Rating: 
Summary: It does have fast forward
Review: A good piece of machine. I burn VCR tapes to DVD then work with the digital files on my computer, doing almost anything I want.YOU must read the instruction manual. There are hidden features unseen by the quick glance. By the way, it does have a fast forward and reverse. Just press and hold the chapter advance button and you can fastforward or reverse at 4x, 8x and 32x. Can't stress enough, READ THE MANUAL.
Rating: 
Summary: Not ready for primetime.
Review: Bright point: VIVID, almost 1-1 transfer from VHS (S-VHS in my case) to video. I haven't used it for recording live TV. Bad points: Idiotic/stupid/febrile/infantile/incompetent/moronic user interface design. Who designed this thing? - Front panel controls don't work until you set the date/time. Like, oh, the EJECT button. They worked around this with an in-box insert. - There is no eject button on the remote. Ah, but if you hold down the STOP button, it'll double as eject. Got that from the manual. - Too-smart signal processing. Stops recording if it perceives static. Just hangs. Forever... In fact, all sorts of problems if it doesn't detect a live feed (try setting it up for simple recording from a line input device). - Always defaults to a system-management, not video-management mode. Unlike every VCR in existence, which is what this should behave like. - Can't go to the line input mode to review inbound input if there isn't a DVD blank in the machine. Lots of things don't work if there isn't a DVD in the machine. Modal madness. - Line input is not an option on the remote or front panel. Instead, you can only select it by down-channelling under channel 1. - No clear way to finish a DVD without having a blank track hanging off the table of contents. - Manual doesn't quite match the final firmware. Overall: this is a "Rev 0" machine, beta, pre-release. Not ready for mass consumption. All of the problems are user interface, not performance.
Rating: 
Summary: Great DVD recorder
Review: I bought this item from Best Buys a week back after reading all the positive and negative reviews on the recorder. But I have to say it surpassed my expectation. There were lot of complaints about the controls but once you carefully read the manual it's not really that hard. I trnsfered all my VHS tapes to DVDs now and also using the unit to record live TV on DVD +RW, no problems. Only complaint I have is that I have some PAL VCDS which didn't play on the DVD recorder. I think Philips should allow both NTSC and PAL signals to be played on the same DVD player. I know units sold outside US is capable of doing that so there's no reason why the same capability should be available here in US.
Rating: 
Summary: I wouldn't recommend this recorder
Review: I bought this DVD recorder before Christmas, and have now owned it about a month. Actually, this is my SECOND machine. The FIRST one didn't work at all! After doing all of initial installation, I inserted a DVD disc, and the display read "NO DISC". This happened with ALL disc, pre-recorded and blank. SO, they said to return it for a new one.
The second one worked fine. I use the DVD+RW disc that comes with it to record TV shows, and then record over them. But the main reason I bought this machine is to transfer all of my home video family movies onto DVD. I bought a pack of DVD+R discs, and the first 12 tapes transferred beautifully. I was able to edit titles, change the index picture to fit the scene. Now, all of a sudden, it won't let me edit titles anymore. The last two DVDs that I have made lets me edit titles up to a certain point, but then stops giving me that option. I go to the "settings" screen, and the arrows are gone, and "TITLE" is no longer highlighted to allow me to edit it. This problem has occured on the last 2 that I have made. I tried contacted customer support, and they did send me some firmware to update, but it was useless. After a few seconds, it read "No update needed".
Obviously there are still bugs left in this machine. IT still lets me transfer my tapes, and change index pictures, and record TV shows, but when it comes to editing titles you never know when it's going to work and when it's not. VERY FRUSTRATING.
Rating:
Summary: Great Product
Review: Got the Philips DVDR75 in mid January and have not been disappointed. Had it connected and recording in about an hour with the DVD+RW disc that is included. I agree that the remote and manual will take a little getting used to, but for the price it is worth it. Now I'm looking forward to copying all my old VHS Tapes onto DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Warning Will Robinson!!! Don't buy this peice of Junk!!!!
Review: I was really excited about having a DVD recorder to get my family videos on DVD. I spent way more than I should have on this thing because I feel my family memories are that important. I should have waited or bought a different brand. This thing is worthless. In short, it DOES NOT WORK!!! I should have done more checking because after a bit of research I found out another model of Philips DVD recorder doesn't work either, the DVDR 985. Go check out the reviews for that paper weight. How can Philips keep putting out products that don't work?? I have to think that the good reviews on this thing are from people who haven't had this thing very long or people who work for Philips because this thing is a peice of junk. AND THE SUPPORT???? The people who answer the support phones (after a 20 min wait) are worthless. They barely speak English and only give you canned responses to your questions. If you've got money to flush then buy one of these, if not buy a different brand or wait for more choices to come out in the future. Thanks to Amazon for giving us a place to vent about this company.
Rating:
Summary: Great machine for the price
Review: I've read a lot of the reviews here and it seems a lot of people are having problems using this machine. If you have problems programming a VCR then yes you will have problems using this recorder. However if you are the least bit computor literate or can handle most stereo equipment, then as long as you READ the manual you will not have a problem. I bought this and on the same day after spending about 5 hours reading the manual and experimenting with the DVD+RW rewritable disks (so I wouldn't ruin the DVD+R disks) i learned almost all the basics in that first day and was recording (both timer recording and on the spot recording) that same evening. By the second day I figured out all the rest of the little things this machine does, such as hiding chapters so you'll never have to watch commercials with repeated viewings, naming titles & disks, deleting recorded programs, etc. The people who are having problems are trying to use it out of the box without instructions. It can not be done this way. This is a wonderful recording component so it's not going to be simple. But the rewards are great if you take it slowly & play with it. Now for some of the details:
At the slowest recording rate of 6 hours it makes good copies of shows straight off TV (as long as the telecast is nice & sharp. With previously recorded VCR tapes I would use the 2 hour mode. It won't make the copies better, but I did notice it filtered out some slight interference lines that were coming through my cable line when I first recorded them on tape. So they were slightly better. You will get a really great copy off a good broadcast telecast straight off the TV at 2 hour mode (DVD quality). I have figured out yet if you can do the one touch recording, then watch another channel while you're recording (if anyone knows this feel free to email me) but if you set the timer you can watch another program as it records. This is a great buy for the price.
Rating:
Summary: Great quality and customer support
Review: I'm using this machine from last 30 days and I am amazed with its performance. Copying VHS tapes on dvd, recording tv shows or recording from camcorders it does it all with great ease and gives great quality. The manual definitely needs improvement. I was having a problem hooking the VCR and camcorder to the DVD recorder (because of ambiguous instructions on the manual) and I was apprehensive about calling the customer support because of negative reviews, but my experience with custommer support was very pleasant as they fixed my problem in seconds.
I give ***** on performance and custommer support and *** on the manual. It is a great buy with this price.
Rating:
Summary: Philips DVDR75
Review: We bought the Philips DVDR75 because its recording capabilities are compatible with the DVD burner on our computer. We also liked the Firewire port because we have a DV camcorder. From the beginning the machine gave us trouble. When we tried to play a disc, the disc tray would close, then immediately reopen and the message "BLOCKED" would appear on the display. When we tried to turn the machine off, the same thing would happen. The only way we could turn the machine off was to unplug it. After being unplugged overnight, the machine would play (or record) one disc, then the same problem recurred. Philips customer service was no help at all, so we sent the machine back to Amazon for a replacement. The second machine seemed to work well at first, then, when recording a disc, we noticed that it would always record video, but would not always record audio. Again, Philips customer service was clueless. Fortunately, Amazon has a good return policy and the second machine is now on its way back, this time for a refund. It's a shame, because the picture quality was excellent and the machine had a lot of convenient features, especially the firewire port, but those things don't mean much if the machine won't work. We were particularly disappointed with Philips customer service. They all seemed to speak English as a second or third language and did not seem to understand our problems. Their suggestions did not help. The owner's manual is very poorly written. You would think a big company like Philips would hire a native English speaker to write or edit the manual, but you would be wrong. It was poorly laid out and contained several passages of grammatical nonsense. We cannot, in good conscience, recommend this DVD recorder.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible, Avoid This Machine And Go With Another Brand!
Review: I got this as a gift and returned it after 1 week. First off, the interface is _horrible_ and confusing and just plain unfriendly. I could have lived with that, but it didn't work! I tried to burn a DVD+R and it locked up on the "finalizing" step. This happened on 3 discs (2 Memorex 1 Fuji). Each disc cost me $2! Six dollars later (not to mention the money I spent on the now opened/unreturnable discs) and I visited their website and tried their firmware upgrade. My recorder said I had the latest firmware. So when I called Philips tech support and we both agreed something was wrong with the machine, they told me to ship it at my expense to fix it. My question to the supervisor I spoke with was, how is it they send me a machine that doesn't work, and then _I_ have to pay out of my pocket(shipping) to fix _their_ mistake? They sold me a product that didn't work! Why am I spending money to make a product work? Not only did they use ever excuse they could think of (corporate policy, it got damaged during shipping, etc...) the bottom line is that they didn't even give a hint of caring about me as a customer (and this is a supervisor I spoke with). They made no attempt to make right by me, the customer, in a situation where clearly I was not satisfied with the product I got which DIDN'T EVEN WORK! I've returned it, am waiting on my rebate and will get a Sony or Samsung. I want to warn everyone. Yes, I'm only one customer and this is one incident. But clearly, if their policy is that it's the customer's fault and the burden is always on the customer it's clear they don't care about you, your problems or helping you and just want your money for their crumby products. If Nordstrom is the highest quality in customer care (which they are) then Philips has proven to me they are on the opposite end of that scale!!!!!!!!! UPDATE: I got the Samsung and have loved it ever since. Easy to install, simple easy-to-follow menus. Philips could take learn something from the quality that Samsung put into their recorder
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