Rating: 
Summary: Satisfied Consumer So Far
Review: I would like to share my experience with others about the Philips DVDR985:I purchased my unit in Oct.2002. For the first few months it worked well.Then in June 2003 I started experiencing all the anamollies that a lot of the other reviewers went thru- Disc errors, not reconizing the disc that it just finalized,all with Dvd+Rs,the DVD+RW seemed just fine. In Sept. 2003 I took it back to the full service retailer I purchased it from to get it repaired. They sent it to Ohio to the Philips service center and I got it back a couple of weeks later. So far it has worked flawlessly. I do notice that there are some upgrade that they've installed that previously wasn't available with this unit. The machine works with 4x DVD+R now, plays mp3 cd-R,two extra recording lengths added(sp+,ep+).I think they upgraded it to their newer but cheaper listed priced DVDR75 performance wise. In conclusion, if you are shopping for this recorder now, I would just go buy the 3rd generation DVDR75. If your machine is acting up and still under warranty it's worth it to get it fixed. I am keeping my fingers crossed while I'm recording the heck out of mine before it goes bad again;)
Rating: 
Summary: Save Your Money
Review: The worst piece of electronics ever made, trust me, don't buy it.
Rating:
Summary: I Agree With A Lot Of Other Reviews
Review: I've had this thing for about 5 months, no problems up until now. 1st problem I had was the washout color, makes the dvd almoust unwatchable. 2nd problem was a DVD+R upon being finilized became corrupted. Even the Philips itself couln't read it. I'm gonna give customer service a chance before I condem them. But I have a bad feeling about this. Granted I only paid 340 bucks for it, but is it too much to ask that it work? I've only mada about 25 recordings on the unit.
Rating: 
Summary: Love having a DVD recorder, but would buy other brand
Review: This DVD recorder does not record on 4X discs, which are becoming standard media. I even downloaded and ran the firmware upgrade, which promised compatibility. I contacted customer service, and they are absolutely useless. As mentioned in many other reviews, the agents don't speak English very well. It took several tries for the agent to be able to record my simple phone number. If you do chose to buy this product because of its price, then be sure to stock up on slow 1x discs.
Rating:
Summary: DON' T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: Like many in here who have posted already, the Philips DVDR985 worked fine at first, sort of. I've wasted many $$ on dvd media that did not work in the unit, only to find out later it wasn't the media that was bad, it was the unit.
I've called and emailed customer no-service. Don't waste your time.
I wrote a letter to the CEO- haven't heard back, probably won't.
I now own a very expensive and useless piece of equipment.
When it did work- for the first few months, it worked well. Join the campaign. Demand that Philips recall this "lemon!"
Rating:
Summary: A $600.00 Mistake.
Review: I thought I did the research. I liked the features, and it seemed like an awesome Machine. I waited til the price dropped to around $600.00 dollars, (March 2003), made the purchase and could not wait to put this DVD Recorder to work. For about a week, it worked flawlessly, I was so excited about this new technology. Then came a disc error or two, which corrupted the blank media. I shrugged it off and hoped it was just a "glitch". But the error messages became more and more frequent. Then at times this unit would not even shut off..had to pull the plug to get it to turn off. From there things got worse. After a couple of months it stopped being able to read Discs recorded on this very machine. Today it only is able to record on DVD RW media, if I am lucky. Disc error and cryptic number displays abound. It even tells me the clock is not set, check PBS station, while the correct time is right there on its display. I have spent almost $100.00 on blank media that ended up in the garbage due to this product. Customer support is terrible, and the Firmware update made no difference..this thing is a Lemon. The folks at Philips should be ashamed of themselves. I will never purchase a Philips product again.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing but trouble!
Review: I'm one of those suckers that paid over $900- for this machine. Don't be like me!! Don't buy this recorder! The unit is now being serviced for the second time and i know it will not work when i get it back (Just like the first time) I can only pray that the Good Guys will replace it with ANOTHER BRAND. I will never buy another Philips product again. NO MORE!!
Rating:
Summary: Great machine
Review: I have owned this recorder for about four months. During this time I have transferred roughly 20 home videos of my family to DVD, which is what I purchased it for. I did get "Disk Error" once, on a very poor quality tape that had loads of green color in it (long story). Other than that, it has performed flawlessly. I have sent DVD's of the family to my parents and they play on their machine just like a store bought disk. They play on my other DVD at home, plus they even play on a portable DVD unit I recently purchased for long vacation trips. When we are not watching or recording a DVD on it, we are playing audio CDs on it. So far, no problem to report in any area. Yes, the manual is not great and it does take some head scratching to get it all hooked up with the televsion, VCR, receiver, cable, etc. However, you can eventually figure it out. I wish they would have designed it with an internal hard drive, my only complaint. But then the cost would probably be higher as well. The program coding is great. I tape television shows all the time on a DVD +RW disk.
I have no complaints regarding the performance of this machine.
Rating:
Summary: ADD Me to the list of the disgruntled EX-Philips customers!
Review: I purchased a DVDR985 in June of 2002. I had immediate problems with the timer recording. I was shipped a new version of software twice. Each time it worked for a while. Then in September this year (2003) I am getting the famous errors and non-operative drawer etc. Of course the warranty is up and I am stuck with the prospect of paying over half of the cost of a new unit to repair this barely year old piece of what should be part of a class action lawsuit, based on what I have seen and heard. Philips will never see the inside of my wallet again and that includes light bulbs and anything else they have their hand in. There is no way they are not aware of this problem. It is a shame too, because when it worked, I loved the resulting DVD's. My search continues for a reliable DVD+RW......
Rating:
Summary: What a piece of junk
Review: Out of the box, the unit worked fine. With a quirk now and then and only while recording from digital cable, I attributed the quirks to some sort of anti-record noise. Now that the warrenty has expired, it will not record anything without a disk error. One program recorded and when I tried to edit out the commercials, it kept the commercials and deleted what seems to be random parts of the programs. The software upgrade via CD does not work. If you want an expensive paper weight, this unit is for you.
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