Philips DVDR5350H

Hi i purchased a Philips DVDR500/05 DVD recorder two years ago which i thought was cheap and matched my Philips 37" HD TV.Normally i would take the time to get a review or something but was concentrating on the TV purchase and it had to be the worse purchase i've ever made.It is very clitchy poor quality and slow, something is badly wrong with the software(firmware) which is impossible to update using the Philips.com web site.My DVDR recorder refuses to update dispite Philips sending me a disk copy of the new firmware which also was rejected after following procedures to an absolute T.

Philips customer service UK said theres nothing more they could do well thanks for nothing ! Think the flash drive part of the update system has failed.

This is a very bad piece of equipment I have put up with it for a few years now only because we paid over £200 for it and feel I can't just throw it away.

The idea is very good but the problem is that the software the machine runs on is very bad, it locks up often and needs a reset, it has lost saved programs and library before now. Only this morning it took several restarts just to play a DVD!

It sometimes switches itself off then displays busy until unplugged. The frequency for the remote is very close to Sky so if the sky remote signal has an obstruction and bounces then this can turn off/on the DVD recorder.

I have been in touch with Philips several times and they just don't want to know.

I will never buy another Philips product again, and will only strip this one down to use the HDD in something else.

It's not as others have stated "one for technofobes to stay away from it's for everyone to stay away from. I work with Audio Visual and various technical systems in my daily working life so I'm no technofobe and can't stand the Philips DVD HDD recorder.

In summary buyer be warned, this will break down and Philips won't help.

I have had the Philips DVDR5350 for two years and, until recently, I was very pleased with it. Last month a fault developed with the DVD, it won't open and the message 'blocked' appeared. On enquiring from an authorised Philips service agent, I discovered that no parts are available for this machine. I contacted Philips and they said they would charge me £200 just to look at it. So no customer service available, be warned!

Philips should issue a product recall on all of this model number and offer a full refund to customers who take up the recall.

The product will prevent me ever purchasing another product from Philips.

Anyone who thinks you just plug this in and start recording think again you have to read the manual over and over again .I bought this for £109 and once set up it is excellent value for money.phillips support took five days to answer an e mail I had already resolved the problem before they got back to me. Apart from that excellent

My first review may have been a little unfair as Philips have swapped my unit for another one which (touch wood), seems to work as you would expect it to and is nowhere near as annoying. I may yet learn to like it... Although its no Sky+

The DVDR5350H is absolutely the worst piece of equipment I have ever owned - and Philips customer service are no help either, would not recommend to anyone.

Don't bother with the Philips DVDR5350H recorder. It's a great idea but it completely fails to deliver.

wow - where to start - this recorder is excellent

Truth is, it does a lot, so you gotta learn a lot.

Techno phobes beware.

I was worried about buying this recorder after looking at other reviews here but I'm delighted with it. It does everything i want and more. I usually cant tell if I'm watching a recording or live TV.

Other recorders have reviews of start ups taking ages to happen. Well this recorder has taken no more than 10 seconds to come out of standby or go into any menu. The only long duration (30 seconds) was going to standby with 4 hours of recording still in the buffer that had to be copied to hard drive.

buffer example -

I just sat down and wondered what I had missed for the last 6 hours of tv. Scanning back in the buffer i came upon one of my favorite half hour shows (4 hours ago) that I didn't even know was on. So I'm now watching what i couldn't have watched if there wasn't a 6 hour buffer.

BEWARE: going into stand-by will delete the buffer without warning !

RECORDING

You can look at any part of the buffer (last 6 hours) and set parts of it for recording, and/or record whats on now, and/or record in the future (timer) and it all goes down the buffer. Any parts in the buffer that are recordings get copied to the hard drive.

Simple yet powerful.

In a nutshell, the buffer is a continual 'previous 6 hours' store of viewing - recorded or not. Also, you can cancel any recordings while they are still in the buffer (last 6 hours) and the copy on the hard drive is removed - clear ? maybe not but its simple when its understood.

SETTING UP TIMER RECORDINGS

click the [guide] button to set future recordings from the guide+ menu which is a very colorful version of sky's programme menu.

I setup the host channel (to get guide+) to euro sport, but ITV is also available.

click the [timer] button If guide+ isn't sufficiently downloaded in time to set your program and you get to use Video+ (one big number setup from TV magazines etc) or plain old manual setup (easy if you follow the manual).

click the [guide] or [timer] button again to verify recordings and return to live TV

Stick the recorder in stand-by or leave on and the recordings get done.

If the recordings are from sky or cable or freeview then the relevant receiver will be switched to the right channel and recorded using the g-link adaptor. (this was a must for me recording many different sky channels in the future)

NOTE: the relevant receiver needs to be set up in system menu pressing the [system] key

Editing is great if you read the manual carefully :-

Recordings (titles) can be separated into many recordings (titles) but cannot be joined back together.

Each recording (title) can be divided up into sections (chapters) wherever you want. These sections allow you to jump to parts of a recording immediately with the << and >> keys. Sections can be taken back out again too.

Iv only scratched the surface of things you can do so read the relevant parts of the manual over and over until they are clear.

NOTE: on the first day i was clicking every button like a madman and the menu system started to display missing text. (I even thought at one moment that i had lost all my recordings on the hard drive).

Fear not !

I unplugged the mains and waited for a minute. After restarting, the menu was back to normal and all my recording were still there. Its been stable ever since because i go to relevant sections and back out correctly.

TIP: don't click every button like a madman.

If you want to timer record then go into the timer section by clicking the [timer] button and setup your recordings (check manual) then click [timer] button again to come back to live TV.

If you want to look at the last 6 hours buffer click the [info] button and go surf, and even set areas to record to hard drive (read manual). Press [tuner] button to go back to live TV.

If you want to look at previous recordings on hard drive click the [browser] button and go pick one. [Play] to watch a recording then [stop] to go back to the browser. click [browser] button again to go back to live TV.

NOTE: the time given on the right of a picture in the browser is the length of the recording not the start or end time.

If you want to look at recordings on a DVD disc press the [menu] button (or browser button => disc tray). Watch content then press [stop] to go back to menu. Click [menu] button (or [browser] button) to go back to live TV.

If you want to edit titles and categories click [edit] button in browser menu.

If you want to edit titles chapters and hidden sections click [edit] button while playing a recording.

Always click edit button again to return to previous position (playing or browsing)

MORE STUFF

Record in cam mode and operate your dv camcorder from the recorder remote.

Record straight to dvd discs in cam mode.

Make a library of your dvd discs.

Hide parts of recordings before copying to dvd discs.

Nice looking box that does for terrestrial TV what Sky+ did for satellite.