Philips HDRW720 DVD Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive

by Philips

Product Details

Data Sheet [148kb PDF]

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Product Manual [5.21mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 11.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 12 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: B00022PUDI
• Item model number: DVDRW720
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,325 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
  • #75 in Electronics > Televisions & Video > DVD-VCR Combos
  • #99 in Electronics > Televisions & Video > DVD Players & Recorders > DVD Recorders

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Philips HDRW720 DVD recorder/hard disk combination lets you adjust your TV viewing to suit your everyday life. You'll have the option to record up to a staggering 192 hours--8 straight days--of television directly to the built-in 120 GB hard-disk drive (HDD) to watch and delete programs at your leisure. Or you can save programs to DVD for life. Your choice. The HDRW720 also offers the easy-to-use TV Guide onscreen electronic program guide (EPG) so you can just point and click to record your favorite programs.

Viewed programs are automatically stored on the adjustable 6-hour HDD buffer, from which you can retrieve them, watch them again, transfer them to the hard drive, or simply record them onto a DVD+R/+RW disc. A feature called FlexTime lets you watch the beginning of a program while it's still being recorded. And, with the touch of a button, high-speed archiving will copy a recording from the hard disk to recordable media. Thanks to Instant Replay, you can immediately repeat exciting or memorable TV moments at the press of just one button.

You can also use the HDRW720 like a traditional VCR, burning televised programs directly to disc using helpful VCR Plus+ programming data. A DVD recorder is perfect, of course, for archiving your home videos, and the HDRW720 features a front-panel i.Link digital-video connection for easy DV camcorder hookup, perfect copies, and 2-way camera control.

Recording functions include safe record, one-touch record (OTR), track append, track divide, automatic/manual chapter marker insertion, Smart Chaptering, favorite scene selection, and Selectable Index Pictures.

The HDRW720 is also a first-rate DVD player, featuring progressive-scan video outputs, Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround sound passthrough, MP3 CD playback (CD-R/CD-RW), and compatibility with most DVD media (including video-mode DVD-R and DVD-RW).

Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the HDRW720 will deliver the full potential of your DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.

Top-of-the-line component-video inputs and outputs help minimize digital and line-scan artifacts on compatible advanced televisions, while composite-video, S-video, and RF coaxial video inputs and outputs bring compatibility with nearly any video component and television monitor. Audio inputs consist of 2-channel analog jacks.

Two sets of left/right analog-audio outputs channel audio to Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions. Both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround-sound signals can be routed through the player's digital-audio outputs (1 each of RCA coaxial and Toslink optical) for direct connection to a full-featured audio/video receiver.

What's in the Box
DVD recorder/hard disk, a universal remote control, remote batteries, a channel blaster (IR extender cable), a blank DVD+RW disc, an AC power cable, a composite-video cable, a stereo audio cable, a coaxial RF antenna cable, an S-video cable, a component-video cable, a digital-audio coaxial cable, a user's manual, and warranty information.

Product Description

Philips DVD Recorder w/120GG Hard Disc, up to 192 hours recording, On Screen Elec. Guide, I-Link,

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

101 of 108 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Slapdash effort by Philips, October 28, 2004

By 

William H. Coffin (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Philips HDRW720 DVD Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive (Electronics)

This product seems to have been hastily slapped together and shipped with very little quality control. I spent a total of 2 hours on the phone with their tech support, and found that I knew more about the machine than they did. They did, however, have a better user guide - mine was clearly an earlier, incomplete version. They also agreed to send me a CD with a software update, but by then I'd decided to return the unit.

Here were some of the problems:
· It wouldn't properly play several DVDs that played fine on my old DVD/VCR deck and on my PC's emulator, as well as many other DVD players out there.
· Several buttons on the remote didn't behave as documented. (To exit one system menu, you have to shut down and restart the machine because the documented procedure just doesn't work.)
· Documentation is full of typos and is not clear. The user guide is not indexed. Info is missing; for instance: the info on getting the remote to work with your TV was not there (it is there in newer versions of the User Guide.)
· Poor user interface. The remote buttons are small, close together, and not clearly labeled. There are color-coded function buttons; a clever idea, but impossible to differentiate in a dark room. And most of us watch TV in darkened rooms...
· No online support. The website didn't carry the software update, email queries are bounced back with a request that you use the phone, etc.

I'll be trying a different product, and I won't buy Philips products in the future. I did learn something: most of the vendors have PDFs of their user guides online, so you can see for yourself the quality (or lack thereof) of the docs and of the user interface design. I wish I'd thought of this earlier...

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Say Good-bye to Tivo 'cause this DVD Recorder Rocks!, January 22, 2005

By 

J. P. Coughlin "Consumer Advocate" (Rock Tavern, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Philips HDRW720 DVD Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive (Electronics)

My review will try to capture as much useful information as I can to help anyone who is either considering buying this recorder, or already owns one, and may be having some trouble. There are 2 sections to my review: "The Bottom-Line" and the supporting "Details".

First off...
THE BOTTOM-LINE:
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Pro's: Great Value! Works as advertised! An awesome DVR comparable to most of what Tivo has to offer. In addition it has loads of recording space. So much, in fact, that I will probably hardly ever record anything to a DVD other than to share a recording with friends. The On Screen TV Guide functionality is a core feature. If it doesn't work for you, consider returning the recorder. It is integral to the unit and makes programming the unit an absolute breeze! The initial learning curve is not that intense and I do not agree with the frustration others had when trying operate and program this recorder. Copying from the HDD to the DVD happens fast! (Something like 24x faster than normal speed.) I was able to record and finalize a 1-hour program recorded in M2x to a blank DVD+RW in under 10 minutes. (It would have taken my high-end computer nearly 30 minutes to do the same task.) Editing is nominally easy to perform and the resulting output is better than other recorders I have used. Menus are Spartan and efficient. (If you want elaborate menus, use a computer.)

Cons: Does not record in DVD-R or DVD-RW. Does not do two-way recording between internal DVD drive and internal HDD. Does not allow you to "step-down" the quality of HDD recording when transferring them to disc. Does not support photo cd's. User's Guide is poorly written and difficult to understand at times.
Does not record in Dolby digital. Remote difficult to see in low light.

SUPPORTING DETAILS:
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I purchased this recorder from Amazon.com for Christmas. It took me several attempts at performing the initial setup and trying to record a TV program to figure out the unit I received was defective. The trouble was that the recorder would go through the complete system setup without a hitch, but as soon as I went to record anything, or navigate the menus, or even try to turn the recorder on-and-off with the remote, it would give me problems. The machine either did not respond, or responded so sporadically you couldn't tell what would happen next. (Another reviewer on Amazon.com said it would take him 2 or 3 tries with the remote to turn the recorder on/off. I'm betting his unit was defective, too!)

Here's what I did when I thought the unit was defective...
I contacted Philips and tried the firmware upgrade I saw other reviewers had mentioned, but that didn't help. The Philips support website (www.p4c.philips.com) suggests a self diagnostic test to determine if the unit may be defective, and sure enough, the diagnostics test 'failed', indicating an error code and a serious problem.

You can find out the full details of how to perform the self diagnostic test on the Philips support website (www.p4c.philips.com) by looking up the troubleshooting information for the HDRRW720/17. It's under the topic of what to do if you think your unit is defective.

(For those of you anxious to perform the test on your own machine, what you do is: with your machine turned off, you unplug the cord from the back of the unit, then while pressing and holding the 'play' button on the front of the recorder, plug the unit back in. Do not release the play button until the display shows the unit has begun running through a series of tests. The tests take about 2 minutes and should end successfully. If the test fails, you will get a message that says 'failed' with some code number on the recorder's display window. At this point, all indications are that you have a serious problem and likely a defective unit.)

I immediately contacted Amazon.com and returned the recorder for an even exchange.

Let me take a minute to praise the outstanding customer support and response I received from the people at Amazon.com. This is the first time that I ever had to return something that was defective. Their desire to satisfy me, as their customer, was unbelievable! It is some of the best customer service I have ever received.

Now, to continue with the details...

The second recorder I received acted nothing like the first. This one worked!

After performing the initial setup, I immediately installed the Philips firmware upgrade (v2.6) and after the upgrade completed, I waited the 24hrs for the TV Guide information to download. By the next morning, I was able to record shows as easy as 1-2-3.

Here is some information everyone may find useful:

1.) The User's Guide on the Philips Support website and the User's Guide that I received in the box, are the same. I compared them side-by-side and saw no differences. (They even had the same poor spelling and misuse of the English language that money obviously didn't buy, at Philips.)

Some other reviewers indicated that their User's Guide differed from the website's version. Mine didn't, but you may want to check anyway, to be sure.

2.) Some users indicated that the firmware was only available by calling Philips' 1-800 Customer Support line. This was true when I tried acquired the upgrade, BUT this is no longer the case. The firmware upgrade to version 2.6 is now available for free on the p4c.philips.com website.

According to the documentation, this upgrade is required if you have any hopes of getting the machine to record from the On-Screen TV Guide feature. (One of the first things I did BEFORE trying to record my first program was to install the upgrade.)

3.) Everything discussed in the User's Guide works, as described, however, the descriptions kinda stink!

Here's what typically happens... You follow the cryptic steps in the User's Guide "to-the-tee", then, when you see how the function works, you say to yourself, "Oh, that's what they were trying to tell me!"

4.) Regarding the Time Shift Buffer...Think of the TimeShift Buffer as a clearinghouse for the HDD that all recordings of any kind must go through first. If you do, then it's a little easier to figure out what's going on behind the scenes.

Every recording must go through this clearinghouse first before they are stored on the "real" HDD. This includes all shows that you instantly record with One-Touch Recording, or preprogrammed, timer recordings. Once they pass through the clearinghouse, they are "officially" stored on the HDD. This clearinghouse can store 1, 2, 3, or 6 hours worth of video before it must begin offloading to the HDD. You can offload to the HDD and continue to record to the clearinghouse (buffer) at the same time, never missing a beat. (Fortunately, this is all seamless to the user.)

5.) This recorder supports VCRplus code entry. Good for quick programming if you've got the code handy.

6.) You can tell a show to start a few minutes early and end a few minutes late, so as to record from, say: 8:58 - 10:02 instead of the show's scheduled 9:00 - 10:00 time slot. This is very useful for slight variances in television scheduling for those important recordings...I use this feature all the time. It works like a charm!

7.) One Touch Recording (OTR) is "show-based" rather than "time-based" (like a VCR's OTR), if you use the TV Guide System. This is a much more practical approach to OTR-ing. Additionally, if you press OTR twice, then both the current and the next show will be recorded. Press it 3 times and it records the current show and the next 2, etc...

8.) The TV Guide onscreen programming gets it's information from several different channel sources, so definitely give it a try, BUT you will need to know your cable listing both with and without the converter box, depending how you set the device up. (For example, my cable service has MSNBC on channel 58 without the cable box connected. It's on channel 66 through the cable box.)

9.) The recorder warns you of overlapped recordings and gives you several options to correct the problem.

10.) You can lock individual recording to keep the kiddies away.

11.) You can protect recordings on the HDD from accidental erasure.

12.) You can mark a show as a favorite, then anytime it is on, it will put a pop-up on the screen to tell you and give the choice to switch to that channel and watch the show.

13.) The recorder does support DTS as well as Dolby Digital. (many still don't realize DTS is a better format than Dolby Digital...always has been, always will be...do the research online and find out for yourself!)

14.) If you get true HDTV or satellite TV, you may be interested to know this recorder only records audio in Dolby ProLogic, NOT 5.1Dolby Digital. (Only a few recorders actually record in true Dolby Digital. Those that do still cost several hundred dollars more than this unit.)

15.) This recorder does accept Component inputs and does perform true 480i/480p progressive scan recording as well as playback. This is unusual for a recorder in this price range.

16.) This recorder plays a variety of DVD formats including all DVD+ and DVD- formats, SVD's, VCD's and region-free DVD's. It plays all CD formats including DVD-Audio and SACD (both in their low standard mode). It plays MP3's. NOTE: This unit does NOT play DVD-RAM discs and it does NOT play photo cd's.

17.) This recorder only records in DVD+R and DVD+RW formats. It does NOT record in any other format (ie.: DVD-R, DVD-RW).

To me, this is probably the biggest... Read more ›

64 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Should Have Been Terrific, October 19, 2004

By 

Lawrence E. Doyle "Larry" (Marriotsville Maryland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Philips HDRW720 DVD Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive (Electronics)

After using an RCA DVR with a smaller Hard Drive I purchased this as an upgrade. It took a while to master all the options and features, but I finally learned to program it manually and could also program the timer using the VCR plus feature. (Never tried the TV Guide feature). Either program method produced a schedule that showed all the dates each show would record. You could double check EVERYTHING. Choices were one time recording event, daily recording , or weekly recording AND an option to start recording early and end recording late if you used the VCR Plus feature. The amount of time to start early or end late is user selected and entered. I always left the program session with high hopes... HOWEVER. No recording was ever properly done. Several times it recorded short portions of a show, but usually it just skiped everything. The Philips DVDRW 720 update CD was ordered and the unit updated its own program in 15 minutes. Program Update is discussed in a sheet of paper placed in the owners manual Strange to get a new item with a note in the box TELLING YOU that it needs to be upgraded and you should call to order the required CD at No Charge. After the upgrade it did the same thing - skipped all verified scheduled record events. Philips Techs thought I should perform system reboots, but that was not an answer that I liked. Despite this, I really like the appearance of both the unit and the remote. While the software was more complex than the RCA it had some nice features that I used when I did a manual (non timer) recording. Hope they fix the bugs because this DVR has real potential. The reviewed unit was manufactured in Hungary. I will reorder when they get a new batch.