Customer Reviews

Philips DVDR3575H/37 1080p Upscaling DVDR with Built-In Tuner

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(55)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

You know how you buy a product, and it doesn't have all the features you need? Well, this is another one of those. I've never understood why manufacturers sell products without all the features - I guess they need their customers to upgrade every now and then, huh?
I currently have a Panasonic DMR-E80H (80GB hard drive) that has worked flawlessly and is still kickin today. The time had come for me to buy another DVD Recorder. After TONS of research, I bought a RCA DRC8000N. This one was ok, good interface, cheap (200.00), but the tuner quality wasn't all that great - it had little wavy lines on my local channels (through analog cable signal straight from outside line). The remote control for the RCA wasn't responsive either - it took a second for each command to go through. So I exchanged it for the Polaroid DRA-01601A (260.00). This one had a little better picture quality (except through 1 of my channels which was extremely noisy), so I immediately returned it. Finally, my local Wally store had the Philips DVD3575H in stock and I picked one up for 300.00.

Pros:
The tuner quality is very good - I have analog cable, and my 65" tv shows little noise with it. The tuner is even better than my Panasonic one.
The remote is responsive and pretty well laid out - I don't like the black play/pause/rew/ff buttons though - I keep wanting to hit the button just above them so I still have to hunt.
You can play a recorded event while recording another one. You can play the one that you're currently recording too (ie: chase play).
It has SDTV tuner.
It's quiet when running - I honestly couldn't hear it from my couch.
It has a skip function that allows you to skip ahead 30 seconds when you're watching a recorded program. The 30 seconds is changeable to 60, 2 minutes, etc.
It has 3 fast forward and 3 reverse speed settings.
You can have up to 6 markers to mark a spot of a recorded program and you can jump to it (helpful if you have to stop watching a program and you lose the "resume" function of it by turning off the device). My Panasonic one will hold up to 99 and are used as chapters instead of "markers". I'll still call this a pro as many recorders don't even know what a marker is.
It will auto-chapter every 5 minutes (this is an option as well to change it to 10 minutes, etc.)
The Info bar (display bar at the top of the screen) is well thought out. It shows information as to what you are playing and where you are at in the program (ie: 27:35 of 1:03:00). From the Info bar, you can change closed captions, repeat options, fake surround sound settings, noise reduction settings, set markers, change to another chapter, change to another recorded program. This makes it simple for some tedious functions.

Cons:
Unfortunately, yes there are always cons.
1. You can't title a timer event until after it's done recording. Why? I have no clue. Basically, if you record 10 programs per week, it'll be difficult to remember what each of them are. They are labeled like this: Day, Time, Channel, Recording Quality. This is not helpful at all to me.
2. If you do actually want to go edit the name after it has recorded, you have to enter it like you're on a cell phone. You have to press the number 2 three times to get the letter C. Then you have to change it to lowercase letters, then repeat over and over. That's just stupid.
3. If you have a weekly timed event, you don't have the option to overwrite the previous week's program. My Panasonic gives this option, which is very helpful. With the Philips, I have to remember to delete the programs before the hard drive fills up. With my Panasonic, I just let it overwrite and no worries.
4. No TV Guide? I don't know if this is a real con because from reviews I've read on other DVRs that have it, it's a crap shoot whether it works or not.
5. There's an annoying bright blue light when this thing is recording. I'll just have to cover it up with some tape.

If you have the money to spend - go buy a Panasonic (at around 450.00).
If you don't, then this is an excellent alternative (at around 300.00).
I'd stay away from the cheap ones, because that's what they are.

I can't comment on the DVD playing/recording abilities of this thing as I'll still use my reliable Panasonic for those functions.

I'll probably keep this one unless something goes really wrong over the next few days. I am extremely tired of researching DVD Recorders. I almost went and bought an old TIVO with the Basic Service so I wouldn't have the monthly fees. But I hate buying used equipment - especially off of eBay.

I purchased this unit a few days ago at Walmart for about three-hundred dollars plus tax (regular price) -- still cheaper than Amazon. So far, I love it. You can record from the DVD to the Hard Dive and from the Hard Drive to a DVD. Of course, you can't record a copyrighted protected DVD. You can play and record to DVD-R/+R or DVD-RW/+RW, and you can play a CD. You can't play or record to DVD-RAM, but since none of my other DVD players play DVD-RAM, that's okay. There is no TV-guide as it programs just like VCR, but from what I have heard, although a TV guide would be nice, the TV guides on other units have too many problems. On the downside, it's not easy to add a title.

This is my first DVD Recorder, and I definitely wanted a Hard Drive for flexibility. Some items are bit complex, so you need to read the manual which appears to be well written. I have not had any problems with the Hard Drive locking-up like I have heard about other DVD Recorders with Hard Drives. I have not tested everything, but at this point, although it's not perfect, I am happy with my purchase.

Update: After two months of use, I am still very happy with this DVD Recorder.

Wow!!! This is my first dvd recorder and I am very pleased. I wanted to replace my VCR and so far, this has done the job and some.

I dont have cable, (dont watch enough tv to pay 48.00 per month, okay, hell, i'm cheap, lol) so the clarity of my signal was dependent on the weather. Well, this unit has a digital tuner which is crystal clear, and I gained an additonal 3 staions to go with the 8 I already have.

With the harddrive I can record up to 200 hrs worth of video, tv etc. in slp. (I use sp which gives my 66 hrs of very good video).

I can time shift up to 36 events over 1 month. The nice thing is when you go to the index menu, (a video listing of saved video) you can see what you recorded in these active windows.

You can record from the dvd to the harddrive and vice versa. (you cant record 1 time or copy write protected dvds to the harddrive).

If you are watching tv through the unit you can pause live tv, this is nice, very nice.

I've only had the unit for a week so i'm still learning about the unit, and by this being my first dvd recorder I may not be looking for things I have read others are looking for.

To sum up my first week with the unit, the unit has yet to lock up on me, I have recorded from dvd to harddrive and vice versa and it worked fine for me. Ive tried editing my recorded dvd, time consuming but i expected that.

I have previously owned a Philips HDRW 720/17 and a Philips DVDR3455H/37. Philips seems to advance in development of some features (HDMI and HD tuner) but goes backwards on others. The HDRW 720/17 had a build in TV guide and had title and summery info of all recordings (just like my Comcast and TIVO DVR). The DVDR3455H/37 took the TV guide feature away but allowed the user to input a short title for a recording while programming a timer event (Very helpful to find the right shows especially if you do 10 to 20 weekly recordings).
Yesterday I received my new DVDR3575H/37. You can't give any timer event a name until after it's done recording. I am wondering if the design engineers at Philips actually use their own products. Taking the ability to title shows away from the user is a huge step backwards in my eyes. Does Philips expect the user to sit down every day (or week), go thru the recorded shows and title them after the fact? What a waste of time. Why would any designer take such an important feature away? Also while the HD tuner is a nice feature (FCC making it mandatory that all manufacturers as of July 1, 2007 must have ATSC DTV tuner (VCR, DVD player/recorder, DVR)) one must wonder why we can not record in HD (my Comcast DVR records in HD).
This is my take on other DVR's out there:
3 stars total for TIVO; 5 stars for features on TIVO but deduct 2 stars for the fees (Big upfront cost for HD box, I will not get one again until they lower the monthly fees substantially)
4 stars total for Scientific Atlanta 8300HD (Comcast); 3 stars for the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR features, + 1 star for no upfront cost but a monthly fee, for the fee you get the name and summery of every show including a weeklong TV guide and HD recording.
3 stars total for the Philips DVDR3575H/37; 3 stars for the features on the DVDR3575H/37, +1 star for low upfront cost and no monthly fee, -1 star no titles and no TV guide, -1 star no HD recording, +1 star for DVD recorder).
The bottom line is that if you do not want to pay a monthly fee, do not want to record HD programming, do not record to many programs or do not mind spending the time to rename the title after recording and you do want the ability to move your shows to DVD, than this DVR is for you.

November 13 2007. Adding to my Sept 12 2007 review after using DVDR3575H/37 for 2 month. The unit locks up frequently. This happens more often when you watch a previously recorded show while another show is recording. At the end of the recording it tries to save the show to the hard drive and a System Error is displayed. You loose the recording. Also sometime the recorded show stops 1/2 way thru playback, while other recordings have no sound.
Dealing with Philips customer support is a nightmare. Instead of repairing the unit or solving the problem with a software update, Philips kept sending me defective new models.
Now Philips told me that I have only fee based options to get the 2month old unit fixed since the original DVR was out of warranty.
After countless (over 20) calls and emails to Philips, one in-store exchange and two mail-in exchanges over the past 2 years, I still have a unit that does not work properly.
I would give this unit only 1 star but I can not change the stars above.

While the picture quality is good, and everything seems to work okay, and the price is right, actual usage leaves much to be desired. Let's say you just recorded the highlights of your favorite sports event onto the hard drive, and you ended up with 20 "titles", that is, 20 separate clips, and you want to burn them to DVD. The good news is that you can edit each clip, split each one up and delete the stuff you don't like. But each time you do it you have created a new clip. Now you have, say, 30 clips. There is no way to combine them. Why does it matter? Because now that you are ready to burn to DVD, you have to create an "add" list, which means clicking on "add", then scrolling through each and every clip to find the one you want, and then starting at the beginning for the next clip, until you have the list complete. This is a very slow and unnecessarily cumbersome process. They do have a way to batch delete unwanted titles, where you just go through and mark them as you go. They should have done this for the burning menu, because the way you have to do it takes forever. Now that you are ready to burn, pray to God that it allows you to select the high speed option (sometimes it doesn't), because as slow as the high speed option is (quite slow), the other options take FOREVER, and of course leave the unit useless in the meantime.
You can also dub from DVD to the hard drive. This also takes forever, in fact it is done in real time, it simply plays back the DVD and copies it to the HD. Now, my computer can copy a two hour DVD movie in less than 15 minutes, so why should it take so long? If it were not for the eternity it takes to go from HD to DVD or vice versa, I'd give this unit 5 stars. Very poorly laid out and S-L-O-W.
Another annoying thing is that when you record from TV to DVD and stop your recording, the unit writes to DVD (again slow) and then automatically switches to the DVD menu, interrupting your show, forcing you to hit stop to get your picture back. I haven't found a way to disable that one. Also, on the other DVD recorders I've used, LP is 4 hour mode. Here it is 3 hour mode. There is a 4 hour mode, called SLP. Disappointing that this thing is so slow and hard to use.

This excellent unit is truly powerful and capable. It's a real bargain. It combines 3 different functions in one slim package, any one of which alone would have cost more than its $300 price not so long ago: a 160 GB hard disk recorder, an ATSC digital tuner (and an analog NTSC tuner too), and a DVD recorder. Additionally, it breaks the DVD + / - format war by its ability to record on both.

This unit is one of the surprisingly few hard disk-plus-DVD recorder devices available today that has a digital tuner. It eliminates the high cost of monthly charges for a TIVO. No monthly charges at all!

(Note added in May 2008: there is now an updated version, model DVDR3576H, which say it has a tuner that receives HDTV, but doesn't appear to be able to record as HD, so is otherwise like this model. A slight improvement.)

It can do two things at once, allowing playback from either DVD or HDD programs while recording to HDD. It has a fan but it's quiet, and turns off about a minute after turning the unit off.

Recording TV programs
I use a roof antenna, and receive both analog (VHF and UHF) and digital (they are on UHF) TV signals. Programming to record TV shows is very similar to programming a VCR manually (there is no automatic programming system, but it's really not that hard to do manually). It records HD signals as SD (standard definition). Of course, to record in HD will require much bigger hard drives. Indeed, it can't even show them as HD when you watch live. You will have to switch to your TV's digital tuner for that. So you can't use this unit to watch HD on an "HD-ready" TV that lacks its own digital tuner. The digital tuner does not pick up the same set of channels as my Sony TV--it gets some that the TV missed, but misses some that the TV can get. Strange.
The listing of programs ("Titles") that you have recorded are clearly shown and easy to navigate to. But it is best to put a rudimentary title on the TV programs right after you record them. Otherwise all you have is the date, time, and channel of the recording. You have to add titles by a clunky texting method, requiring multiple presses of numbers 1-9.

Playback
I use an HDMI cable between this unit and my TV. It's the way to go if your TV can accept HDMI.
Playback from HD is a joy. Access is immediate. The unit remembers where you left off watching last time on each program individually. You can manoever around the recordings with a skip forward/backward button, or with an adjustable-speed fast forward/rewind, or with a chapter-jump ("next") which uses the (optional) 10-minute auto-chapters that are inserted.
Playback from DVD is fine, but loading a DVD is slow (perhaps because it can handle so many different DVD formats?). It's also a little slow to change from analog to digital channels (but so is my new Sony TV).

Aspect Ratio
Fiddling with aspect ratio (4:3 vs. 16:9) is a hassle that we will be dealing with for years. This unit, unfortunately, records digital programs as 4:3, even when they are transmitted as 16:9. Translation: when displayed on a 16:9 widescreen TV, you get black borders at top and bottom AND at the sides. This is satisfactorily fixed by zooming the picture on playback. You can do this either from this unit (with multiple button presses on the remote) or from your widescreen TV. I find it much easier to do it from my Sony TV. You have to cancel the zoom the next time you watch a 4:3 program, however. It's a nuisance.

User-friendliness
Most functions are well thought out and the software is good. But you will have to read the manual.
The remote control has the buttons needed, but several important ones are very badly laid out. The STOP button is tiny.
Since it's a multifunctional device, you have to tell it what component you want to use. If you have been watching a TV show recorded on HDD, then insert a DVD, if you just press "play", it will resume playback of the HDD unless you press "DVD" first. It's not smart enough to realize you want the DVD now.
The 122-page instruction book is detailed. It is fairly well written. Mine is very well-thumbed and dogeared. To get the most out of this complex unit, you will need to read it carefully.

Editing
For copying from old VHS tapes or home DVD's, I find it best to record first onto the HDD. Then use "deleting a scene" to remove unwanted sections. The software for this is pretty user-friendly. Then transfer the cleaned-up version to DVD. You can in theory record directly to DVD from VHS, and delete unwanted sections using "Hiding Chapters" but this is clunky (first you have to define the section as a chapter). The name "Scenes" is used for HDD, "chapters" for DVD--the same result, but different methods. Confusing.
You can set up chapters on your DVD's to highlight scenes, songs, etc. after you have recorded it (you also may wish to delete the auto-recorded chapters which are put in every 10 minutes). These work just fine when played back on this unit. But all those carefully-inserted new chapters were completely ignored when I played back in another DVD player. Very annoying.

Downsides
It can't record HD programs.
It's slow to load a DVD.
The remote buttons are poorly laid out.
Widescreen format shows must be zoomed on playback to fill a 16:9 TV screen.
Titling tracks is tedious.
Edits of chapters may be ignored in other DVD players.

Summary
This is a really fine and extremely versatile unit, at a bargain price. It is a leapfrog into the digital age. Finally here is a device with the versatility to fully supplant S-VHS VCR's. I'll keep it for a good while.
The next step will be when this device is upgraded to record HDTV on its hard disk AND to record Blu-Ray DVD's. It will take some time till then, and it will cost a lot more when it comes.
(Now that the newer DVDR3576H model has come out, that's the best choice).

I'm not yet completely upgraded to a Hi-Def TV, so I'm using a standard TV, but this piece of gear is performing beautifully with a standard TV, and it will be perfect for when I decide to get an HDTV.

The unit is very quiet.

Programming the Timer is easy, and the quality of the playback is excellent.

I LOVE the built-in HD tuner. I hooked it up to a cheap antenna I had and it pulled in all the HD signals perfect right off the airwaves. I now watch all my TV shows in perfect signal quality.

I was very impressed with the unit's ability to tolerate a couple of short power outages of a few seconds each. It maintained all my timer settings, and always seems to "know" the exact time without being told.

I once had a power outage in the middle of a timer recording onto the Hard Disk. It booted back up a few seconds later, and went back into record mode! Even better, the "partial" recording was still watchable. Try that sometime with a DVD recording and see what happens to the disk! I've lost three DVD disks that way, using a different recorder, when they were hit in the middle of record-mode during a power glitch.

I was impressed with everything about it. The manual is nicely done, and I've yet to explore the full power of it. I'm really glad I bought this gear. It will free you up to watch TV on your own time, and you can dub the Hard Disk recordings to DVD for archival purposes.

The installation was relatively straight forward if you have a HDMI ready TV. We do not have cable-TV. However, the digital signal received through the DVCR is exceptionally consistent than with just our TV by itself. That's a big plus for us. Also the 160GB hard disk recording is a very useful "tool" for me to do recording of digital photos and TV programs.
One minor inconvenient is now I have to have several remote devices in order to perform some of the recording and playback. Otherwise, we are very happy with this unit.

After much research I bought the DVDR3575H and have very few complaints. I don't have satellite or cable, so I'm using an OTA antenna. I wanted to be able to record football games without using a VCR tape and overall it's working great!

I haven't written any recordings to a DVD yet, but the HDD recording works great.

PROS:
- Channels that came in very snowy on my Analog signal come in crystal clear on this digital tuner (as long as the weather is decent)
- I picked up several HD channels that i couldn't get before. (i.e. 13.2, 13.3, etc)
- You can start watching a show from the beginning while it's still recording. (I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else....it works great if you come home in the middle of a game or show that you are recording & want start watching from the beginning before the show ends.)

CONS:
- Switching channels takes too long (I haven't seen this complaint anywhere else, so it may have to do with my crummy antenna signal)
- There is no Jump/Prev Channel button on the remote (may be able to solve this with a universal remote ?)
- Does not offer Picture in Picture (Maybe I'm being a little picky here but i've gotten so accustom to it on my TV)
- Digital tuner doesn't work at all during bad weather. I have to switch back to my TV to use the analog tuner.
- Analog tuner doesn't get as clear picture as the analog tuner on my TV.

*** Edit 12/13/08 ***
After using it for over a year, I have found one Major annoyance. I'm still very pleased with the unit and would purchas another, but the editing functions could use some work.

Namely you can't edit in full screen mode. It's very annoying to edit out the commercials of an entire football game using a little sub window. The scene delete function also becomes quite cumbersome as you have to confirm your choice twice.

The only other thing I have found that I do not like is the dubbing function. When dubbing you can't do anything else with the unit and dubbing takes FOREVER!

This was my first DVD recorder, purchased after reading a bunch of reviews on features and device longevity. Instead of being one of those who only writes a review if they don't like something, I thought I'd chime in.

THE PROS:
It routinely does what it is advertised to do. Record to hard drive or DVD. Or burn a hard drive recording to DVD. Fast forwarding through a hard drive recording is fast and easy, but fast forwarding a DVD can be slow.

Recording TV directly to a DVD never becomes a problem (including with a timer). Lots of hard drive space to record lots of programs. Timer can record up to 2 months in advance.

SDTV tuner, though I am still in analog pre-history, myself.

There is an option for high-speed recording from hard drive to DVD. There is a slight loss of quality and you have to have made the original recording at a quality less than or equal to the disk size (ex. high quality recording (1 hr/DVD) can not be done high-speed if you want to fit 2 hr/DVD. In that case you have to record at 2 hr/DVD).

DVDs recorded here can be played on other machines. You have to "Finalize" them first.

A lot of Tivo features with no subscription fee.

THE SO SO:
Editing is fairly crude compared to DVD authoring software on a computer, but fairly impressive for something that works with a remote control. You can split recordings, and delete commercials, but cannot splice recording together.

The timer menu is fairly crude. You can not give a title to a recording until it is already done.

CONS:
An unforeseen limitation is that any editing done directly on a DVD is usually not recognized on a computer or other company's DVD player. For instance, if you make or delete chapters on this machine, they will not be recognized on a non-Philips DVD player. You can auto-establish chapters every 5-10 minutes, and this is recognized by other machines.

Fast forwarding a DVD is fairly slow compared to other machines.

Occasionally, if you have a lot of recordings on the hard drive, some of the older recordings develop errors. The most common ones are a loss of sound or a "jam", in which the machine hard drive freezes up for a while when trying to play it. If you want to waste some time and really salvage a recording, you can find the bad spot and delete about 10 seconds worth of recording to rescue it. This problem occurs much more often if you heavily edit a recording on the hard drive, such as deleting multiple portions.

You can't defragment the hard drive (for you tech savvy types)

For the clueless: This thing will not record copy-protected digital broadcasts, copy-protected DVDs, VHS tapes, etc. Don't slam the unit because of an FCC issue; it's nothing particular to this brand.