Customer Reviews

Philips CDR775BK Dual-Deck Audio CD Recorder

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I bought this model from Circuit City which offered a free 30-pack of Memorex 80 minute CDRs. Along with a $50 rebate I was excited about being able to record tapes, records, and copies of my favorite CDs. Well, after having problems like not finalizing CDRs automatically and just stopping in the middle of a song frozen with no option but to turn the unit off and then on again to get any functions to work (not to mention rendering alot of CDRs useless and a waste of my time), I took it into Circuit City after having it for just over a month. Since Circuit City's policy is no refunds after that, I took it in to be repaired at one of their service centers. They had it for almost 3 weeks and replaced the CBA recorder in it. Not too long after I got it back the same occured and I brought it back again and after the same amount of time, another CBA recorder had been replaced. The problems continued. I finally called Philips customer support to discover that 80 minute CDRs are not compatible with this model. Now why would Circuit City give free 80 minute CDRs with a model that's incompatible? They say they didn't know and eventually gave me 30 TDK 74 minute CDRs after I contacted the company online. Also, why doesn't Philips tell you this in the manual? How is one to know? Actually, it does make very good recordings when it's working right(the only reason I give it a generous 2 out of 5). However, it still freezes up during a song once in a while, even with 74 minute CDRs and you have to shut it off and on just to get the wells open. Forget about your recorded CDR at that point, it's useless and a waste of time and money. Like some others who have said negative things about the customer support, I pretty much got the same kind of useless advice. This model has problems, and I think Philips has a tough time with damage control issues. If you buy this model, expect the real possibility of having to deal with these problems. As for me, if the problems continue to persist regularly, I'll be looking into another brand, but this time I'll research better. The amount of frustration, waste of time, and money on wasted CDRs just isn't worth it. Although I'm surprised how many reviewers actually liked it, isn't it amazing how many also had similar problems?

I've had the Philips CDR775 for about a year now. I love the ability to record CDs, but I think maybe I should have shopped around for a better product.

My biggest complaint with Philips is that their support is awful. They have idoits with no training answering the phones. You can actually hear them reading through the same notes you can find on the web. Call with a complex problem and they ask dumb questions like "are your cables plugged in?"

My second complaint is that with fast dubbing, the deck adds a half second of blank time between tracks. Therefore, don't bother copying a continuous play CD. They sound really bad.

I found the connections very easy to hook-up. The manual was a bit confusing though. What was a pain, was to record selected tracks off another cd. There are a few steps that if you mess up on any one of them, you will accidentally record the wrong tracks. I did also have some defective tracks once later finalized and played back. When it would reach the defective track it wouldn't recognize it, then the playback would stop. If I bypassed the track, all would be fine. Other than that, I have had very pleasing results with the CD's I've made. It would be nice though if you could record on any CD-R, as I have many computer-ready CD-Rs that are now usless to me.

In the 1 week of ownership of this model I have had several frustrating days and phone sessions with the Philips girls on the customer "help" line. Finally I was able to break through to a technician named O'Neil who gave me the clue which helped me make 9 successful external recordings from vinyls and cassette tapes so far, and makes me feel safe in keeping the unit. The secret? He said this model is NOT ABLE TO HANDLE OVER 74 min.(including the finalization time) of the 80 min. disks. Yes, I finally found Philips disks at Sears. However, the local authorized Philips repair shop uses only Memorex and never heard that they won't work. They are not aware of the 74 min. limit, or of the requirement to use Philips disks. Neither is the dealer at Circuit City. If Philips would tell their DEALERS of this highly kept secret, they would not have so many returned "out of the Box" units on the shelf (which this was one of several) or so many unhappy purchasers.I hope this information is helpful for your particular problem.

When I bought the recorder, I was under the impression that I could use off the shelf standard CD-RW discs. They do not work and I find that I have to use a disc that is "CDRW, Compact Disc,Digital Audio,Rewritable". I have searched all over the area trying to locate this particular disc and have been unable to find it. I finally was able to get through to a Philips representative and ordered their brand on October 4, 2001. I have not yet received the disc and don't know whether I will ever get it. I think this is a lousy company to do business with. John Shaw.

This is a fine product when it works - and that's the catch. Sometimes it will and sometimes it won't. The directions are adequate if you are comfortable with electronics equipment. Otherwise, you have to trust your intuition. The first unit I received arrived already broken. The second one has provided me with two months of alternative pleasure and maddening frustration. [Right now the machine cannot read a disc I just recorded on it.] It can be a nightmare trying to get it to work properly at times. When it does work, it can be a joy. But I would rather have something that is reliable. It is apparent to me that Philips has issued a product with some real quality control probles. I would not buy it again and am already searching for a replacement.

I have to number myself among the nay-sayers who have had loads of problems with this unit. I have already had Philips replace my old, defective with a new deck and, right out of the box, I had the same old problems with: 1. Not finalizing CDs, 2. "Disc Error" messages, 3. Wasted CDs that would not format, not be recognized, or not be ejected.

It also will not work with 80 minute Music CDRWs, so forget buying these, although that's increasingly all that you can find available these days in stores.

It's a lose-lose machine, compounded by Philips terrible customer service, not-in-service phone numbers, and general "try to find us, we dare you" approach to repairs.

Buyer be ware!

You'll be guaranteed disappointment if you waste your money on this item. I know.

I purchased this unit new, and it worked great for 14 months. I recorded both CDs and my piano playing (mics right into the back of the Philips unit) for family and it was flawless. I'm not sure what the deal is with other reviews about non-Philips CD-Rs, but Memorex CDs worked fine in my Philips unit.

The problem is that two months out of warranty, the CD-R module went bad. I mean really bad, to the tune of $641 and $617 as the two estimates to fix it. Unit won't record, won't playback on one side, and now is a very expensive single-CD player. Would you pay twice as much as new to get it fixed? Neither would I.

After discussions with other CD-RW owners, there are clearly better options out there; read other reviews. . .but if you choose to purchase this item, you will be hoping it's not one of the many many lemons that Philips has issued.

Let the buyer beware!

I purchased the this product for it's recording capabilities and found it to make perfect copies from pre-recorded cd's.It also makes good copies from tapes and gives you yhe ability to control the volume when making the cd's.I've also recorded records on to cd's.All in all for the price it gives quality copies at an affordable price.I like it alot and have recommended it to others who feel the same as I do about it.

I more than realize that warrenties are not forever, but how frustrating and maddning it is to have a product take a dive about three weeks after the one year warrenty expires. Talk about built-in obsolescence. I loved making compilation CD's for birthday gifts for my family. After spending about two hours putting a great mix together for my brother's B-Day, I hit the finalize button. It normally takes a little over two minutes to complete this function. Well, about a minute and a half into it the process it just stopped. I couldn't get the recording tray door to open, the read out said nothing. I finally turned the machine off, then back on to get the recording tray door to open. I took the recorded disk and put it into the playback tray and the display read "not finalized".......Long story short, I went through every recording mode.."Make CD", "Fast Record" and "Record Listen" and basically wasted 6 new TDK 74 minute CD-R audio discs trying to make it work and ended up each time with the same problem...CD "Not Finalized". At the time of purchase from Circut City there were only two makes of dual tray Playback/Record decks on the market, Philips and Harmon-Kardon. From other reviews I've read here, I made a purchase mistake and should have paid the extra ... bucks for the Harmon-Kardon. I paid almost $... to get a little over a years use out this equipment.

I'm reluctant to take it to a repair shop based on other customer reviews with similar problems that were fixed, only to have the same problem occur again a few months later. Prices on this same model Philips have now dropped by almost $... and there are several other brands now available that are approaching about half of what I paid originally.

After a ridiculous call to Philips Service 800 number, which ended up with me hanging up in frustration on a person who obviously didn't have a clue what the problem might have been, I've pretty much had to face the fact that I'm just plain out of luck and $500.00.

It sounds like this model has a consistant flaw in the area of "Disc Finalization" and I'm now a member in a growing club of poor consumers who have purchased this "Lemon"....Let the Buyer Beware!