Philips DVDR5500

We had nothing but problems with this from day 1, it was replaced once. The 2nd one had a software upgrade and it still had problems. Kept saying "Disc error" whilst trying to record. It was Ok playing a new DVD that we brought, but try to record anything was a dead loss. I have now been told the laser has gone and its beyond economic repair!! Dont touch it, nothing but agro.

Philips make good TV's but if you buy a DVD Recorder from them expect a host of software problems. My DVDR remote badly effects my Philips 47" TV and try's to turn it over. They are 100% incompatable and right now i'm trying to upgrade the firmware on my DVD Recorder its taking forever,or it won't wake up.! I'm am aware you pay nuts and get nuts and yes you've guessed i got a duff one. Its also very very difficult to use especially for those over the age of 50.

Hard to think of any... clumsy, awkward and unco-operative. I do not recommend the Philips DVDR5500. System used does not allow erasure of unwanted recording on dvd-rw discs but instead offers to hide them so space can not be recovered.

Website software update download page not functioning. I do not recommend Philips DVDR5500.

This is now my fourth replacement of the Philips DVDR5500, it is by far the worst product I have ever bought, Philips customer care very unhelpful, in fact they basically did not believe me when I told them of all the problems and they were unaware of anyone else experiencing problems.

Would not recommend the Philips DVDR5500 to anyone, if you buy this recorder lets hope you will not be frustrated and have many regrets like I have. This is an unbiased review as I actually like philips products. Their T.V's are excellent and trouble free and I would definately recommend them but they have let their customers down with this one. And through my own experience and feeedback from others they are in denial about their recorders. Steer clear!!!!!!!!!!!

The Philips DVDR5500 is very slow to react to inputs from remote. Keeps freezing, and have to unplug to kick into life. Has been returned to Phillips twice, first time came back with same faults, second time was replaced but similar problems with new machine! Purchased as a gift. Going to try to get a refund!

Intuitive to use. Quality product.

Manual well written in "English" i.e., not directly translated from Korean or other.

For the price, the DVDR5500 actually offers a lot of options and capability. Some may say it is a shame that it does not have a built in hard drive, but there are more expensive versions, of this model, that do (certain Philips PVRs). Since I am not interested in having a PVR, this model turned out to be near perfect, for me.