Product Description

DVD Recorder, Dual Media-records and plays in DVDR-R-RW and DVD+R+RW, Built ATSC digital SDTV tuner to receive digital HD TV broadcasts, HDMI 1080i upscaling to deliver true HD picture performance, DivX to play downloaded PC movies and video DVD's, Progressive Scan, i-Link for easy connection to play and record your camcorder recording,Plays MP3/WMA, CD's, CD-R-RW, Video CD's

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14154 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Black
• Brand: Philips
• Model: DVDR3505/37
• Released on: 2007-04-01
• Dimensions: 2.30" h x 16.50" w x 10.00" l, 3.50 pounds

Features

• Built in digital SDTV tuner to receive HD boradcasts
• Dual Media play and record in DVD-R-RW and DVD+R+RW
• 1080i upscaling for HD picture performance
• i-Link for easy connection to camcorder for play and recording
• Plays MP3/WMA, CD-R-RW, Video CD's

Customer Reviews

still works great after one year
No complaints. It plays well, records well, and is easy to use (for me). The tuner works fine. I would buy it again.

Great feature set, poor execution
I bought this at Wallie World for $167 and was disappointed immediately. It's VERY slow to operate commands or read a disc. When you first load a disc it takes several minutes to format. When you record a program, it takes a minute or so to complete writing before you can access anything. Even entering the menu to select a recorded show to play takes too long. I've never seen a DVD player so slow to read data.

Worst of all was the time record function. It worked fine for the first couple of weeks and the quality was pretty good - though it certainly was not comparable to the original signal as some have stated. But soon we started getting a "Disc Full" error, even with a new disc in. Or a disc would work a couple times, and then suddenly say the disc was full even though we had one 30-minute recording on it in SLP mode.

I tried calling Philips customer service and was answered by a poorly-qualified customer rep. After about 30 minutes of her trying to give me different advice (much of which contradicted the manual and didn't work), we were either disconnected or she hung up on me (I honestly believe it was the latter). So I returned the device and got a basic DVD player for $47 that responds much, much faster than the Philips recorder/player. Then we picked up a digital recorder from our cable company that records 50 hours of video in HD quality to a hard drive and does SO MUCH MORE than the DVR and so much better. Finally, TV viewing is fun again!

You Can Do Much Better
I bought this DVD recorder several months ago, but returned it because it had bugs. It is an okay product, essentially the same as a VCR of 20 years ago except with better picture quality and a digital tuner. The bad news: 1) it can not use the best recordable DVD format for time-shifting (DVD-RAM); 2) while the tuner is digital, the tuner will not output a high-definition signal for use with an HD-ready HDTV (Like my 3 year old model. Also, no DVD can record or play back a high-definition picture.); 3) it has no electronic program guide to identify or record upcoming programs.

My advice: Do what I did. After returning this and a highly-rated Samsung DVD recorder, I signed up with Dish Network and got their newest high-definition (hard disk) DVR, the 722-something. The cost was reasonable and the DVR is 20 years more advanced than any DVD recorder I am aware of. Very easy to use and can record a hugh amount of TV. Truly a great product. Direct TV and TIVO make similar products, but I think that Dish Network's is the best and best value.