The machine is not a DVD recorder, it will only play DVDs and records to a hard disk (like Sky+). Certainly would not be worth £600 and debatable at £225.

The Panasonic DMR-HS2 is a DVD recorder with hard disk and they are available for around £600.

thanks for the quick response AI W.
The whole PVR market is getting very confusing at the moment, I was decided upon Toshiba's RD-XS30 until i started reading up on other brands, wish I never had as I am now completely confused. Main models i am looking at are Tosh has HD/Timeslipping but no EPG - format and no component connections, Panny E60 no HD but does timeslipping, no EPG and -format, and Philips DVDR80 no HD or timeslipping but has EPG and +format arrrgghh.
That is as far as i can work out, if im wrong about any of those please let me know. This new AKI looked appealing because it has a built in DTS decoder.
Anyone know of a machine coming out soon that's going to be the daddy of them all?

I'd like one thats +RW and has DVDA. Any chance?

You will have more chance of a reply to this if you post a separate topic for it in this forum. Not everyone looks at this Phillips thread.

Yea i figured that too but unfortunately, being a newbie on the forum, I am not allowed to start new threads, I can only reply to existing ones.
This seemed to have quite a few people in it so I figured id take my chances
Is there an existing thread talking about new and upcoming PVR products?
Or if a very kind soul would post the question up as a new thread for me I would be greatly appreciative

I Sent my phillips recorder back to the shop i bought it from and they kept it for 6 weeks brought it back said they had sorted the problem(non playing of dvd discs and ruining dvd recordables when recording).they hadnt fixed anything and it went back two weeks ago if it comes back still not working i want a new recorder

I'd have demanded that after the first repair failure.

Demand a refund and buy a DVDR70, or just insist that they swap if for one for you. You've had over 6 weeks without the box, it's the least they can do.

--Loob.

I will have to see what they say,after all i told them about this forum and the other dvd+rw forums on the web and how other owners have had the same problem,with the player just being a £300 paperweight,and they admitted it isnt fair to me as i have been a good customer over the years and it shouldnt do that,i bought it thinking that it would be a good replacement for my video recorder but at least my video records,plays and generally does anything

Hi, I just thought I'd update you with my DVDR980 problem.

To recap, it was 14 months old and hence outside of the warranty period. The vendors told me there was nothing they could now do about it but a post on this forum confirms this is simply not the case under consumer law.

Nevertheless, I wrote to Philips and they wrote back asking me to send the model into them, which I did. That was about four weeks ago - I've not heard anything since then.

Will keep you posted....

My 880 lasted about 4 months until it went back to Philips for a firmware update that has been fine.Luckily,with it being away for 4 weeks,the shop I bought it from lent me one.
Re:format war-the DVD+R format is still an unofficial format not supported by the DVD FORUM.So you would imagine that with -R being as compatible(as posted earlier on this thread),the major companies would ignore +R,after all,its not needed because -R does the job.So why do Pioneer(the main-R company) now support the format on their rewriters,Sony's recorder does both,Microsoft support+R,Hewlett Packard do a +R only rewriter and ALL the budget recorders on the way to the supermarkets are +R.Not bad for an unofficial format.RAM is superior technically,but when it comes to standard tv recording its dead already

The fact that DVD+R is not supported by the DVD Forum means nothing. This is just a point trotted out by die-hard supporters of the minus format, as they have nothing else with which to try and convince people that minus is better.

The DVD Forum is a group of companies that came together to form a standard for recordable DVD. So what's the DVD+RW Alliance then? A group of companies that came together to form a standard for recordable DVD. So why is one "official" and one not? Because it was formed earlier? Just because a format is not supported by a bunch of people who set an earlier standard, means nothing. The "plus" format addresses some of the things that were sadly ommited from the "minus" specification. It is a technically superior format, giving better editing functions and allowing for better PC/CE convergence.

This is why, despite "minus" having an 18-month headstart, that "plus" is now taking over the marketplace (yes, "minus" still has a large market share, but only because of this headstart, it has a large already installed user base) and 70-80% of new sales worldwide are units supporting the plus format.

PC drives and CE recorders are as cheap or cheaper than their minus counterparts, and major branded media prices are now equivalent or cheaper also. Sure you can get dirt cheap -R media, but how good is it? I am constantly hearing about 4x -R disks that only burn at 2x, or that don't play properly after burning.

It's a shame that they didn't design RAM to be more compatible, because it's by far the best format for editing and rewriting. But it will never be the widely used format it could have been because you need a Panny to play it.

I'm not sure that there will be a winner in the format war, but if there is, you can bet your house it will be plus.

--Loob.

The big bonus for me is that the ;plus; format is intended for dvd-video compatibility from the outset. It seems that the 'minus' format added it as an after thought. In fact you have to set a 'minus' dvd to video format before you start using it. With 'plus' recorders you just take them out and use them.

Of course I could have been reading the hype material that came with my +RW recorder They work with my DVD player though so I'm happy.

Just to let you know.

To recap, my DVDR980 (Philips) broke after 14 months with similar symptoms to that discussed earlier in this thread.

I wrote to Philips and they asked me to send it in. They sent it back, fully repaired on Monday (about 3 weeks later). No charge (apart from postage to send it to them) and no covering letter.

I'm glad it is sorted!

From test results it would seem write once -R discs are as compatible as +R.But +RW is still the only disc you can record on,play in another player,then return to the recorder for deleting or more recording.-RW has to be set to "video" mode for compatibility.If its recorded in VR mode,compatibility is on par with RAM-ie. zero.

I have a Philips 880 and all the problems in this thread is exactly what i have. Does anyone have an email or postal address of who i can contact to get it fixed as it is out of the warrenty. I am from the uk.

Thanks in advance.

If anyone could email me at paullas@laskos.com i would really appreciated it.

Laskos

If the player is less than a year old return to your dealer.If its more,you are lucky it lasted that long.Go to the Philips site and ask for customer support

Phone them on: 0870 900 9070 or write to them:

Help Desk
6th Floor
The Philips Centre
420/430 London Road
Croydon
Surrey
CR9 3QR

Does anyone know what Philips does to the recorders to fix them and if this fix is likely to be permanent?

- John
www.xiddi.com

Units manufactured before a certain date are fitted with what is known as the "first generation" optical assembly. When repairs for disk errors or the "no disk" problem are undertaken, usually these are replaced with the "second generation" optics, as well as having the latest firmware applied.

So far, most of these repaired units are doing very well indeed as far as reliability is concerned, as far as I can tell.

--Loob.

i got my phillips dvdr 880 back from being repaired today,it had been sent back to phillips to be repaired so perhaps they have done what loobster said,i hope that finally sorts everything out,i have had it nearly twelve months but it had been repaired twice and took 16 weeks altogether

I hope you got your warranty extended by the amount of time that it has not been in your possession!

If it fails again demand a part-refund, which should be enough to buy a shiny new DVDR70. Or if you bought it from a decent retailer they may just swap it for you.

Hopefully though they should have fixed it by now...having two bites at the cherry!

--Loob.

its covered for another 2 years but hopefully it wont need it again

Don't rely on the DVDR70 being any better than the problems associated with some of the philips dVDR880 machines. I had a DVDR70 brand new for one day only-it wouldn;t record on ANY Philips/ Sony DVDRW disc so went straight back to Curry's the next day.

So you are basing your opinion of an entire product line on one day's worth of experiences with one machine? That's sensible.

--Loob.

If a DVD recorder will not record on ANY disc whatsoever, how long would you expect someone to hold on to an obviosly faulty product Loobster?
Would you hang on to a tv that produced no picture?
I don't think so! So please start making sensible replies.

I think his point is that one defective unit does not mean that they are ALL defective.


However, I can't say that I've heard great things about this unit.