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I've had mine for a couple years now & I'm still very pleased with it. I've backed up alot of VHS tapes with this onto DVD, & it has very good video noise reduction.
They HAD to know of these problems. etc. I am sick to think of the time I have lost. (read other's complaints) and you have a real loser here.I bought my first Phillips tape recorder in 1968. All I have is junk to show for it. And yes, I did everything right (finalizing the disks etc).Add to this the terrible remote control with rubbery, no-feedback keys that often don't work; little provision for using the deck for playback, etc. I am bitterly disappointed with the Philips DVDR-3400 recorder, and suppose that all of its line has the same problems.I did not find out until I had burned 300+ DVDs that the disk directory structure created by these Phillips machines is defective.
are LOST.AND most PC-based DVD players and other software won't handle the disk, so if you wrote your home movies to disk for long-term archiving, you're out of luck.I don't know how a company the size of Phillips can release such a piece of crap. The main title on the disk you make will appear to "play" on your home DVD player. but ALL of the post-recording edits made (cutting out parts you didn't want etc). I will never buy another Phillips product.
I returned this as it was still under warranty and was given another DVD Recorder. I was given a Phillips DVDR-985 to try out. After failing to explain how to work any of the functions the instructions said the machine was capable of, they told me I would need to get the DVDR-72 to get the features I had bought the machine for in the first place. It was used so when it stopped working after one month I didn't question it. I don't think Phillips is capable of making any product with a video image.
The DVD-R72 I purchased worked for less than a year before it began failing to recognize not only the discs I had burned, but any disc at all. The new unit (I think it was the DVDR-80) didn't do half the things the instruction book said it would. Naturally, the DVDR-72 was $200 more at the time. I have had good luck with my Phillips CD-R burner but I have a Phillips S-VHS VCR too and the image has never been as good as my twelve year old Panasonic standard VHS. My second Phillips DVDR-72 worked for EIGHT MONTHS before the same thing started happening.
They couldn't explain how the DVD-R80 was an upgrade since it does far less than the 985. Phillips is really giving Sony a run for their money as the least competent manufacturer of comsumer home electronics. I called the service department and they told me my model was the upgrade of the DVDR-985. I wish each member of their design team and the author of their 80 page instuction manual a swift kick to the groin. I went out and bought a new unit.
Seriously.
I have probably wasted twenty or more recordable DVDs (and I have no idea of how many finalized ones are actually playable). In other cases, I have gotten "unknown data" or "empty disk" for freshly-recorded DVDs.Cleaning the disks helps in a minority of the cases. It plays commercial DVDs properly but it is often incapable of playing or recognizing those it has burned itself. I just tried to record two programs and got "disk error" as soon as I pressed the stop button. The directions (page 8) warn against trying to clean the DVD player's lens because the optical unit is more delicate than those in read-only DVDs.
(TiVo really spoils you when you try to operate any other equipment).And I've had problems with the Timer operation. like most manuals today, pretty bad.I think I'd go Sony if I had to do it over again, though I doubt if the cons would be much different. The recorder often misses the recording time, not by an hour or 1 minute, but by 20-25 minutes. What I want is something that's as easy to use as a CD, as fast as a TiVo, and whose remote works with my TV. Weird.Other than that, the quality of the recordings is fantastic, as good as any commercial DVD. It's fairly easy to navigate, though the manual is. It's a great recorder, but the remote is terrible, operating only Philips DVD, not even a Philips TV.
That's what the "chapters" are for I guess. So, unless you want a $100 universal remote and can find one that will operate this with TiVo etc., you're stuck with a minimum of two remotes. Like all DVD recorders, fast forward is slow, slower than a VCR and much slower than TiVo. For that matter, what I really want is for someone to do all this stuff for me.
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