|
|
|
Average Customer Review
Share your thoughts with other customers
|
|
|
› See most helpful viewpoints
|
|
37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
a 'must have' for any self-respecting couch-potato, 22 Nov 2004
gripes 1st- despite a whole array of programming features only has a measly 12 max recording programs - whilst can archive HD to DVD, it cant copy from DVD to HD - weird & frustrating??? - i use it with NTL analogue tuner (no scart) so dependant on the I/R dongle (supplied with HDRW720) to change channels automatically - i could not get this to work at all & Philips were no help at all - i did persivere with various settings and now works fine - whilst you have a choice of 1 (best) - 8 (smallest) recording quality - you cant adjust it per recording (like record a B&W movie in crap & new movie in best qual), you can only set it for all recordings - which leads to my next dig - you can only dump HD to DVD in same recording quality as your original recording + all above gripes could be resolved with the very next f/ware upgrade + it's now fully setup & i think it's wonderful machine + i have pixelplus TV which shows up the slightest flaw in recording, yet recordings done at setting 3 (medium qual) are brilliant reproduction - i cant tell difference from the live recording + has 80gig HD and can store hours of programming (about 30 i think) without tapes or disks + it has full satellite 'Free' EPG (no subscription) with full weeks listings, which is ridiculously easy to use - you can browse programs by day/time or by genre - if you see something to record just press a button - it even tells you if you have a recording clash (which happens frequently to the trigger-happy like me) + recording & playback are totally independant, so whilst it's recording all the things you want, you can still watch any previous recording on the HD, or a DVD, or even start watching the current recording from any point whilst it records the rest + it uses a 3 hour recording buffer (can be set to 6) unlike Sky+ which is around 30mins - so you can flick-back live TV which is very easy to navigate from pause - 1/2 speed - 1 minute - 5 minutes - whole program - to whole 3 hour buffer - you can view the buffer by time line and if you enjoyed the program you just watched, you can save it to HD at press of a button + archiving HD to DVD is very easy - you can edit progs while still on the HD & it dumps them at high-speed to DVD + it has DVD manager which stores all the information about your DVD collection (what's on what disk & which ones got space left) - you can throw away your old DVD cataloging system (newspaper cuttings tucked into DVD sleeves) and just put a number on the disk - you can browse your whole dvd collection on the HDRW720 by programm & when you see one you want to watch just press a button & it tells you which number dvd to put in & plays it - how cool is that? - i didn't even know it had this feature when i bought it so it was a nice bonus for me this machine is a 'must have' for any self-respecting couch-potato
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent piece of kit - Would Recommend..., 17 Jun 2005
By A Customer
I found this really easy to use and setup, 'Guide plus' is just brilliant who needs Tivo and its free. I had a Philips DVD recorder before so moving onto this was a natural progression and found much of the functionality the same, archiving to DVD something you want to keep is really easy and takes just minutes for a full length feature film, pausing live TV or rewinding something you've just missed is just so cool. Videos are just something from the long distant past to me a bit like LP's everyone will have one of these one day.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
The best features on a DVD Recorder I could find, 27 Sep 2004
Saw this and had to buy it, and so far, I'm pleased I did. The Guide+ EPG sets this recorder apart from any other recorder I've seen. With true point and click timer programming from the onscreen program listing to the way recordings are titled with the Program name on the hard disk, its worth while throwing away your VCR.It works with my Freeview set top box(Nokia 221T). Playback of prerecorded DVD's is fine, if a little bright for my liking. A few niggles, the menus are slow to react, and there seems to be two different sets of menus instead of one. The instructions are very poor, no index, bad translation, typos and not enough info where its needed, but I managed, that's why only 4/5. I'm hoping that some of the niggles will go away if Philips offer a bios upgrade on their site.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
Very good dvd recorder/hard disk, 2 Jan 2005
I bought it and very easy install through autoinstall and correct all channels and then Guide TVlink setup by itself in few hours as I got all channels include Sky Digital - very easy and very to use it. It has lots of feature to use like record into hard disk, copy to dvd recorder and can copies from vhs tape to hard disk very easy- dont have any problems. It worth to buy this as you wont missing any your favour programming as hard drive is 130 hours max which meaning that up to 5 and half days!!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Disappointing purchase, 3 Mar 2006
By A Customer
I bought the Philips HDRW720 just before Christmas 2005, but am forced to continue using an older Sony play-only model I origally bought in 1999. Why? As a recorder, the HDRW720 works great and I am pleased with the on-screen displays and the ease recordings can be organised on the hard drive. BUT it falls down badly when it comes to playing pre-recorded DVD. In fact, I wouldn't call this machine a multi-region player! It refused to play anything from my Region 4 or 5 collection, is hit and miss on which Region 1 discs it plays, and I have even had problems playing Region 2 DVD. This machine was bought IN Region 2 (the UK). I have already replaced this machine once, but the second unit has developed exactly the same problems. The older DVD player I mentioned plays all of the above without problem (not bad for seven year old technology), so the fault isn't with the condition of the discs.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
Revolutionise Your TV Viewing, 3 Oct 2004
We have had this recorder for a month now, having waited since April for it to launch and we are really pleased that we didn't buy any other model in the meantime.The HDRW720 was really worth the wait and our TV viewing has been revolutionised!! Now, rather than fitting tea/kids bedtimes/phone calls around the TV, television programs fit around us instead. The HDRW720 has a buffer, which will constantly fill up with the images of the channel you are currently watching. It stores from a minimum of 1 hour to a maximum of 6 hours worth of TV, whilst the unit is on. This means that you can pause live TV and continue later at your own convenience. You can also rewind TV, so if you turn on the television and catch the end of a program, you can rewind to the start and begin watching from there. We are using it with Sky Digital and it works seamlessly. To program a recording you simply select a program from the Guideplus planner and mark it with the red button. The HDRW720 then turns Sky over to the right channel at the correct time and starts to record. Not revolutionary in its own right, but when recording is over, it is stored on the hard disk with the actual name and date of the program, so is very easy to find later. Transferring programs and camcorder footage to DVD is really simple (mostly a one click process) and the DVDs produced play in most standard players (the only one so far they won't play them is an old Sony, which has always been very temperamental anyway). We had noted a couple of glitches (for example, you had to use the red button to stop a recording before, which wasn't particularly logical). However, these have been fixed already by a firmware upgrade available from Philips website (simply download, burn to a CD and insert in the HDRW720 and it will do the rest). Easy! Now the Stop button ends recordings and is much more intuitive. On the downside, the remote is a little cheap and the menus do take a bit of getting used to. However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages 100 to1. To sum up, we would recommend the Philips HDRW720 to anyone who is fed up with their TV controlling them. We now have almost all the functionality of Sky+, without the additional premium, plus it incorporates a DVD recorder as well.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Good Machine but it kept breaking down....., 25 Jan 2006
This DVD HDD recorder is a good idea in principle, if Philips can only get the laser in the DVD drawer to work properly. Within 7 days of buying it I had to send it back to Philips as it was unable to write to a blank DVD. 2 weeks later it had a new laser, chip and circuit board. This lasted for two and a half months when the same thing happened again. I only made about 15 discs in this time. Sorry to see it go back to the shop. Flexi-time was brilliantly useful. Guide plus was OK (i found it hard to record from sky digital box).
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Will not read DVD Discs, 18 Jan 2006
By A Customer
I bought this about 6 weeks ago, and it worked well initially and was easy to use. It developed a fault and will not recognise DVD discs, although still reads the hard drive. This is the third time that this has happened with various Philips recorders I have bought - and I give up and will look for another manufacturer.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
Repeated problems, 17 Jan 2006
By A Customer
We ordered this recorder in Oct 05 and had to replace it in November as we kept getting 'No disc' as the error when we tried to play a dvd. Eventually, the dvd stuck inside the machine and it would not open. Amazon replaced it straight away and the machine worked for a couple of months but has again failed to work with dvds. We now get a message 'Disc error' when we try to play BBC recorded dvds! It is also very tempramental and does not always read the dvd so we are again getting 'No disc' messages. Finally, our machine has never read US dvds and is therefore not multi region and we could not get Guideplus for some reason. We are returning it for a full refund and like a previous reviewer will opt for Sony or Panasonic.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
How did I do without it?, 7 Oct 2004
A really wonderful dvd recorder and hard disc drive. Worth buying just for the guideplus feature, this allows you to record programmes via an onscreen tv guide. I did consider rival panasonic players but in the end factors such as a very quick start up is much quicker and the fact the Philips is so much easier to use won the day. I would wholeheartedly reccommend to all.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Amazon Home
