Philips DVDR3576H DVD Recorder with 160GB Hard Disc and Built-In Tuner

It's my first fo to when I want to record a TV show, etc. PLEASE NOTE that this is not a HIGH DEFINITION RECORDER... Best input=Super Video 480p. If you are happy with that, this is the best on the market. You can freely edit out commercials, etc. before compiling and then burning your DVD. It is a streamlined solution for those who want to save TV series, broadcasts of any kind on its 2 line inputs selectable for RCA Video (480i) + Audio L/R or SuperVIdeo (480p) + audio RCA jack. PLEASE NOTE HOWEVER: Because of the DMCA laws, this unit may NOT record material which is digitally copy-protected. This includes an increasing number of premium channels (HBO, CINEMAX, etc) that are using the HDMI standard 1.4. SO... it would be advisable to consider what you want out of this unit before a purchase. In short, the unit is a veritable workhouse for standard DVD creation on non-protected TV transmissions, working seamlessly through satellite, Cable, and FTAir broadcasts. Just be aware that an increasing number of broadcasters are now copy-protecting their material which will prevent this unit from recording it. On broadcast networks, the CW blocks almost everything... So, Do NOT purchase this is you want to record "Tomorrow People", "Supernatural", "The Originals", "Vampire Diaries" or practically anything on the CW. Eventually, I fear the unit will become obsolete if the current trend continues.... but this machine works flawlessly given Any video material fed into it thru its line inputs without protection (including downloads from your home camera, posted on You Tube, etc.) Bob

I usually stay away from Phillips brand electronics. They're not always the best quality, which is why they are also cheaper. I bought this model because NO ONE else makes DVRs anymore to own and use without a subscription. I have had it for about a month now and it has worked almost perfectly so far. I say "almost" because just before I was asked to write a review by Amazon, it had some kind of system error, which caused it to freeze up. But it was easily fixed by powering it off and restarting. I considered buying a DVD recorder, but needed a lot more capacity for recording TV shows. Two years ago I bought a Pioneer DVD recorder/DVR and it started having electronic malfunctions, so I got this Phillips DVR. They don't call it a DVR, but that's really what it is. I think TIVO and Comcast and the dish people have some sort of stranglehold over the use of DVRs. I wish there were other choices. I would prefer Panasonic over Phillips. The setup didn't seem too hard and, even without a QAM tuner, it picked up all the available digital channels/subchannels on my basic Comcast cable, including all the HD channels that my Sony XBR HDTV gets. Oddly, some of the subchannels are one digit off compared to the TV tuner. Of course, it doesn't have an HD tuner, but it will display HD channels in SDTV in 16:9 wide-screen format if you set it up right. My Pioneer only had an NTSC tuner and couldn't do that. If the original broadcast is 1080i, this unit does a pretty good job with the standard definition display during playback of recorded HD shows. I don't think the playback is upconverted, though. I also got an HDMI cable, but I can't see any difference in the picture quality of recorded shows over those recorded with a component cable. In fact as others have noticed, the HDMI results in a darker picture, which can be corrected by adjusting the TV. I watched some rented DVDs using the HDMI and they looked maybe slightly worse than rented movies on my Pioneer using a component cable. I don't know how they would do using component cables on the Phillips. There are a few design features that need improvement: The hard drive title menu is confusing with the way it's laid out. The thumbnails are arranged horizontally and you have to highlight each one individually to see the info for that show and it is diplayed in the upper left of the screen only. It would be better if they were displayed as a vertical list with the corresponding info next to each thumbnail. You can rename the titles, but it's tedious. The buttons on the remote are unnecessarily small and there are no TV controls--not even for volume. The front display on the unit is also too small. Accessing the proper video mode input on the TV for the HDMI connection is slow because the DVD recorder has to analyze the TV display capability first. All in all this Phillips HDD dvd recorder may prove to be worth the money if it remains reliable, but some design improvements would be nice. UPDATE - 11/29/08: Since I wrote this review, this unit lost a few digital channels that it used to recognize, but this could be caused by Comcast cable somehow. And there is a malfunction when exiting the title menu: It starts playing the last recording listed in the menu without selecting or even highlighting it. [...]. [...] [...] 2. After the digital transition, the clock no longer sets correctly and there is no option to choose a digital channel for the auto/manual clock-set function. When I turned that funcion off and set the clock the old-fanshioned way, it gained one full minute every other day. This makes it almost pointless to set a timer recording event for more than a day or so in the future! Philips/Funai doesn't offer a firmware update for the clock to work with digital channels. [...]. [...].

I read a number of review on this site before purchasing this item. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this unit will record a program and play back a pre-recorded program at the same time. Based on reviews here, I got the impression that it would not do that. I was wrong, it does. Also, I have no problem recording a program and watching another using my digital tv. As I have said in a few other comments, I have it connected to an antenna using a splitter. One side of the splitter feeds the TV and the other feeds this recorder. I don't have the TV out antenna jack on the back of this unit connected to anything. I don't know what results I would get if I did... but the way I wired it, it works fine. Another review said that they are having to zoom even when recording 16:9 content. I hope I can shed a bit of light on this. In the manual, it states very clearly that it records 16:9 content as 4:3, and outputs it as such. For reasons I'm about to explain, I am using both component outputs and HDMI into the same TV. The TV is a Sony HDTV. When using the component inputs, I have to manually stretch the screen when playing back 16:9 content. 4:3 content comes out fine. When using HDMI, 16:9 content is automatically stretched to fit the screen, but then so is 4:3. 4:3 content is distorted by being stretched, and I can't stop it. Therefore, when watching 16:9, I use HDMI, and when watching 4:3, I use the component inputs. A bit annoying, but easy to work around. Another review said that the unit was not intuitive to operate. I disagree. I had mine up and running with almost no contact with the manual. I just read the manual to fill in the details.... which is when I found it can record and playback at the same time, and that the output is always 4:3, no matter what the content (see above). I have not found a signal strength meter for the antenna input. It may have one, but if it does, either I'm missing it or it's well hidden. They are very handy when pointing an antenna. If they forgot it in this unit, it's quite an oversite. In all, I am very pleased with this recorder. My only gripe (beside the signal strength meter) is that there should be more of these on the market. Also, an HD unit would be nice, but given the current price of blue ray players, a recorder of this type would probably cost $700-$1000 in HD. Although this device is SD, if you are happy with the look of a standard DVD, you will probably be happy with this as well.

Looked everywhere for a hard disc drive recorder first because I didn't want to make DVD's for all of the shows we wanted to see. And, I didn't want to pay monthly fees as you have to do with a TIVO. This product was not available in our area at Wal-Mart in March 2009 and was not available at any of the other retailers recommended at the Philips on line shop. So, I had to pay roughly thirty percent more than the original approximately $290 Wal-Mart price at a retailer through Amazon. But must say, the quality of the recordings to the HDD is near high definition. The Philips DVDR3576H with a 160 GB hard disc was easy to set up. The remote is moderately complicated but reading the manual solved most of the questions. I haven't used the recorder on a DVD and eventually will. My unit is set for the highest quality HDD which will allow 32 recording hours. That's all we need because we delete shows after watching them and it is not intended for long term program storage anyway. That's why you would use the DVD recorder. After recording to the hard drive, just push the HDD button and then the title button and each recorded show is previewed in individual squares on the television screen. Highlight the one you want and then press OK to play. We suffered many years VHS recordings, this unit is light years ahead in terms of picture quality. It's truly a beautiful piece of equipment and it's sad Philips has allowed it to be so difficult to buy. In short, this is as good as it gets right now and the unit was well worth the premium I paid.

I've had this for about 2 months. It functions quite adequately as a TiVO, recording to hard drive, letting you replay etc. A bit tedious because (without TiVO's phone-in service) it only titles shows by date & time. It shows you a picture of the "first frame" of each video, but that's useless 'cuz the first frame is (hopefully) in a commercial. My huge problem has been archiving shows onto DVD. The machine believes it's successfully "dubbed" from its hard drive to the DVD drive, but when you go to play the disk in another machine, or work with the files on the DVD using your computer, you find that only one or two (or none) of the several episodes that should be on the disk, actually are usable. I've tried several PC's, and all are able to SEE the files (and I can even use software to copy the files to my PC's hard drive) but those files are mostly unreadable because of an error in the file's format. Other DVD machines can similarly read one or two of the 4-6 episodes they should be able to read. I have tried different disks (DVD-RW, dvd-R, DVD+R), I've tried different recording speeds (the Philips offers several resolutions for saving to its hard drive, and you can also shrink further when copying onto DVD). If you don't shrink further, and you don't ask for too much to be recorded onto a DVD, it can record in "high speed" mode, and this, too, doesn't help at all with the above formatting problem. The Philips service people thought I might be trying to record TV shows that are marked with a "record once" signal, but that doesn't fit the symptoms I've experienced... I've been trying to diagnose this ever since I got the machine. I notice, for example, that it tends to be larger files (e.g. 1/2 hour episode recorded as a 1-gig file) that can't be read later... I also note that my PC reads the DVD-R or DVD+R or DVD-RW and calls it a CD, not a DVD, under the "My Computer" window, so perhaps there's some true formatting error that the software engineers made, which makes the DVD appear to be a CD to the computer (and hence it only sees the first file or the smallest file?) Further FYI, the manual is very poorly written. I'd suggest you sit down for an hour and read it... and re-read it, and try to organize the information in your head in a more sensible fashion. For example, you MUST close off a disk by "Finalizing" it before another machine can read it, but you'd probably not figure that out so easily from reading the manual --- it gives no "overview" of how the system works, etc., just launches you right into the details. However, calling the Philips USA company is a pleasure; their phone is on the website, and their service people are careful listeners, are clearly within the U.S., and truly do their best to help. In this case, as I write this, there seems to be no software update yet for this machine, but I hope that as a result of my open ticket or other tickets, that they will eventually explore the problem and resolve it. Other notes about using this item: it is quite slow in everything it does. For example, you can't press the "channel up" button 5 times and have it skip up 5 channels; it'll skip up one channel, wait a few seconds until it "registers" that channel, and only then can you skip up to the next channel. The "on" and "off" functions take a long time. If you schedule a show to record, the machine needs a few minutes before and after to "get ready" (So be very careful if you want to record 2 shows on 2 stations one right after another! I don't know whether it'll cut off the start of the second show, or just not record it -- I haven't tried that little experiment yet, sorry.) The remote doesn't have quite all the buttons and functions my DVD player has, for example the ability to turn on subtitles, things like that. And its slooowness. So, I keep my regular DVD around, and only use this DVR as a time-shifting machine. To do this, either your TV needs lots of plug-in ports, or you'll have to buy a video selector switch (I bought the Sony SB-V31G Game and Video Selector because it doesn't need to be plugged in all the time, but it's a bit hard to turn the dial; still, a usable one.) I would definitely get a video selector switch, since this DVR will blast out its signal whenever it turns to begin recording, so that'll probably screw up your signal unless you can explicitly shut off the signal before it reaches your TV, i.e. with a signal switch. That reminds me... this device can only deal with one program at a time. You cannot record one show and tune another through this box. If you want to copy something from hard drive to the DVD drive, and the box must change its resolution to do so, then that occupies the whole box -- it can't play or record anything, and so your box can be out of service for 3 hours... In other words, virtually any function this box does, occupies its entire "brain" and don't expect anything else from it simultaneously; watching, recording, "dubbing" from hard drive to DVD, etc. Note, that while TiVO will let you say things like "record all episodes of Star Trek" or "record anything that includes Candace Bergen", this device will not let you do that. But, you can tell it "record every monday from 10 to 11 pm, channel 7-1, in low resolution" or "record every day" or "record all weekdays"... rather nice capabilities for choosing the time / dates to record. And, the 160 GB disk can give you easily 100 hours of recorded time (lower resolution, more!) As to it's high-def capabilities, I'll leave that to others, as I'm still on old klunky TV. Its tuner is excellent! It does a little better than the stand-alone boxes I bought as converter boxes for my TV. And, I'm about 45 minutes' drive away from New York City, so my digital signals are right "on the edge"... i.e. I'm in a good position to evaluate the tuner here. So in summary: It's SLOW and you'll probably want this to SUPPLEMENT your current DVD player rather than replace it. It's fine as a TiVO, perhaps not as functional but over the years this will end up MUCH cheaper. But, if you want to record onto a hard drive and then to DVDs, beware, this is NOT a good model... and as I write this there is no alternative on the market!

The player plays ok, has a fair number of features. I bought this unit to record shows when I am not around. Recordings are also ok but the unit does not stay on the channel you are recording so more often than not you do not record the show you want.

I have owned this product for about a month. The 160GB Hard drive is fantastic! Set it & let it go. No old school VHS tapes to deal with or wonder if there is enough tape to catch all of a show. The menu clearly shows how much recording time is available on the hard drive, based on recording quality. I keep mine set to HQ & so far I have not found a need to fill up the 30+ hours this setting provides. This works great as a poor man's Tivo.(no monthly fees!!) The upconverting DVD player works well. I have yet to try the DVD recording functions. The one quibble I have with this unit is the tuner. As mentioned above I wanted a poor mans Tivo, something with a built in digital tuner to record over the air digital TV. This serves that purpose. Be very clear that is a SDTV tuner...which means not a true full HiDef tuner as in an HDTV. It does receive the digital OTA stations here in DFW without a problem (have a Philips amplified antenna & reception is great 20+ miles from the broadcasting towers).) The quality of the tuner is what I am not pleased with. It is very clearly a SD tuner. The contrast between the HDTV tuner in my Samsung LCD & the SDTV tuner in this unit is pronounced. The SDTV tuner has a softer, less focused picture. I dont understand why Philips went with a SDTV tuner versus a full HDTV tuner in this unit. A full HDTV tuner would kick this bad boy up to 5 stars in my book. A couple other reviews mention that the unit will turn itself on & off sometimes. Mine does, twice a day. At Noon & Midnight. I speculate that this is an auto-update function for the EPG & time settings. A few reviews have mentioned noise. Yes, this unit is definitely louder that a standard DVD player & certainly louder than the hard drive in a personal computer. However I do not find it bothersome or distracting. Overall I am pleased with this purchase. I just wish the tuner was true HD.

I am one of the few who still is recording TV programs but not on cable, satellite or other. Just good old fashioned free TV over the airwaves. Since all broadcasts will be digital in Feb of 09, I needed a new Digital video recorder with a digital tuner built in. I also wanted to be able to record, TIVO style, hours of programs without having to worry about a DVD filling up after 8 hours. This is the only recorder that I found that did not require a monthly or annual fee for a service for programming the recorder such as Tivo or Dishnet. After I figured out how to hook it up, not too difficult, i found that it works well. It plays DVDs and it records programs in digital format to a harddrive. It does not record in hi def, but i knew that going in and am quite satisfied with the recording quality. You can transfer programs from the hard drive to DVD if you want and do some editing. I have only had mine for a month, so I havent worked with all the features, but for recording programs and playing them back at my convenience, it works better than the previous DVR recorder i owned. When you want to find the recorded program, you can choose from a list by dated recorded or you can actually watch a small video of the recorded program as an icon and I can actually Identify my programs on sight. I bought it refurbished which has a 30 day warranty, but i gambled to save about $100.00. I may find out that was a poor choice when it has to be repaired but most electronics are only warranted for a year and I like my chances for it to go at least a year since it is refurbished. It is the same size as my previous DVR and it looks brand new. In fact I see no tell tale signs that it is refurbished.