Customer Reviews

Philips DVDR3355/37 DVD Recorder with 6 Hour Digital Video Recording

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

First DVD recorder I have owned. Bought it for Christmas. Easy to install and set up. But, when I programmed it to record a future show and put it in stand-by mode (per Philips' instructions)the damn thing would come on at random times and stay on. I had it all of two weeks and called Philips. They said "it's not supposed to do that." I had to pay to ship it back to Arkansas for repair, where they kept it for two weeks and did NOT notify me when they were shipping it back. Got it back and guess what? They didn't do a damn thing to it! Still the same problem. Called Philips and asked why they didn't fix it. (Even the gal I talked to in their Phillipines call center knew why I sent it in for repair.) Even included a letter re-stating the malfunction. No matter. They didn't do a damn thing.
Went up the chain of command with Philips but they wouldn't budge. They want me to send it BACK AGAIN so they can have another chance to fix it! I told the gal in Canada that I couldn't possibly be the only one with this problem and now that has been confirmed. It's going back to my home theater guy tomorrow and he can use it as a boat anchor. I'm getting a SONY and will NEVER buy a Philips product again!

The following are my issues with the DVDR3355:

Sometimes a recording on DVD-R media did not allow Fast Foward or Rewind. There was a similar issue that a firmware upgrade was meant to resolve: Before the upgrade all finalized DVD-R could not be FF on the device but would be perfect on another player. Now it became erratic: sometimes it's possible to FF sometimes it's not (even on other DVD players), which is frustrating.

When the EDIT menu is poped-up I cannot FF or FRW because the remote buttons to do that are the same to navigate the menu system. It's a pain trying to find the index picture if you've missed it because you can't go back without exiting the Edit menu, which brings another issue:

Exiting the EDIT menu always makes the device to UPDATE the disk, regardless if you did any actual edit or not. This is such a simple software issue to resolve that I can't believe philips did not make it into a firmware upgrade yet.

I can't change the video aspect unless there is no disc on tray or tray is open. I can't accept that an expensive device like this one does not let me change the display aspect "on the fly" like any (unexpensive) other DVD player around (including DVD players from philips)

My brother owns another DVDR3355. He lost unique, very important recordings (the 2006 world cup final for instance) that took 2 hours recording because the UPDATE of the disk failed after the STOP was pressed. His device also did not seems to be able to record successfully on DVR-RW media from philips (and perhaps any other brand). My own device do not have this problems tough.

There seems to be impossible to RECORD in 16:9 aspect (widescreen). I own a Widescreen digital camera (Panasonic PV-GS59) but I've found no way to record on my DVDR3355 in widescreen using the front CVBS inputs (I did not tried the other inputs nor the MiniDV input - firewire - because I did not own a DV cable yet - and yes, I made sure the camera was outputing int 16:9 before you ask :-) ).

Many operations are DAMN TOO SLOW. Ejecting a DVD can take up to 30 seconds. Boot up can take this or much longer (up to 1 min). If I tried to Eject just after powering on, the device seems to freeze. If I operate too fast the remote, the device sometimes seems to freeze for up to 1 min (one time even requiring me to click the power button on the device because the remote wasn't responding).

I think the firmware of this unit and it's menu system to be pretty much in beta stage and still too much stupid. Overall I liked the unit because I really wasn't expecting too much from it, but I was TOO MUCH disapointed by the firmware and Menu/Operation. I was very satisfied with my previous philips players and found them simple to use, but this DVDR3355 usage is cumbersome. I also thought that this device would be full of new features because it was such a modern concept, but instead it was a rather primitive DVD player compared to more "ancient" pure DVD players. This device is really a recording one and do not replace your (old) top-notch DVD player / Home Theater system.

If it was not for the menu and firmware I would rate it 4 out of 5, which means that a future firmware upgrade could make me this happy. Today, with the menu and firmware issues I will rate it 2.5 out of 10. Since I did never own any other DVD recorder to date (not counting PC based ones) I can't be sure if there is a DVD recorder that is better than this unit today.

If you're thinking about buying a Philips, THINK AGAIN!! Their products are absolutely TERRIBLE, and their customer service and policies are even WORSE. I can relate to the other customers and their reviews. I am currently on my THIRD DVD-recorder because they just keep breaking down without warning. The last one I had broke after just SIX WEEKS. And God help you if you try to call their customer service center! All they tell you to do is spend YOUR money to ship back THEIR faulty products. They refuse to do anything the least bit helpful, claiming it's "Not their policy". Not their policy to satisfy their customers?! Apparently not, because I am FAR from satisfied.

PLEASE reconsider buying anything by Philips! Or if you DO make that fatal mistake, do yourself a favor and return the product to the store, get your cash back, and buy something reliable like a Sony or Panasonic. Trust me---you'll be glad you did!!

I have emailed this to several sites, philips sure screwed the pooch on this one:

Thought you might be interested in my problem and possibly inform your readers. Last week a friend of mine ordered the Philips USA DVDR3355 at buy.com which is advertised as playing and recording all media formats(DVD-R/RW & DVD+R/RW). After receiving it, the machine would not recognize DVD-R disks. We consulted the acompaning manual and nowhere did it say it played DVD-R/RW only DVD+R/RW. Thinking it was a problem with the buy.com description we went to the philips website listing for the machine
which lists the same specs as the buy.com listing, so we called philips customer support, who after checking with an engineer told us that philips did not manufacture a machine capable of playing or recording DVD-R/RW. Obviously, somebody at philips screwed up really bad.

Thanks
P.S.
Althu Amazon does not advertise it as such, this player should support DVD-R/RW & DVD+R/RW
Just got the runaround from Philips support

I don't see what the problem is. I've had this model for a few months now and have had no unexpected problems. It does play both -R and +R discs perfectly, and easily records to anything but DVD-RAM. If you've been experiencing playback problems, then the issue is most likely with the write on the disc itself. On the downside, and like most every set-top DVD recorder, the recorded discs probably won't play in other machines without reauthoring. And, the remote control is lacking features commonly found on others. But, overall this is a fantastic recorder for the price.

I made the fatal error to buy a philips recorder last year. it started screwing up after 7 (!) recordings so I took it back. It did the same after 20 recordings and I took it to be serviced for a second time. When I got it back it wouldn't even read the disc!!! I had to yell at them to get a replacement and I got the 3355 model today! It did exactly the same thing that user Brad Smith described and YES it is a really frustrating experience. Avoid Philips products or at least their DVD recorders!!!

I have 2 of these dvdr one with hard drive and another like this.........
If you want to recorder to any dvd some movies from the tv this is for you!
I have hundreds of movies recorder all the time from the hbo this work like a vcr but...........recorder in a DVD!
We have 3 kids and I can't buy movies all the time and I don't have idea if we need take of the cable service anytime you know... before we spend to much money in the cable rental a dvdr now we have our dvdr! I hope you can buy this great dvdr and enjoy the recorder your favorite movies.

prompt and efficent it was exactly as mentioned in the posting i am absolutely satisfied

Initially I thought it was a good idea to purchase a refurbish DVD player.I've always enjoyed the Phillips brand of products and I thought it would be a good idea to purchase this DVD player. It also had the technology and the functionally I was looking for.
There were several issues with this DVD player, first it took a very long time to read and play a regular CD which happened to a store bought music CD. Of the two CD I tried to play one finally played and the other didn't. I also experience the same problem when I tried playing a regular DVD. This DVD player is supposed to be able to play a variety of recording formats; however, this was not the case. I also tried playing a mini disc which I used on my camcorder only to encounter the same problem over and over. In regards to the recording onto a disc that was another set of issues. I did not find this function to be very user friendly, it was very complicated and it did not work. If I was to rate this product, I would have to give it a 1 out of 10 and the 1 being the worst.

This is the most outrageous piece of garbage one can own, so please stand in line. I purchased this "device" as a replacement for super cheap memorex dvdr (which was like $30). Now Philips let me buy their product for $100-plus, you see , for Philips that's like a Ferrari. For just over a hundred smakers I was previleged to the most sadomazochistic experience in the world. This piece of garbage has the best of the 1960s technologies in one convenient package. Here we have a CPU from the first Moon lander, a monochromatic display from the first Startrack(r), the colling from the manufacturer of the commercial Marten owens and ability to not recognize any music or video format in existence in the world today. It is quite likely that the Philips workers in the finest slums of Zimbabwe worked hard and long to write a software that would fit all non-human forms out there in the universe, unfortunately, I happen to be a human, therefore my English skills and my BA were deemed irrelevant at this point.The Box (as I cannot call it a DVDR) has ability to not start and not turn off, not to play, not to search ot lable the titles, not to reproduce alternative angles, mentioned on played DVD disk. It can record with quality well below anything the Soviet VCR tape could offer. The "remote control" thing is a very intriguing novelty and can be a topic for hours of conversation with your friends at the parties, it however can not remotely operate a Philips box. The Progressive Scan feature is a very neat little thing- actually , if one would plug a progressive scan cable and attach it to a progressive scan TV , one will be gifted with a delight of low quality grainy picture. Also it would be impossible move to a regular TVset without first going into what Philips called Menu and resetting output back to regular. If not- you will have all outputs produce finest of black lines. I have left my review of this product at Philips web site as well and offered Philips to go out business, so the smarter businessmen from let's say North Korea could take over the market share.