Rating: 
Summary: AVOID the Philips DVDr75
Review: Do not, I repeat, DO NOT buy this item.
If you have any problems using a VCR, TV, or computer this DVD recorder will give you a migrain. It is incredibly unintuitive. The manual is not laid out well and skips important points in the intial setup regarding how to view TV through the box , and how many titles are allowed on one disc. The recorder does not recognize several major label dvd discs and also has problems recording video footage originally recorded in LP speed. The naming system is prehistoric and time consuming and utimately does not display complete titles anyway.
Tech support for the product leaves a lot to be desired as well.This recorder is not a simple VCR, in fact it is almost as complicated as a computer. It should not be sold as such and will undoubtedly sit on your shelf unused. Do yourself a favor and try a different brand or wait until they have mastered this technology better. Go back to the drawing board Philips!
Rating: 
Summary: Be prepared for writing a notebook titled "Lessons learned"
Review: I Called the "800-531-0039" customer support for Philips Consumer Electronics and was switched to a support center that is located in Jamaica. The call was a simple one: I needed to know how to change the DVDR75 from looking at the antenna input connection to one of the other input connections that I had a VCR attached to. The manual for the recorder is horribly written and assumes a lot on consumer knowledge of this product. The response from the representative was that she did not know how to do this function and that the user's manual does not reference on how to do this. I found it hard that the manual could be written without detailed instructions on guiding the user through the process so I decided to call the local service center in Atlanta. They said that they could not answer such a question and that the only way to get the correct answer was to call the "800-531-0039" Jamaica. I did not want to take that route again so I asked if there was an alternative approach to seeking the "truth". Yes I started to feel like I was in an X-Files episode. The Atlanta office suggested that I call the Knoxville repair center and they also gave me the "800-531-0039" number. I told them of my experience with the call center in Montego Bay and they suggested that I try the Internet route. I took this approach enthusiastically only to find out after submittal of the issue that it will take up to 48 hours to respond. It is now two days later and I have not received a response. So I again decided to torture myself again and call the call center and this time the representative stated that in order for my DVDR to record from another port source on the DVDR I needed to change the connections to my TV set and that I needed to contact the TV manufacturer. At this point I lost my cool and asked the representative to let me speak to her supervisor. The supervisor came on the line within a few minutes and after explaining my problem he told me exactly what should be done to "switch" to the other ports and it actually works as he stated. I thanked him and hung up. Now on to part two of this story. I recorded two hours of video at M2x speed using the supplied DVD-RW disc by Philips. The disc worked fine in the recorder but try using it on another DVD player and you get "disc errors". So you guessed it, I called the service center again and the lady on the other end stated that in order for the DVD-RW to work in another player I had to do some things with the disc in the disc tray and depress "2" or "3" and neither worked. When I asked why I was doing this, the representative stated that she did not know but that it works sometimes. Even though I was in my own house I started to wonder if maybe I was on the TV show "Candid Camera" and someone was playing a joke on me. Since this did not work I decided to go to the Philips Webpage and try the 48 hour response line. While at the webpage I saw that Philips has a customer service chat room and so I tried this. Well the down side is that it also originates out of Montego Bay but the upside is that you get to talk to someone "now" but at what seems to be at a 300 baud rate. You send a message and they reply two minutes or so later. So do not ask how is the weather but stick to the issue if you get a representative. The quality of the responses seems to be better. It appears that the DVD-RW will not work in the Toshiba SD-2700 player that I have because it cannot read RW discs. The answer to this question is buying and record on DVD-R's for this purpose. The final chink in my technical ego came when I purchased a DVD-R disc and not DVD+R disc. I did not know that there was a difference. The DVD-R will not work in the DVDR75 recorder. This was answered correctly when we called the "800-531-0039" number. They did not know what the difference was but they did know that DVD-R will not work in the recorder and so after going back to the store one more time and getting the correct DVD it worked. The final straw was drawn now and if this recording did not work in another player we were returning the recorder for a refund. After making the recording with my wife and I following the directions for finalizing, which were barely clear, we took the DVD to the other player and fortunate for Philips it worked great. After all of the above four things should stand out. First, if you purchase this recorder be prepared to call the customer support center in Montego Bay. Second, be prepared to write your own instructions on how to run the recorder, the user's manual, at least the English portion, is useless. Third, we have made five DVDs now and we are very pleased with the quality of the recording and plan we plan on retaining the product but boy was it rough getting started. Make good use of the DVD-RW that is supplied with the recorder to become familiar with it. It may not work in other players but use it to get familiar with the features. Finally, Philips needs to hire an experienced English speaking technical writer and re-write this manual. Too much of the verbiage assumes too much of the average consumer. I am an Electrical Engineer and I usually do not have this much trouble with toys like this.
Rating:
Summary: Great recorder - controls and remote needs help
Review: I have a 10 year old wedding video that deteriorating fast and a drawer full of old VHS-C tapes of my kids....what to do? Go buy a DVD recorder! I said. I looked into buying a DVD burner, analog video capture card / device, and some good video editing software for my PC...oh yeah, would need a larger hard drive, etc. etc....$500 or more...so I did some online research and saw many "bang for the buck" reviews recommending the Phillips machines....it also helped that Amazon's "hidden price" was very good. Went home....scanned the mannual...stopped reading it and tried to figure things out for myself like a good male engineer...in 10 minutes, I was up and running... it took me more time to move cables and components that it did to hook up the DVD recorder to my VCR and begin transferring the wedding video....DVD+R in, hit play on the VCR, record on the DVD recorder and an hour and 15 minutes later, voila! My wedding video is now on a medium that will probably outlast me! Only complaint...maybe not fair...is remote control and online menu during DVD viewing....a lot of symbols that are not so intuitive...especially when compared to your basic $100 DVD player...it takes some getting used to for things like zoom, camera angles, fast forward and slo-mo.....so my old DVD player will still see some use in another room... Also, I wish Phillips made a black colored unit to go w/ the rest of my home components....the chrome-like plastic on the buttons and the DVD slot are a bit cheesy. Finally, did have some second thoughts..mabye I should have looked more at the Pansonic units...a bit cheaper...a few more features...but concerns about lack of portability of DVD-RAM (for now)...Phillips doing a nice job marketing and advertising lately, so maybe I was just brainwashed. Anyways, I just realized that in 3 months, many manufacturers will offer cheaper models with more features anyways...my first 4-head VHS-S VCR was over $400...now, they cost $59. So best just to enjoy my old tapes on DVD and my new replacement for recording shows off cable TV...and buy another recorder in a year or two the standards settle down and the cost $200 or lesss.
Rating:
Summary: DVD+RW Lovin'
Review: Bought this June 4th, 2003
Earlier that day I also had purchased the Panasonic DMRE-50s. The Panasonic DVD-R / DvdRam unit is back at Circuit City.
I'm using the DVDR 75 as we speak.
There are a few things to like and some maybe not so.
1st of all, I love the format DVD+RW. The unnecessary task of finalizing the disk sells me. My first attempt was a few SpongeBob episodes. it went like this.
Inserted Philips DVD+RW disk into drive
Selected appropriate inputs and cable channel
Pressed Record
Pressed Stop
Split a few titles into separate episodes (very easy to do)
Edited the names
Assigned each title a custom image thumbnail (from a frame in the show) (Very easy to do)
clicked eject
took the disk to my daughters room and inserted disk in old DVD player
and prayed ..........
I was amazed. It took less than 20 seconds for the title screen (think DVD MENU) to show up.
All my little editing and naming and picture thumbnailing all perfectly intact!
One button got a selected title playing (daughter chose it from the picture)
There was no significant lapse for title to begin playing, NICE!
No formatting, No finalizing, No disappointed daughter, NO KIDDING But, I did find a few disappointing features here:
There are no real helpful buttoms on the unit itself (Menu, Rec Mode,etc...)
So, if you lose the remote you'll need a new one
Component input was inviting, but it will not accept Progressive Scan?
So, my HDTV Cable Box is now a "Watch 1080i, Record 480i tuner" - 1 star
I have used optical audio out for years, but welcomed the Coax Digital Out as it allowed me to get the recorder away from my receiver.
I Would've been 99% satisfied if this unit would record Progressive scan and if there were a few more facia buttons, but for the price I paid - it's well worth it. Honorary mention goes to the iLink (FireWire) front input All things being equal, I like this far better than Panasonics DVD-R units. Despite the Panasonics having a few more unit placed features, it doesn't allow recording to a DVD-RW format besides RAM, and RAM to me is useless because I can't play it back on anything but the Panasonic units that record RAM. DVD+RW is clearly the more user-friendly format and the Philips DVDR 75 handles it quite well 4.5 stars
Rating:
Summary: Philips DVDR75
Review: I have owned this unit for only 6 days. I burned 10 discs and there are a few problems so far. When recording all the way to the end of the DVD+r disc an error occurred. Also, if you take the DVD+r disc out before finalizing, it will not be recognized on the recorder that it was made on.
I called Philips and they are aware of the problem. They are sending out a software update via US mail.
The menu is a little confusing but you get used to it.
The recorder gets a little warm after a few hours of operation.
The remote is not universal.
Picture quality on playback is excellent. Low profile a plus.
Will see if the updated software corrects the above problems before I give my thumbs up on this DVD recorder. UPDATE: I just received the firmware update from Philips (ver,ff12r). It took a good 20 min. to update the recorder. I tried to open an unfinalized +r disc that was made before the firmware update. The dvdr 75 let me burn another chapter, but would not let me see previously recorded chapters. It did let me finalize the chapters that I burned after the firmware update.
I noticed that, when you burn all the way to the end of the +r disc, it displays "disc is full" and stops recording automatically. It didn't do this before the firmware update.
Now, after copying about 35 VHS tapes and 10 DV camcorder tapes, I am very satisfied with this unit. I also recorded a 2 hour movie off of DISH Network, using the timer. It worked flawlessly.
I am upgrading my recommendation to 4 stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Good (if you are a forgiving technophile)
Review: I found that this machine had a bunch of annoying quirks that one had to get used to: 1. It allows you to name the disk - but when you view the disk on your computer it always shows up as "PHILIPS_DVD". Then what is the point of naming the disk? 2. Some very non-intuitive and confusing operations with the remote control. 3. You can name a title up to any length but only the first 16 characters will make it to the written index. 4. It got really confused when I switched the input signal from a camcorder playing back an 8 mm tape to the same camcorder providing live video. It ended up writing errors to DVD+R disk that made the disk unreadable. 5. The unused space at the end of a disk ends up as a section titled "empty title" that gets read as such by your DVD player. The only workaround (that I could figure out) is to record on this space and then delete it! Nice things to say: 1. The setup was very easy and self-driven (channel line-up, time, etc.). 2. Very convenient user-friendly way of archiving old home video, in a fraction of the time that a computer would take. 3. The quality of recording was very good. In fact, it seemed cleaner than the originals (eight year-old 8 mm Sony camcorder tapes). 4. I found the manual detailed and better than others have made it out to be. I set up the system faster than I set up a portable gas grill! Warnings: 1. Don't try to buy DVD-R disks when the unit clearly states that it can only record on a DVD+R or DVD+RW. Don't try to play a DVD+RW disk that you record on a different player that does not support this format. The safest option is probably to use only DVD+R disks once you are done experimenting (use a DVD+RW while you are learning the ropes). 2. You cannot hook a DVD player to this unit expecting to make perfect DVD copies! You have to use your computer to do that! In closing: I returned my unit and will get back to this technology when it is better and cheaper. Disclaimer: All experiments were limited to using this unit only as a recorder using only analog input.
Rating: 
Summary: Welcome Relief From VCR
Review: I think the Philips DVDR75 Recorder is wonderful. It is a welcome replacement to my VCR; this is my first DVD recorder (other than the one on my PC); I never owned the DVDR985. Connecting was truly easy. Cable provides my TV and all I did was physically replace the VCR and appropriate connections with this DVDR 75. [The cable signal goes from the wall directly into the cable box; from the cable box to the DVDR75; then from the DVDR75 to the TV]. Philips included a "DVD+RW" disc in the box (the unit is not designed for DVD-RAM or DVD-RW rewriteable discs) and that is what I have been using to learn how all this works. We recorded at the M1 quality (1 hour of recording) all the way up through the M6 (6 hours of recording). There is a noticeable difference between M1 and M6, but I assure you the M6 quality is far better than my deteriorating VCR. My next purchase is going to be the Sony KLV 30XBR900 30in LCD TV and I can't wait to see what happens then... It is important when using the remote to WAIT after pressing a button or combination of buttons (like SYSYEM and then MENU) and to pay close attention to the message(s) on the unit as they are displayed. There is distinct processing time involved which needs to be respected (like on a computer, too much clicking too fast can cause immediate frustration)...
Rating:
Summary: It does what it is supposed to but it has flaws
Review: I checked to see if it does what it advertises and I found it does a good job. However, I found that an old movie I had on a DVD+RW did not play anymore in another DVD player after I played it on the DVDR 75.
There is not as much lapse time when changing from one channel to another as in the previous Philips model 985. However, the remote control is not a universal one as the one that comes with the latter. This means I have to have another remote control for the TV volume.
The worse flaw is that when it is on it gets very, very hot. It has a fan built in (a fairly noise one), but it is not enough. I don't think this is going to do much for the life of this model. Philips customer service, although very cordial and prompt, is useless because it is such a new model that they can't help you on anything especific to this unit.
Rating:
Summary: A good, but not great, product
Review: This product suffers from my pet peeve when it comes to some consumer-grade electronics these days: some jackass with a biz-school degree at a major electronics firm decided that it was acceptable to ship a product with sub-standard software, forcing customers to upgrade the firmware afterwards to achieve stability, and unfortunately, other jackasses at other companies thought this was a swell idea. I've seen this with most of the Linksys products I've purchased, for example, but I assumed that, since routers are a geeky subject anyway, that was somehow more acceptable. But this certainly shouldn't be acceptable for a device that's supposed to be easy enough for my grandmother to use (it's supposed to replace her VCR, isn't it?). My device froze up a couple of times and intermittently refused to recognize blank discs over the first few days, which set off an immediate jackass alert in my mind. Why do I still own one, you ask? Because, once I got over the initial hurdle of: * upgrading the firmware (if you don't have a CD burner or don't want to bother downloading and burning the firmware, call Philips support at 1-800-531-0039 and they'll send you the appropriate firmware CD in the mail - doesn't hurt to ask for this as soon as you get this device even if you aren't seeing any immediate problems); * learning the non-intuitive user interface (it's no TiVO, that's for sure - expect to spend a few hours playing with the menus with the manual in hand); and, * navigating the Philips Web site (http://www.philipsusa.com), and especially its support area - I could not find support questions/faqs for this product (though I did find the firmware and manuals), and no-one answered the support chat, even though I waited for over ten minutes; I realized that, for the money, this is a good buy. No, really, it is. These are the early heady days for DVD recorders, and so I have to expect some warts to be present. This is a first-generation DVD recorder, after all, and offers a great mix of features for the price, especially when compared to similar items from Panasonic and Sony (I didn't consider the products from Gateway and GoVideo seriously). Here are some warts you should be aware of (a few of which may have already been mentioned in other reviews): * The interface allows you to enter many characters for the disc and title names, but only displays a subset of these names on playback on the menu screen. * If you hide a chapter recorded on a DVD+R disc, then it will correctly be hidden on playback on the same machine, but not on other DVD players. (This problem does not apparently occur on DVD+RW discs.) * The device is limited on video inputs (you can only hook up one S-video/composite video input and one component video input). So I could not, for example, connect both my TiVO and VCR directly to it (receivers that can handle multiple video inputs help to deal with such situations). It's a little unfair to bring this up, since this is a natural consequence of buying a relatively cheap piece of hardware. * To switch between video inputs, you need to switch to the monitor mode and press channel-up or -down. I had to call support to figure that one out. Given that there are only a very small number of inputs, providing buttons for each on the remote would've been much better. A final note: Philips' phone support is quite good. The first-tier guys were easy to reach (hold time was less than a minute on each of the four or five occasions I've called them) and were quite knowledgeable (you can imagine my surprise).
Rating:
Summary: DVDR75 A great product
Review: If I had read all the negative reports I see on this site I never would have bought this recorder. I am glad I did not see all the negative reviews. This is a very good recorder. I have had no problems playing or recording. I am using Memorex 4x DVD+R & +RW with no problems. The only negative thing I can say is that the directions for connecting the recorder are the worse I have every seen. They should show pictures instead of drawings and should be clear about what to do. I finally closed the manual and used my good sense to connect my recorder. I must have done it right as everything is working. I have a surround sound reciever, a digital cabel box and a VCR. Digital cabel box is not even mentioned in the instructions. I have not upgraded and do not know if I need to. So far I am happy with my DVD recorder.
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