Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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195 of 201 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good quality, but still a few flaws., June 6, 2007
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.
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67 of 71 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great DVD Recorder for the money, June 9, 2007
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.
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49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great unit for a simple person like me., June 9, 2007
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.
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