Product Review
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I own the DVDR3575H model and posted a review December 7th, 2008. This is the new model, the DVDR3576H, but the specs appear to be the same and it looks and appears identical to mine except the DVDR3575H is all black. This is somewhat of a rehash as well as an update to my previous posting.
I am giving this 4 stars primarily because it remains the only DVR/DVD recorder in the US market and the only non fee DVR in the US market. Every major electronics manufacturer in the US market had DVR'S available through 2004-2006. I believe do to pending litigation the other players have left the US market. You can still get numerous DVR models in Europe and Asia from the other manufacturers, including multiple models from Phillips. Sizes range there from 80GB all the way to one terabyte. But here thanks to law suits we have only this 160GB model from Phillips.
The DVR recorder is simple to use and easy to play back. The menu is primitive, but fairly ease to navigate. You can record about 30 hours of programing on the highest setting. This unit does not truly upconvert to 1080p like it claims, but its upconverting is nevertheless not bad. The remote is light, but many of the buttons are two small and oddly placed. The USB port on the front allows you to attach a flash drive and view pictures or video and play music. There are some video editing features for deleting and combining video using the DVR, though they are quite basic.
I've tried using the dvd record function only once and had problems. It played back the program as it dubbed, so it took forever to transfer, also it stopped dubbing inexplicably at about 1 hour five minutes into the 1 hour 30 minute program. Also, be aware you can record directly to DVD or the DVR, and you can dub from the DVR to the DVD, but not vice versa.
Several buttons stopped working on my remote which effectively makes the unit a paperweight, since you cannot do anything without the remote. I called Phillips to have it replaced under warranty. To their credit I was always able to speak to someone within a few minutes and they spoke English. Unfortunately, their customer service still sucked. They kept taking my information, but never put the order through for me. I kept being told different things each time I called, such as someone will call me back, or wait a few days, or wait a week or call this other number. Some of them were a bit rude and really didn't care about my problem. Finally after calling about six times over the period of a month and again, being told to wait, I demanded to speak to a supervisor, who saw that my remote got shipped out the next day.
This product has uniqueness in being the only one of its kind on the market, however, depending on your needs there may be better buys. If you are mostly interested in a DVD recorder, their are models from other manufactures that are better. If you are primarily interested in the DVR, and don't mind monthly fees, TIVO and cable/satellite company companies offer superiors DVR's with better menus, more space and better ease of use. In addition there are companies featuring portable media players like Archos which has the portable media players 5 and 7 that feature a DVR ability, though I cannot say how well they work.
However, if you want the DVR/DVD recorder in one unit, this remains your only option. I have used mine alot to watch DVD's and to record and watch off the DVR, and for those purposes it has worked quite well.
I am giving this 4 stars primarily because it remains the only DVR/DVD recorder in the US market and the only non fee DVR in the US market. Every major electronics manufacturer in the US market had DVR'S available through 2004-2006. I believe do to pending litigation the other players have left the US market. You can still get numerous DVR models in Europe and Asia from the other manufacturers, including multiple models from Phillips. Sizes range there from 80GB all the way to one terabyte. But here thanks to law suits we have only this 160GB model from Phillips.
The DVR recorder is simple to use and easy to play back. The menu is primitive, but fairly ease to navigate. You can record about 30 hours of programing on the highest setting. This unit does not truly upconvert to 1080p like it claims, but its upconverting is nevertheless not bad. The remote is light, but many of the buttons are two small and oddly placed. The USB port on the front allows you to attach a flash drive and view pictures or video and play music. There are some video editing features for deleting and combining video using the DVR, though they are quite basic.
I've tried using the dvd record function only once and had problems. It played back the program as it dubbed, so it took forever to transfer, also it stopped dubbing inexplicably at about 1 hour five minutes into the 1 hour 30 minute program. Also, be aware you can record directly to DVD or the DVR, and you can dub from the DVR to the DVD, but not vice versa.
Several buttons stopped working on my remote which effectively makes the unit a paperweight, since you cannot do anything without the remote. I called Phillips to have it replaced under warranty. To their credit I was always able to speak to someone within a few minutes and they spoke English. Unfortunately, their customer service still sucked. They kept taking my information, but never put the order through for me. I kept being told different things each time I called, such as someone will call me back, or wait a few days, or wait a week or call this other number. Some of them were a bit rude and really didn't care about my problem. Finally after calling about six times over the period of a month and again, being told to wait, I demanded to speak to a supervisor, who saw that my remote got shipped out the next day.
This product has uniqueness in being the only one of its kind on the market, however, depending on your needs there may be better buys. If you are mostly interested in a DVD recorder, their are models from other manufactures that are better. If you are primarily interested in the DVR, and don't mind monthly fees, TIVO and cable/satellite company companies offer superiors DVR's with better menus, more space and better ease of use. In addition there are companies featuring portable media players like Archos which has the portable media players 5 and 7 that feature a DVR ability, though I cannot say how well they work.
However, if you want the DVR/DVD recorder in one unit, this remains your only option. I have used mine alot to watch DVD's and to record and watch off the DVR, and for those purposes it has worked quite well.
