Mine remains in whatever it 'state" it was in when the recording began. If it was On, then it stays On, if it was Off, then it turns Off at the end.

I've just hooked up my 3455 and wow, is it primitive compared to my RD-XS32!

...and I don't like the remote - the buttons are difficult to press and I DON'T have fat fingers(!)

First impressions of picture quality are satisfactory.

I have had mine for only 2 days now and i still have a lot to learn as this all new to me with this unit being our first DVD Recorder. I have found the remote control has a very narrow bandwidth and needs to be pointed fairly straight on which is a bit of a pain if your sitting on a angle from the unit. This time buffer stuff is still a bit confusing to me as is the buffer line thingy on the screen, i just have to play around and learn as i go like anything new.
Very interesting comments so far in this thread, a mixture of good and bad for this unit. I may post some questions in here if you don't mind as i will soon become frustrated trying to understand this new toy.

Hi all. I just bought a DVDR3455H/37 on sale last weekend and am experiencing all the love/hate aspects of the machine that have been mentioned previously on this forum.

A question I have is: Is it O.K. to hook up two video outputs (e.g. Component and S-Video) at the same time and send them to two differnt destinations? Is this o.k. for the internal electronic components of the DVDR? or is this a no-no?

Thanks,
falcon1987

peter, it is a huge thread,but if you can find time to read/scan it, there is a wealth of information. As to the remote, it might be possible to improve it by replacing the factory LED with a stronger one from Radio Shack like they did with the Polaroid remote. I have been ok with my remote so I haven't tried it.

As far as hooking up multiple outputs I don't see how it could hurt, but I haven't tried it myself.

peter, it is a huge thread,but if you can find time to read/scan it, there is a wealth of information. As to the remote, it might be possible to improve it by replacing the factory LED with a stronger one from Radio Shack like they did with the Polaroid remote. I have been ok with my remote so I haven't tried it.


Thanks for the reply FullOn, i will keep that tip about the LED in the back of my head. Always a wealth of information with forums like this thats for sure, i will read through from start of thread and potter along and keep posting so i can keep up with all. ;)

Hi all. I just bought a DVDR3455H/37 on sale last weekend and am experiencing all the love/hate aspects of the machine that have been mentioned previously on this forum.

A question I have is: Is it O.K. to hook up two video outputs (e.g. Component and S-Video) at the same time and send them to two differnt destinations? Is this o.k. for the internal electronic components of the DVDR? or is this a no-no?

Thanks,
falcon1987
Hook up as many outputs as you need...designed for that, no problem at all.

Thanks for everybody's feedback. I did hook up two outputs - 1 component and 1 s-video. The one catch is that if you turn progressive scan mode on, the s-video out gets all screwed up (even tho the composite destination is fine).

Thanks,
falcon1987

Thanks for everybody's feedback. I did hook up two outputs - 1 component and 1 s-video. The one catch is that if you turn progressive scan mode on, the s-video out gets all screwed up (even tho the composite destination is fine).

Thanks,
falcon1987
Your right, only Component and HDMI are designed for progressive signals. Sorry, should have mentioned that.

Before we got this unit we had the vcr only hooked up and i had the outout from the vcr going to a 4 way vidio splitter (Kingray SA214V) split to the bedrooms, worked well with no dramas, now that i have the Philips DVDR hooked up in place of the vcr and the output going into the splitter same as the vcr did, i can't find an output signal anywhere in all three bands (VHFL, VHFH and UHF.). Is there a output frequency or is there not?? it dosn't state anything in the book and i cant find any signal tunning the tv in the bedrooms. Any ideas???

I have read so many posts i cant remember if i came across this question:: When i burn a AVI (DivX) onto a DVD-RW which we can play back in a DVD/DVDR player which supports this format as does this Philips Recorder, can i copy from the re-writable disc to the hard disc on this machine or is this not possible.??

I just picked up one of these and found it wouldn't talk to my Sharp LC-26SH12U over the HDMI interface. So I took it over to my older Sony tube-type HDTV and it worked just fine over the Sony's HDMI interface.

Additional clue: When I push the "HDMI" button on the remote, for the Sony it correctly cycles through 480p, 720p, etc. But when it's hooked up to the Sharp, pushing the HDMI button results in nothing at all.

Any suggestions? I'd really rather have it hooked up to the Sharp than the Sony.

I just picked up one of these and found it wouldn't talk to my Sharp LC-26SH12U over the HDMI interface. So I took it over to my older Sony tube-type HDTV and it worked just fine over the Sony's HDMI interface.

Additional clue: When I push the "HDMI" button on the remote, for the Sony it correctly cycles through 480p, 720p, etc. But when it's hooked up to the Sharp, pushing the HDMI button results in nothing at all.

Any suggestions? I'd really rather have it hooked up to the Sharp than the Sony.
I've read of problems like this and one solution was turning on units in the "correct" order, like new drives on a computer. Try turning on the Philips first, then the Sharp...also make sure both units are off when you connect the HDMI cable?

If that turn-on order doesn't help, try the reverse order????

I've read of problems like this and one solution was turning on units in the "correct" order, like new drives on a computer. Try turning on the Philips first, then the Sharp...also make sure both units are off when you connect the HDMI cable?

If that turn-on order doesn't help, try the reverse order????

Thanks . . . it worked after I tried that. :D

In fact, it might have been working all along. For whatever reason, the Sharp TV takes a long time to recognize the Phillips HDMI on its Input 4. Yesterday, I think I was shifting away from Input 4 before that happened. But in any event, everything is working now, and very nicely.

Has anyone found a good replacement for the dvd writer in this unit?

After a year-and-a-half of loyal, if quirky, service, the dvdr drive in mine self destructed. At the moment, I've got an IDE cable running out the front of the machine to a Lite-On internal type drive from a PC. It functions fine, but it's not a pretty piece of equipment any more. The internal electrical connection wouldn't run the Lite-On. Don't know whether the connection's fried or the LO just wants more power than the trashy little thing I extracted. I know I could just get a whole new unit, but it's summer, dammit, and I've got other things to spend money on.

Thanks for any advice!


:rolleyes:
Well, here's a little update. I talked to the "nice fellow" at Philips support. No, they won't send me a replacement for the drive. When I told him (probably a mistake) that I had already removed the dead drive, he said, "Oh, Ma'am, you couldn't possibly have done THAT." :eek:
Their only solution is to send the unit to them for repair -- and since it's out of warranty, it would be way cheaper to just replace it. So I'm DEFINITELY looking for a replacement drive. The rest of it works way too well to just ditch it.

See if you can strip that drive that works out of it's case and use it with the old mounts or redo them so it lines up as is.
Most of the loaders are just bare PC drives without the outer metal case and maybe a special plastic shell that night be the same or close to what that drive has once it's stripped of the outer casing. Other option is to try and find a dead unit with a good burner.....

I have read so many posts i cant remember if i came across this question:: When i burn a AVI (DivX) onto a DVD-RW which we can play back in a DVD/DVDR player which supports this format as does this Philips Recorder, can i copy from the re-writable disc to the hard disc on this machine or is this not possible.??

I have not found a way to record from the Philips DVD to the Philips HDD, nor heard of one to this date. You can record from the DVD drive of another unit to the HDD on the Philips, but it will be using analog connections.

Thanks FullOn, it would be handy though, technology changes so much that i guess it will happen one day, can't wait for that day.. :)

Thanks FullOn, it would be handy though, technology changes so much that i guess it will happen one day, can't wait for that day.. :)

Peter, the technology is in place to do it right now. I think it has more to do with Digital Rights Management mumbo jumbo than anything else.

Yep i know what you mean, but what about our rights to having a machine that we rightly deserve to have, to do what we want it to do.. :D (I'm not digging at anyone here just having a bit of frustrated fun.)

Apologies if this has already been covered.

Up until a few days ago, the way I would make a recording to save on my HDD for later burning to a DVD, was to simply press REC and then STOP just like on a VCR.

The result is that the recording does not begin and end at the precise beginning and ending of the program.

While I had read the instructions and they talked about how to record on the HDD, they referred to the use of the buffer.

Well, I finally figured out what they were talking about:

At any time, you can navigate the buffer to a precise REC point and then to a precise STOP point. The instant you hit the STOP, that segment becomes a stored Title on the HDD, buffer contents AFTER the STOP remain in the Buffer and anything BEFORE the STOP is LOST.

So you could have 5 programs already in the buffer and in a few minutes, you could navigate your REC/STOP points for those programs and be done with the process in a few minutes.

This results in precise recordings and no cropping of extra stuff before or after the program.

What I like about this is that you can find and start the REC which you are waiting for a commercial to pass and similarly with the STOP. So you can have all your "editing" done while watching the program.

Of course, there is no way to set up the commercial skip intervals to my knowledge.

What is cool is that this is a very useful feature, both convenient and good for HDD fragmentation, AND is something the Toshiba's can't do (!)

Wow!

I purchased my DVDR3455H/37 from Wal-Mart. When I got it home, I realized it must have been purchased and used previously, and then restocked, as there were already two programs in the HDD memory. I should have taken it back for a brand new unit, but I didn't.
Now my problem... there is a password stored in the unit, and I do not know what it is. I was playing around with the features and locked a program that I had stored, and now cannot watch it because I do not know the code. I cannot find any info on the Philips web site, and every time I think to call them, it is too late and their tech support line is closed. (Email and online support is also not available, which is frustrating.)
Does anyone know how to reset the parental lock password, without losing all of the recorded programs?

I purchased my DVDR3455H/37 from Wal-Mart. When I got it home, I realized it must have been purchased and used previously, and then restocked, as there were already two programs in the HDD memory. I should have taken it back for a brand new unit, but I didn't.
Now my problem... there is a password stored in the unit, and I do not know what it is. I was playing around with the features and locked a program that I had stored, and now cannot watch it because I do not know the code. I cannot find any info on the Philips web site, and every time I think to call them, it is too late and their tech support line is closed. (Email and online support is also not available, which is frustrating.)
Does anyone know how to reset the parental lock password, without losing all of the recorded programs?
The Parental Lock password can be changed/deleted in the Setup > Playback > Parental Lock menu. The unlock password is 4737.

Title protection applies to the HDD or a DVD and is turned on and off in the Title Edit menu for the HDD or the Disc Edit menu for a DVD. In the approp. menu, select Protect and press OK to toggle the ON > OFF to OFF > ON.

Apologies if this has already been covered.

Up until a few days ago, the way I would make a recording to save on my HDD for later burning to a DVD, was to simply press REC and then STOP just like on a VCR.

The result is that the recording does not begin and end at the precise beginning and ending of the program.

While I had read the instructions and they talked about how to record on the HDD, they referred to the use of the buffer.

Well, I finally figured out what they were talking about:


Wow!

Wow is right!. Thanks 6volt for this tip. I tried it out last nigt and worked just as you described. Up until now I've been dumping the whole buffer to the HDD and then dividing up the titles from the HDD menu. This is much easier and quicker.

Thanks again!
falcon1987

Cool Falcon!

Amazingly, the Philips has a feature which I think is superior to what the Toshiba's have!

Seriously, a comparison with Toshiba for deleting commercials is not that bad:

1) The Philips eliminates handling the little bits at start and end that you have to chapter mark and omit from the Toshiba Playlist.

2) When omitting commercial chapters in the Toshiba, you really have to identify them with a thumbnail, otherwise, if you forgot to make a chapter entry, and you are omitting EVEN chapters, you will save the commercials instead of the program after the omission!

The Philips "ignore interval" method does in one step what takes a bunch of steps in the Toshiba.
_______________________________-

Frankly, I think I might be able to edit down in the Philips faster than the Toshiba, but it is probably close.

And of course, to Toshiba lets you do so many more things, it is truly an amazing unit.

So I've read through many pages of the thread, and I'm still up in the air.

I've read good things and bad things - and some people like it eventhough it's got some not-so-hot qualities.

I was totally going to buy one until I stumbled upon this thread, but now I'm totally stuck. My DVD player just died today, so I'm in the market for a new one.

Is this a good investment, or should I wait until a newer model comes out? Or is there a better brand that you would suggest?

Thanks for the help!

I would recommend buying the Philips at Walmart w/ATSC tuner for $299 - the Polaroid is quite popular so I would consider that one too.

But that is about all there is to pick from - unless you find some older stuff on eBay.

After living with this Philips, I'm not too disappointed in it.

Of course, consider your alternatives, i.e. none!

Does this unit have slow motion? i have tried with the remote but no luck, just wondering if there is a slow motion for playback of dvd/vcd or the hard drive for that matter..

You can access slo-mo on DVD Playback by using the somewhat convoluted "menu" that appears when you press the round center (OK) button during playback. Less than optimal. The only slo-mo I have seen on a HDD Recording is to press the Play/Pause Button, and then slowly press the (next) button ( >l ) repeatedly for "Frame Advance".

It doesn't work in reverse.

This DVDR could/should have been sooooo much better. Philips really dropped the ball in a lot of ways with this unit. The Sylvania HDVR200F is a far superior unit. I own both, so I feel qualified to make this statement.

Thanks for the reply Shred, its just something you miss i guess after having it with the old dvd player. There certainly could be a lot more features with this unit in comparison to some others but don't get me wrong, we are very happy with this unit.

I have read so many posts i cant remember if i came across this question:: When i burn a AVI (DivX) onto a DVD-RW which we can play back in a DVD/DVDR player which supports this format as does this Philips Recorder, can i copy from the re-writable disc to the hard disc on this machine or is this not possible.??
Just take an S-Video cable and jumper the S-Video output on the back to the S-Video input on the back. Then select that S-Video input as your Tuner source. Then switch to DVD mode and play your AVI. The AVI video will be buffered to the harddrive. You can then switch back to Tuner mode, rewind the buffer, and (as long as the content is not copy-protected) save it to the HDD.

Does this unit have slow motion? i have tried with the remote but no luck, just wondering if there is a slow motion for playback of dvd/vcd or the hard drive for that matter..
Surprised this Philips doesn't have the same as the Philips DVDR3575:

3 slo-mo speeds w/o sound (1/16, 1/8 and 1/3x Fwd, and 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4x Rev), activated with Pause then FF or Rew button pressed 1, 2 or 3x

plus a slo-mo w/sound @0.8x, activated with the "Rapid Play" button

???

I've got the HDD about 50% full (have transfered almost nothing to DVD yet so stuff is just accumulating on the HDD.)

Now, there is a place in the Buffer where during playback, the VIDEO FREEZES while the sound moves on. I've waited up to about 1 minute and the video never resumes.

If I navigate, if I approach from the future to the freeze point, as long as I don't go past that point, I can resume watching - the content is there.

I suspect there is a sector damaged in the HD which destroys the stream so that it can never be recovered.

I'm planning to "Record" that spot from the buffer. Market it as "DO NOT ERASE" and see if that isolates it from future use.

Anyone else have this problem? maybe a format would solve it too.

Thanks in advance,
Tom

Unless otherwise a problem I would likely Format the HDD and see what happens. Please let us know what you do, and how it works. Thanks.......

Well, I recorded a small portion of the Buffer to the HDD which includes the stuck video. The recording sticks as it did in the Buffer so I would think I have successfully isolated it.

At the rate I'm going, it will be a long time before I clear the HDD and format it - if ever!

If I had just a few things on the HDD, I would try the experiment, but that is, unfortunately, not the case.

I wonder if anyone else has encountered this?

let's say i have my antenna's rf coaxial cable connected to the recorder's antenna input, and i have an hdmi cable connected from the recorder's video output to my tv's video input. do i need another rf coaxial cable to connect the recorder's antenna output to my tv's antenna input? i mean is that extra rf coaxial cable really needed? manual says it's for tuner pass and tv loop. is it possible for the recorder to be fully functional without the extra rf coaxial cable?

my reason for not using it is that i want to use my tv's antenna input for another hdtv antenna. right now this is the only thing that's keeping me from buying this recorder. can i still record and watch even without the rf coaxial cable from the recorder's antenna output to my tv's antenna input?. thanks to all that helped :)

Please don't post the same question in four different threads, covering two different models of recorders! You've already gotten answers in two other threads.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=912068

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11697152#post11697152

I just discovered a remote function by accident. If you hold down the stop button, the DVD tray opens. If you hold it down again, the tray closes. Don't know if this has been mentioned before but for what its worth...

I have run into a problem with my unit recognizing recordable DVDs. I used up a 50-pack of Retail-plus DVD-Rs which all burned fine. Now I've tried 3 different brands and each time I put a DVD in the drive and try to select a title to burn, I get a message "There is no recordable disk" (even though I have an unused DVD-R in the drive). Any sugestions?

Thanks,
falcon

Bad news. I also discovered last night that the DVD drive does not recognize regular DVDs (pre-recorded or recorded previously from the philips drive). So I think the drive is shot. Any body have luck replacing the drive? and if so what make/model works?

Thanks again,
falcon

A ways back one guy was working on it. I don't think we ever got a final report. There is also so info on what "type" drive it is, but I do not recall at the moment. It is a very slim drive, so a standard size DVD Drive will not fit unless altered. If mine dies I may try hooking up a powered external DVD Drive just to see what happens.Sorry I am not more help.

Thanks. Yes, I weeded through the thread and found the section on potentail replacement drives. Other than another drive did work when hooked up, its kind of fuzzy on details and the final result. I'll take my unit apart and see what's what this weekend.

If I do need a new drive, I was hypothesizing (to myself of course) that the newer 20X drives might not be compatible with the firmware in the 3455H?? Any guesses as to compatibility issues???

Thanks,
falcon

Thanks. Yes, I weeded through the thread and found the section on potentail replacement drives. Other than another drive did work when hooked up, its kind of fuzzy on details and the final result. I'll take my unit apart and see what's what this weekend.

If I do need a new drive, I was hypothesizing (to myself of course) that the newer 20X drives might not be compatible with the firmware in the 3455H?? Any guesses as to compatibility issues???

Thanks,
falcon
Before going the full replacment route, try a laser lens cleaning disc, $8 or so at Wal-Mart, hanging over the blank CD/DVDs.

The tracks on DVDs are only 0.74-micrometer apart, so a 320-micrometer-wide female dust mite can block over 400 tracks, some of which might be in the disc ID area (just an example!).

a nanometer-sized dust mite

That sure is one small dust mite...maybe a nanobot... ;)

I like "nanobot" but must confess to a "boo-boo." I've been using "nanometer" when I should have been using "mircometer" (um).

DVD track pitch is 0.74um. A female dust mite is 420 x 320um.

I guess we'll have to settle for "microbot"... but it just doesn't sound as small as "nanobot"... oh, well! :D

Thanks. I'll try that. Is it possible something could have gone out of alingnment removing and replacing the top of the DVD drive??? The drive was sounding funny for awhile and then a DVD got stuck in it (well, the unit froze up really and no amount of resetting would make the tray open). So I had to open up the whole box to access the DVD drive. I opened up the top of the DVD drive (two small screws only) to access the DVD and remove it, then replaced the top of the drive.

I find it frustrating that Philips did not supply a manual drive eject pinhole!

falcon

I know very late reply, but what do you think of writing the entire title on the HDD to the DVD, and then splitting the title on the DVD, instead of doing the splitting and renaming on the HDD?

This way, you know you will have all of the pieces on the DVD, and in the correct order (and you don't really need to rename the pieces, if you do not want to).

Any reason one should NOT do this sort of editing on the DVD?

(I recently discovered that the chapter marks that I add to the DVD are not visible when I play the finalzed DVD in anything other than a DVDR3455H. Chapter marks removed using this DVDR are gone for all players, but chapter marks that are added do not show up on other players. (Argh!) Breaking into pieces may be the only way to get the desired outcome of the correct jump points.)

One more point: It sure would be nice to be able to manually add the chapter marks on the HDD instead of waiting and doing this on the DVD. (Does anyone happen to know if the newer version (DVDR3575H/37) allows editing of chapter marks on the HDD?) If not, I will dig through the docs and the thread for the other machine.

Update: DVDR3575H User Guide seems to say that Chapter Marks can be added to a title on the HDD. It is nice to see a step like this in the right direction - adding a feature to the newer product that was missing from the prior version.

Stephen

The Philips 3575 allows you to set auto-chapter marks at 5 different intervals (or "Off") besides manual adding and deleting on the HDD.

DVD Writer Replacement Update...

The motor on my old dvd drive seems to overheat and seize up after about 10-20 minutes of use. It will work for short periods of time but then die. When it cools down it will work again. Would like to find a replacement motor but not too hopeful on that.

So I've tried replacment DVD writers in the 3455h/37 unit and most play DVDs fine.
But writing DVDs has been an interesting story.

I'm trying to find the right drive that is 100% compatible. Some (Pioneer) don't seem to write at all. Others (Lite-On, Philips, Sony, Retail-plus) all seem to write DVDs fine but not 100% of the time. About 1 in 3 DVD burns lock up at some point before 100%. Not sure why some make it through and some don't. Even on the same video I could try 3 times and the first and second attemps freeze while the third one completes (happens with different brands of DVDs too). Others burn fine first time.

I have settled on a Sony 18X multi-format writer. This one seems to burn-to-100% most of the time. It is large and won't fit in the unit as-is. So I will try stripping it down to fit in the case. It is noisy though as it spins fast when playing a DVD.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to why the spotty performance on writing??? Would lve to get it to complete 100% of the time.

Thanks,
falcon

Falcon, what Firmware are you using? Have you upgraded the Firmware from the Philips site? And For the DVD Burners you are trying?

Different DVD Burners use different Firmwares and write strategies. Could this possibly be why you are having some problems?

Sorry not to be more help, but you are in an area I know very little about.

FullOnShred - thanks for the reply. I bought the 3455h-37 refurbished and it looks like they upgraded the firmware to the most recent at the same time as refurbishing it. As for the DVD drives, I haven't changed the firmware - haven't done so for the possibilities it could make matters worse as easily as make them better. I'll keep on plugging away...

When it rains it pours. Does anybody know a way to reset the unlock password? I was foolling around with the lock function and since I havent set any passwords mistakenly thought I wouldn't need one to unlock. So, I've locked a recording and can't unlock it. The standard one mentioned in this thread doesn't seem to work (3747 or whatever) so I believe whoever had this unit before it was refurbished set a different unlock password??? I've reset the machine a number of times using the unplug-10-minutes-hold-on-button-for-5-count method so that doesn't seem to reset the unlock password. Can it be reset?

Thanks,
falcon

So, I've locked a recording and can't unlock it. The standard one mentioned in this thread doesn't seem to work (3747 or whatever)
The title unlock/lock-reset code is 4737 using the number buttons in the PW input window.

I tried it with the 4737 password and I get a dialog box stating "incorrect password. Re-enter password"? Is there anything else I can try wabjxo?
falcon

Not really...4737 is supposed to be the one that unlocks if you forget the true PW...sort of the "universal" PW.

Failing any new hints, try 1111 and 1234 just for the heck of it?

OOPS, I just realized you are replacing the burner, right? If so, it may just be that the FW can't communicate with a replacement drive, i.e., the FW is sending but the drive isn't listening???

Maybe if you pull power from the drive and the unit for awhile, they might forget they're not on speaking terms??? :D

I didn't ask if your DVD TRAY is locked or just won't play cuz of "Parental Lock"...the 4737 is just for Parental Lock so it won't play.

If the TRAY is locked, try holding the open/close button down on the front of the unit (not the remote) until it opens ... about 10secs.

It is actually an HDD recording that I've locked and can't play. I've locked it through the HDD menu. I was playing around with the protect and lock functions and didn't realize I would need a password to unlock it (a password isn't needed to unprotect it).

I'll try anything at the moment so FWIW I'll put back in the original DVD drive to see if that has any impact on the unit recognizing 4737.

Thanks

What about a complete reset of the unit? I think it is buried somewhere in this monster thread, but not for sure about it.

Tried that too. Thanks for all your help. But it is now solved! :-D

4737 wasn't working. Phoned Philips support and they quoted a 0711 default (said to try it twice in a row). That didn't work either. So wanting to understand the lock/unlock fearture more I went to the manual. The old saying RTFM rings true. Right there in the manual it states the default password is 3308. Worked like a charm! Yippee.

Thanks,
falcon

Glad you got her dun Falcon!

I bought this unit last night from Wallmart because it seemed to have all the features I needed for use with my digital cameras... I decided in advance not to open the box until I had a chance to read reviews on it.

After visiting this site and reading reviews elsewhere - I am taking it back to Walmart and not even going to open the box.

I don't have time to waste with all the problems mentioned on this forum and I need something with decent picture quality.

Glad to find this place - going to save me a lot of problem in advance.

When I replaced the dvd burner in my 3455, I sourced the drive from a 3390 that I got off ebay (for around $70 at the time).

The 3390 dvd burner is almost identical to the dvd burner in the 3455. The 3455 drive is closed frame (to protect from fan dust) while the 3390 is open frame (no fan in the 3390).

But you can move over the plastic cover pieces from the 3455 dvd burner and they fit exactly on the drive from the 3390.

I have several months on the drive since I replaced it and all has been well.

dj_white_rice

I have a Toshiba Rd-XS32 and this Philips and I thought comment on this thread indicated this Philips was a good unit! or at least compared to the Toshiba.

I think the 3 biggest annoyances of this unit are:

1) when you resume watching something on the HDD, it always starts at the beginning - you have to navigate your way back to where you were.

2) when the unit is tuned on, it resumes at the last Channel it was it. If you use it mainly with Line input, you always have to select input when you turn it on.

3) can't do chase play on a timer initiated recording.

The quality of the DVD burn is vastly superior to the Toshiba which is monumentally bad compared to PC burners.

The video quality is good.

It is capable of recording DD 2.0

Considering the complete lack of DVD w/HDD units, it is a clear winner. The other competitor, the Polaroid 2001 is primitive by comparison - but it does seem to accept almost any replacement HDD you stick in it.

Just my 2 cents worth...

My DVDR3455H has message "BLOCKED" on the display, any instructions how open it to take out the DVD that is inside???
Thanks

"...any instructions how open it to take out the DVD that is inside???"

I had to open up my unit, remove the DVD drive and take the top off of it to remove a stuck DVD. It doesn't seem to have a manual tray release hole. Frustrating.

I've never seen the "BLOCKED" message before though.

falcon

My DVD Tray has begun occasionally sticking when I try to open it using the button on the front. For some reason, it will go ahead and open if I just aim the remote at the unit and hold down the (STOP) button for 5-10 sec. Weird.

"...and hold down the (STOP) button for 5-10 sec"

I think that is an undocumented feature as mine does it too. I've been using that method for the last few months to open & close the tray after I found out about it by accident.

I think it may be in the manual Falcon. I have used it for a long time. I do wonder why the tray opens better that way than by pushing the Open Button on the unit. Maybe I am double-tapping it, but I never had that problem before.

with this unit i have our vcr hooked up to it and have played a tape and recorded it to the hard drive on this unit, i then put a dvd+r in it and record from the hard drive to blank dvd, when finished burning to the dvd i try it and it works fine on the same unit but will not read/work or play in any other dvd player, only plays on my philips on which i burnt the dvd. I then put a dvd+rw in and did the same burn and it plays on any dvd player, how come?? am i doing something wrong somehow or is there some setting i dont know about?? any help on this would be great..

with this unit i have our vcr hooked up to it and have played a tape and recorded it to the hard drive on this unit, i then put a dvd+r in it and record from the hard drive to blank dvd, when finished burning to the dvd i try it and it works fine on the same unit but will not read/work or play in any other dvd player, only plays on my philips on which i burnt the dvd. I then put a dvd+rw in and did the same burn and it plays on any dvd player, how come?? am i doing something wrong somehow or is there some setting i dont know about?? any help on this would be great..

Have you Finalized the +R DVD recording?

I then put a dvd+rw in and did the same burn and it plays on any dvd player, how come?? am i doing something wrong somehow or is there some setting i dont know about?? any help on this would be great..
DVD+RW don't need finalizing.

doh :(

doh :(

Don't sweat it, man. We learn together here on AVS Forums.:)

I am still unsure about up dating the firmware for this unit, i know there is a new version for it but i think what is stopping me is the hassle of scanning for the local channels and then deleting the ones which we don't use and re organizing the position the chan location. We have high band and low band UHF here and i recall when i did it after getting this unit, the problem i had with double channel locations, it was a pain in the bum, but will it be well worth the pain in the bum if i up grade the firmware or should i be content the way it is,,:confused:

I am new to here and appreciate whatever help you can provide. I have a 3455H/96 R19.14 Reg 3. I bought it new in Taiwan and have tried the instructions printed in this forum to make it "all region" however it doesn't seem to work.

Is this something particular to the type "96" versus "37" and do you have any suggestion on how to crack this machines for all region?

Sorry, I have no idea at all.

Gday

I have a (hopefully not too dumb) question for Aussie owners, but maybe others will know. I am wondering if you use a digital set top box (standard def STB), which is then plugged into the "antenna in" socket (75ohm) on the Phillips, if the unit is able to scan & find the various digital channels as if they were normal analogue channels.

Or to put it another way, is the only alternative (once analogue ceases) to plug an STB in the EXT input plug, and have to physically leave the STB on the "correct" channel so that a timer recording will record the correct channel ?

Thanks.

Greetings,
This thread has been immensely helpful in understanding more of what this unit can do, so thank you all in advance. However, got a problem, and was hoping you all could help me. I have two of the 3455 machines, both just over a year old, and both had the same malfunction. I have always been able to recover from a freezeout, by unplugging and restarting, however, just recently one of them now when reboots, goes through an inital set up, blue screen, sounds like its trying to read a dvd, and then recycles through it, takes about 30 seconds. Nevers get control back to me, just cycles......no response from remote or front unit buttons:mad:. Except if hit eject repeatedly, can get it to spit a disk out, but have tried different disks, makes no difference, nothing gets it out of that cycle. I have even tried the master trick, unplug for 10 minutes, plug in while holding on button for 5 count, and still nothing..(dont know if this even works).......I desperately want to recover whats on the hard drive.....
This wouldnt be too catastrophic, but my second one a month later, is now pulling same stunt:eek:......very irksome, about to call philips and give them some grief, (2 machines same problem, just out of warranty? uh huh:mad:)
Anyway, what alternatives or tricks can anybody throw me here? Anyone else experience this? What did you do, and is there a way to recover machine, and get it back to functioning? swap out dvd drive maybe? also HDD seems to still be good as far as I can tell it, still is lit up...........maybe pull that out, and empty via a pc?
Just cant imagine would have to trash the unit....
please help~john
fitzcain@yahoo.com

in addition~i called phillips after first one went down like this and they were fricking unhelpful......told me if couldnt access menus, its a paperweight. Do i need to push further when calling? get a tech on the line? (he seemed to be reading from cards or something)

fitzcain, this happend to me when a was trying different replacement DVD drives. If I had the wrong jumper assigned (master vs. slave) it would do this infinite loop thing you described. I think it also happened when no drive was attached. Try switching DVD drives from your other unit - perhaps yours is malfunctioing and causing the loop. The DVD drives seem to be cheap as mine broke down after only a few months.

falcon

Thanks Falc,
would you have any drives in particular that you would recommend? did switching yours fix the problem....., Im just curious, is it inside the case or out (your replacement?)
I would hope to get one to fit, but havent taken it apart to see what i am actually dealing with yet......your right, swapping the dvd drives to the others machine.......couldnt hurt, as they are both doing same loop...........let me try, I post in a day or so...
thanks for the idea.
(wish there was a way to directly access the hard drive, and just download to a PC or something)
Is it just me, or doesnt it seem there should be a HUGE market for these type of machines>??:confused:

The hack is similar to the one for Philips DVDR-3595H.

This works on my Philips DVDR-3577H/31 (European version)

1. Remove Any disc from the tray
2. Turn off the player
3. Turn on the player from the front panel
4. Press HDD List on remote
5. Press BACK on remote until you see the List and and ensure Hard Disk is highlighted
6. Press PLAY
7. Enter 159 121 212 005 255
8. Press PLAY
9. Turn the player off

thanks MBmobile,
Is this in reply to my machines (stuck in start up cycle? seem to not register DVD drive)? I dont know if your idea will work for me, as I cant even get them out of the startup loop........
I did open the casings and the drives look fine, but still no dvddrive is registering............any ideas on a good replacement (preferably one to fit in case?)
would a philips brand dvd burner be my best choice?
fitzcain
fitzcain@yahoo.com

Philips is what I'm using. I tried a bunch of different makes/models and settled on a Philips (I can get the model # if you like). The main difference between them all is the burn success rate. Some don't burn at all while others do but hang a certain % of the time. I've been burning with my Philips drive for about 3 or 4 months and its is pretty good. It hangs about 1 out of 10 burns, but that is the best I can find. I bought an extension power cable and an extension IDE cable and it is sitting on top of the main recorder/player unit. Not pretty but since Philips doesn't supply replacement drives, that's all I can do. The only other trouble with using modern computer DVD drives is with their fast spin rates it really is noisy when playing/watching a DVD movie.

falcon

Thanks Falc,
Looks like its time for me to go dvdburner shopping......
I wouldnt mind the model number, if you can find it easy, for the burner, 1 dud in 10 is pretty acceptable, considering this is an after market, non-philips approved fix (not that they seem to fix anything, i am gathering) This should at least get the machine up and running enough to rip my items off the HDD.......
I opened the case and the dvd drives in it, are attached to a circuit board about the same size(just part of the dvddrive, we wouldnt normally see?)......
dont worry about that right? Just ide and power cable swap to new drive and power up? Hope its that simple........
You would think as much use as this kind of machine might get, they would have replacements on hand.....and charge for them.......once out of warranty........anywho, if it costs me 50-75 bucks for a drive and it gets back to at least functioning.....I will be pretty happy......
many thanks again.....ill keep you posted once i know model #, and swap out.
fitz
fitzcain@yahoo.com

fitzcain - i guess my memory is going. It is actually a Sony DVD-RW drive I am using, not a Philips. Doh! It is a Sony AD-7170A model

http://www.nec.co.uk/AD7170A.aspx

I have the jumper set to "master". I was actually looking for the least sophisticated drive I could find, thinking that the new high speed, double-layer, belles & whistles drives would be less compatible with the type of drive the recorder used at the time it was manufactured. They are hard to find now. At least this one works o.k. for me. It seems to be a workable solution.

Good luck

f.

Hi, newbie here. I am retired and now living in Argentina. DVD Recorders are rare down here. Before moving 3 yrs ago I bought, in the US, a Panasonic DVD recorder that worked fine until now. I am interested in this Philips DVD Recorder. It is very expensive down here (don't ask) so I have a question before buying one. I could wait til I am in the US in June to buy one there but I need to know if the US version of this machine works with BOTH NTSC and PAL-N (our TV system here). Some products from the US do but I am not sure about this one.

No - NTSC-only. You might want to look at places like www.world-import.com and www.bhphotovideo.com. They have models that do both NTSC and PAL.

I don't know if they're any cheaper than the Philips is down there, but some of them, like the Pioneers, are probably better quality.

i bought my recorder in november, 2006 and it crapped out 2 weeks ago...a little over a year and the recorder went out and the eject button would only open if there was already a disc in there, if not, you had to pry it open...bought myself a panasonic 475 and i love it! so much faster than the philips...

oh btw, hey shred, long time no see..still have your philips?

oh btw, hey shred, long time no see..still have your philips?


llilmama, where you been?? Yep, I still have my Philips and still use it several days weekly,mostly recording to HDD for View and Delete stuff, but still burn the occasional DVD from it. The DVD Tray has gotten finniky on mine too. I had to Pry it open several times. Like yours, for some reason it seems to open more reliably with a disc in the Tray, so I always keep a blank DVD in there now. Maybe the weight of the DVD lowers the tray just enough to clear whatever is causing the hangup?

My Sylvania HDRV200F makes so much nicer DVDs I use it for most stuff I really value. Wish I could find another one (Cheap would be nice, too).

Does your new Panny record to a Hard Drive?

hi shred...no, it doesnt have a hard drive, i found i really didnt use it...i always record to tivo and pull it off there onto discs....i'm gonna be doing a little changing around here soon....getting another HD tv and a blue ray player, and an hd dvr, and not quite sure where everything is gonna go yet...its taking planning..lol

btw, recorders with the hard drive are getting REALLY hard to find...you about have to get them off ebay now....

llilmama, I have seriously considered buying the new Philips 3575 with HDD, but based on the way the DVD tray sticks on so many of our 3455s, and the fact that the overall design of the 3575 looks so similar, including the DVD Tray, I just haven't been able to make myself go there.

I did buy a Hauppauge TV Card for my new computer and have been using it some.

There's a new Philips model, the 3576, coming out soon, just so you know.

But it really doesn't look to be any different, and you might be seeing the 3575 going down in price.

The buggy QAM tuner may have been fixed in the new model, though.

Gday

The DVD recorder gave up the ghost the other day, repaired under warranty in 3 days.

i bought my recorder in november, 2006 and it crapped out 2 weeks ago...a little over a year and the recorder went out and the eject button would only open if there was already a disc in there, if not, you had to pry it open...bought myself a panasonic 475 and i love it! so much faster than the philips...

Mine has done exactly the same thing, the tray doesn't open and LCD says BLOCKED. You can either hit the top of the unit to loosen it and the tray opens or having a disc in usually lets it open, though sometimes needs a hit.

I emailed support, they suggested a firmware upgrade or take it in for servicing. I didn't think a FW upgrade would solve a physical fault, but stupid me tried anyways.

Now my player doesn't read all regions as it used to and the old code that got all regions unlocked doesn't work either now (0086000 etc). Half of my DVD's are from Canada and now I can't watch them on the player I bought in Australia.

I now have FW version R19.15 with PS3455H 75 also in the developer slot of the BIOS details. Does anyone know how I can make this region free again?

I also still need to take it in to the city for the tray, we can't afford buying a new one and like hell I'm going to anyways after 14 months.

Mike, you are right, Firmware has nothing to do with mechanical problem like that.... But the tech 'support" folks always suggest one - that's what's written on their cue cards. So far keeping a DVD in my Tray is working. I suppose one might take the unit apart and see "where" it is sticking. If mine gets bad enough I suppose I will. Mine is out of warranty BTW.

Just tried the firmware upgrade and I think I killed my Philips. I had version R19.09 and tried to install R19.10....Don't ask why. It accepted the first two of four files before disaster. It locked up for a few seconds then gave me an "Upgrade Failure, system can not be restarted. Contact Manufacturer." Now all i get is a blue screen with the word "Load" on the display window and the DVD drawer keeps opening up. I unplugged it for a while but that didn't help. Any suggestions before I call Customer Support? By the way I just got the darn thing for free and haven't even used it. The upgrade was the first thing I tried because I read it helped the unit work better.

Mike, you are right, Firmware has nothing to do with mechanical problem like that.... But the tech 'support" folks always suggest one - that's what's written on their cue cards. So far keeping a DVD in my Tray is working. I suppose one might take the unit apart and see "where" it is sticking. If mine gets bad enough I suppose I will. Mine is out of warranty BTW.

Yeah leaving the DVD in seems to be working ok.

My main problem now though is the FW upgrade killed the all region support and I can't get it back.. As I said half our DVD's are from Canada and the other half Australian, so we can't watch any Region 1 DVD's now :(

Any ideas on getting that working again?

Mike, unless you can track down a copy of the older firmware, and force install of it, I haven't a clue.

Newbie, sorry to hear of your dilemma. I have no clue how to fix that problem.

The tech said the Load Message is an indication of firmware trouble. I should've left it alone. If it aint broke, don't fix !!!!! :D

Stupid question time here. Did you make sure the Firmware was for the proper model and proper country?

If yes to both,did you try downloading the firmware again and the installing the new copy? Just a few thoughts.

My version was R19.09. The new version on their website was R19.10. I assume the version was US because thats the site I navigated to. The unit will not allow me to do anything further. I can't play a DVD on it nor control it manually nor remote control. The only way to turn it on or off is through the power supply. I was hoping there was something internally I could adjust like a reboot switch or button. Otherwise there is nothing I can do externally. Like I said, I never even got a chance to play with it.

Man..... sorry. Firmware download may have gotten corrupted.

This link says English (from the U.S.A Philips Web Site) but then has UK in parenthesis....Hmmmm......

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/dcbint/cpindex.pl?scy=US&slg=AEN&cat=DVD_HOME_THEATER_CA&sct=DVD_HARDDISK_RECORDERS_SU&grp=HOME_ENTERTAINMENT_GR&session=20080303161918_74.227.136.86&ctn=DVDR3455H/37&mid=Link_Software&hlt=Link_Software

:eek:I quess my mind never registered the (UK) part of it. I just saw english and clicked. Live and learn, I'm packing it up as I type. Hope they send me another one. Thanks for the sympathy.

Please understand, I am not saying this Firmware version is definitely wrong for U.S. Machines - I am only saying it made me wonder. As this model has been out of production in the U.S. for a while, I suppose it is possible that they are only releasing Firmware for UK and other countries. But, IF that is the case, SHAME on Philips for such a shoddily designed support webpage.

Please keep us advised of whatever you discover. Thanks.

My DVD drive did the same thing months back. I took it apart and found the spin motor was sticking. If I nudged it with my finger it would start up and work fine but stick once it stopped again. I tried oiling it with 3 & 1 motor oil. Now it spins but overheats after 15-20 minutes and then sticks again. I guess it is seizing up from heat - maybe that's what the original problem was too? Anyway I replaced the drive with a Sony RW drive for a PC and it works (most of the time) while sitting on top of the recorder unit!

I got my replacement dvdr but it has the same old firmware. I think I'm going to leave it alone this time. If anyone has upgraded from the R19.09 to the R19.10 and can tell me that there is a big difference then I'll retry the upgrade. For now it will have to do.
P.S. The philips tech said that is the correct upgrade for my unit

I got my replacement dvdr but it has the same old firmware. I think I'm going to leave it alone this time. If anyone has upgraded from the R19.09 to the R19.10 and can tell me that there is a big difference then I'll retry the upgrade. For now it will have to do.
P.S. The philips tech said that is the correct upgrade for my unit

Good to know, and thanks for updating us.:)

My "refurb" replacement 3455 has worked perfectly for 9 months. Love the 6-hour buffer. I just turn the unit on early and set the channel, come back later and Fast Forward to what I want to see, FF the commercials, change channels when needed, and write programs to disk from the buffer to view later. Bought a 3575 two weeks ago for the ATSC tuner and found out that the 6-hour buffer has been replaced by CHASE PLAY and PAUSE LIVE TV.

PAUSE LIVE TV is Just that and nothing else. Once you've PAUSED, you can't change channels or record the file to HDD.

I emulate the 6-hour buffer by setting the channel and hitting OTR (one time recording) 13 times. PLAY (chase play) & FF work just like they did with the buffer. Hitting STOP 3 times closes the HDD file. Divide Title can then be used to extract anything you want to save. If you want to change channels you have to STOP, change channels, and go through the OTR thing again.

The other major differences are the HDD menu and the way you get to the edit menu. More data is displayed in the HDD menu so you can really only see 3 titles at a time in the window. You scroll down to get more. Editing is done in a separate window; is a little more accurate; but is combersome.

Lot of operational differences in the 3575. Got a January pack date and, so far, all seems to be working OK.

rf008, interesting post and nice comparison to the 3575. Glad to hear the 3575's working good for you.

Curious, tho, you say you can only see 3 HDD titles in the 3575 title screen but mine shows 6 titles... two rows of three each?

I've looked for a digital to analog converter box (Set Top Box) for my VCR's and the 3455 and haven't found any. Need to be able to program the channel as a function of time. The government spec units are only for TV's and are NOT programmable.

Any suggestions?

rf008, interesting post and nice comparison to the 3575. Glad to hear the 3575's working good for you.

Curious, tho, you say you can only see 3 HDD titles in the 3575 title screen but mine shows 6 titles... two rows of three each?
wajo,

You're right, there are 6 in the window. I've only got 3 titles saved.

Whew! Thought maybe they went backwards in later units! :D

The philips support site for the 3455h seems to be gone. The bookmarked support site I had for the unit now shows "[ServletException in:/product_support/tiles/product_details.jsp] Cannot find bean prodDetailsBean in scope session'

I guess that kills any chance of more firmware upgrades! ;-)

Like many here, I've got the 3455H from Philips. Had it a little over two years, so it's well out of warranty. :(

Like so many others, I've got the sticky tray problem - but that I can deal with. I leave a disk in it, and usually it'll open within 2 or 3 tries...

But here's the real issue (or issues):

My 160GB hard drive is now full, and the DVD Recorder won't recognize ANY of my blank DVDs. Tried DVD-R and DVD-RW, and no luck. When I look at the "DVD" menu, it says "Empty DVD" - but when I try to select something off the hard drive to put on the DVD, it says "Disk is full". Frustrating. I tried deleting a couple programs off the hard drive, to see if that was part of the problem, but it still won't let me burn anything to DVD. I'm flustered.

Any ideas how I can get my stuff out of the hard drive? Some of that stuff I really want to keep!

If it will help, I've got the Scientific Atlanta (Time Warner - Austin TX) 8240HD DVR, and a MacBook running OS X 10.4.10. If there's a way to dump stuff down from the Philips unit, I'm willing... but being a bit of a noob to this stuff doesn't make it easy. If there's a way to pull stuff from the cable DVR to the Mac, I could bypass the Philips altogether, but I don't know (a) if it's possible to do that, or (b) what software I'd need to do it.

Any ideas? Is it worth fixing the DVD Recorder? Is that even possible, or affordable? I really can't lay out a ton of cash on this; if a new DVD Recorder is cheaper, I'll go that way - but it sure as heck won't be a Philips unit!

Thanks in advance for any help, tips, and ideas.

Mike

Any ideas? Is it worth fixing the DVD Recorder? Is that even possible, or affordable? I really can't lay out a ton of cash on this; if a new DVD Recorder is cheaper, I'll go that way - but it sure as heck won't be a Philips unit!
Whatever brand you get, make sure you don't fill up THAT HDD or there'll be ANOTHER brand you won't like anymore!

Whatever brand you get, make sure you don't fill up THAT HDD or there'll be ANOTHER brand you won't like anymore!

Ah - you think that might be the trouble? I'd been meaning to get a bunch of stuff off the HDD (where have we all heard that before?), but as usual, life got in the way and things kept coming up...

Soooo... If I start dropping things off the HDD, is that going to fix things?

Ah - you think that might be the trouble? I'd been meaning to get a bunch of stuff off the HDD (where have we all heard that before?), but as usual, life got in the way and things kept coming up...

Soooo... If I start dropping things off the HDD, is that going to fix things?
Well, you won't know until you give the HDD some "breathing room." Once the HDD gets full, esp. if you've edited anything, it's pretty hard to know how much needs to be offloaded since everything is prob. fragmented.

Definitely try offloading or deleting as much as you can before giving up so you know any remaining problems may be related to something else. Start with the stuff recorded last and work your way back to first.

Here's a post on not letting your HDD get full that may be of some interest? (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12798560&postcount=243)

Merci boucoups! I'll give that a try, and see if I can free up some space on the HDD.

Mike

Hey wajo, is there and easy way to reformat the HDD in this unit? I am considering dumping what little I have left on this unit and getting a clean start.

Hey wajo, is there and easy way to reformat the HDD in this unit? I am considering dumping what little I have left on this unit and getting a clean start.
There's no defrag or format command, but on the 3575 there's a SETUP menu titled "HDD Menu" thru which you can "Delete All Titles."

That'll give you a "clean" HDD as far as the operating system is concerned and allow your next recording to start fresh on an "empty" HDD. (No "harsh" Format op needed!)

There's no defrag or format command, but on the 3575 there's a SETUP menu titled "HDD Menu" thru which you can "Delete All Titles."

That'll give you a "clean" HDD as far as the operating system is concerned and allow your next recording to start fresh on an "empty" HDD. (No "harsh" Format op needed!)


wajo, Thank you for your reply.:) I am aware of the "Delete HDD" option on the 3455/37, I was hoping for a defrag or format option. Oh well, maybe it isn't necessary.

I thought I remember reading, I think on Wajo's sticky, the best thing to do to clear out the HDD was to first delete everything then record something constant in the fastest speed for as long as you can(12 hrs I think). Do this several times until the disc is full. Then delete everything.
I believe it was explained that this would get rid of all the small fragments and short recordings on the HDD. Are you still recommending this Wajo? It made sense to me anyway.

I remember that too, but I think that was a special case or possibly long ago cuz, once all Titles are gone, the operating system sees the HDD as "clean" with no data on it so it can start writing from position 1.

Since the Titles are the "pointers" for location of files, like filenames are in our computers, once those are deleted there's essentially "nothing" on our DVDR HDDs. The data's still on the disc but can be overwritten as if it's not there.

A Format is a little "rough" on a HDD and esp. rewriteable discs. There was one thread on another forum I read where people were complaining about their RWs not lasting very long... until someone mentioned they solved that by not "reformatting" to get rid of stuff on a regular basis, just "erasing" I think... there are/were two ways for these people to clear files from their RWs and the "milder" (shorter) one was easier on the discs and made them last much longer. Essentially, they were just deleting the titles and clearing the disc like we're discussing here.

Pioneer doesn't want users to "reformat" ("Initialize") their HDDs at will, so they "hide" the format command in an internal menu that only appears when the system decides it's needed... there has to be some serious problem ("corruption" per the manual) to activate the Initialize HDD command.

I remember that too, but I think that was a special case or possibly long ago cuz, once all Titles are gone, the operating system sees the HDD as "clean" with no data on it so it can start writing from position 1.

Since the Titles are the "pointers" for location of files, like filenames are in our computers, once those are deleted there's essentially "nothing" on our DVDR HDDs. The data's still on the disc but can be overwritten as if it's not there.

A Format is a little "rough" on a HDD and esp. rewriteable discs. There was one thread on another forum I read where people were complaining about their RWs not lasting very long... until someone mentioned they solved that by not "reformatting" to get rid of stuff on a regular basis, just "erasing" I think... there are/were two ways for these people to clear files from their RWs and the "milder" (shorter) one was easier on the discs and made them last much longer. Essentially, they were just deleting the titles and clearing the disc like we're discussing here.

Pioneer doesn't want users to "reformat" ("Initialize") their HDDs at will, so they "hide" the format command in an internal menu that only appears when the system decides it's needed... there has to be some serious problem ("corruption" per the manual) to activate the Initialize HDD command.

Thanks for the clarification wajo :).

Progress report:

There's PROGRESS! Yay! Thanks a ton, Wajo.

I deleted some files off the HDD, turned it off and left it alone for a couple days, and now I can burn stuff to disk again. Mind you, I can still only burn to DVD-RW disks (won't recognize DVD-R), but it's better than nothing, by a long shot.

Thanks again,

Mike

Progress report:

There's PROGRESS! Yay! Thanks a ton, Wajo.

I deleted some files off the HDD, turned it off and left it alone for a couple days, and now I can burn stuff to disk again. Mind you, I can still only burn to DVD-RW disks (won't recognize DVD-R), but it's better than nothing, by a long shot.

Thanks again,

Mike


Just curious about a few things. What brand DVD-R's are you using? And have you tried Verbatim/Sony DVD-Rs?

Also, have you tried doing a Firmware Upgrade?

Just a few thoughts.....

I was just watching some stuff from the buffer and the unit froze - I had to unplug it.

I really would have been angry if there was something important I was going to save/record from the buffer!

I suspect this happens when there are fragmentation issues on the HD. Of course, my unit had some areas on the HD (when new and never filled) that simply froze, however, you could recover with skip or backup, etc. And it seems to record OK.

I think it is really sad when these units do not have defrag options. (The only defrag you can do is delete all content on HD.)

Whew... That was a job of work.

Finally got all the stuff off the HDD, let it be for a few days, so hopefully it will have defragged itself now. I haven't tried Sony/Verbatim disks, but if I can find some I'll give 'em a shot. I've tried Maxell, Memorex, "Dynex" (which I think is a cheap BestBuy store brand), all with no luck. However, I can still record on both DVD-RW and DVD+RW; in short, if it's got an "RW" after it, I seem to be able to record just fine.

It's not an ideal situation, but it's far better than what I had a few weeks ago! And it'll do for now, until something comes along that will record in HD. :)

Again, thanks to all for the help.

Oh, and my desk-eject seems to be working better now, too. Well, at least in a different way. I always leave a blank in the tray so I don't have to pry it open (the weight of the disk seems to make it open a bit easier). Anyway, it takes a while to eject now, and it never says "BLOCKED" when I press the eject - it just doesn't do anything for a bit, say, 20 or 30 seconds, and then it'll spit the disk tray out just fine.

Weird li'l unit sometimes... :)

Mike

PS: I'm sure the disk-eject thing is totally unrelated to the full-HDD thing. Just a weird coincidence that I couldn't help noticing.

Oh - haven't done the firmware upgrade, either. Not sure how I'd go about it, and I'm not sure I want to try - I read the horror story from the one guy who did it and never got his unit working again... :(

Oh, and my desk-eject seems to be working better now, too. Well, at least in a different way. I always leave a blank in the tray so I don't have to pry it open (the weight of the disk seems to make it open a bit easier). Anyway, it takes a while to eject now, and it never says "BLOCKED" when I press the eject - it just doesn't do anything for a bit, say, 20 or 30 seconds, and then it'll spit the disk tray out just fine.
Try NOT leaving a disc in the tray cuz every time you turn the unit on w/disc in tray or insert a blank disc, the machine has to do a series of tests on the disc to make sure it can record to it and what strategy to use. Those test results are stored on the disc and are cumulative... no problem if using +R/RW since they have lots more "space" for test results.

Try to get some Verbatim +R locally and start fresh w/o leaving a disc in the tray?

I bought this dvdr3455h/37B ....

I did connection as in the manual .... from Dish network receiver to unit then to TV.. connection is fine. But it shows on the display CH002 ... when I press setup i see nothing. how i change it to Ch003 maybe ? since my Dish receiver is on Ch3.

thank you if you can help me

Hello I m a Newbie
My dvd recorder is DVDR3455h/37
Somebody have a step by step procedure to change 160g HD for a bigger one.
I want to put 250gb or 320gb to replace my original drive is defect and the dvd recorder is out of warranty.

My HD is out of the machine, Im ready to put a new one. What is the better HD size 250gb or 320gb and how to do step by step, format, size, firmware and all info to do it succesfulf

Best Regards
Stang05

I bought this dvdr3455h/37B ....

I did connection as in the manual .... from Dish network receiver to unit then to TV.. connection is fine. But it shows on the display CH002 ... when I press setup i see nothing. how i change it to Ch003 maybe ? since my Dish receiver is on Ch3.
With a satellite receiver, you have to connect the Philips as shown in the 2nd sketch here. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12298409&postcount=10)

Your Philips can't tune satellite channels (no DVDR can), so it doesn't go in-line on the coax. It DOES need a separate line output to a TV input so you can see internal stuff, like menus, DVDs, etc. It doesn't send any internal stuff thru its coax.

i am sorry to ask again .. I did the connection well .. I can tune my Dish network channels on the DVDR .. I can record from my dish netwrok on HD while watching the channel .. The question is ... how can i record a dish network channel while watching other dish network channel?

thank you for answering.

You can't. The DVDR only records what you're watching/playing back from dish.

Whew... That was a job of work.

I've tried Maxell, Memorex, "Dynex" (which I think is a cheap BestBuy store brand), all with no luck. However, I can still record on both DVD-RW and DVD+RW; in short, if it's got an "RW" after it, I seem to be able to record just fine.



All three of those brands are pretty much garbage. Try some Made in Taiwan Verbatim -Rs , and/or some Made in Taiwan or Made in Japan Sony +R or -R's. Far better Discs than those mentioned above.

i want to upgrade the firmware on this unit, i went to the philips site and d/loaded what they had, it is ver R19.10, on the unit it is ver R19.12, is there a later one out there somewhere???? cause i can't find it :(

Hello Buttplug
How you fix your problem, I have exactly the same problem
New 320gb, start open tray, message Load, insert CD firmware, Boot, Copy, and I see only a blue screen forever and ever. Hdd is format as Xp where is the problem??

Thank for your awnser, Bruno

Based on your post, I just installed a 300gb into my Philips and now it doesn't boot. What did I do wrong? Are you sure an upgrade works on this? The front just displays something like 'loading' and I see only a blue screen forever and ever. If your's really worked maybe 250gb is the max. Please let me know because I am very sad now. I hope the old drive works when I put it back.

My 3455H got stuck, and after unplugging to reboot and and then attempting to repower, it just powers down after a while and cycles back up again, the process repeating ad nauseum. Any way to fix? Thanks in advance.

I bought the HDRW 720/17 a year ago from costco. I think all the bad reviews are correct. The machine is full with bugs, crashes about 2-3 times a week. Had to call CS about 2 time a month.
But I have to say still better than not having a HDRW drive and having to use a old fashion VCR. (I got used to have all my favorite shows recorded automatically)
Also I got used to have a TV-Guide built in. I check all upcoming movies for the next week and click on record, whatever I am interested in.
Now I shipped the HDRW720 back to Phfillips (got tired of constant crashes and lost TV-Guide) and just learned Philips will most likely ship back an upgraded unit, the DVDR3455H which has no longer a TV-Guide... sure it has a bigger hard drive, but I really bought the old unit for the TV-Guide feature.
Any recommendation what to do with this one or which unit to buy (with TV-Guide)anyone still using a Philips hdrw 720/17 unit? This is a beautifully designed machine, despite some of it's bugs and quirks. I have two units, love them.

My 3455H got stuck, and after unplugging to reboot and and then attempting to repower, it just powers down after a while and cycles back up again, the process repeating ad nauseum. Any way to fix? Thanks in advance.

I would try downloading the firmware to a CD, and try to put it in the CD/DVD Tray and see if it tries to reload the firmware during one of the cycles. beyond that, maybe leave the unit unplugged overnight and then plug back in.

You could try the 3575 reset procedure: unplug for 10 min., then plug back in WHILE simultaneously pressing and holding the power button on the front of the unit.

I have a 3455h/37 and a brand new 320G segeate ATA hard disk.
When i strat the machine with the new hard disk instead of original , i dont receive any load messsage only Philips in the display and a continious reboot!
What wrong ? thanks

I have a 3455h/37 and a brand new 320G segeate ATA hard disk.
When i strat the machine with the new hard disk instead of original , i dont receive any load messsage only Philips in the display and a continious reboot!
What wrong ? thanks
One user, bonapart, put in a new HDD and got it to run by starting the machine with a FW disc in place. Some sparse details and a bonapart link towards bottom of this page (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12474556&postcount=133).

t try this with a 3575H and also a 3455H without any success. i made specific firmware disk for each machine and i try the firmware upgrade without problem. For the 3575H i have to press skip 6 5 4 to upgrade the firmware but i can't upgrade or replace the hard disk of both machine.

After many try , now a can see the load boot and copy, and it's work !
But when i power off the unit and back on again same message... Load ...boot ...copy and it work again.
I check in my computer to see what was writen in the Hard Disk ..Surprise Nothing 00 everywhere ! May be too much cache ( 16MB ) in the hard disk !
I will make more test tonight.

I loved my HDRW720 too, until 3 weeks ago.No matter what I tried, including shock treatment using zip code of 00000, the tv guide is not updating.I am packing it to an authorized service place to see what can be done about that.

My 3455H got stuck, and after unplugging to reboot and and then attempting to repower, it just powers down after a while and cycles back up again, the process repeating ad nauseum. Any way to fix? Thanks in advance.

This exact same thing happened to my 3455h/37 yesterday. I was buring a CD and it froze. I uplugged it and then it is now in an infinte boot loop. I tried a firmware CD, resetting it, changing DVD drives - nothing seems to work. I m afraid it is toast.

Has anybody experience this and been able to fix it???

falcon

Has anyone had their disc drawer start getting stuck? Recently mine has been refusing to open, and the word "blocked" appears in the front panel display.

Sometimes I have to try a half dozen times before it finally opens.

Oddly enough, it seems to NOT happen if there's a disc in the drawer. Only when it's empty.

Obviously the solution for now is keep a disc in the drawer, but all that's doing is ignoring the problem.

Has anyone else had this happen, and did you figure out what it was and get it fixed somehow?

My disc drawer now appears to be permanently stuck.

I haven't tried "hitting on top" or "holding STOP for 10 sec" but if these do not work, any suggestions?

Has anyone actually fixed this problem?

My disc drawer now appears to be permanently stuck.

I haven't tried "hitting on top" or "holding STOP for 10 sec" but if these do not work, any suggestions?

Has anyone actually fixed this problem?

I sort of "gently" pried mine open with a regular screwdriver 2 times. Now I just leave a blank DVD in the Tray at all times and it opens and closes perfectly. It is a most simple and inexpensive "fix".

I did the screwdriver thing too, I could feel part of the linear track start to move, but there was clearly some substantial part hitting something. Whether that part would pop back to where it was supposed to be before it would break - I wasn't about to take that chance.

Naturally, my electronics bench has about 4 different repairs on it that aren't finished....

Argh....

I did the screwdriver thing too, I could feel part of the linear track start to move, but there was clearly some substantial part hitting something. Whether that part would pop back to where it was supposed to be before it would break - I wasn't about to take that chance.

Naturally, my electronics bench has about 4 different repairs on it that aren't finished....

Argh....

Try "Holding Stop Button" for 10-20 sec. Try it several times. Mine wouldn't always open on the first try. If it opens, just put a blank DVD in the tray and get on with your life.

I tried the hold stop a bunch of times and it didn't work.

Since my unit is in a stack of other components, hitting the top of the case was not possible. So I slid it out just over an inch so I could hit it with the tops of my knuckles. I initiated OPEN and started hitting it from the bottom about twice a second.

It opened on the first attempt while hitting it.

It really didn't take much of a thumping to get it to open.

So I now keep a CD in it.

I think the DVD Tray is "catching" against the top of the surrounding casing. The tiny added weight of the DVD may be dropping it just enough to clear the obstruction. That's my theory, anyway.

Keep in mind that you will get more features out of using the DVD+RW. Like the ability to add your own chapter markers. Only available with the DVD+RW not the regular DVDR disks.

Anyone know if it's possible to play DivX .avi files from a hard drive on this player? It seems like it would be possible since it can decode DivX files from the dvd drive. Has anyone tried anything like this? Sure would be nice to be able to put a 500gb drive full of DivX files in this player when you're not using it as a DVR. I've had this unit for about a year and don't really have any complaints. I need to upgrade the hard drive and it would be nice if someone figured out DivX from hdd option. :)

This may seem an odd question but here it goes: Does anybody here knows how to reset the region code to the default (or how to set it to an arbitrary one 1 to 6)?:confused:

The reason is that there are some specific DVDs that REQUIRE the region to be set accordingly and won't play if the player is set to region code 0. "Artificial Intelligence" is one title that I remember behaving that way.:mad:

Could it be possible that one of the zeros in the 0 0 8 6 0 0 0 hack is the region code and changing it to 1, 2, 3... etc. sets back the region code?:rolleyes:

Thanks!:D

Helpful thanks

Hi:

Is it possible to dub from a DVD to the HDD in order to edit on the Phillips DVDR3575H/37? Thanks!

Greg

Yes, different ways depending on whether the DVD is Finalized or not, as described here, under "Dubbing DVD-to-HDD - Unfinalized and Finalized Discs" towards bottom of page. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12298483&postcount=18).

Hi,

I want to use Philips DVDR3455H/37 in India and hence need PAL Tuner.

Will it be ok if I buy the US version - Philips DVDR3455H/37B - and apply the Philips DVDR3455H/75 firmware that I get from Philips website.

Philips DVDR3455H/75 does have PAL Tuner.

Please help. I shall buy it only if it would work. Any ideas.

Thanks,
ganb

Has anybody been able to find the remote discreet codes for DVDR3455H for changing inputs (CAM1, CAM2, EXT1, EXT2) and power on / power off?

Thanks,
Maxxy

I discover USB port work with flash memory and external HDD and usb hub!
So I can connect external HDD 500gb, and any flash memory sticks...

I put my movies in folder by name(its cant read file name) and play volume of folder and only AVI file extention (I try DIVX- dont work)
how to:
need connect HDD to unit or try usb hub
press- USB/DV(2time) on remote
will open screen Directory
press ok
select folder name (or just play from volume of HDD)
press dislplay on remote- open menu (for play picture music or video)
on scree select: 1.type- video , 2.trick - play and OK

If someone find how to make visible files plz let me know
I practice one week now, so far all work ok and exelent quality!

this is an old thread but would like to elaborate on what ive found on this sticky problem. i took the top of my dvd burner off and it seems that there is a piece of metal on the white disc stablizer on the top of the case, this piece of metal connects magnetically with disc spindle and when you push eject the magnetism is too strong to allow the spindle to drop out of the trays way. that is why when you put a disc in it will still open, because its just enough weight to break the magnetism. that is all the info i have for now. maybe it COULD be firmware that would allow the magnetism to temporlarily cease for the tray to open. i will continue to try and find a solution. good luck folks!

I have the DVDR3455H and I have exactly the same problem! Whenever I try to open the drawer, I get the message BLOCKED. Sometimes I could pry it open and it would pop out, but I never knew what the problem was. I finally opened the case and after dissecting the DVD drive, found the magnet problem. I even disassembled the upper clutch: it has two metal discs in side to connect to the magnet in the lower half of the clutch. If you remove one of the metal discs, the magnet is not strong enough to engage the clutch and the drive fails to spin up.

I am trying to find a replacement drive now, it's the wxd-9332 sourced from ASATECH (www dot asatech dot cc), but they don't answer email.

I have logged a call with Philips and they are supposed to call me back, but I am not hopeful they will offer the drive as a replacement part.

Somewhere else I read that the same drive is in the DVDR3390, so I may just buy one of those to scavenge the drive and get mine working again.

Any advice or new info would be appreciated.

Thanks,
-stephen
Washington DC

FullOnShred wrote "If you press and hold the "Stop" button for a few seconds it will both open and close the DVD Tray. I forgot not everyone knows that. I think I read it somewhere other than the manual myself." That is brilliant! I have a Philips 3430V so I realise I am off thread, but this works on my remote too. My problem is that all the buttons on the front of the machine have ceased to respond. Everything else works fine from the remote, but it has (so I thought) no eject buttons. The need to repair it is now much less urgent, but does anyone have any suggestions cheaper than the £45 I have had quoted for 'seeing what might be done', Thanks. And thanks again for the hint.

1. Philips sent me a letter that the DVD drive is not available.

2. Somewhere else I read the obvious (and embarrassing) solution to the DVD drawer not opening: always keep a disc in it!! Duh! So now I have a "dummy" DVD which sits on top of the unit while I'm viewing and goes right into the tray as soon as the real one is removed. Problem solved (and for a lot less than $90 for a DVR3390 from which to scavenge the DVD drive)!

You are certainly welcome.:)

From the American Southwest, Hi All...Have chosen the snake icon since I nearly stepped on a rattler on my drive late one night while walking the dog 11-01-08...Haven't seen any before at 3000'...Diamondbacks hang out down in the valley...Guess it's one of those unanticipated Global Warming side effects...

This may ramble on a bit, but you've all been so helpful maybe I can return the favors...

Down to business...

I've got two DVDR 3455H/37s purchased mid to late '06. Both drives crapped out about 4 or 5 months ago. Also have a Polaroid 2001G, purchased a tad earlier, my one remaining operational DVDRHDD...sort of - more later on this "gem" of electronic design...and a Magnavox MDR10D6 DVD recorder, no HDD...

On 3455H PAL avilabiliity - can't check directly on either of my units just now as I unhooked them after drive failures, but manual p.70 shows NTSC and PAL as available options for the TV system...

For those tearing their hair out trying to open the slides of malfunctioning drives...underside of the unit directly under the drive there's an inch and a half long slot...insert a small blade screwdriver on the right end to engage a switch that will open the drive's slide when moved right to left...discs can then be inserted or removed...no need to use screwdriver a second time, just push slide closed...this, however will not afftect the unit in any other way...it will not reset units that have seized...unplugging is the only way...

For those unable to burn discs or save new titles off the buffer when the HDD is nearly full...you'll need to put your unit in "Record to Hard Disc" mode as an active buffer continues to fill the HDD effectively locking it up for further operations...only way I know how to switch to this mode is to schedule a 1 min timed recording beginning immediately...(I stop recording after a second or two) then you can pull up the HDD and delete/edit/archive to discs without the buffer continuing to stuff the HDD while you're freeing up some space...you can keep from activating the buffer before you switch back to the tuner by scheduling another 1 min recording before leaving the HDD screen...the inability to use the remote to switch back and forth between the buffer and record direct to HDD is a definite design flaw...the Polaroid allows this, making jerking around with the 1 min recordings unecessary...but here's another little tidbit that I discovered with the Polaroid that may be of use with the Philips...despite being in the direct to HDD mode, and having plently of HDD space, when my HDD hits 245 titles the unit will not record any new titles, the reason may be that each title, no matter how small it is takes up a small amount of extra space that doesn't show on the HDD menu and may fill up operatioal RAM?...any other insight on this would be helpful...any of you DVDR Wizards (the title is used with the greatest respect) got any ideas on this?

My experinece with DVDRW+/-R vs DVD+/-R...Having three brands I find that what the manuals say about having to finalize discs to play on other machines (at least in my experience) is not really correct...the DVDRWs and the DVDRs play 99% consistently on all three brands without finalizing whether the disc is full or not...it's the recording that can get a bit fussy from brand to brand...partially filled DVDRs record back and forth on all my units 99% of the time...with each new recording each brand switches the menu, or individual pages of the menu to its format...DVDRWs can sometimetimes be fooled into recording new titles on another brand by paging up to the disc menu and unfinalizing the disc (even if you hadn't finalized it before)...

As with all computers these machines sometimes get quirky...one of my Philips prefers DVDR/RW+ the other DVDR/RW-...it doesn't mean I can't play and record each on both machines, but recording the non-preferred +/- yields a greater % of seizures/disc wipeouts...

I've found on both Philips and Polaroid I can go to the HDD edit/title while recording to the HDD - most of the time no problemo...Sometimes this seizes the unit, but not necessarily the recording to HDD, but at that point it's up for grabs as to whether the HDD is recording or not...if most of the recording has been done and I can't trace back to the beginning of the program with Comcast's DVR I let it be till the end of the time slot, then see what I've got after unplug/reset...

Ths is not the case with HDD edit/title while burning to discs, apparently placing stress on the tiny computers in these units yielding a greater % of seizures/disc wipeouts...

My Polaroid Drive hangs up on the in-slide perhapps 20% of the time. If it's recording and needs to free up space the only way to make it operational is to shut the unit off...If it's a movie I'm SOL, something informational like CSPAN a two part recording will do...

And lastly, I did try another drive externally on one of my Philips, A Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7200A...it lit up, slide moved in/out, but my HDD didn't display...I'm going to try again using the Firmware upgrade disc...will let y'all know what happens...

TTFN

Hi,

I just put a new hard drive in my unit. With the new hard drive in the unit, it would be in a reboot loop until I put in the firmware cd (downloaded and burned to a disk). It then read the cd and installed the firmware and the loader just fine :) here's the steps:

1. Power up the recorder and open the DVD tray.
2. Insert the prepared upgrade CD-ROM.
3. Close the tray and the recorder will auto read the disc.
4. Upon recognize the disc, the local display of recorder will show "FLASH 1". The TV screen will show a dialog box titled "Disc Upgrade".
5. Note: The recorder will indicate "Unknown Disc" in the following 2 situations.
- When the software upgrade is not meant for your recorder (Check the applicable models above).
- Problem with writing of CD-ROM. Try again with a different CD-ROM if possible.
6. To proceed with the Upgrade, press <OK> on the remote control. You can cancel the upgrade at this point by navigating to CANCEL button on TV and pressing <OK> on the remote control.
7. If you proceed with the upgrade, the upgrading status will be shown on the TV screen.
8. The whole process takes about 1 minute after which the local display of recorder shows "DONE" and the dialog box on TV screen indicates successful upgrading. The tray will be ejected.
9. Remove the CD-ROM before pressing <OK> on the remote control. The recorder should close the tray and restart automatically after about 10 seconds.
10. Note: Do not press any buttons or interrupt the mains supply during the entire upgrading process, otherwise the recorder may become defective.
11. Note: Sometimes, the recorder does not close the tray. Do not be alarmed. Simply press <STANDBY> on the remote control to wake up the recorder and the tray will close immediately.
12. It is better to power off and on the recorder again after software upgrade before using the recorder.

Now I have 500gb and the unit it working better than ever :) Hope this helps people trying to replace the hard drive!

Hey, that's great, a bunch of us with the newer 3575/76 and Magnavox clone recently figured out how to do a upgrade on our units too. I think you folks have known about yours for a while.
I put a left over 250 in mine and am testing it out, so far so good. I hope they don't give up on hard drive equipped units here in the US, we'll just have to keep modding and fixing our old ones soon I think;)

Details about the partition structure will be forthcoming.

Note that the HDD can be moved back are forth between the 3455 and the Polaroid 2001 without loading the firmware disc on the Philips every time.

For example, say you pulled the HDD from the Polaroid with video stored on it. The first time you put this HDD in the Philips, it would need the firmware disc loaded - but all the stored video would still remain. Then, the HDD could go back to the Polaroid, and then back to the Philips - and not need the firmware disc again.

However, note that the HDD jumpers for the Polaroid are set to CS while on the Philips no jumpers are installed.

I got one of these as a hand me down. It works great. But I want to upgrade the HDD too. What kind of HDD do I buy? Will a SATA work? Or does it need older HDD like IDE/PATA/ATA100/ATA133 whatever they call them.

IDE, the 2001g uses a older western Digital 80 gig 2 meg cache 7200 rpm drive made for dvr's but as long as it's a IDE drive and doesn't draw too much juice it should work in both.

I am getting absolutely stellar burns from Verbatim Made In Taiwan DVD-R 16x discs that come in the Bright Orange/Bright Blue wrappers. I bought these at OfficeMax on sale months ago. My Philips absolutely loves them. Best scans of any media I have ever burned in this unit incl. Taiyo Yuden 8x -R Premium from Rima, Sony MIJ Yuden + and -Rs in 8x and 16x and Sony08 and D21-R media. Even better than Memo-Wrecks.:D

I own a Philips DVDR3455H/37 160GB DVR/DVDR. I've had the sticky tray issues for months, maybe over a year. I found this thread (and this forum) searching for spare parts and tech support for this unit.

I've used it like that for the longest time with the try problem, but have been able to get it open by prying on it gently. Over time, it became increasingly difficult, and the front tray covered eventually popped off. It wasn't long after that, that I simply couldn't get it opened. We've just not used it since.
:mad:
My wife recently recorded a program, and promised her sister that I would burn it to DVD for her. Not knowing that I was no longer able to get the tray open. They both have been determined to get this program to DVD, so today I decided to have a closer look. I began operating on the unit, had the DVDR drive removed and playing with it, and had a better understanding of how it was hanging up, but was unable to fix it. I started searching eBay for spare parts (and didn't find any). I continued looking for additional info. That's when I found this forum.

After reading some of the tips/tricks, I decided that I probably would not be able to fix it, and began to reassemble it. Unfortunately, as I was reinstalling the DVD drive, the underside of the drive came in contact with the electronics board that rests in the back corner of the unit. Yes, I still had it powered up. BIG mistake on my part. I saw a small blue spark. The rest is history. The unit now will not power up. At all. I was hoping that it was a simple fuse, but after looking around and not finding anything, I'm finding myself in a bit of a panic. I fear that I've fried the whole unit.
:eek:
I'm in misery thinking about the potential loss. PLEASE, someone give me some magical cure. I'm open to any/all advice.

Thanks!
Tom

Looks like it is time to buy a 3575. Sorry. But that was not a smart move. Not piling on, just saying......

You may?? be able temporarily install your 3455 drive in a 3576 to off load to DVD your important hdd programs, of course that may void the 3576 warranty so you may want to think it over.
I agree sparks are a bad sign. If it wasn't a fuse your 3455 is probably shot but probably not the HDD.

You may?? be able temporarily install your 3455 drive in a 3576 to off load to DVD your important hdd programs, of course that may void the 3576 warranty so you may want to think it over.
I agree sparks are a bad sign. If it wasn't a fuse your 3455 is probably shot but probably not the HDD.

I could not find a fuse anywhere in the system. I'm hoping to find a used 3455 on eBay that may have a bad HDD or something, but I find that highly unlikely.

Is there something other than a 3576 (or 3455) that can read the data on the drive, such as my PC? ...and if so, can my PC do anything with it?

The formatting on the HDD of DVDRs seems to be very proprietary, you can't just hook it up to a PC and read anything off it. I read a post from someone on AVS who was able to use some type of hex converter program and get things off his HDD one at a time but it was very difficult and time consuming. I also believe he was using a Panasonic so Philips may different.
I would assume all Philips/Magnavox/Funai machines would use a similar format which is why I suggested a Philips 3576 or I also believe Funai makes a couple cheaper DVDRs w/hdds that may or may not be available at any given time. I would think just swapping the HDDs would be relatively safe as long as you unplugged the machines;) Read Wajo's sticky thread for information about replacing HDDs in the Philips machines.

The formatting on the HDD of DVDRs seems to be very proprietary, you can't just hook it up to a PC and read anything off it. I read a post from someone on AVS who was able to use some type of hex converter program and get things off his HDD one at a time but it was very difficult and time consuming. I also believe he was using a Panasonic so Philips may different.
I would assume all Philips/Magnavox/Funai machines would use a similar format which is why I suggested a Philips 3576 or I also believe Funai makes a couple cheaper DVDRs w/hdds that may or may not be available at any given time. I would think just swapping the HDDs would be relatively safe as long as you unplugged the machines;) Read Wajo's sticky thread for information about replacing HDDs in the Philips machines.
Yes, unplug. Check. ;) I think I would be quite comfortable swapping out a drive.

I see several refurb 3455 units on eBay, most of them $180+ (and new ones ranging from $280 to $300+), but there is one for $160 plus shipping. That still hurts to shell out that much, but it is almost worth is so that I can drop my HDD into it, and basically hit the ground running. I'm not sure if I want another 3455 though, knowing that the drive tray problems are so common. I would certainly prefer to go with a 3576 or something similar/updated/newer, but from the quick searches I've made, those appear to be considerably more expensive.

I see some hard drives listed for the 3576, which also list 3575. Is there a 3575 model too I presume?

So what I'm gathering, my drive (my format) will just drop into any of these units? Has it been done before?

I'd consider trying to dig up one of the Funai(?) units as well, if I could find a deal and I knew it would work.

Appreciate all the help!

I see some hard drives listed for the 3576, which also list 3575. Is there a 3575 model too I presume?

So what I'm gathering, my drive (my format) will just drop into any of these units? Has it been done before?

I'd consider trying to dig up one of the Funai(?) units as well, if I could find a deal and I knew it would work.

Appreciate all the help!

These are the main threads where the Philips/Magnavox 3575/3576/2080/2160 HDD/DVD recorders, including hard drive replacement procedures for these models, are being discussed. (All these models are designed by Philips and manufactured by Funai.).

Wajo's 3575/3576/2160 sticky thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940657

A Magnavox 2160 thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1054933

A Philips 3575 thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=830253

A Magnavox 2080 thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=920073

The 3575 is just predecessor to the 3576, very similar units.
AFA the HDD swapping you may want to read Wajo's sticky. I know people are replacing the HDDs in several of the newer Funai DVDRs but I was only speculating a drive(recorded on) from one model would read in another. The raw drives seem interchangeable but you really should get conformation before you try your 3455 drive an anything other than another 3455.

Wajo's 3575/3576/2160 sticky thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940657

I've been reading this one (per previous suggestion). It's been educational and helpful (thank you very much!), but I've not found the specifics I need yet (I think).

I may resort to another 3455 because its my only "Known" at the moment. I'll give it a little more time first though, just to see what the possibilities are.

I think the 3455 may have been the last non-Funai-made model, so the chance that anything about them would be cross-compatible might not be so good.

I don't think the old Toshiba's and the newer, Funai-made ones are, are they?

You have a good point Ramm, if that's true hdd drive compatibility would probably be a issue. AFAIK the old and new Toshibas are totally different. In fact I believe I've read even unfinalized discs cannot be shared between the old and new Toshibas. The old and new Philips may very well be the same.

I think the 3455 may have been the last non-Funai-made model, so the chance that anything about them would be cross-compatible might not be so good.

I don't think the old Toshiba's and the newer, Funai-made ones are, are they?You have a good point Ramm, if that's true hdd drive compatibility would probably be a issue. AFAIK the old and new Toshibas are totally different. In fact I believe I've read even unfinalized discs cannot be shared between the old and new Toshibas. The old and new Philips may very well be the same.
Hmmm... the more info I get, the more it looks like an old 3455 refurb might be my only realistic route (or if a used one happens to come along eBay for a deal, but I'm not holding my breath).

There is a fuse and it's on that square circuit board at the left rear of the unit right inder the power cord. The fuse, a T3.15A/250V is just to the right of the power cord along the rear wall. Mine has a piece of yellow tape wrapped around the center, is 3/4" long with leads attached at right angles soldered into the board.

As for your other problem, the POS asatech burner, if you've successfully reassembled it, as other posts have already pointed out you'll need to keep a dummy DVD in it to open the slide, and a side-to-side switch in a slot underneath the 3455 (my post p23) if you forget the dummy or when that doesn't work either, as it won't all the time. This will will work for a while, but this is a substandard device with a limited life span.

FYI - A few weeks ago after seeing Falcon's post #585 P20 where he details using a Sony AD7170A burner externally fairly successfully, I gave Philips a call, got through to a guy who called himself a "Subject Matter Expert" who promised to research the characteristics of the asatech and get back to me so I could find a matchup since Philips won't supply replacement burners (not that anyone IMHO in their right mind would buy that same POS). In any case he did phone me back but I couldn't take his call just then. When I returned the call I wasn't put through to him, and was given the impression I never would be again. After insisting, I got some mgmt chick who said Philps policy is to not make that info avail. Went round and round w/her on the lack of wisdom treating customers like **** does for future business. Asked for CEO's phone number she predictably gave me an addr for "suggestions". Ended by telling her I'd never buy another Philips anything and I'd tell all relatives, friends, aquaintances, yada yada.

So...since I'd previously tried a Sony Optiarc detailed in my earier post P23 w/o success, I rolled the dice, ordered a LITE-ON from newegg.com #27-106-269 -- $27.99 free shipping. I find this burning fine with <1% errors, and I hate to point out Philips has a hand in it's design which is why I picked it. Hey, I'll always hate Philips but Mamma didn't raise no fool. As with Falcon's Sony it won't fit inside, but instead of placing it on top of the 3455 I've got a long IDE cable out the back of the unit over the power cord to hook up the LITE-ON beside the 3455 on the left. I've done this for a couple reasons: 1) it looks better, black face and gray housing of the burner is a close match to the 3455, and 2) Heat - even the small amount of heat the burner can pick up from the top of the 3455 can increase burn errors. Drives intended for inside installations are meant to be cooled by the venturi effect produced by fans sucking hot air out and cooler air in from vent holes in computers and the underside of the 3455. I've also got it below all my other AV equip on a wire shelf with a fan blowinng across the top and bottom. The breeze also covers the Polaroid DVDR which has always been prone to overheating, and which I replaced the interior fan with a better one that turns more slowly but moves more air with wider blades, making less noise. Maybe you folks up north don't need to go to these measures, what with dialing back on the thermostat to save expensive heating oil. :)

Corrections to my prior post...It was getting late...Guess I was tired...

It was, of course addressed to Wittom...hope you haven't bought that 2nd 3455 yet and replacing the fuse works for the one you lunched.

Secondly...I reported <1% errors for burns w/ LITE-ON...impossible for the number of burns I've done to date...had 3 stoners in between 40 and 50 burns <10%

There is a fuse and it's on that square circuit board at the left rear of the unit right inder the power cord. The fuse, a T3.15A/250V is just to the right of the power cord along the rear wall. Mine has a piece of yellow tape wrapped around the center, is 3/4" long with leads attached at right angles soldered into the board.

I didn't mention in any of my previous posts because it is somewhat embarrassing. BUT- When I went looking for a fuse, I was eyeballing that yellow one by the power cord because its the only thing that looks remotely like a fuse. I was a bit leary though, since it was soldered to the board and I had no way of testing it. Well, not really. Then I got the brilliant idea of arcing across the outside of the fuse and bypassing it (at this point I knew I was in trouble, and simply going for broke). I shocked the crap outta myself. I wasn't sure if it was 110V or a capacitor discharging on me. Either way, it sucked! Another bonehead move on my part, but I've already proven that I'm not too smart. Hehe... But the added insult to injury pretty much stopped me in my tracks and I've not touched it since.

So, ya think replacing this would be worth it shot? The next question is, where do I get one of these?

As for your other problem, the POS asatech burner, if you've successfully reassembled it, as other posts have already pointed out you'll need to keep a dummy DVD in it to open the slide, and a side-to-side switch in a slot underneath the 3455 (my post p23) if you forget the dummy or when that doesn't work either, as it won't all the time. This will will work for a while, but this is a substandard device with a limited life span.
While my unit was still working, I played with the dummy DVD suggestion. It still hung up (although was slightly easier to open). When it is installed and buttoned up inside, I could not get it opened at all. This has all become secondary at the point though, obviously. ;) If I can get it to power up, then I'll cross that bridge when I come to it (again).

It was, of course addressed to Wittom...hope you haven't bought that 2nd 3455 yet and replacing the fuse works for the one you lunched.
I've been eyeballing some 3455 refurb replacements, but they are still expensive (IMHO) for a unit that I already know has (or will have) issues of its own. So I've been taking things slow, had setup an automated daily search on eBay, and have been hoping that a cheap used one will eventually surface in a few days (weeks, months?).

I would LOVE to be able to recover my data on the drive, but if it just isn't possible (at a reasonable expense) then life will go on.

I dug out my old soldering gun and removed the fuse, pulled off the tape, and there it is. Ah yes. It would appear that the fuse is burnt (duh). I'm crossing my fingers, hoping that this is the only problem, although would not be surprised in the least, if I've toasted some other components. I see that the T3.15A/250V is actually a common fuse. I'm sure I can find one locally (maybe, although I'm not sure where just yet), but know that they are at least available on eBay.

http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2196/24/62/619864376/n619864376_2165128_8449.jpg

I saw this initially when inspecting the board upon my first blunder, but the yellow tape threw me off and I just thought it was a big resistor. Nor did I notice the note on the board right next to it.

Maybe there is still hope! :)

It was, of course addressed to Wittom...hope you haven't bought that 2nd 3455 yet and replacing the fuse works for the one you lunched.

FIXED!!

Thank you very much, Paladen, for calling my attention to that fuse. I de-soldered it from the board. Went to Radio Shack and back a back of four new ones. The original fuse had some end caps in it with the terminals themselves soldered to the board. I was unable to remove these to use with the new fuse, and even broke the old fuse trying. I then tried to solder the fuse directly to the former terminals, which I snipped off. That wasn't working either. So, I robbed the electronics board from an old DVD that I had which died a couple months back. I stole a fuse "holder" (it had a 2A fuse in it), soldered it to my DVR board, installed the new 3.15A fuse, and powered it up. Crisis over. I hope. It appears to be working fine, with the exception of the POS DVDR drive tray which began this nasty circle of unfortunate events to begin with.

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2196/24/62/619864376/n619864376_2165742_3491.jpghttp://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2196/24/62/619864376/n619864376_2165742_3491.jpg

http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2196/24/62/619864376/n619864376_2165741_2950.jpg

I owe Paladen a beer or something.

Very nice Job of it, and thanks for posting Pics. Hope I never need them, but if I do, yours are splendid. Bravo!

As to the Disc Drawer, I find that with the dummy disc in place my tray opens better if i "Press and Hold In the Stop Button on The Remote for about 5-10 Seconds". I don't have a clue why this works better on mine than using the Open Button on the unit itself, but it does. Indubitably.

My 3455H got stuck, and after unplugging to reboot and and then attempting to repower, it just powers down after a while and cycles back up again, the process repeating ad nauseum. Any way to fix? Thanks in advance.

1) Build yourself a Firmware Upgrade CD as discussed elsewhere in this forum.
2) Plug in and turn on the unit via the Front Panel STANDBY-ON switch.
3) The unit will start to do the infinite boot cycle.
4) Press and HOLD IN the DVD OPEN/CLOSE button on the Front Panel.
5) BE PATIENT! The unit may cycle a few times. Wait for the DVD tray to open.
6) For those with the "Sticky Tray" problem, see the solution elsewhere in this forum.
7) When the tray finally opens, drop in the Firmware Upgrade CD that you made.
8) Push the DVD OPEN/CLOSE button on the Front Panel to close the Tray.
9) Unit *should* recognize the Firmware Upgrade CD and boot to it.
10) The unit *should* boot correctly and a Dialog Box will pop up asking if you want to install the Firmware Upgrade.
11) If you have not yet upgraded the firmware, now's the time to do so. See other postings on how to do that.
12) If you had previously installed the Firmware Upgrade, there's no need to do it again. Cancel out of the Dialog Box.
13) Your DVDR3455H/37 should now be operational with all previous settings intact!

Disclaimer: THIS PROCEDURE WORKED FOR ME. YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY!

A million thanks to all others in this forum for your many hints and tips.
I am extremely grateful! :-)

Hello everybody. I just upgraded the HD in my 3455H to 250 gig. I try to install the firmware but it says "Load, Copy, Boot" but then just restarts and does it again. I noticed somebody earlier in the forum had the same problem but they were answered in a PM and then said that what they were told worked. Does anybody know of this solution? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Hello everybody. I just upgraded the HD in my 3455H to 250 gig. I try to install the firmware but it says "Load, Copy, Boot" but then just restarts and does it again. I noticed somebody earlier in the forum had the same problem but they were answered in a PM and then said that what they were told worked. Does anybody know of this solution? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
You might want to try to initialize the HDD instead of loading FW to start.

The Philips 3575/3576 has a simple HDD Initialization procedure, described here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=13686310#079), that might work on the 3455 to format the new HDD so it can be used with the existing FW.

Only if you need to install NEW FW would a FW disc be required, if the 3455 operate same as 3575/3576.

It won't respond to the remote or anything. It just sits there saying "Load" on the front with the disc drive hanging out waiting for the firmware disc.

I have the same problem, there must be the certain way to make it work.
Some body said YES and some said PROBLEM?
I waisted so many CDs and DVDs tried to make it work, but it didn't...!
If any one had this experience, please guide us :
-What firmware ..V10?
-What kind (brand) of CD he used?
-What software he used?
--Anything will be appreciated.

Thanks

Hi,

I just put a new hard drive in my unit. With the new hard drive in the unit, it would be in a reboot loop until I put in the firmware cd (downloaded and burned to a disk). It then read the cd and installed the firmware and the loader just fine :) here's the steps:

1. Power up the recorder and open the DVD tray.
2. Insert the prepared upgrade CD-ROM.
3. Close the tray and the recorder will auto read the disc.
4. Upon recognize the disc, the local display of recorder will show "FLASH 1". The TV screen will show a dialog box titled "Disc Upgrade".
5. Note: The recorder will indicate "Unknown Disc" in the following 2 situations.
- When the software upgrade is not meant for your recorder (Check the applicable models above).
- Problem with writing of CD-ROM. Try again with a different CD-ROM if possible.
6. To proceed with the Upgrade, press <OK> on the remote control. You can cancel the upgrade at this point by navigating to CANCEL button on TV and pressing <OK> on the remote control.
7. If you proceed with the upgrade, the upgrading status will be shown on the TV screen.
8. The whole process takes about 1 minute after which the local display of recorder shows "DONE" and the dialog box on TV screen indicates successful upgrading. The tray will be ejected.
9. Remove the CD-ROM before pressing <OK> on the remote control. The recorder should close the tray and restart automatically after about 10 seconds.
10. Note: Do not press any buttons or interrupt the mains supply during the entire upgrading process, otherwise the recorder may become defective.
11. Note: Sometimes, the recorder does not close the tray. Do not be alarmed. Simply press <STANDBY> on the remote control to wake up the recorder and the tray will close immediately.
12. It is better to power off and on the recorder again after software upgrade before using the recorder.

Now I have 500gb and the unit it working better than ever :) Hope this helps people trying to replace the hard drive!
Hey Bluegsx.

I have read your DVDR3455H post regarding new hard-drive, applying firmware and then all being ok.

I am in a similar situation.

My machine will not boot up properly. It gets to the stage were it displays PHILIPS on the display but then the machine just sits tere, makes a few noises and reboots itself.

I have followed your instructions but when i get to the stage to insert the disc (which i have to do manually as it is not opening the DVD drive from the remote control) the machine fails to read the disc.

Hence, I am stuck as this stage.

Can you offer any advice?

I am reasonably technical so any solution you can provide would be great.

Regards,
Aleks

Any help please.

I have a question. When the 3455H is turned on it will automatically go into the Tuner mode. My output is set to EXT2 so every time I have to switch input by pressing the Input button multiple times.
Has anybody been able to find a way to get the DVD automatically go to an input other than Tuner once turned on?
Have anybody been able to find discreet remote codes for switching the box directly to a specific input?

I have a question. When the 3455H is turned on it will automatically go into the Tuner mode. My output is set to EXT2 so every time I have to switch input by pressing the Input button multiple times.
Has anybody been able to find a way to get the DVD automatically go to an input other than Tuner once turned on?
Have anybody been able to find discreet remote codes for switching the box directly to a specific input?
If your unit operates like my PhilMag units (3575 and 2160), the unit will turn on to whatever channel or input (Source) you left it on when you turned it off.

It should also go directly to Input 1 (E1 or L1) on first press of the "Source" button (might be named "Input" also?), so switching to E1/L1 instead of 2 might help for your purpose? (like one person with a universal remote wanting a way to go directly to E1/L1 w/o having to got thru all the channels/inputs with the CH+/- button).

If your unit operates like my PhilMag units (3575 and 2160), the unit will turn on to whatever channel or input (Source) you left it on when you turned it off.

It should also go directly to Input 1 (E1 or L1) on first press of the "Source" button (might be named "Input" also?), so switching to E1/L1 instead of 2 might help for your purpose? (like one person with a universal remote wanting a way to go directly to E1/L1 w/o having to got thru all the channels/inputs with the CH+/- button).

It looks like 3455 is different from 3575. It goes to the Tuner source no matter what source I've left it at when turned off.

Hey Bluegsx.

I have read your DVDR3455H post regarding new hard-drive, applying firmware and then all being ok.

I am in a similar situation.

My machine will not boot up properly. It gets to the stage were it displays PHILIPS on the display but then the machine just sits tere, makes a few noises and reboots itself.

I have followed your instructions but when i get to the stage to insert the disc (which i have to do manually as it is not opening the DVD drive from the remote control) the machine fails to read the disc.

Hence, I am stuck as this stage.

Can you offer any advice?

I am reasonably technical so any solution you can provide would be great.

Is it possible to get an ISO of a working "Firmware Upgrade Disc" since it seems the latest high speed recording options are not making "usable" firmware upgrades? Also make available both versions that were once available to be able to switch back to original version if one does not like the latest version.

Thanks.

I haven't seen posts relating to this editing issue on 3455's so wonder if it's a peculiarity of the one I just got: :confused:

The manual states that to hide a scene on a HDD recording you select Edit Title, then navigate to the beginning point and press OK, then navigate to the end point and press OK again. Easy! But on my 3455 the Edit Title display times out after exactly 20 seconds and when you bring it back it alwys calls for selecting the beginning point of an edit, even if you've already done so. If you then push OK the slashed circle meaning 'error' appears but if you push OK one more time and then back out of the Edit Title function and then re-enter Edit Title the scene has indeed been deleted, and you can go through the same rigamarole again. Surely, this isn't the way it's supposed to work?
--
Also, I take it as normal that editing on a 3455 is imprecise compared to other DVD recorders as there's no apparent way to select frame-by-frame edit points when going in reverse. I find using the RW and then Play/Pause button sequence extremely awkward. Unless I'm seriously misunderstanding the process, the 3455 appears seriously flawed compared with Philips HDRW 720's precise frame-by-frame editing capabilities.
--
I've learned to ignore what the display says and have become familiar with a few tricks for editing predictably, but on balance the 3455 DVD recorder doesn't live up to expectations. Philips managed to pull defeat from victory when the 3455 was released. I had high hopes after seeing its logically organized remote but there's no comparison between the 3455 and 720.

fallingwater, here is a repost of my original Editing post. Hope it helps. For me, editing is considerably easier with the Philips 3576, but still not 100% frame accurate if using highspeed dubs to DVD blanks.

I decided to make a post about Editing on this Philips unit since I am getting perfect Edits most of the time now. Many of you may not need input on this, but perhaps it may help a few.

I Edit mostly NCAA basketball and a few sitcoms. For basketball I use the SP 2hr. mode and then edit out commercials/halftime etc. Even if the game goes into overtime I still can fit it on a 4.7gb DVD after editing.

First I use the Divide function to trim off the non-essential material at the start and finish of the recording.

Next I enter the Edit mode on the Title and start jumping forward using the 30 second Commercial skip ( > ) to advance thru the Title. In my experience you will miss very few commercials and other edit points advancing in this manner.

When I encounter a commercial I use the 10 sec. Reverse skip ( < ) to find a position just prior to the start of the commercial. I then press the Pause button ( >ll ) just as the desired programing is ending and then use the Next button ( >l ) to Frame Advance 'til the game/sitcom picture is allllmost faded out to black, but not quite all the way. I then use the OK (OK) button to begin the Edit.

Next I use the 30 sec. Advance ( > ) to reach the start of my desired programming, and then the 10 sec. Reverse skip ( < ) to find the end of the commercial and then Pause ( >ll ) again. Next I Frame Advance until the game/sitcom is juuuuust beginning to fade in and hit the OK (OK) button to end this Edit point. I almost never get flash frames of the commercial on either end of the Edit using this method. I repeat until I have removed all undesired material from the Title

I also "measure twice but cut once" in most instances to make sure I am really where I want to be before I place the Edit points. I find that easier and faster than having to undo/redo later. You have to pay attention to the Audio as well if you want a perfect Edit. With a little practice I've found I can do all of these steps far faster than it sounds here.

To check my edit points I then Play the Title and use the 5 minute Advance (Next) button ( >l ) to move quickly thru the Title. It will stop at all edit points. Pay attention to the time reflected on the "Progress Bar" and you can tell when you encounter and edit point because it will usually be less than the standard "5 minute jump". When I encounter and Edit point I use the 10 sec. "Reverse Skip" ( < ) to back up so I can check both the "lead out" and "lead in" Edit points. In most cases using the methods above I get a perfect "flash free" edit.

Finally, I burn to Disc for archiving and in most cases delete the original recording.

Thanks for your reply. I see that you've made many helpful posts on these threads including your original post about editing, http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9115715#post9115715
and this one providing an overview of 3455H:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8183609#post8183609

I got my 3455H on eBay recently for under $150 so really can't complain but I'm glad I didn't get another.

Have you ever used Philips' HDRW 720? Although it's one of the most complicated DVD recorders to learn to use, has an incredibly poorly laid out remote, has a mediocre analog tuner, and is burdened with the soon to be phased out analog TVGOS which occasionally hiccups crashing the recorder, it also has powerful virtues.

The HDRW 720 does spot-on edits, provides long DVD titles, and the best images from a 480p Component output I've seen. It provides a 480i Component input, an S-Video/Composite input, a Camcorder input, plus its tuner input. Its rolling 6 hour recording buffer survives all input changes (except Camcorder, which must be confirmed separately), any part of which can be turned into a recording. All editing is done on the 120GB HDD and is reversible. DVD's need only need to be burned, titled, and finalized. The ongoing rolling recording buffer even survives editing functions.

These days I'd disable TVGOS (by entering Zipcode 00000) and leave the recorder on 24/7. One benefit of the 3455H's remote is that it provides direct FF/RW codes for the 720 bypassing the original remote's awkward dual functioning which requires holding down the FF/RW keys for 3 sec.'s to keep from jumping 5 min. Too bad the 3455H remote provides no discrete pause key.

I just bought Philips' H2160 A and have a 3575 onroute. The 720 spoiled me until I got curious recently. It seems I've had it good!

A quick fix which actually works to combat DVD± incompatibilities and other glitches on various recorders (which use all formats) is to use a DVD lens cleaning disc with micro brushes. Needless to say, YMMV, but it's worth a try!

When a CSR first recommended a DVD lens cleaner to me I thought it was typical CSR BS. Because Radio Shack offers a money-back 30 day return policy I bought theirs, thinking it was going to go back real quick. I was astounded to find that it worked and the damned recorder went back to handling all the discs it was supposed to.

When a CSR first recommended a DVD lens cleaner to me I thought it was typical CSR BS. Because Radio Shack offers a money-back 30 day return policy I bought theirs, thinking it was going to go back real quick. I was astounded to find that it worked and the damned recorder went back to handling all the discs it was supposed to.
A single female dust mite on the lens is so small we can't see it but it can cover/shade more than 400 tracks on a DVD!

Who know what a whole family would do!? :D

"I got my 3455H on eBay recently for under $150 so really can't complain but I'm glad I didn't get another.

Have you ever used Philips' HDRW 720? Although it's one of the most complicated DVD recorders to learn to use, has an incredibly poorly laid out remote, has a mediocre analog tuner, and is burdened with the soon to be phased out analog TVGOS which occasionally hiccups crashing the recorder, it also has powerful virtues. "


The 720 and the 3455 were probably the best of Philips in MHO. I have used the 720 for around 4 years and their replacement the 3455 since they came out. They did take away those great colored buttons that made editing so easy, but they added a great feature in the 3455, in that you can record from the tuner, while at the same time record to DVD and also at the same time do your editing on titles on the hard drive. When the 3455 first came out people hated the fact that you could not "chase-play" a show that was currently recording. But to do three things at the same during primetime comes in handy when you have to balance work and free time. I suppose the later 3457 and "have yet to see the 3120" are ok for the coming digital transition, but they brought back "chase-play" and have taken away the ability to edit in "real" time.

The other draw back was the titleling. Although those who have upgraded their firmware said that the upgrade did allow for longer titles. I am still trying to figure out how to burn the firmware onto cd. I can not get the perameters right according to Philips website. The cd's seem to finalize, but they are unreadable in my 3455's. If there is anyone out there who has been able to make a working disk with today's latest burning software, your secrets would be greatly appreciated. My theory is that I should have been in here 2 years ago when the topic was hot and the burners weren't so fast. :D

Timtofly, here is how it worked for me..........

I just downloaded the Firmware, and then opened the Firmware Upgrade PDF on the Philips Website and followed the included instructions.

I unzipped and extracted the Firmware Upgrade Files to a folder in My Documents, and then I used Nero 6 to burn the unzipped files to a DVD-R as a Data DVD following the settings specified in the PDF file. I then inserted the DVD-R into my DVDR and it automatically began the update process. It didn't take long at all. Do remember to remove the Firmware DVD-R from the Philips Unit before Pressing the Final "OK" command that restarts the DVDR and completes the Upgrade.

The procedure went flawlessly. The downsides are that I had to reprogram all my channels and reprogram all my Timer Recording Presets.

..................................'Shred

"I got my 3455H on eBay recently for under $150 so really can't complain but I'm glad I didn't get another.

Have you ever used Philips' HDRW 720? Although it's one of the most complicated DVD recorders to learn to use, has an incredibly poorly laid out remote, has a mediocre analog tuner, and is burdened with the soon to be phased out analog TVGOS which occasionally hiccups crashing the recorder, it also has powerful virtues."

The 720 and the 3455 were probably the best of Philips in MHO. I have used the 720 for around 4 years and their replacement the 3455 since they came out. They did take away those great colored buttons that made editing so easy, but they added a great feature in the 3455, in that you can record from the tuner, while at the same time record to DVD and also at the same time do your editing on titles on the hard drive. When the 3455 first came out people hated the fact that you could not "chase-play" a show that was currently recording. But to do three things at the same during primetime comes in handy when you have to balance work and free time. I suppose the later 3457 and "have yet to see the 3120" are ok for the coming digital transition, but they brought back "chase-play" and have taken away the ability to edit in "real" time...

I read your post with interest. As a user familiar with the 3455H can you confirm that the info display disappears after exactly 20 secs when editing and when brought back refers to beginning an edit even when you already have done so?

For me the greatest weakness of the 3455H is its inability to frame-reverse to set edit points. It's no longer possible to perform spot-on edits, just approximations. It also is notably sloppier than the 720 when translating selected edit points into actual transitions, off by a significant fraction of a second, always prior to the selected point.

I like the fact that the 720 does all editing on the HDD and that all editing except dividing a title is reversible. Unfortunately that combination precludes the features you prefer. The 6 hour rolling buffer on the 720 continues uninterrupted when editing or even burning a DVD, although it's not accessible during either procedure.

I've just gotten a 3575H and 2160A and haven't yet become familiar with how they operate. The 2160A is likely to be the last of the Philips/Funai series of HDD recorders which started with the 720. Think of the recorder that could have been if all the best features (technically capable of working together) from all these recorders had been combined! I'd have settled for just a 720 with a 3455H/3575/76H style remote!

Well mine is in for repairs. Got it for xmas couple years ago. Left it in the box for the 1st year. Just started using it this year and already have found that it will: 1- freeze up,cannot shut off, have to unplug it. 2-will not play all region 1dv that i rent from blockbuster or such. It will play all the trash on there until you get to the movie, and then...blank or black. But I can play that same dvd on my computer..no problem. 3- and this is the one that gets me..all of a sudden it stoppd showing "live" tv channels. It will play a dvd, will play off the hard drive what I had recorded, but no live tv. Tuner went? Don't know it is in the shop for repairs.
I would not recommend this machine to anyone. For 300.00 Philips screwed me..and not even a kiss.

And you can bet they know these problems, Just something for their "cashflow" problems

FullOnShred, Thanks! I found an old OEM Nero suite and after failure on a vista computer loaded it on a XP and finally got A firmware DVD that the 3455 will recognize. Will post later after trying a 320 gig drive install. I assume that it will erase any recordings already on a hard drive?

Here is what I have found. With free trial version of HD clone, I have sucessfully cloned the original drive onto a newer WD Green drive. but both have to be the same size. AND a 160 gig takes 4 hours. According to the reviews HD Clone is supposed to take a copy of a 160 and resize onto a larger drive, but it does not work with the trial version of HD Clone. I even varified with a XP operating system disk - does ok from same size drive, but is useless going to a larger size drive. I am curious if any one has tried any other cloning software to keep the recordings in tack while going to a lager size. The 320 I have still has the image of the 160. I am curious if the firmware upgrade will just initialize the drive or totally reformat it.

fallingwater,

It seems that when the info screen goes away, it does seem to end the current edit. I have not timed it. Philips design team probably did not take into consideration that sometimes a person could be interupted and not finish the edit in the time they alloted. To answer your question in MOHO - you have to end the editting before the bar goes away. You can not watch the 30 second commercial during edit, you have to do that on your "own" time. :D

As to the precise point in time; even the 720 if you hit the pause button between 13 and 21 times it could either get you on the mark or jump to the next one. In MHO it seems the transtions between shows and commercials are just getting sloppier these days. FullOnShred has about hit the process on the head. The >> and << have different speeds. You just have to find the one that is comortable for you (before the predetermined time has run out) Actually the bar going away only happens if you do Nothing for "20" seconds. You can >> through the whole recording if you felt so inclined. You can use the lower >l key (does what the pause button did on the 720) to advance it frame by frame once it is paused. Just hit the OK button next, not the play/pause button. The biggest difference between the 720 and the 3455 is now the play and pause button are the same. That may take a little getting used to. So now in pause mode the >l key is the "pause key"

The 6 hour buffer seems to have been placed into a seperate hidden place on the drive which would protect it from crashing into the other two recordings (recording from tuner and recording to the DVD) All of my 720's would get "cross-over" moments that would most of the time lock up the machine unless you hit the tuner button to get out of editing. For this reason, even though it bugged those "chase-players" I think it has reduced crashes considerably. I am not sure though why the 3455 still locks up "windows like" after a week of 24/7 recordings and transfering of data if it is linux based. :D Neither have I quite figured out the two "modes" of the 6 hour buffer. The non timer mode will let you go back and forth and pick your recordings, just not let you edit them. I usually did all my editing after they were off the buffer even on the 720. I have found out you can stop a timer recording and if you hit the record button before you go to the HD or DVD menu, it will stay in the timer mode. If not you loose the last minute between back to back timed recordings. I have a 3575. but have given up on trying to figure it out. It will not let you do anything it seems while it is recording. Will take any criticisms in this area. :D If the 2160 has the same features that the 3455 had they took away in the 3575, then I may have another toy after total atsc transition. I at least have 10,000 dvd's and tapes I can use to play with after the 3455 can no longer receive a signal. Yes I have read almost all of the 157 pages of the 3575 thread and it is a very interesting read.


Maybe they are still hammering out the MPEG4 code and will surprise us after the dust settles with machines just as great as our MPEG2's in the realm of HD. How about editing and then sticking it on a 16 gig micro sd instead of a "blue-ray". You could then carry around a pocket full of "whatever" and play them any where you like. That would be a lot easier than carrying around a hand full of "DVD's" Just don't walk by any CRT's or carry a magnet in your pocket. :D

fallingwater,

It seems that when the info screen goes away, it does seem to end the current edit. I have not timed it. Philips design team probably did not take into consideration that sometimes a person could be interupted and not finish the edit in the time they alloted. To answer your question in MOHO - you have to end the editting before the bar goes away. You can not watch the 30 second commercial during edit, you have to do that on your "own" time. :D

Actually you can finish an edit already in progress if you ignore the info screen and press OK twice and then back out of editing mode.

...Actually the bar going away only happens if you do Nothing for "20" seconds. You can >> through the whole recording if you felt so inclined. You can use the lower >l key (does what the pause button did on the 720) to advance it frame by frame once it is paused. Just hit the OK button next, not the play/pause button. The biggest difference between the 720 and the 3455 is now the play and pause button are the same. That may take a little getting used to. So now in pause mode the >l key is the "pause key"

More stuff to try out! Thanks. There are so many different versions of these recorders, it gets confusing. :D

I used a learning remote to regain separate play/pause functions for the 3455H and to seperate the FF/RW functions from the 5 min. jump function for the 720. Much better!

FullOnShred, Thanks! I found an old OEM Nero suite and after failure on a vista computer loaded it on a XP and finally got A firmware DVD that the 3455 will recognize. Will post later after trying a 320 gig drive install. I assume that it will erase any recordings already on a hard drive?

If it were me, I would probably format the 320Gb HDD first, just to be sure, but the real answer is "I don't know."

Timtofly, you are welcome for the info on the Firmware CD procedure. Probably any version of Nero, or perhaps any Burning Software that will do Data CDs with Joliet settings enabled would have worked, but I posted exactly what I did and what I used because I know that worked for me. I am happy it worked for you too.

Please do post about your efforts with the 320Gb HDD upgrade, or any other upgrades/repairs/tweaks you try or find useful. Thanks.:)


Fallingwater, I agree, no backwards frame advance capability is a poor way to offer editing. The 10 sec Reverse Skip became invaluable to me during editing procedures. If I miss my mark on first attempt, I just hit 10 sec Reverse skip, pause and try forward frame advance again. I actually got pretty well skilled at making the right edit points to avoid all unwanted frames. The worst issue for me is that the final DVD Recording of edited programs do not FF or Rew properly in most cases (faster than 2x, that is), rendering FF/Rew functions nearly useless on DVDs created on this machine.:o

------

Help.

Please.

My 3455 is still usable as a DVR, but it's running into problems where the DVD drive (or more precisely, the DVD drawer) is concerned.

For a good while now the machine has been refusing to open the drawer, either to accept or allow removal of a DVD. Been getting it to cooperate by giving it a knock just above the door and that's done the trick. Maybe two days ago, tho', it started not CLOSING the door. A little push seemed to get it moving, but then that quickly stopped working. Even if I can get the door to close by manually pushing it, it doesn't catch and the readout still says "blocked".

Now no way to play DVDs or record on them.

I have plenty of stuff on the hard drive (which is working fine), some of which I'd like to still eventually put on DVD. It works fine with analog cable and also with a digital OTA converter box, so if this problem with the door can be fixed, that's all it'd need.

Has anyone had any experience with getting these machines fixed? (Maybe a new DVD drive put in place of the old one?)

My 3455 is still usable as a DVR, but it's running into problems where the DVD drive (or more precisely, the DVD drawer) is concerned.

For a good while now the machine has been refusing to open the drawer, either to accept or allow removal of a DVD. Been getting it to cooperate by giving it a knock just above the door and that's done the trick. Maybe two days ago, tho', it started not CLOSING the door. A little push seemed to get it moving, but then that quickly stopped working. Even if I can get the door to close by manually pushing it, it doesn't catch and the readout still says "blocked".

. . . if this problem with the door can be fixed, that's all it'd need.

Additional clarifications and a caution are found in this post:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16491347#post16491347

The attached images show portions of five pages found in Sylvania and Magnavox Service Manuals, circa. 2005-2007.

The first image depicts the manual eject procedure for a DVD Drive manufactured in 2007.

The second and third images depict manual eject methods for a DVD Drive manufactured in late 2005/early 2006.

The fourth and fifth images are cut-away views of the Drive Mechanism Assembly for newer and older models, respectively.

gastrof,


What happens when you unplug the unit and plug it back in? Does the tray make any effort in movement? On mine if the tray is open, when powering off it moves slightly and then after the reboot will close and "latch".

There is a two inch opening on the bottom of the player that you can insert a small screwdriver into - starting from the middle of the player and sliding it towards the outside that will release/open the tray.

If the feed/release mechanism for the tray is not binding any where, then you may have a power issue. With the DVD player itself, the power supply, or the unit is not getting enough power itself.

Timtofly,

That's good to know.

Gastrof updated his situation in a PM. He mentioned that the rubber belt in his DVD Drive was broken.

I had checked the bottom of the Sylvania ZV450SL8 case. There was no access slot for manually releasing the disc tray on that model's case.

Earlier I had posted the following clarifications in the 3575/3576 thread:

After comparing the above DVD Drive illustrations and the attached photo showing the DVD Drive in a Sylvania ZV450SL8, it appears that the gear to be rotated may be found behind a panel seen toward the left between two "posts" in the photo. Perhaps that panel may be be popped out or slid up to gain access to the gear.

If the panel or "posts" are difficult to identify in the photo notice that the metal strap running across the top at the left is screwed to the right of the two "posts." The panel is to the left of that post. The panel may also be located by looking well above the left-most cut-out in the metal side rail of the ZV450 case.

Guys...

As I've told a couple of you already, the 3455 seems to be fixed.

I'll know for sure tomorrow when I reconnect it to the wiring in the TV stand.

Opened it all up, including removing the top of the DVD drive, and found (as mentioned above) that a drive belt had snapped. Didn't know at the time exactly what the drive wheels were connected to, but had some ideas.

Earlier tonight I went to Staples office supply store and bought a $1.79 bag of rubber bands.

At home, found one about the same size as the broken belt, and fitted it over the drive wheels in what seemd to be the right configuration. (No big thing...there only appeared to be two wheels involved.)

Got the DVD drawer back in place and closed up the drive, replaced all removed screws except for those holding the main lid on, and plugged the box in.

The DVD drawer opens and closes like all get out, and the hard drive appears to still be working fine. (Hooked it up to another old monitor in the room where I was doing the repair. Menu comes up for the drive, stored videos play, seems fine.)

Thanks for the help. (You know who you are.)

As a side point, since the drawer is now opening and closing freely with no obstruction, I wonder if maybe it wasn't a matter of weak magnets, but likely the belt beginning to break.

This might be food for thought for anyone else whose DVD drawer is giving them problems.

I'll add here that once the repair had been made, the drawer was opening and closing easily WITHOUT a DVD in it to add weight.

Hmm...

I'll have to check on what happens WITH a DVD in place, to see if the belt's strong enough to carry the weight. (From the look of things, tho', I'm not worried.)

I know using an ordinary rubber band might mean this is only a temporary fix, but as I mentioned in PM, I've still got the rest of the package for any future replacements, and I know where to get more.

On Cloning Hard Drives from original (160) to something larger:

Seems Philips uses a proprietary format of either linux or Windows CE. Gparted just declares it as unallocated space. If you make the source disk the slave and the larger disk the master, cloning software will clone the drive fine and the 3455 recogonizes it ok. It even shows all of the recordings in the HD menu. It seems though that all of the links in the (MBR) are lost. Upgrading the firmware during the process has no effect. Still searching for anything that would recognize the MBR and repair it.

When doing a firmware upgrade it stays with the Hard Drive. If you put a hard drive that has been in a 3455 without the upgrade into a 3455 that has had the upgrade it is as if an upgrade had never been done. If you put an upgraded hard drive into a non-upgraded 3455 it seems to Gain the features of the upgrade (longer titles).

It does not solve the MBR problem though when you do an upgrade.

I wanted to post a reply which I sent to gastrof only to share my experience with the DVD drawer not opening. I wrote:

"...No, I didn't get it [my DVD drive] fixed, but I have been keeping a dummy blank in it when not in use (i.e. never close it empty) and it works just fine. If yours is stuck shut, you'll need to open the case, (several screws) and force it open, then replace the case. Just remember to ALWAYS keep a disc in it - I put a paper label on a blank DVD+R and labeled it DUMMY! to remind me.

The problem with the DVD drive is this: it has a clutch which closes on and grabs the disc when you close the drawer and the clutch is magnetic. The lower portion with the motor is a magnetic circle about the size of a quarter. The upper, moveable portion of the clutch, which clamps down on the DVD when the drawer closes, contains two thin metal washers, which are attracted to the magnetic lower half and hold the DVD+R in position so it can spin. Is that clear? The problem is that the magnetic force is too powerful for the opening drawer to break and you get the BLOCKED message on the display. If you try to open the drawer with no DVD in it with the cover off, you can see the top of the drive, the spinning top of the clutch, sink down into the drive as the drawer attempts to break the magnetic hold. With a flat blade screwdriver you can sort of lift the clutch and break the grab, then the drawer will open. Try it, you'll see. It's a design defect. I tried disassembling the drive and removing one of the metal discs in the clutch, but then the magnetic grab wasn't enough to keep the clutch closed, and the DVD never went "ready". It's simply a design problem and Philips is never going to fix it. I found the Taiwan manufacturer of the drive, but they don't answer my (English) email. I also logged a call with Philips for a replacement, but they said they have no more drives and closed the ticket.

Anyway, that's been a long explanation and I hope it helps. The solution, if you love your 3455 like I do, the solution is to always have disc in the drive and you'll always be able to get it open. I use mine everyday, I have hundreds of TCM movies saved on DVD for the day they go commercial".

I hope this helps someone else who is frustrated with the stuck drawer. Mine is back in service now and I have recorded and burned at least 150 TCM movies since I wrote the note.

A little update-

The machine is recording fine to the hard drive, so I didn't wreck anything there by opening the box up, and the DVD drawer is opening and closing with and without discs.

The machine plays and records DVDs.

This, for the price of a $1.79 bag of rubber bands.

Guys, if you have problems with the drawer and feel confident about opening the thing, replace the belt with a rubber band and see what happens. It may be worth it.

Now if only my Magnavox 2160 would only finalize DVDs without my needing to delete the programmed events in the timer... (Supposedly they're working on that. :rolleyes:)

I replaced my drive belt also, but went the more expensive route.

Ordered a pair of belts from Studio Sound Electronics, Part number SBM3.2
They have a minimum order of 5 dollars and each belt was about 1.05 dollars US.

Nothing against the rubber bands, I know they work, I am just fussy and want the right part if I can get it.
Either way try not to get finger oils on the drive belt, it leads to slippage.

Does any one have access to a service manual, or where I can get parts for my 3455?

Thanks

anyone had this problem??? my unit will not initialize, it just stalls and goes no where. I unplugged from power socket and after a while i plugged unit into power wall socket and the hard drive starts with the normal hard drive sound but doesn't finish initializing and just a blank screen, any ideas on this problem would be grateful..

Someone in the setup thread for the Philips 3576 posted info on replacement remotes...

They had them for the 3455 too.

http://www.remotes.com/remotes/servlet/rs?uuid=12454743809840&o=c&o=c&a=Search&uid=0&m=DVDR3455H

anyone had this problem??? my unit will not initialize, it just stalls and goes no where. I unplugged from power socket and after a while i plugged unit into power wall socket and the hard drive starts with the normal hard drive sound but doesn't finish initializing and just a blank screen, any ideas on this problem would be grateful..

When you say the hard drive starts, do you have the cover off and can you "feel" the motor spinning. In my shuffling of drives this weekend I lost the power from the "hard drive" power connection. Everything else seems to work just fine, but I had to figure out an external power source. I had an open computer nearby. So with the computer supplying power to the hard drive I was able to record to the drive. I have yet to figure out if something is shorting out on the board that the drive plugs into, or the power supply itself.

I am trying to refurbish a unit that needed a power supply do to one of the prongs was broken where the cord plugs into it and the DVD player was taken apart with a hammer. That is why I was looking for parts in my last post. It looks like the dvd is gone. I swapped motors since the motor was the object of the hammer, but it seems the laser is out of alignment still. If any one has found a substitute DVD recorder unit that works, the make and model # would be appreciated.

i have the cover off and can feel and hear the hard drive on start up, also the dvd tray will not open, so frustrating, maybe i should just take it to the shop and see if its worth spending money on it or not.

Since you've got the cover off, check each end of the cable connecting the HDD and the DVD to the motherboard... carefully press each end in to see if you can detect a loose connection?

Touch case first to discharge all static.

I am trying to refurbish a unit that needed a power supply do to one of the prongs was broken where the cord plugs into it and the DVD player was taken apart with a hammer. That is why I was looking for parts in my last post. It looks like the dvd is gone. I swapped motors since the motor was the object of the hammer, but it seems the laser is out of alignment still. If any one has found a substitute DVD recorder unit that works, the make and model # would be appreciated.

Yikes!

If you can find and post the DVD Drive's model number, usually found on the top cover, it may help identify a compatible DVD Drive.

The photos show DVD Drives found in a July 2007 Magnavox H2080MW8 and an August 2008 Magnavox ZV450MW8A. With the ZV450 it was necessary to tip up the CBA to photograph the DVD Drive indicia.

i have the cover off and can feel and hear the hard drive on start up, also the dvd tray will not open, so frustrating, maybe i should just take it to the shop and see if its worth spending money on it or not.

Peter,

Do you have a copy of the firmware?

There is a slot on the under side of the unit that allows you to open the DVD drawer. If you can open it and put the firmware in, and if you have access to another hard drive, the firmware "should" initialize the new drive. You could then rule out a failed hard drive.

My hard drive will make a clone ok, but it has developed the same problem as yours. Just sits there at start up rebooting over and over again. When I put another Hard Dirve in the player worked just fine. However when I plugged in the Coax from the cable company with the unit opened, now I do not have power to any hard drive. I have yet to see if the first hard drive will work in another player. Will post later if it works fine in another player. My drive had started to create bad recordings, so it may be on its way out. You may be able to reformat it on a PC and see if that can get it working again. If you wanted to keep any of the recordings, you can also try to clone it to another 160 GB hard drive and see if the new one works. I have not tried that yet, but hope to in a couple of weeks. I have cloned it to a larger drive and my recordings "were" there, but that is my other problem with cloning to a larger drive. I do not have another 160 right now, to test my solution.

BTW with a power source to the known working drive everything else seems to be working just fine.

Corrections to my prior post...It was getting late...Guess I was tired...

It was, of course addressed to Wittom...hope you haven't bought that 2nd 3455 yet and replacing the fuse works for the one you lunched.

Secondly...I reported <1% errors for burns w/ LITE-ON...impossible for the number of burns I've done to date...had 3 stoners in between 40 and 50 burns <10%

Paladen,

How is your LITE-ON working?

FYI

I have had 2 brand new May 2009 Western Digital Caviar Blue 160 Gig drives that are not "recognized" by the DVDR. One would just sit there and continually reboot. The other one would initialize, but then when you turned off the DVDR, on power up you would have to re-initialize it again.

On the Flip side when hooked up to a computer, as a slave they behaved ok, as a master they "acted" like they were not even there. Sounds like there may be some logic/controller issues.

So on my original drive, either it cannot be seen as a master, or the sectors storing the file system have gone bad and the DVDR cannot read them to finish the "boot" sequence. When the drive is being "accessed" it makes a different sound than normal spinning. Sorta like small "scratching" over and over again. Not loud clicking though like crashed heads.

FYI

I have had 2 brand new May 2009 Western Digital Caviar Blue 160 Gig drives that are not "recognized" by the DVDR. One would just sit there and continually reboot. The other one would initialize, but then when you turned off the DVDR, on power up you would have to re-initialize it again.

On the Flip side when hooked up to a computer, as a slave they behaved ok, as a master they "acted" like they were not even there. Sounds like there may be some logic/controller issues.

So on my original drive, either it cannot be seen as a master, or the sectors storing the file system have gone bad and the DVDR cannot read them to finish the "boot" sequence. When the drive is being "accessed" it makes a different sound than normal spinning. Sorta like small "scratching" over and over again. Not loud clicking though like crashed heads.

My Magnavox 2080 uses the Cable Select (CS) jumper setting for the hard drive.

The "CS" hard drive setting is also reported for other Philips or Magnavox HDD/DVD recorders.

The CS setting is entirely logical as there is but a single IDE/PATA device connection on these data cables.

The third hard drive (excelstor) 160Gig has worked as a clone of my failed drive, allowing me to recover my recordings.

I am trying a HP internal (computer) dvd burner (20 speed) and it works most of the time. It has trouble finalizing. It does great for half a disk full of shows, and then gets content from another 3455 and finalized there.- After putting it on an external power supply, I can do the second half of a DVD and finalize it OK now. It "seems" to burn a lot faster, but have not actually timed it.

It is a power hog though. When the tray is opened the fan at the rear of the DVR stops and resumes after the tray closes. I am thinking about running cables and setting up an external power source for the burner and a swappable hard drive enclosure.- I just need to find an old fashioned power supply that does not need a motherboard to power it up with.

Its basic use is to get off the old recordings as I transition to larger drives. - I have tried it on an external power source and it seems more stable. The fan still keeps turning off, and IMHO it may be to keep dust from being sucked into the DVD aperture when the DVD drawer is opened.

Please help me with my Philips 3455 H DVDR. I would like to transfer directly my video files stored in the HDD160GB of the recorder to an external HDD or to my PC. ¿How couls I do it?
ggha

I would try to backup the hard drive onto another HDD in order to avoid loosing the videos you have already recorded and cannot get onto DVDs
Unfortunately I do not know how to do such backups amd I desesperatedly ask for help

ggha:

The only reasons to "make a copy" of your current drive would be to put it into another 3455, or your current drive is starting to fail and you want to transfer the titles before it becomes useless. You cannot "view" any of the contents outside of a 3455. If it's because you are running out of room, then you could just get another larger drive and swap back and forth between the two drives when needed. If you add a new drive, you will probably need a copy of the firmware to "initialize" the drive.

If you are trying to save your current titles onto a bigger hard drive, it "has not" been done, or if it has, no one has posted their success. I have tried it several times with no success. If you have a video capture card in your PC you could record in "real" time what is on your drive and then do whatever you want with them on your computer.

You can follow Auskck's example in the: Philips 3575/3576 and Magnavox 2080/2160 Features, Setup and Operation Link # 4815 on page 161. He has an EIDE to SATA converter, which allows him to swap out SATA drives within minutes from the outside of the machine. Although no one has done it with a 3455 that I am aware of. You would probably need the firmware disk to initialize any new drives.

If you want a back up copy, you can "clone" the current drive to another 160 Gig drive using a computer and cloning software. However it should be done independently of any operating systems, with a bootable DVD and the two 160 drives. You have to have the basic knowledge of upgrading a computer. If you do it under windows you could mess up the data from the original 160 drive and/or your current computer setup. I have been successful in "cloning" a hard drive that was no longer recognized by the 3455 and was able to get back my titles. I have yet to see if reformatting the drive will bring it back, since it is my original "back up" I will probably do that after using the current clone for a year to make sure I have the titles I do not want to loose.

Other than hooking it up to another DVDR with a hard drive and "copying" it in real time, you do not have many choices. If you cannot get a copy of the firmware, you may be able to make a "clone" of your original on to a larger drive and the 3455 will recognize the drive, however you will not be able keep your titles; they are useless. You will have to use the delete hard drive in the setup for it to properly recognize the larger size drive.

If you have any questions, I will try to answer them.

Timtofly or helpers,

You are the one with more experiences, please be patient if my questions were posted already before..
For my Philips 3455H/37 (Canada, Montreal), I just bought the WD 250GB (my 160GB doesnot work anymore...I dont khow why), and used the update firmware from Philips site. It didnot work???
My questions are:
- I didnot format the new WD drive, I just installed the new drive from the bag and tried updating with the update CD..is it the reason? Do I have to format the drive before updating?
- If so, what format I have to do?
- The method from Philips is the must to make it work because my Sonic from Sony doesnot have the option of recording speed at 2X (min. is 4X) so what is the burning software you know that it works?

Thank you in advance.

Will the old drive boot up the 3455 enough to see TV? If it does try putting the firmware cd in. If the option comes up to upgrade the firmware, then your cd burned ok.

If using the old hard drive will not work, if the firmware is burned correctly, you should at least see "LOAD" on the LCD panel when you have the new hard drive in. It took an older version of Nero before I had a good Firmware DVD.

I am not sure if you need the firmware or not. I have tried two different "returned" WD 160's and both failed to do anything, and when I put them in a PC, even though they showed up in the bios, OS's would not recognize them as masters, but only as slaves. They have to be jumpered as a master in order for them to work in a 3455. 3455 does not recognize cable select or slave. With WD it should have no jumpers at all in the correct "master" configuration.

Having said all that, you could have a bad hard drive or your firmware cd is bad. I would rule out the hard drive first. If you get one that works as a master without jumpers try installing it. If the 3455 does not boot to TV, then you will need the firmware. You do not need to format the drive, unless when you go into the setup menu and do a "show" hard drive info and it does not show 250,000 available. The only way to "format" it is under the setup menu select "erase disk".

If you have a way to clone the old hard drive, you can try this: Jumper the old 160 as slave, Jumper the New Drive as Master with Slave present, boot your PC with clone software, clone the drive, and then if WD take off the jumpers to make it just master and try it in the 3455. If it boots to TV, then all you have to do is go into the menu and erase the hard drive so it will recognize all 250 gigs. You will not be able to save your titles unless you clone to another 160. Cloning will rule out a bad hard drive, since the "new" drive has to be the master. Cloning will also show you to what extent your old drive is damaged. If you can clone it, then you can get the titles off of it, as long as you do the same size drive. If the cloning fails, then your old drive is toast. The 3455 is very particular when it comes to the area of the drive that contains the Master Boot Record. If that is damaged, then that drive will not work in the 3455.

Thanks.
I would do the same thing as your suggestion. So the hard drive should be format (with winXPis OK?) in order to be reconize from PC?

Thank you again.

Formatting the drive outside the 3455 will not work. If the drive is not recognized by the 3455, then there is something wrong with the drive.

When cloning the drive, you bypass WinXP and "boot" with the cloning software. XP may add files to the drive and confuse the 3455. Under Linux it may be different, you may be able to clone the drive that does not confuse it.

Will the old drive boot up the 3455 enough to see TV? If it does try putting the firmware cd in. If the option comes up to upgrade the firmware, then your cd burned ok.

**No.

If using the old hard drive will not work, if the firmware is burned correctly, you should at least see "LOAD" on the LCD panel when you have the new hard drive in. It took an older version of Nero before I had a good Firmware DVD.

** Ya, with the new drive, I see "LOAD" then "BOOT" on the LCD but after that it went back to the same cycle of "LOAD" and "BOOT"...nothing else!!


Having said all that, you could have a bad hard drive or your firmware cd is bad. I would rule out the hard drive first. If you get one that works as a master without jumpers try installing it. If the 3455 does not boot to TV, then you will need the firmware.

**My drive is brand new so I assume it is OK...what I double most is the firmware. Do you think the sw SONIC from Sony won't work in this case?
I think I should look for the Nero and try it again.

You do not need to format the drive, unless when you go into the setup menu and do a "show" hard drive info and it does not show 250,000 available. The only way to "format" it is under the setup menu select "erase disk".


** YA.
One more thing, my old drive just sounds few click...click...click..then it stops (I don't feel anything when touching it). During that time, the LCD keeps showing "LOAD" and " BOOT" ..and repeats the same cycle again.....!!!
My new drive, by touching I still feel the motor is turning, but as I mention above, nothing is working.

Any idea always is the light for me.

Thanks

For what it is worth, I burned my Firmware Upgrade Disc to a CD-R, not a DVD. I used an older version of NERO and
followed the instructions found in the Philips Firmware Upgrade PDF file. It went perfectly for me doing it that way.


pica304, did you remember to REMOVE the firmware disc before powering down the 3455? This is a must.

Did you Power Down by Pressing the Power Off button on the front of the unit instead of using the remote? IIRC this method was specified in the Firmware Installation Instructions in the PDF from Philips. I will try to find a copy of that PDF to make sure.