued with problems like my first machine. My previous one also had the Guide-Plus (built in TV guide), which I loved, but this one rarely works. It has stopped working altogether twice and had to be reset. Often it displays sporadic information, such as "listing unavailable" for several hour blocks, but will have listings for the next day.
The remote not working is a very frequent problem. You have to get up and manually hold down the power button on the front of the machine to turn it off when this happens.
I sent an email to Philips describing the many issues this machine has and got an automated response telling me someone would contact me within a couple of business days (or something like that) -- this was 4 months ago and I still haven't heard from them!
As I said, this is the 2nd Philips DVDR that I have had that has had MULTIPLE problems. Both of these products had awesome features, only problem is that most of the time you can't get the features to work! I have yet to record anything on this machine to a DVD+R or DVD+RW that will even play back on the machine itself (you have to record everything to the hard disk first, you can't record directly to a DVD+/-R/RW, which is another obvious weakness!). With the many problems that I have had, I would be hesitant to buy anything from Philips!
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| Date Reviewed: 03/21/2006 |
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Strengths: Optical outputs, DVR with DVD+RW/R capabilites, good capacity and quality settings, Firewire Input, Progressive/Component Output, Good stereo sound, Farjouda processing (DCDi progressive scan)
Weaknesses: Sometimes staticy audio, but using optical audio output solves this. TV Guide lost settings once. Some features can be tricky to figure out.
Summary: Advice: Get it for a good price--it can be found for $250-$300 or less. There is a new manual at the phillips website--get it. There may also be a firmware update--get that and put on before you use the machine (updating will erase guide/settings). As with all TV guide machines, you need to allow it to "download" the guide over your cable connection (will not work with Satelite) overnight--perhaps for a day or two at first. Recording is good quality, you can select between 8 modes (default it M2x, but M4x saves space & still has good quality). Great to be able to save shows to DVD to watch in another room or at a friend's place. Good luck!
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| Date Reviewed: 01/12/2005 |
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 I bought this as a gift and in lieu of getting a T ... Strengths: Built-in TV Guide programming guide, large(r) hard disk, pause and rewind live tv like Tivo.
Weaknesses: Resposiveness of unit is slow (i.e. executing command after remote control button is pressed), TV Guide on unit required software date via mailed CD-ROM in order to fully function, awkward remote.
Summary: I bought this as a gift and in lieu of getting a Tivo with a subscription. What sold me on this unit was the built-in TV Guide where you could see all the programming just like on your cable or satellite receiver box. The good thing about it was that the guide is free. I also like the idea of having a built-in hard drive with a DVD recorder so that you can simply record to the hard drive and then dump the recorded shows that you want to keep off to a DVD.
Where this unit falls short is that the unit I received did not have the latest software update for the TV Guide. Although you could browse the shows in the TV Guide, you could not jump to a show by pressing the confirmation "OK" button. You would have to manually enter the channel number of the show that you want to watch. Frankly, I can't believe the unit shipped out of the factory like this. It was a very poor user experience.
Because the unit seems to have a built-in hard drive and some computer-like architecture, it takes the recorder a longer time to power up than most DVD players. This gets annoying if you like to power off your unit to save power.
The set up process of the unit was very difficult (even for a technology professional) to configure. The process of finding the right infrared (IR) code for my cable box was very slow and tedious. The first night I tried to set it up, it failed to find the correct code so I gave up. Then I tried again the next day, and it worked miraculously. I thought that I would have to return the unit before I even set it up. After the initial set up, you have to let the unit "sleep" overnight to download all the TV Guide information.
Because I have an external cable receiver box, I set up the unit to remotely control the cable box via the IR interface. But when you use the recorder to surf or browse TV channels, it is extremely slow because when you press the channel up button on the recorder remote, the recorder then sends an IR signal to the cable box to change to a specific channel, i.e. channel 56. This whole process of changing the channel takes probably 5 seconds, which is unacceptable. I suppose if you are able to use the built-in tuner of the recorder, then you would not have this problem.
Overall, I am not satisfied with this unit, and I would recommend careful consideration on your part on how you intend to use this unit and whether or not you can live with these short comings. I should mention that there is a software update available via CD-ROM which you must order through mail, but I did not have the patience to do this. Perhaps the software update has addressed some of these issues.
Good luck!
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| Date Reviewed: 02/09/2006 |
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Background Audio Static
Strengths: Large hard drive, many good features
Weaknesses: Poor audio quality, DVD read issues, extremely poorly written manual
Summary: 2006-02-18 09:09:47 I purchased the HDRW720 for $199, pretty hot price on a feature loaded DVD Recorder. I had been shopping around for a few months, and this by far was the best price for content.
Initially I liked the unit, it was a bit hard to hook up (several different manuals telling you a slightly different hook up method), but not that big a deal. The manual was the biggest joke, I have never seen a manual with more grammatical errors in my life, made it a bit hard to follow. Not to mention the manual referenced parts of the manual that don't exist! The EPG programmed itself after 24 hours no problem. But when the unit is first turned on, the EPG goes though about 3-4 phases of clicking back and forth between TV and EPG before it settles down (maybe a firmware upgrade would help), that got pretty annoying.
The first few DVD's I tried to play (commercial store bought), produced read errors. Not sure if that would be a re-curring problem, I didn't keep it long enough to find out. As I started to use the unit, I was getting background audio static on most (but not all) the TV channels. It was fairly random too, each time I turned the unit on, different channels would have an audio crackle, others that did previously, didn't. Playing a DVD direct had audio crackle/static on any DVD I tried to play. I tried various hook up methods, tried different cables and ensured the audio was set up correctly (digital vs. analog, etc.) I contacted Philips service, they were fairly prompt and helpful, but said I'd probably need to ship the unit to them for repair! No thanks.
That was the last straw, so back it went to the store, who told me that the unit has been deleted from their stock (many other complaints???)
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| Date Reviewed: 11/04/2005 |
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What customer service?
Strengths: Good picture quality
Weaknesses: Horrible analog sound
Summary: I purchased this in early Oct. Got it home and installed it a few days later. Tried using the analog output to my T.V. and got some real scratchy noises from the recorder. Then I hooked it up directly to my amp (analog) and same thing. To make sure, I hooked up via digital opical cable and it sounded fine, thus limiting some viewing flexiblity. When I called Philips the first time, they would not even talk to me until I gave them the serial number(buried in the cabinet). After removing the recorder to get the serial number and getting through the multi-layered phone tree, I was told to just ship it to them at my expense and I should here from them in 4 to six weeks! If I would like to speak to someone that would even attempt to offer any other solutions (if any) I would have to pay $15 per call! Apparently, this is a new polcy for Philips as well as closing all the local service centers. Shame on the decision makers at Philips for going obviously downmarket with what use to be a good brand. For now at least, this brand is off my list of other potential purchases.
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| Date Reviewed: 10/29/2006 |
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Strengths: hard drive, dvd burner, tv guide
Weaknesses: NA
Summary: It seems to do everything I need it to do. It is a convenient little device. It is fairly easy to use. I hope it lasts for a long time.
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