My Philips 890 DVD recorder is now 3 years old now and has already been repaired under its warranty, and it needs repairing again (gosh what a surprise).

I tended to use it for recording only and played back on an old Pioneer player otherwise it wouldn't have lasted this long!!!

I took it to a repairs service who I always use and trust for all my repairs, they service a whole manner of professional and domestic electronic equipment, Philips refused to supply them with the spare parts (ie: the laser assembly).

Does anyone know how much the repair costs are from a Philips approved service dealer and indeed is it worth repairing at all, any experience anyone?

How long after its first repair did it take to go wrong? All repairs are further guaranteed and Philips still have an obligation to make the machine good even after that. It's your statutory rights, since you would expect a DVDR to last more than 3 years.

My 880 has been repaired twice; try this approach and explain what's happened.

Thanks for your reply Musukebba.

It's been over two years since it was repaired under warranty (and was away for six or so weeks!), which is the reason I haven't returned it back to the supplier, sorry, I should have stated that in my first post.

You could always try ServiceCare for a FOC repair. If not, they'll probably give you an idea of where to get it done (if not them), and how much it will cost, even not under guarantee.

Hi there

Could you tell me what is wrong with it? What the symtoms are?
Last edited by Dave WWW : 13-12-2005 at 15:52

In direct answer to the question in the thread title,I would say "more than its worth".
Unless you can blag a free repair,cut your losses and buy a decent reliable make

Thanks for all the messages, the problem with it are as with all other postings regarding Philips 880's & 890's ie: not reading discs, recording a programme and on ending the disc is "empty", editing titles etc corrupts the disc etc etc etc.... I'm in the mind of Mongosito.

Thanks again for all the replys.

Hi again

I have a Philips 890 and mine started to do strange things recently. Bear in mind I have burnt quite a few discs all on +RW and apart from the timer being a bit unpredictable, I have been quite happy.

First sign of a problem was an occasional sound drop out; being a bit of a perfectionist this would drive me mad. While I was pondering my next move, the Philips menu flashed a few times and it was telling me I had no disc in it, although there was one.

I had the latest firmware so I could not upgrade. Something made me want to change the firmware, the menu flashing I think. As I could not go up, thought I would revert to an older version.

Went down to ff12r same problem, beginning to think the laser/machine was totally knackered. Then I brought the machine back from the dead by using an even older version ff11h.

I have burnt 10 discs with no problems; of course it could be a fluke, but touch wood it’s still going.

Interesting solution. Let us know how it goes.