Two bugs I've found in the 7250 firmware, at least up to LR1F anyway.....

BUG1: When writing DVDs that have been recorded from a 16:9 widescreen source, although these play back correctly on the 7250 on a 4:3 TV set to letterbox mode, on other DVD players there is no letterboxing. I've inspected the program stream and it's because the 7250 whilst marking them correctly as 16:9 in the .IFO files, does not set the video format to 16:9 as it should in the .VOB files - it leaves the video showing as 4:3 which is not to the DVD standard.

BUG2: The option to 'resume' on the setup menu is ignored. Programs are always being resumed where they were last played, meaning the only way to re-play a movie from the start is to go back through it manually.

Have reported these to Philips and got the very unhelpful reply of:

"With regards to your query we can advise that we appreciate your feedback for some issues you have encountered with the DVDR7250H. We can confirm however the DVDR7250H has been withdrawn from the UK market - It has been replaced with the DVDR7260H that is due for release after Christmas.

The 2 problems you have raised in your previous email will be investigated internally. If we decide it is appropriate for an upgrade to be produced to solve these problems we will go ahead and compose one.

At this moment in time, the only available version of software is the one which has been installed on your machine – This would have been implemented in production. Currently we have no plans to release another version. If we do, we will send you the link to download it.

We trust that the information provided will be of assistance."

NOT!

I see Philips are as helpful as ever!

If Philips are still using the DVD_VR recording format like my HDRW720, then the first problem you describe is not exactly a bug, but as a result of the recording format.

The advantage of DVD_VR is that as the aspect ratio is encoded into the files, multiple aspect ratios can be recorded onto a single disc - unlike the DVD Video standard which is fixed to a single aspect ratio per disc. The downside is that many (but not all) DVD players are not compatible with the VR format and tend to display the whole disc in 4:3.

If I want to make discs from the Philips which will correctly pan/scan or letterbox (per the DVD player setup), I extract the files from the DVD_VR disc on the PC with TMPG Author, and then use IFOEdit to set the aspect to 16:9 with auto PS and auto LB, before re-burning onto a DVDR.

As for the resume issue, I have 'Auto Resume' in the setup menu set to ON, and find that after selecting a recording from the recording list, pressing 'OK' will start the recording from the beginning, whilst pressing 'PLAY' will start the recording from the last played point.

If yours works differently to this, then it definitely is a bug.

Hope this helps.
Last edited by sparky_paul : 15-11-2006 at 10:12

I've had both machines and i can share a few differences, particular where Philips have taken backward steps


- AUTO RESUME

On HDRW720 you simply press 'Play' to resume or 'OK' to start over, perfik, doesn't require any 'modes' so why change it?

- Accessing the HD/DVDR

On Hdrw720 this was near instantanious - on 7000 series there is a sizable delay "Busy" display and you sometimes wonder whether it's crashed



+/- HD MENU

+7000 uses same menu to access HD/DVD & Disc Manager

- it doesn't remember your last menu route so you have to navigate (4/5 button presses including selecting the sort order) just to get to HD selection - that's a pain - it should at least remember which sort order you chose last time



- NAVIGATING ON 7000 IS PANTS (compared to 700)

+700 simply press "uP" to goto start of current programme (press it again to goto beginning of next)

-7000 can't goto the beginning of a programme without first opening the info screen - GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!

+700 simply press 'DOWN' to go back to live TV

-7000 Can't 'navigate back to live TV at ALL! - e.g. if you press 5 mins forward and there your viewing only 3 mins behind live TV, the programme pointer just sits there laughing at you - DOUBLE GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!

- 7000 only route back to live TV is press "Tuner" button, which is fine if you happen to know your not live, because if you are it of course changes the tuner (crapping all over your recording) - TRIPLE GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

+700 simply press "LEFT" during pause for "frame retreat" (Right for frame advance)

-7000 NOT AVAILABLE - Left, Right does the same (shifts few mins) whether paused or not - makes it totally impossible to edit with any kind of accuracy

+700 Press "UP" in edit mode to zoom the time bar (super accurate editing)

-7000 NOT AVAILABLE

+700 Press 'Yellow' to choose your own Thumbnail

-7000 NOT AVAILABLE

+700 had a simple 4 (Red, Blue, Yellow & Green) button edit facilities to add chapters, divide, hide/show chapters

-7000 has two menus covering exactly same functions (no extras folks) - which you assume is to make it easier but due to navigation limits in fact it's totally impossible to UNHIDE a chapter you've HIDDEN (much more likely on 7000 since you cant hide exactly what you want) - only way is to remove alllllllllllll chapters and start over



- Burn Light

+720 has a seperate warning light when burning a DVD, this was a very deep red glow 'eminating' from around the drive bay door that looked like the gates of hell. I thought this was really neat. The devil himself wouldn't dare open the drive bay while it was burning.

-7000 has replaced this by using the existing red Record light - this is not early as cool and not even as informative since it's possible to record and burn at the same - what's it telling you - nuttin?


+ Of course the 7000 series has benefits over 700 but that's not why i'm posting

IN SUMMARY

Philips could fix these issues in minutes but it's pretty evident that the only reason Philips adopt any form of update service is merely a lip service. Models are superceded before they land in the shop so they have no interest (and no intention) of supporting any machines already in use because Philips can legitimately describe them as out-of-date


.

TIME-SLIP

+700 if you're watching time-slip (buffer) and switch to view the guide (or HD, whatever), provided you exit the guide by press 'guide' again (or 'hdd' to exit hdd) it resumes watching from the same position you left off

-7000 RESUME NOT SUPPORTED - if you're watching time-slip and need to view anything else it just dumps your position so you have to navigate the 6 hour buffer back to where (you think) you were

'TITLED' RECORDINGS

+700 'titles' all recording in the buffer (making program navigation simple)

-7000 only 'titles' recording made from internal tuner (it titles them on the HD)

Thanks for the heads up, I was considering a DVDR7250 as a replacement for my HDRW720 - as you say, the new machine does have advantages over the 720, particularly DL and 5.1 recording.

However, after your very useful comparisons above, I think I will be sticking with the 720...

DVDR7250 actaully has power supply issues - every couple days mine died and wouldn't power up until i disconected form everything and left it half an hour - then it would power up and then i had to plug it all back in + built-in digi tuner was great (it supported all extra features of built-in analogue tuner)
- i sent it back but apparently it is an issue with 7250

i eventually bought DVDR5350H (currys/pcworld knocking out for half price £199, considering i got £120 for my 2 year old 720 on ebay it weren't bad trade )

5350 same spec as 7250 but no Digi tuner (but i use NTL anyway) & no 5.1 recording but my main reasons for trading up are:

+ EPG search 'My TV' facilities
+160 gig drive
+ 25 programming slots
+ Dual Layer recording
+ Progressive scan (albeit i haven't tried this yet)

I did like the digi tuner and in view of all the backward steps with this series I am tempted to trade yet again and get the new 7260 (the only new machine that incls GUIDE+ which is a 'must' for me)

P.S.

GUIDE+ SEARCH

+700 Searching OTHER (main catagories) for ALL (sub-catagories) finds OTHER>ALL (by definition everything that's not a film) +60 plus pages of progs per day on NTL. I often used this to find what's on next irrespective of channel

-7000 Searching OTHER>ALL finds 5 or 6 pages of progs (less than 10% of progs actually on). I have only used this search combo so i think it's safe to assume none of the their other search facilities work either

Isn't this stuff illegal? If it isn't it should be