Rating: 
Summary: Short Term Satisfaction....Long Term Grief
Review: I purchased this machine on December 24, 2002 as a Christmas gift from my wife. I found it relatively easy to hook up and begin using. I have a pretty big library of boxing videotapes that I wanted to convert to dvd and I did.Well everything was great until June 12, 2003. I started getting the dreaded disc error message anytime I tried to record to dvd. Tried 3 different brands of dvd+rs with the same results, disc error, disc error, disc error. I broke out the owners manuals and followed its troubleshooting suggestions. I even read how to reset the machine which I did twice. No dice, disc error. Fortunately the unit is still under warranty so I took it to Circuit City and they sent it off for repair. They let me take their floor model home, looked a little beat up but it was great that they were going to let me use it until I got the other one back. Well tried to burn a dvd and the good news was that I didn't get a disc error. The bad news is that after 15 seconds of recording (renders a brand new disc a coaster), it decides it wants to have some kind of spastic dump and shuts down with a message of unidentifiable letters on its front panel. Immediately took it back and they didn't have any others they could loan me until mine comes back. I am really afraid to get it back. I hope they really repair it. So again, it was short term satisfaction but long term grief. I am going to record 1 disc on it when I get it back and if it records successfully, it is going on ebay. I will put its history in the auction description so I don't feel guilty about selling it to someone else. The other reviews convinced me that is the way to go!
Rating: 
Summary: Great Product, Better Price Now
Review: This DVD recorder works great. However, my uncle's recorder broke right after the 1 year warranty end. We think it's because he uses it everyday for business. He burned over $100 DVDs. ... Expensive when he first got it ..., now it's very affordable ... If you are planing to get a DVD player save your money and get the Philips' DVD recorder. I don't know about the new models, but I am very happy with this one. I think they are discontinuing this model. ... After that, I don't think you will find one. ... You never know, it might last a long time.
Rating: 
Summary: Complete waste of Money
Review: This is my first Philips Product and the last. This recorder has been shipped to the service shop twice and it's still not fixed. The first trip to service was because the machine stopped recongizing the discs. The second time trip occured because when I run the TV through DVD Recorder and channel surf the machine freezes and shuts itself down. I've got to unplug the device to reset the machine then re-program date, time, and auto-channel program. Came back the second time still freezing. Great quality control Philips. Sorry I cannot comment on the machines ability to record yet. I wish I had a zero star option.
Rating:
Summary: Problems develop over time and feature missing
Review: Like many other reviewers I was very pleased with this product upon purchase. That opinion gradually eroded until now I feel like I wasted my money. The first major disappointment was that the unit is only capable of recording in stereo (L+R). There is no digital audio input, it's two channel analog only. So if you record a movie that's got 5:1 sound you're only going to get the left and right speakers. But I decided I could live with that. Yet, like another poster here, after several months I started seeing problems with the unit dealing with the recordable media. Recordings quit with "disc error" messages, rendering the media (which still isn't exactly inexpensive - about $2 ea for quality media) trash. I had heard that cheap DVD+R media can be a problem so I made sure to buy good product: Maxell, Verbatim, Memorex, Philips. It hasn't made any difference. What started as about a 10% failure rate has turned into 100%. I haven't been able to successfully burn a DVD in over a month despite dozens of attempts. I've contacted Philips customer service and applied their firmware updates which are supposed to correct this. Doesn't help. Maybe you'll get lucky with your unit but I can't say as I'm very happy with mine.
Rating:
Summary: After 5 months many problems
Review: I purchased the DVDR985 in January of 2003. Initially it worked as advertised and I was pleased. After a couple of months I began to have problems. Some DVD+RW disks that were written on the recorder now show "no disk" when loaded. Some DVD+R disks get errors when I try to record. The recorder seems to "forget" that a DVD+RW disk is RW and shows it as DVD so that I can no longer record. Now that I have some time, I will get the firmware updated and if necessary send it in for repair. At this point I am not happy with the product but there are not many other choices.
Rating:
Summary: ..............Me One Big HAPPY....................
Review: Un Like A Lot Of The 57 Reviews Before Mine I Had No Problem At All Under Standing The Manual, It's Very Simple And Straight Forward, As Easy As 1 2 3.......
I Have Made All Kinds Of Disk From C-VHS, S-VHS, VHS, TV, Cable, And From The PC,.
All On DVD+R'S . Moves Recorded From TV Or Cable Look Like Store Bought Or Better.I See Were A Lot Of People Complain About The Pitcher Quality,..That's Easy,, It Only Records What Ever Single It Receives, It Can Not And Will Not Perform A Hat Trick And Improve The Single Quality....I Will Say Somebody Like My Mother In-Law Could Never In A Life Time Use This Recorder, Except To PLAY DVD Moves..Face It, There Are Those Kind Of People Out There......You Know Them, The Ones That Back There Car In To Yours In The Parking Lot, And Don't Use Turn Singles, Or Don't Turn On There Head Lights In The Rain..Also Most Of The Reviews Are From People That Have Problems, You Don't Get Many From Happy People, May Be 2 Out Of Every Ten Will Take The Time, Like Me To Give A Item It's Due.............
Rating:
Summary: Unpredictable Machine
Review: I bought this unit from Amazon.com after reading good reviews from this site.The machine is irratic. The unit shut off itself and the sreen show the data is unrecognized. Ruined many discs.Finally the machine would not turn on even after numurous resets and system checked. I returned to factory service store.I hope they can fix glitchs or wasting big fortune.
Rating:
Summary: Philips has troubles
Review: A year ago I ordered a Philips DVDR 1500. Lots of troubles from the start. Sent back to service after 1 month for a new motor. About a year later I sent it back again because of several error messages on the screen. They replied that they are discontinuing the DVDR-1500 and they will replace it with a DVDR-985. The DVDR 985 arrived on Monday. I burned one DVD... by Thursday it too was dead. I called technical support they are going to replace this one also. Now I see all over the web that Philips is having lots of trouble with DVD recorders. Good luck if you buy this. Pioneer is the best at DVD recorders.
Rating:
Summary: Room for improvement
Review: I have had my 985 for a month now. While I am enjoying it immensely, it has drawbacks and glitches that make me wonder if I have once again chosen a format that won't last (I was a Betaphile to the bitter end). When it works right, this machine is great, and introduces a whole new world of home video possibilities. The drawbacks are: 1. The instruction manual is badly written, making the "learning curve" much steeper and more difficult than it needed to be. 2. The "+R" and "+RW" format may be more compatible with existing DVD players, as backers claim, than the "-R" and "-RW" format, but I'm not sure it's so. I can report that DVD+R discs, properly "finalized," play on my three DVD players, but not on my computer's DVD-ROM drive. DVD+RW discs will play on only two of my three DVD players and not on the computer. There may be a software solution for the computer. Of the three relatives I have sent home-movie discs to, two players played the "+R" discs and one did not. 3. Tapes recorded to disc via the EXT2 connection are sometimes too bright, with distinct shadings lost, gray turning into white, and a generally "overexposed" look. This does not apply to tapes recorded via the CAM3 "firewire" input, which requires putting a DV or Digital 8 camcorder in between the source deck and the 985. Tapes recorded via CAM3 are, however, slightly "washed out" in comparison to the originals. There doesn't seem to be any input that does not present one of these bad effects. 4. On occasion, if you let the disc record to the end, without manually stopping the recording process, the disc becomes unreadable. This happens randomly to about one in four discs. 5. Labelling and finalizing tracks, index pictures and the disc itself is a tedious process. 6. If you don't record the whole disc, an "empty track" annoyingly remains on the menu display, and cannot be deleted even on a "finalized" DVD+R. This is no big deal but could confuse a new user of a disc, such as a relative sent a disc of home movies. 7. Chapter stops added to a DVD+R after the initial recording do not work on any player other than the 985 itself. Added stops do work on a properly "conformed" DVD+RW. On the whole, my experience makes me wonder "What if I'd bought the Panasonic?" Since I don't have the budget for two machines and this one is performing at least tolerably, I guess I won't find out. There is a website [...]with lots of information and sometimes helpful discussion forums about Philips and other "+" recorders.
Rating:
Summary: DON'T EVER BUY THIS PRODUCT!!!
Review: I have had to return this DVD recorder 4 times and have had problems with all 4 recorders (problems w/ disc recognition, disc writing and reading problems). I contacted the Philips company and they are very, very RUDE and are NOT any help at all. Spend your money elsewhere. The Panasonic seems to be the better choice from what I have read even though I have not actually used one.
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