Rating: 
Summary: Burn Your Tapes
Review: For all the accursed pains you've had to endure using tape, you owe it to yourself to join the prison break. I wanted to collect episodes of 'First Person', which are only half an hour each. I put a bunch of them on tape then got this and thought I'd died and gone to heaven. Each episode is a separate chapter, you can even pick the picture that shows in the index, when you go to queue up the recording, you can press the record button repeatedly for each 30m of recording. The unit will turn itself off automatically after that. If you do end up with extra time on the end of the recording, it's easy to discard it. My only caveats about this are two: 1. the unit itself is slightly cheesoid, not what you'd expect for a g. 2. I bought some [inexpensive] DVD+RW discs and when I tried to divide a chapter it threw up a disc error. Straight recording on those discs has worked fine though and the quality is still great. Exciting Development: I changed the settings to not autoinsert chapters and now when I'm done putting something on DVD that I got off of TiVo, I quickly scan through it and find the 4 or 5 spots where it returns from commercial and insert chapters so when I'm rerunning it (or sending a copy to a friend), you can just hit the next chapter button when a commercial comes up. Love this thing!! Well, no more. DISC ERRORs were coming up all the time, so I sent it in and got it fixed, then it worked again for a long time. Now, all the sudden, back to no worky. The biggest nightmare ever.
Rating: 
Summary: Performance
Review: The Philips DVDR985 performs quite well. Records from TV,DVD's(non commerical) and VHS tapes to DVD+R/RW quite well in all modes. Picture quality is excellent, this also depends on the condition of your source media. I have not tried recording from a digital or analog camera yet. I highly suggest to read the manual several times first before trying to record. Then record something off TV for about a hour and learn all the recorder functions with this one hour recording. This makes the overall operation learning of the unit much easier. The recorder's clock will not keep the correct time. Over time the clock lags behind the correct time anywhere from two to three minutes. There also has been other know problems from the clock. I believe Philips knows about this problem. The other problem is you may or maynot be able to program channels into the recorder if you have a digital cable. There are no digital or coaxial IN Audio jacks on the unit and it can't play MP3's. The worst problem is calling Philips customer service for help. If you need answers my suggestion is to go to the website [URL], here you'll find lots of questions, answers and problems from other people who have purchase this recorded. Overall the recorder has performed excellent depict the timer and auto channel problem.
Rating:
Summary: Great product at a high price
Review: If you hate video tape (like I do,) this may be worth the price. I've copied VHS tapes of all qualities (except SVHS) using the composite video output (yellow jack), and they have all been as good as the original, with one exception: I did experience fluctuating audio on one copy; I traced the problem to an inability to correctly match the tracking on the VCR to the tape. Viewed directly from the VCR, the problem was confined to the video and almost appeared to be the result of the age of the tape. On the DVDR, any video disruption affects the audio as well. Copies of the DVD+R and DVD+RWs that I've made have come out perfectly. Recordings off of cable made on SP are nearly indistinguishable from the live broadcast, although I have noticed that the recorded image is just the slightest bit darker. The ability to put in chapter breaks and to make chapters hidden is great, and can be done to both DVD+RWs and DVD+Rs during recording *or* playback. (Before the DVD-R is 'finalized' for play on other machines, of course.) I've found that the cleanest way to put in the chapter breaks is to add the break while the playback is paused. The only downside (other than the high price) is that DVD+RWs and DVD+Rs are not completely backward compatible. My 1 yr old DVD-ROM will not play DVD+RW, and my 5 yr old DVP (yes, that counts as an antique DVD player) does not recognize either. But as inexpensively as DVPs are priced, I just bought a new one.
Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous
Review: This item is pricey, but I am extremely happy with it! It is very easy to use. Just get the picture to appear on the television screen--toggle the channel buttons up and down until it appears--and press "record." When the record session is over, press "stop," and the unit automatically archives the session, setting up an index on the disc as it goes. When you play back the disc, the index appears, showing you the lead frame of each recording session. Picture quality is fabulous, particularly where the "HQ" setting is used. The recorder handles all sorts of connection arrangements. There is even a direct camcorder hookup in a port on the front of the machine--this is behind a pop-out panel and so is not visible in the Amazon.com picture. Just remember, this is DVD+R, DVD+RW technology. So don't buy the wrong discs.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Love this Machine!!!
Review: I expected little and was very pleasantly surprised. A breeze to set up and use, I have successfully copied from VHS, DVD and tv/cable onto DVD with incredible results. The DVDs have played on every DVD player that I can find. If you look around online, you can find the DVD+R and DVD+RW blank discs at a pretty reasonable price.... I haven't tried it with my digital camcorder yet, but so far, I can't really find anything to say bad about this recorder.
Rating: 
Summary: Notice DVD-RAM is in on the format list
Review: I do not see DVD-RAM on the list for this machine. The price is great and the concept of having a separate recorder is great. However everyone I now uses DVD-RAM. Just like the video wars VHS vs. Betamax, It looks like DVD-RAM is in the lead at this time becaus of its strong campatability with computers. Ther is nothing wrong with the other formats but they have not settled down yet and DVD-RAM will be here for a while.
Rating:
Summary: design flaw
Review: Recorded audio has frequency change. Audio randomly sounds like a tape slowing down and speeding up. Chipmunk effect. Philips team leader in Jamaica admits to problem and says engineers are working on. Have ruined about 15 DVD's. Wait for conformation of fix before purchase. I will update this if flaw is corrected.
Rating:
Summary: The Future is Here ! Clean, Crisp images of Cable, Home Vid
Review: The Philips DVDR 985 is an excellent all around recorder. The image quality is shown to you in advance of recording on your monitor or TV screen. There's a change in quality depending on recording modes. Double Sided DVD+RW's are already on their way
so if you are the perfectionist, then you can record longer shows on one disc at the best quality out there. For older DVD players , simply press the # 2 button and it will reformat signals to other DVD players that may not recognize the information. Thus, family and friends can watch your recordings. The inputs all FireWire iEEE 1394 for home video, your VCR tapes, Cable or satellite signals, home video cameras and yes, even your digital camera for slide shows. The quality is the best out there when compaired to the Panasonic E-20. There are more updated features on this model. ... Truly a great system!!!
Rating:
Summary: TBC, DVD-RW to DVD-R copies possible?
Review: It sounds as though this unit could use some form of a rudimentary time base corrector to stabilize analog video being input into the machine like some of the digital Video Walkman's do (I have a Digital 8mm one). You shouldn't be seeing pixelation from either composite or S-Video either. Can any of you new owners tell me if the Firewire input also does DV output? Also is it technically possible to record camcorder footage to DVD+RW and then slip the disk into a Mac G4's DVD-ROM and make copies to a Firewire DVD-R burner? Has anyone made these kinds of copies? It's the only thing that keeps me from buying it. (The Philips is the superior DVD Recorder of the moment with such features as Firewire and progressive outputs.) Since there is only DVD playback data there I shouldn't think it'd be a problem. I suppose you could also copy the DVD+RW data to hard disk and then write DVD-R copies. My desire is to master/archive in DVD+RW and make copies on DVD-R for relatives since I already have the DVD-R burner. ---PG
Rating:
Summary: Use Proper Connection
Review: I'm *very* pleased with this recorder, but I'd like to give one note of warning. If you want to copy a tape from a VCR, I want to emphasize the importance of using a VCR with either a Component Video or S-Video out connector. Using the typical Composite Video connection can result in a pixalated image.
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