Philips DVD-R610 Review

Overall Rating

Very good picture, even in long play
Great sound
front sockets for a/v input

The Philips DVD-R610 DVD Recorder:

Minor points:
1. Unresponsive feel to controls on front panel
2. Cheap looking led display
3. Noisy: sits and wheezes like it is emphysemic; also noticeable hum
4. Can't easily see time/counter elapsed on display; can't see it at all in protected or pre-recorded disks
5. No confirm option on delete (means I started to protect titles in case I accidentally rub them)
6. Veeeery slow to read mp3 disk and then may refuse to play all or some of it.

Major points:
1. Slow response to remote control means multiple presses can be registered when only one was intended
2. Turns itself on and off without any control having been pushed
3. Starts and stops recording without any control having been pushed (I guess this is related to item 1!)
4. Sometimes will not recognise a new blank disk from timer mode. Direct record works, and subsequently the disk is allowed
5. Timer recordings can fail due to RF dropout and 'no signal'. This also leads to 'popups' on the screen every time it finds the signal again.
6. Freezes completely, front panel doesn't respond, nor remote, has to be turned off at mains
7. Child lock does not operate correctly -- can only bar all disks or none
8. Recording split not allowed as suggested in manual
9. Poor remote control layout, especially
i. tv/dvd switch can be accidentally pushed
ii. Difference between chapter advance/rewind and ff/fb is only in how long you hold down the buttons. I constantly get this wrong and so lose my place in what I am watching
iii Hard to locate useful features like jump to time
10. Clock is unreliable
11. Have to find a place on the DVD to record. This is really outdated. One expects the system to find a blank space
12. Picture quality can be affected by the default quality selected for recording, regardless of the quality that was actually used to record the disk you are playing (the manual actually says so! You must be kidding)

The number of bugs means I am not happy with this model, but it was a present, so I stuck with it. I am now searching for the receipt, but lost...

First shock was that you had to find a blank place to record on a DVD. Surely we are past this by now?

Second shock was the noise of the thing even when not in operation

Third shock was it turning itself on/off (even recording) without any control pushed

Now I don't really trust to find the thing has recorded what I wanted.

When it works, it works well, but too often, it doesn't.