Price Paid:  $349.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
This was an opportunity buy. I was in the store and the unit was on sale for about 50% of MSRP, so I bought it. This was a mistake. Twice during the warrenty period the laser failed, resulting in discs that could not be finalized. Twice I had to take it back to the local Philips repair center. The second time they managed to drop it onto a concrete floor, so by rights it was repaired 3 times during warrenty. I decided to buy the maximum extended warrenty, and a couple of months in, the laser assembly failed again. This time, Philips had closed their repair center, so I took it to an authorized repair center. About 8 weeks later, Philips decided to replace the unit, and shipped me an HDRW720. So much for build quality. A word about Philips support: it is the worst I have ever encountered. The phone menuing system is useless, and the wait time for a human typically exceeds 20 minutes. To add insult to injury, once you get a human they typically cannot answer any questions.

Strengths:
When it worked, the picture and sound quality were ok, but not as good as the Technics A-10.
Plays MP3s with the correct software upgrade.

Weaknesses:
Very poor quality.
Does not play 4x discs, and if fact, these discs appear to damage the unit.
User interface is poor
The rear panel labeling is poor

Similar Products Used:
Philips HDRW720
Technics DVD-A10

Price Paid:  $457.00 from E-Bay

Summary:
Excellent DVD Recorder. I recorded more than 50 DVD+R without any trouble !
I downloaded and installed a new bios, and now, I can use DVD 4x (was not possible before). I love it.

Strengths:
Very good sound with CDs, look, excellent at playing DVDs, very good recordings too, reliable

Weaknesses:
No headphone output, bad remote control

Similar Products Used:
Denon DV2800, Pioneer DVD653 and DV-45A Elite DVD players

Price Paid:  $699.00 from Good Guys

Summary:
This review is for the DVDR-80, the latest and greatest Philips dvd recorder...

Uggh. Where to begin. Cheezy craftsmanship, lack of any digital audio inputs for recording, and worst of all lousy picture quality. I switched back and forth between my marantz 4400 dvd player and this unit (component video signal) several times, there was no comparison. Video output from the unit appears dark, muddy and very compressed looking in comparison. Stereo audio output from the unit produced a noticable hiss through my Marantz 7300ose reciever. Perhaps someone with a VHS based or low end consumer grade A/V setup wouldn't notice or care about most of this stuff, but I sure do. Beware: A pro-sumer item this is not.

btw..

Although doubtfull, it is possible I could have been doing something wrong. Thinking logically, I called customer service. In short, customer service was no help at all. I couldn't reach anyone in their myriad of 800 numbers that was remotely technical enough to understand what i was/wasn't seeing. The persons just repeatedly asked if I'd like to request a service. Huh??? Request a service??? I just bought the thing!

Ahhhh screw it.

I just sealed it up back in the box, and I'm taking it back to the store today.

I definitly would have expected a much higher quality unit for this price. This was my first experience with a Phillips product, I'm sorry to say it will most likely be my last.

Strengths:
Record a DVD
+RW compatibility

Weaknesses:
Poor video, and audio processing quality.

Similar Products Used:
none.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Nobody wanted this unit to work more than me. I have 300 laser discs I wanted to preserve on DVD before my laser player gave out, but fuhgetabout it.

My Philips DVDR985 unit worked 'just OK' for about 3 weeks (it ruined about 40% of my blank media -- which ain't cheap yet, folks). Then it began freezing every single time I hit "record," ostensibly ruining a new disc each time. I called Tech Support, located in Jamaica, where the accents are so thick you can't cut them with jerk chicken sauce. I asked for my money back. They refused and told me to do a hard re-boot. That didn't work, so again I asked for my money back. They refused and said they'd send me a firmware upgrade. Ten days later, the upgrade arrived...and solved nothing. Again I asked for my money back, and again they refused. So I sent it in to Philips' repair service. Three-and-a-half weeks later it came back with the note "Replaced OPU, unit OK." First time I tried to record, it froze. I called up Tech Support once again and asked for my money back. Guess what? They refused -- they said there's a newer firmware upgrade that'll solve the problem. (By the way, aren't mutliple firmware upgrades some sort of admission that an entire series model is defective?) Anyway, now I have to wait another 10 days or so, just to start the migraine cycle over again.

This is like a bad nightmare that won't end. There's a reason the list price for this turkey has dropped from $999 to $425 in less than six months' time. Though I got my unit for around $550, I've lost more than triple that amount in ruined blank media and wasted time. Since I clearly bought a lemon and the company refuses to acknowledge it, am I just screwed? Can anyone advise me what legal recourse I have?

In any event, buyer beware. I will NEVER purchase equipment bearing the Philips logo again, and strongly suggest that others follow suit. I realize the unit worked OK for some people, but if you're like me and get stung, there will be nothing you can do about it -- except warn others. You listening, Philips?

Strengths:
makes very expensive coasters

Weaknesses:
not sure which is more pathetic - the unit itself or Philips' customer support

Price Paid:  $799.00 from Expert, Purmerend, N

Summary:
Excellent picture quality with pre-recorded DVD's and, as good as the TV signal is, with DVD+R and DVD+RW. Very easy setup of the recorder. To use, it's even simple for a child to set the timer for a recording, or to record via the direct recording mode. Direct access to (various) recordings on a disk. I'm absolutely over the moon with this recorder. Goodbye to the Last Milennium video recorder, welcome to the New Milennium DVD recorder; what a relief!

Strengths:
Makes very good recordings and access to them is as fast as access to a CD. Beats a video recorder/player in every aspect.

Weaknesses:
None for me.

Similar Products Used:
S-VHS video recorder, but I can't really call that Similar...