Customer Reviews

Philips HDRW720 DVD Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

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...

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 disappointment about this recorder. There is really no reasonable explanation not to support both DVD plus and minus formats.

BTW...if you want the explanation, here it is... Philips/Magnavox invented the DVD+ format, but not the minus formats, and to me, it's just their arrogance not to support both.

18.) You can not record from the internal DVD drive to the internal HDD. Recording is only one-way, from the HDD to the DVD drive.

To me, this is a minor inconvenience, but still, two-way recording between the internal DVD drive and the internal HDD should have been supported and counts against the unit, overall.

On a positive note, however, you can hook up another external DVD player to the input jacks of the Philips recorder and record from the external DVD player to Philips Recorder's HDD. (If you have the right equipment, you can even copy movies from rented or store bought dvd's without any custom mod chips or special software, but that's another story for another time...I will tell you that I have tried it, and it works, flawlessly!)

19.) Bye-bye Tivo...This recorder does virtually everything Tivo does without the monthly service fee. It does everything Tivo does except the following:
a.) TV Guide's "season-pass" function is not as elaborate as Tivo's, but you can say tell it to record every episode of "The Sopranos", for example, and it will.(Tivo's "Season-Pass" will record regardless of TV channel and will not record duplicate episodes.)
b.) Tivo's television listing is for 2-weeks. TV Guide's listing is for 8-days. (This has absolutely no bearing on your ability to record programs, however. You can program up 15 different shows up to 1-year in advance on the Philips.)
c.) No network connectivity like Tivo. (So you can't sign on from the internet and program your Philips recorder from a remote location in case you forgot to record something.)

I consider these Tivo features nice, but not at $12.95+tax per month!! (BTW...the free Tivo Basic service does not give you "season-pass" service and the TV listing is only for 3-days, so the free TV-Guide service is way better than the free Tivo Basic service.)

20.) Built-in editing functions of this recorder do not compete with a computer and a good reputable video editing software package. HOWEVER, when comparing the editing functions of this recorder to the editing functions of other recorders, this recorder's editing capabilities are very comprehensive and easy to use. Menu's are easy to create, although Spartan in appearance and content. They function well, overall, in DVD players that support the DVD+ format. It is very easy to edit commercials out of programs and store multiple programs on a disc to build your own video library.
(I have not tried to make videos from my mini-DV camcorder yet, so I don't know how good a job that does, as compared to my computer, but I anticipate the computer will do a better job if my overall intent is to edit the footage vs. just copy it to a DVD.)

21.) Recording Speed - 7 recording speeds are supported. They are refereed to as M1, M2, M2x, M3, M4, M6, and M8. This translates as follows: an M1 recording will only store 1 hour of video on a single sided DVD. M2 - two hours, M2x - 2.5 hours, etc...

There is a down side here, and that is you MUST record to the DVD burner in whatever speed you recorded the show to the HDD. So if you recorded it in M1, you must burn it in M1. You can't "step it down" to M4, for example, to fit 4-M1 HDD recordings onto a single DVD as 4-M4 recordings.
To me, this is the second biggest let down with this recorder. A much better solution would have been to allow you to "Step-down" the recording quality from the HDD to allow you to fit more content on a disc. Sacrificing video quality over quantity should have been my choice, not Philips.

22.) This recorder only records on single sided DVD's, dual layer DVD+R media is supported, but you have to manually flip them over and each side is treated as individual, single-sided disks. (No real advantage to using dual layer media considering it's current cost.)

23.) Lastly, there were complaints about the remote. I agree the remote is difficult to see under dim light and all the buttons are relatively the same shape and size, a real minus.
Philips missed an opportunity to stand out from the crowd here, and they blew it!

On the reality side if things, however, the buttons are laid out fairly logically and they are pretty easy to navigate after using it a few times.

The remote is programmable and will support the basic controls of most major brand TV's. Programming the remote is fully covered in the User's Guide. (Something earlier User's Guides were apparently missing, but was corrected in my version.)

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.

The past few months I have been enjoying my purchase of the Philips HDRW720 DVD Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive. I made the choice to purchase this particular model from reading other reviews listed here. For the most part I have enjoyed my purchase but have experienced some problems which were corrected by Amazon's excellent return policy and by Philips support.

My first problem was experienced while archiving to DVD+RW media. Sometimes during the process of archiving a program to DVD+RW media the Philips HDRW720 would hang for a moment then reboot itself. After attempting to archive this particular program to the same DVD+RW disc and failing the HDRW720 would finally not accept the DVD+RW media giving me "error reading disc" or would not recognize the disc with "no disc". Over a period of 3 weeks after attempting to archive to 9 different disc and 5 of those disc becoming unusable by the unit I called Philips support. After explaining my problem and a little troubleshooting they suggested that I contact Amazon and ask for a replacement unit since I was still within my original 30 days of purchase. I contacted Amazon and they immediately shipped a replacement unit while I returned the defective unit. The new HDRW720 arrived within 2 days. Amazon even refunded my shipping cost.

Upon receiving the replacement unit I decided to test it to be sure it performed all functions that I needed. This unit performed with no problems when archiving to DVD+RW media. But I had problems when I connected my camcorder to the front ports to archive video to DVD. I called Philips support and after troubleshooting the problem they determined I needed to send the unit to their support facility for repair. I boxed the unit in its original box with original shipping materials and sent it to their repair facility in Louisville, KY. They told me to allow 4 weeks for the repair but I received the unit back in a week. But on the repair description sheet it stated that they didn't find anything wrong with the unit. I was a little upset but proceeded to connect the unit back and check it out. Needless to say, it performed the way it was suppose to and I was able to archive all my personal video to DVD with no problems. I suspect that a cable was not plugged in correctly inside was why the camcorder ports didn't work and all they did was plug it back in. I was also a little disappointed because they had not shipped the unit back to me in the same box I had sent it to them in. They shipped it back in a plain box with the unit wrapped in bubble wrap. The bubble wrap was wrapped loosely around the unit which caused the bubble wrap to rub against the LED display and scruff it up a little. But it's hardly noticeable.

Even though I have had some problems I am extremely happy with my purchase and would recommend anyone to purchase one due to the excellent support by Philips and by Amazon. They have proven to me that they support what they sell.

The Philips HDRW720 is designed to work with cable systems, but I use it with a satellite system. You just have to remember to program the satellite receiver to come on when the HDRW720 comes on to record a program. A little extra effort but no problem.

For anyone purchasing the Philips HDRW720 I would recommend the following. Discard the original manual that is shipped with the unit and download the PDF file of the manual and print it. The original manual has a lot of important information left out which makes using the HDRW720 very confusing. Next, upgrade the firmware to the latest version offered on Philips support website. And last, test the unit you receive very thoroughly that it performs all the functions it's suppose to correctly. If in doubt about the way anything works call Philips support.

In my original review I stated I would reorder - and the new unit is now in use with NO PROBLEMS. (There is still a sheet of paper in the box advising you to order the software upgrade so you have the latest features.) The recorder does everything I wanted and I am pleased with all the features. I did learn something new today: You are always watching TV from the Hard Drive Buffer when you watch TV with this recorder. Due to that feature you can go backward in the program to catch something you want to see again. HOWEVER, the quality of what you watch is determined by the record setting you have used for the Hard Drive and DVD recorders. One setting controls both paths. If you have set the quality for 1, 2, 2x you will see a great picture, if you have used 3, 4, 6, or 8 the picture will be reduced in quality. Learn the features with the remote control in one hand and the owners manual in the other to highlight the important stuff as you go. If you purchase: Good Luck and ENJOY

Having owned a Phillips 985 for two years, I looked forward to having a HDD in addition to a DVD Recorder.

I've now played with the 720 for two days. So far...it is excellent. I've set up 6 different timed recordings and they have all worked flawlessly (seems like one of the other reviewers got a bum machine). The quality in M2 is superior to SP in the 985...M1 is equivalent to HQ on the 985.

The buttons on the remote are small...but I found the operation of the unit to be intuitive and pretty easy to learn.

I do wish that more advanced editing of material on the HDD was possible...but this is not a deal breaker.

I plan to use this for recording long sporting events. I'm real picky when it comes to video quality, I only used HQ on my 985. Problem was this only gave me 1 hr/disk. If I was home no problem..just swapped disks. Timed HQ recordings over several hours was not possible.

With the 720...put it all on the HDD in M1. Take my 5 hours...divide them into one hour segments...burn to disks. Its all good!

I sympathize with the other people who can't get it to work. By all accounts the early releases had real problems. But I got mine in late 2004 and it seems that by that time all the major problems had been licked.

I have had minimal problem making timed recordings, pause/rewind/record live TV, editing recorded shows and burning them on a variety of DVD+R blanks. I've also done a number of VHS to DVD transfers with this device. In terms of the device working and reliablity, I am very happy with it. There had been a few times the machine hangs and I have to unplug it to get it unhung, but that's rather rare. Amazingly more often than not, none the recordings are lost from such an episode. But considering I must have made well over 1000 recordings (2 shows a day absolute minimum for over a year) and over 500 DVD burning sessions (about 100 discs), a few hangings is excusable. Incredibly I have not yet made a coaster, every recordings on every DVD I made with this device is watchable on every DVD player or PC I tried.

But I am not recommending it to everyone. The software user interface is barely usable, I have learned to be rather proficient at making the device do my biddings, but it really ought to be a lot, A LOT, better. If you are not good at technical things you won't figure out how to work it. I have a PhD and it took me a couple days to learn the basics and well over a week to work out the correct process for each of the tasks I desire.

But in the end, I am very happy with the setup. Even with the stupid interface, it's my #1 favorite gadget in the house. I am IN CONTROL of my TV, I time-shift shows from early morning or daytime to evenings, I capture all the shows I want during long vacations. I can watch them or put them on DVD, always after editing out the commercials. And I can share them with friends and family. Even my wife likes the features so much that she learned to work the complicated control. That's saying a lot.

The product was great, how ever one month after buying this item, the DVD drive stopped working (on 12/27/05). I figured it would be just as quick to send it in and have it fixed as it would be to return and order a new one.
Well, I was wrong, I did not know that I was about to step into the lower pools of hell with this company. I mailed the hdrw via ups with tracking and sing. Confirmation, (so I had a record of the shipping) it was received on 1/5/06. I called on 12/29/05 and had already received and rma# and a ref# (that where placed on the item and on the box that was sent), so I thought things would go fine, ooooh no, only in a dream world.
Well, I called 1/20/06 at this time they stated they could not find my packaged, had no information, and to call back on 1/25/06. Not to mention that I could hardly understand the customer service reps dialect (I'm sure it was just me, maybe I had a cold or something, yeah right) it also sounded like they were just reading off cue cards and could not provided any real answers or explain anything about the process of getting a repair done.
Now a little concerned that somehow my packaged was lost, on 1/26/06 I called back and talked to the barley understandable customer assistant who tried to tell me that they did not receive the item by mail until 1/18/06. "What" , I stated; "I have the tracking information in front of me. Judy C. singed for it on 1/5/06", I tried to explain (tracking number 1Z 4E9 728 42 0999 760 1) . Well after trying to understand and arguing with her for about 15 min, she finally decides to look up the tracking info on ups.com for herself, or at least acted like she was. Well after being lied to by her at first, she finally agreed that maybe, (maybe, being the key word) they did receive the item on 1/5/06. She then transferred me to another costumer service rep with new ref #.
I was transferred to john at 1-866-845-3578, where he stated no one ever checked the packaged into the depot repair center until 1/18/06 and that there was never a repair claim processed on the item, (their fault.) John (which I could understand great) at first wanted to again try to convince me that the packaged was not received until 1/18/06, well after I explained what I had just went through with the last person he stated that the item probably sat around until it was checked into the depot area ( a honest answer). He also stated that when I originally received a rma# and ref# on 12/29/06 the person I talked to must have not correctly entered the information in, because a service ticket (I think that is what he called it) was never made until the item was received by the depot. I do find it funny though that they would have known what to have fixed, even though it was never entered into the computer in the first place, just a thought. John then stated to call back in 10-15 business day and that it would take no more than 20 days. I should note that John was very nice and helpful and seemed to listen and try to help.
This sounded fair but I was still upset because I had already been directly lied to, and delayed by their mistakes. Well 16 business days later I called back, now I was told that the item would take up to 20 business days but that my hdrw would be shipped out by 2/14/06 (yes this would be 29 business day after they received it).
On 2/20/06 I called back again and what do you know they still gave me the shaft, and no, I don't mean a drive shaft wrapped up with a pretty bow on it. Now the customer rep. stated that it was over there normal 20 business day repair time (well now it had actually been 33 business days) and then she stated that she would transfer the ref# to another customer service agent, yes that's right now the third step in customer service representative, and that this person would have to call me back in 3-5 business day, however she could not provide a direct contact number or a name of who the case would be followed up buy, only that it would be handled by one of two people.
Overall I find this company to have hell like customer service. It makes you hot, irritable and is a real pain in the butt. I have been lied to, had my repair delayed due to their mistakes, and been given the run around and passed to three different levels of reps.
At this time I just wished they would send the item back to me, even broken, so that I could return it to Costco and just get my money back. I will never try to return something to Philips to have it serviced, but wait that wont matter. I will never buy a Phillips product again. Everyone needs to trust me, stick with a company that has good old fashioned American based helpful service. Not one that wants to keep customers running to the hills, while they having an odd walk, from getting bent......, well you know.
I guess there is no exact one person to blame here, but Phillips hired these people, created there own return process and are there to represent and stand behind their product. I don't expect anything special ever from retail, trust me my expectation are low. What I do expect is when a company makes so many faults and realizes their faults in dealing with a custome,r that they would take an extra step in doing something to fix that. This company had many opportunities to step in and correct their mistakes but they haven't, please taken this to heart when thinking about buying products from them. Remember next time it could be you getting the run around or at least if you do buy from them plan on returning it to the store and getting a refund.

I just ordered my second unit (one for the living room, one for the bedroom). Overall this is the most feature packed unit available and it is priced much less then comparable units from other companies. Mine came with a note recommending an immediate firmware upgrade which I ordered from Philips (free).
The TV guide is excellent. It allows TIVO like features such allowing you to record programs "regularly" (like TIVO Season pass). You can search for future programs by type (kids, sports, documentary, etc.), alphabetical, or by date/time. Unlike TIVO, there is NO MONTHLY CHARGE for the TV guide. It has the best time shift functions I've seen. The TV record buffer can be as long as 6 hours. It automatically records whatever you are watching, even as you change channel. If you start watching a program and after 10 min decide would rather watch it another night, with one click it will save the entire program from the beginning. You can go back through the time buffer and "record" programs you watch earlier. You can pause/rewind live TV. You can watch a program already on the hard drive (or a DVD) while another is recording to the hard drive. It has programmable "jump forward" and "jump backward" buttons. You can set any time (hint: most commercials are 30sec!). I have not had any crashs, hangs, glitches in the past month of heavy use. I wonder if the people who had problems had upgraded the firmware to 2.6 like I did before using it. I had the HUMAX Tivo for 2 weeks side by side and returned the TIVO. If you are buying this for someone who has a very hard time learning to work gadgets then the TIVO is easier to use, but the Philips is not much harder and winds up being much cheaper and in some ways more powerful. The owners manual is not very good. Mine is missing a section on programming the universal remote that is present in the downloadable version on Philips web site (Adobe Acrobat PDF file)

I purchased this in early Oct. Got it home and installed it a few days later. Tried using the analog output to my T.V. and got some real scratchy noises from the recorder. Then I hooked it up directly to my amp (analog) and same thing. To make sure, I hooked up via digital opical cable and it sounded fine, thus limiting some viewing flexiblity. When I called Philips the first time, they would not even talk to me until I gave them the serial number(buried in the cabinet). After removing the recorder to get the serial number and getting through the multi-layered phone tree, I was told to just ship it to them at my expense and I should here from them in 4 to six weeks! If I would like to speak to someone that would even attempt to offer any other solutions (if any) I would have to pay $15 per call! Apparently, this is a new polcy for Philips as well as closing all the local service centers. Shame on the decision makers at Philips for going obviously downmarket with what use to be a good brand. For now at least, this brand is off my list of other potential purchases.