Price Paid:  $550.00 from E-Bay

Summary:
* I bought this Philips to record DVDR, and it works very well for that.
* But as a player, I was amazed by the image quality : slightly better than Pioneer DV45A Elite !
* And the sound, with CDs, is really good for a DVD player, as good as Denon DVD-2800. Strong bass, decent mid-highs : very rare for a DVD player !
* Last month, I had troubles to record DVDs, but found out that it was due to the blank discs (imation). The best is to stick with Philips DVDRs.
* The remote control and the connections are totally illogical

Strengths:
Sound with DVDs and with CDs, Recordings, Image quality, Look

Weaknesses:
Not compatible with DVD-A, Connections and Remote Control illogical, Sensitive to blank discs quality

Similar Products Used:
Many DVD-Players

Price Paid:  $350.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I purchased this unit as a static display model with a full warranty, which is a good thing, because I have a feeling thst I'll need it. The 985 is a second generation model and it should mean that they got the bugs out from the first. Clearly they didn't. It's not that it doesn't work, but you never know when it'll decide to make a coaster out of DVD. Philips knows that there are problems with this unit as evidenced by the number of software revisions made since the model was first introduced. To their credit, you can download these from their site and make your own upgrade CD so that you don't have to wait on them to send you one.

With the software upgrade you have several different recording modes to choose from (HQ, SP, SP+, LP, LP+, & EP). The picture quality from the SP and SP+ modes is very good. The quality starts to drop off from there with more pixelization visible as you go into the longer time modes.

The on-screen menuing system is pretty good and fairly easy to navigate. The remote control is pretty lame, but does have access to all of the features that you need.

Playback of prerecorded DVDs is pretty good although not as good as some of the better progressive scan players available today. It is better than the built-in DVD player on my RCA Scenium TV. It seems to take much longer for this unit to read a DVD or CD when it starts up. Once it does, chapter changes are smooth and fast.

Overall, the 985 had the potential to be a great replacement for the old VCR. There are too many quirks and problems with this unit for me to recommend it to anyone who was not willing to live with the shortcomings.

Strengths:
Easy to use. Good Picture quality.

Weaknesses:
Philips Customer Service (or lack there of)
I tried several times to get an answer to an e-mail directly to Philips Customer Care website. The first two times there was no response other than a request to take a survey for how well they addressed the problem! The third e-mail resulted in a reply stating that I should call there help line - all I wanted to know was what an erro message ment.

Similar Products Used:
None - Other CD Recorders

Price Paid:  $711.00 from Superdeal, Sidcup

Summary:
I had been waiting for years for this format to appear on the consumer market, and was delighted to find that at last I could afford this machine. Despite playing the discs on a Panasonic 36 inch widescreen television I cannot tell the difference between a recorded DVD and a live broadcast. VHS, or even S-VHS, which I used to think was fine, now looks awful. I sha'n't be going back to VHS!

Unfortunately in the first six months of purchase the display occasionally read 'Disc Error' while recording, although it carried on recording. When I watched these recordings it skipped many sections of the recording, or just froze. One day after about 6 months it displayed 'Disc error' with every disc I tried, and then said 'Disc Error' when there wasn't even disc in it! I concluded that it was a fault with the machine, not the discs, and that it was no longer an intermittent fault, and took it back to the retailer for repair just before Christmas 2002. Apparently it had to go to Belgium for repair. It arrived back after 2 months, and they sent back the wrong remote control.
It does seem to work properly now. I am surprised that there are no other similar reviews (or any at all, actually) about this model, and hope that this just means that I was unlucky. I was a bit miffed that Philips Head Office in the UK weren't prepared to lift a finger to help me - they just kept referring me back to the poor old independant retailer.
Because of the weaknesses below I have to say that this is the first Philips machine I have bought in 20 years and will probably be the last.
Panasonic and Sony seem to put a lot more thought into their products - I wish Philips had competion from them in the DVD+RW market - it might have sharpened Philips up a bit. As Sony have invested in the +RW technology (they already make, or at least put their name on, +RW discs) I presume they will eventually make a +RW recorder. I shall be very interested to compare it with my machine.

Strengths:
Superb reproduction.
Very useful being able to create your own visual pick-list on a disc.

Weaknesses:
The time it takes to recover from a recording. For example, if you found you've started recording the wrong channel and want to stop the machine, change channels and start recording again, you might have to wait up to 2 minutes for it to allow you to re-start the machine. If your tv programme is just starting you could lose a lot of hair during those 2 minutes. Very, very frustrating.
Remote control looks good but actually is not particularly ergonomic. The start, stop, forward and reverse buttons are the same size as, and mixed up with, all the other less-commonly-used buttons, so controlling it, especially in the dark, is quite hit-and-miss. My 10 year old VCR remote is far better than this!

Similar Products Used:
Never used a DVD recorder before

Price Paid:  $850.00 from Best Buys

Summary:
This recorder is a excellent product it does a perfect job of recording and playing every thing from a cd to a dvd movie. It has all kinds of outlets on the back to hook to your stereo system. It has Coaxial or Optical out for the greaest sound, and it has progressive scan! It has component out to your tv. The remote is has easy as it gets to use.
The manual is simple to understand. With the on screen display you will not need to look at the manual. When done recording you can add titles and picture to your index. Very easy to use. When done recording on the DVD +R it only takes about 45 sec to finalize the disc. Alot faster than the DVD-R. I would recomend any one looking to record home movies and movies to keep for a long time to try this machine.

Strengths:
Easy to use, need no manual to operate and the remote. Outlets in back for stero hook up

Weaknesses:
None yet. Other than price!

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic took it back bought Phillips