Philips DVDR3455H DVD Hard Disc Recorder 160 GB with Instant Replay

by Philips

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 17.1 x 3.9 inches ; 12.2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 13 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B000G18DRU
• Item model number: DVDR3455H/37
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,738 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

DVD Hard Disc Drive Recorder, 160 GB memory, Record Live TV, Instant Replay, Dual media record and playback (DVD+/- R/RW), MP3, CD, CD-RW, USB 2.0 Connect (plays music or digital picture files), iLink for easy firewire connect to digital camcorder,

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 87 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Half-baked software. Hardware is probably good., March 11, 2007

By 

Lawrence Brown "Larry Brown" (HOUSTON, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Philips DVDR3455H DVD Hard Disc Recorder 160 GB with Instant Replay (Electronics)

This review covers three DVRs for comparison purposes:
Panasonic DMR-EH55S (200 GB hard drive) (Most expensive)
Phillips DVDR3455/37 (160 GB hard drive)
Polaroid DRM-2001G (80 GB) (least expensive)

Here are some of my observations on these three DVRs. I would call the Phillips and Polaroid "half-baked" and I returned them and would not recommend them. The Panasonic is nice and I recommend it, but it's not perfect.

In my review, strengths are marked with a +, weaknesses with a -.



Regarding the Phillips and Polaroid DVRs:

These two DVRs are similar. They may be the same machine. They use the same operating system and the on screen menus are all identical in the two units.

General comments first and then I will comment on the differences in the units.

+Tracks are easy to select for burning to the DVD

+As you select tracks for burning it shows you how much room on the DVD you have left.

+It's always recording, so even if you don't hit the record button until halfway thru the show you can still get the whole show.

+It pauses live TV and this feature is full featured and effective. Live TV behaves just as if you were playing back a disk with pause, rewind, slo-mo, and fast forward all available.

+Does not delete edits, but simply hides them on playback. When you write out to the DVD it does not write the deleted portions. This would allow you to go back and rethink your edits. Panasonic deletes them immediately. On commercials this is probably no big deal but on home movies it might be useful to keep those deleted scenes handy in case you change your mind.

+Allows editing tracks while recording a show. Since the machine is always recording it must support this feature, so it's not surprising, but it is way handy since we keep ours recording shows almost all the time and I am a heavy editor also. If I could only edit while not recording it would be hard for me to get it done. What is surprising is that my more expensive Panasonic DMR-EH55S does not support this feature.

+Technical support is good. I called them twice, got through to someone and they gave intelligent answers.

+Dividing tracks works well, unlike the Panasonic. It's easy to simply select "divide" instead of "view," and then divide the track at your stopping point for today and then you're ready for next viewing to start where you left off.

-Takes 15 annoying seconds to boot while you miss the kick off of the super bowl.

-fluorescent display is small with only medium readability from across the room.

-There are not many buttons on the front panel

-Track titles are only 10 chars - that's not enough

-The operating system is primitive, buggy, missing many useful features and has a generally clunky feel, as if they programmed only the bare minimum features required to allow operation. For example, holding buttons down on the remote will not repeat the key. This feature is sorely needed when inputting text with the on-screen keyboard because it's torture to have to keep repeatedly pressing the buttons on the remote to scroll from one side of the keyboard to the other. Another example, the editing screen has a bug where you hit the edit button to start an edit and the prompt correctly displays "hit edit to stop editing." Then you search forward to find the end of the commercial and you hit edit and it slices out that portion and the prompt correctly displays "hit edit to start [your next] editing." That's not a bad system, but the OS has a bug in it so that if an edit is started, when the info screen goes away it comes back incorrectly displaying "hit edit to start editing" when it should say "hit edit to stop editing." However, the edit feature still works correctly in spite of the display. But this can be confusing enough to make you forget where you are and make you exit the edit screen and start over.

-The info pop-up screen is really annoying. It's giant and it's never there when you need it and always there when you don't. There's no way to turn it off or on permanently. Especially when you are viewing something frame by frame - it's maddening.

-Text is slow/torturous to put in, made worse by the weak remote control.

-The machine crashes and locks up, sometimes without provocation, and you have to unplug it to get it going again.

-The machine crashes and trashes the DVD when trying to append tracks to a non-finalized DVD.

-remote control is weak and that's really annoying when you are editing text. You have to be close and at small angle from the sensor.

-Does not show new track time after you edit out the commercials.

-Only allows 9 characters per DVD track title.

-It has a manual, but it's not very good.

-It has a useful time shift buffer, but its interface uses arbitrary buttons on the remote, there is no on-screen help, and sometimes you have to use the hidden "hold down the button for 3 seconds" technique.

Now to highlight some differences:

Polaroid
+Has a way handy feature to jump to a specific time in a show. You just hit "go to" and then enter a time like 35 minutes, and it goes to it.

+DVD burner on this unit seemed faster than on the Phillips.

-Earlier version of the operating system - has bugs, features that don't work, and missing needed features

-No progress indicator as it burns to DVD, and you can't watch the program as it's burning

-Manual is rougher.

-Fan on this unit is too loud.

-A bug in the OS prevented me from entering the tens digit of a recording program start time.

Phillips

+Has an updated operating system with some welcome enhancements and bug fixes. More stable, but still crashes and trashes disks.

+Will show a progress indicator as it burns the DVD.

-Has a T/C (time code) button to jump to a specific time in a track, but it does not work.

-DVD burner on this unit seemed slow.


Panasonic DMR-EH55S
Over all opinion: Good. Reliable, high quality and studded with features, although missing some no-brainers. I don't expect any glitches. Probably the best available at this consumer level price point, but unfortunately has many limitations that reduce its usefulness to a heavy editor like myself.

+Text entry is very good, with great use of the remote control buttons to allow hot key shortcuts for various operations and screen positions. It's a clever system and fast and fun to use.

+Remote control is strong and the unit responds to its commands without fail.

+The scrubber for finding an edit point is great.

+The manual is very good, 77 packed pages with detailed technical information on all aspects of operation. It's much better than the "user friendly" Sony manuals that avoid tech talk. It also carefully lists the many limitations of this unit and the technology, including what burn speeds you can expect.

+The on screen TV guide is da bomb. It's far superior to the scrolling cable channel we have been watching for the last ten years. In spite of reviews here to the contrary, it worked perfectly for us, setting up with just few easy questions, one minor glitch requiring a glance at the manual, and then video nirvana. It finally makes it possible to reliably set programs for a recording device. I love it!

+The fan is whisper quiet.

+The manual warns you that high speed burn will be louder than normal. For me it's not bad. The high speed burn usually sounds like someone running water in the sink, with loud portions sounding like an electric shaver.

-In some disappointing passages, the manual points out that although this unit is "compatible" with 16X recording speed disks, "this is not the copy speed." (However, in many cases it can get better than 16x speed if you record at lower quality.) The manual also points out many other limitations such as: you can not record to the SD card, movies can not be played from the SD card, the Firewire port can only be used with digital video equipment and not computers, DVDs are copied to the hard drive only in real time, the advanced feature "flexible recording" fits the highest quality footage possible filling all DVD space but only burns in real time, the system is not smart enough to juggle overlapping record programs and will just drop earlier programs even if there is only a small overlap, it can not play DIVx files while recording other programs, it can not play still pictures while recording other programs, you can not rename/delete/edit/divide titles while recording other programs, it will drop scheduled recordings if you have the unit busy editing photos, finalizing the high speed burn may take four times longer than estimated on the finalize screen HUH? and various other limitations. I don't want all that...just make it work!

-Multi-tasking challenged. You can't edit any previously recorded tracks, not even renaming them, while the unit is recording. You can't even watch tracks while high-speed burning a DVD with finalize, which is silly, since you can watch without finalize. What's in this thing, an 8080 microprocessor? During high speed burn with finalize it won't even play TV from the tuner! This is a serious limitation for me, greatly reducing the utility of this expensive device.

-Copies DVDs to the hard disk (HDD) only in real time and with loss of a generation. The Pioneer DVR also copies in real time, I assume also losing a generation. I think what they are doing here is playing... Read more ›

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars High quality images; nice price; interface could be a little better, February 8, 2007

By 

rrgg "rrgg" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philips DVDR3455H DVD Hard Disc Recorder 160 GB with Instant Replay (Electronics)

PROS: (1) This DVR is good for the money. (2) It has high quality recordings, (3) allows 20 timer entries, (3) and 80 hours of shows. (4) It allows me to watch recorded shows while it's recording something else. (5) It also plays back various AVI videos I tried putting on a CD. (6) Of course it also lets you pause rewind and fast-forward live TV. (7) Finally, while browsing your list of recorded shows, a tiny video plays from the first few seconds of each show. This helps when you're not 100% sure about the recording. (8) There are a few video editing features too. You can split a show into 2 with just a few clicks.

Contrary to other reviews, my unit does not "freeze up" at all. Also, if you name a weekly timer entry, that name IS used in the recording made. Someone mentioned he can't find VCR+ codes. If you want to use them, just look them up at tvguide, yahoo TV, or other websites.

CONS: (1) After using it a few times, it is pretty simple to set up a show and record. However, I have to say the user interface could have been simplified a little. For example, to select from recorded shows you press HDD. Yes it means "hard disk drive," but they could have called it something like "My Shows." The on-screen display uses a thin font that may be hard to read on a small TV. (2) The buttons on the remote are tiny. I don't mind, but some people might. (3) When naming a recorded show, you can use a keyboard that is displayed on the screen which is nice. However, when naming a timer entry, you must cycle through letters with arrows keys. It would be better if the keyboard were always available. (4) It can do something annoying while watching a recording. If you have a timer entry starting while you are already watching a show, the timer interrupts what you're doing. It switches to the channel it needs and posts a note that a timer is about to start. Once it does you then have to go back to HDD and start watching your show again. This seems like a bug they could fix in a later model. (5) It allows you to plug in a USB drive, but only lets you view photos and music files on the USB. This is odd, because if you insert a CD or DVD, it recognizes video, music, and photos.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most affordable moderate capacity DVD HDD recorder., February 14, 2007

By 

FamiconGS (Richardson, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Philips DVDR3455H DVD Hard Disc Recorder 160 GB with Instant Replay (Electronics)

For a remarkably low price, compared to other DVD recorders with similar capacity HD drive, this Philips model produced exceptional results. As stated by other reviewers, playback using the SP (2 hours on DVD-5) brings true the meaning of the 70's slogan "Is it live, or is it Memorex?" Of course now, it is "Is it live or is it Philips". On a non-HD TV display, I cannot tell the difference between a live feed and a SP recorded playback. Actually, even at LP (4 hours on DVD-5) the difference is still hard to distinguish. Playback on SLP (6 hours on DVD-5) is very decent as well, not as good as HQ-VHS but quite viewable. I have two other DVD recorders, a Sony DVDirect and a cheaper iLO and both
produced sub-par SLP recording compared to this Philips unit. Worst of all, they made recordings that skiped or stalled when playing back on other DVD players. That is not the case with SLP recordings from Philips.

This is not to say that the machine is perfect. I now have the unit for about 3 months and there are some minor
issues with it. Over the 2007 New Year Twilight Zone Marathon on Sci-Fi, I dumped 5 DVDs of the shows using SLP mode. Four of the 5 discs played back well. One of them simply will not read after finalization. The disc would keep spinning and locked the recorder which needed
to be powered off. It would not read on several other standalone DVD players and while PC based DVD players recognized the files and played audio, no video was available. To be honest, I have yet to come across a DVD recorder that yielded 100% success in recording
to DVDs ... be it data or video files on data recorders or on video recorders. Isn't it strange that you can get 100% success on VHS recorders (assuming that the is nothing wrong with the transport mechanism) but on digital recorders you cannot say the same.
Some discs would not read at all, some reads but skips, some appears okay but has some pixelation showing up on a frame or two ....

Returning to the unit under review, there were further occasions, when fully recorded DVDs would not finalize. It would not permit me to navigate to the menu finalize the disk. Although it would play back, there were no chapter markers at all (default was set to 5 minutes) and so viewing that DVD was a chore. As a result, optical disk recording success rate is roughly 90%. Kind of bad when you think of it, but then again, experiences with other recorders were worst. Despite the low success rate, I am still very enamored with this recorder.

Another quirk I noticed is perhaps a fault of the firmware. Even with the latest firmware (R19.10), the machine would occasionally think that it has only 30 minutes of recording time left on a DVD when it is paused and re-started even though it really has a few hours left. Because you know that it has more than 30 minutes of free space available, you are lulled into thinking that only the read out is incorrect and the recording will proceed beyond 30 minutes. Unfortunately, the recording does actually stop after 30 minutes, so if you had walked
away and not paid any attention to the information displayed, you would have caught only a half hour of programming. The way to correct this aberration is to pause the recording and re-start it again. More often than not, this pause/re-start sequence would correct the remaining time read out....of course then, you would have lost several seconds of program material.

The DVR is simple to use with fairly instinctive menus. It plays DivX files pretty flawlessly, from ones made several years ago using DivX 4 to ones downloaded from DivX's Stage6 show case. A some what obsolete feature is programming using VCR-Plus technology.
It really has seen its days. VCR-Plus code is no longer listed in our local newspaper's TV guide and with frequent
changes in channel line ups, it may be best just to program it manually. A further improvement would be
a battery to keep current time or time synchronization through the cable network. Thankfully, timer programming is preserved after
power is lost.

In summary, for those that do not own a DVR or Tivo and are thinking of getting a DVD recorder, a word of advice...spend a bit more, actually, 3x more, and get one with a HD drive.....it is so so so much more convenient to just hit the record button at the spur of the moment without
sticking in a blank DVD....it is well worth the extra cost. You can record to the HDD while at the same time dump recorded
HDD material to a DVD. Now that's parallelism. Philips have a good thing going here and perhaps a firmware update in the future would fixed the remaining time flaw.