According to e-bowl.co.uk the DVDR7250h, the replacement for the ill fated DVDR7300H/05, is mere weeks away:

Assuming that's April 2006 !

As for features.... well it's got a certificate already from the IECEE. That's nice then.
Last edited by AlcAm : 23-02-2006 at 18:33

The phrase "Here we go again" springs to mind.

The box seems to have arrived in a few people's laps with some reviews being posted on other threads, so I thought I'd xref them into this 7250 thread I created oh so long ago :

review/info by AshleyH and Damian Arstall (posted 21 May 2006)

Hi,

If anyone has been following the previous threads, kindly linked here by AlcAm, then you may be aware of a 5.1 recording issue with this HDD/DVDR.

I'm currently trying to see if PCM or AC3 5.1 recordings made on a DVD+R DL will play back on another DVD player. The current issue is that any 5.1 or PCM recordings (the unit normally just makes Dolby 2.0 recordings without the digital input) will only playback correctly on the Philips. On any other player there is only one audio track to select which is Dolby 2.0.

I was also hoping to fit both Dr Who Confidentials (recorded in 2hr mode) and both Cybermen episodes (recorded in 1hr mode) on a +R DL disc but its 2 mins too short!!! How annoying.

Anyway, I doubt this will work and examining the disc on a PC doesn't seem to allow you to find the 5.1 track either so its hidden somewhere.

I found this FAQ for the DVDR9000H and strangely its mentioned on there but not on the FAQ for the DVDR7250H ( http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/d...D_RECORDERS_SU )

As I paid the extra for this feature and use a £1500 upscaling Marantz Universal DVD player for playback its gonna go back.

It seems a real shame as the unit itself isn't that bad. It's a bit clunky in areas but does most things above par.

This quirk reminds me of the DVDR70 I had. You could edit or hide chapters out of a DVD+R disc but when that was played on any other player it didn't skip them.

Oh well! It can go back to Comet and I'll watch this one whilst waiting for the Pioneer DVR540HX-S to come in stock somewhere.

Nope! Recording to DVD+R makes no difference.

Bearing in mind that the Philips is currently the only machine to make any form of 5.1 audio recording, what is there to be gained from swapping it for a Pioneer 540 when it arrives?

I guess it's a personal thing, but I think I would prefer to be able to have some means of archiving in 5.1 from Sky+, even if it is only replayable on the Philips machine. The Philips does also have a component output which should give pretty good playback quality.

I've just read the FAQs for the DVDR9000H, and I'm guessing that there is some sort of copy protection system to pacify the film studios. I guess this has been carried over to the DVDR7250H. There is no mention in the machines manual of not being able to replay 5.1 recordings on other players.

I have not yet tried this for myself, though it seems Damian has now exhausted all possibilities. Still don't see it as a show stopper for me though. Something is better than nothing...

Well apart from the "5.1" recording that the Philips offers the Pioneer is £60 cheaper online and does more as well (DVD-R DL, DVD-Ram, Divx and better recording modes) as being more flexible.

I bought it specifically for the 5.1 so it was really annoying when it wasn't implemented correctly.

If I was using this as a main unit it would'nt bother me but I'm not.

Oh well. Comet took it back with no problems. Guess I'll do a bit more research.

I've recently purchased a DVDR 7250H to complement the purchase of a Phillips 32" HD LCD TV (Model 32PF5420).

The intention was to purchase both from Plumbs here in the North West, but I was informed by the store manager that there had been a product recall of the recorder, stating some sort of lock out problem.

However, perhaps against better judgement, I purchase the same model from Currys Digital (aka Dixons). I mentioned the product recall to the lad dealing with my purchase in Currys Digital. He had no knowledge of it, but told me to return it under the 12 month warranty if there were problems.

Evidently there are problems and I shall be returning it. The problem I have is that the model powers down, the aerial and scart loop throughs go down and the recorder doesn't respond i.e. locks out.

It seems he only way I can get it back is to disconnect the product for a few minutes and it will fire up again. This made me think that the lock out was down to the recorder taking software updates.

When it was working, though, I realised it recorded in a different way to non-HDD recorders where recordings go to the the hard drive first before you copy to DVD disc - handy for if you have bad DVD disc and then you haven't lost the chance to re-copy recordings.

I'm hoping that a replacement with the same or similar model is quickly forthcoming.

I also own Philips 32PF7520D 32" LCD TV and already bought Pioneer DVR540HX-S - it still great dvd recorder also auto-update for latest software and extra channels

Philips DVD recorder still very poor as it not great only good with LCD TV -- Pioneer has great with hdd/dvd recorder - I bought Pioneer DVR540HX on www.totaldigital.biz for £358 inc delivery.

Problems with a Philips dvd recorder?
Well I never!!

Its been well documented on thsi forum,every other forum and all over the web about problematic Philips recorders.
They ALL go wrong.
They now seemed to have them working for between 6 months and a year before they went tits up,and you are unlucky,but if you want to be clever,take this opportunity to change from the Philips to a make like Pioneer/Panasonic etc.
Unless you are desperate for 5.1 recording that does not really work properly,change make.
The movies on Sky in 5.1 can be picked up for under a tenner ,usually under £6 on dvd by the time Sky show them.
So is it worth the hassle?

Yep get a Pioneer. The DVR540HX-S I got from A J Electronics simply blows the Philips out of the water in every way possible!