Philips DVDR3575H/37 160G HDD DVD Recorder w/ ATSC tuner [Text View] - Page 2

L David Matheny

06-01-07, 01:12 PM

Can I pass through my HD satellite signal and record it? WIll it record in 16:9? If I can, what is the output? 480p upconverted to 1080i?

Does the DVD player upconvert, even up to 1080p?

Please help.
The term "pass through" usually refers to a signal (typically RF) that goes into a unit and then is fed back out unchanged so other equipment can use it too. The DVDR3575H has RF pass-through so your TV can independently tune the same RF signal the 3575 sees without the need for a splitter. So if your satellite box feeds RF to the 3575, then the TV would be able to see (and tune) the same RF signal.

But if you feed composite video or S-video from the satellite box to the 3575, that will be 480i. And if you use the tuner in the 3575, it will convert the received HD signal to 480i video in preparation for recording (its primary function). Although it can later deintelace to 480p (component) or upconvert to 720p, 1080i or 1080p (HDMI) for output, it can't make HD video from something that started out as (or was converted to) SD earlier. The DVDR3575H will not output true HD.

As for 16:9, the current SD DVD recorders can record that as if it's 4:3 NTSC SD if you tell the recorder you have a widescreen TV so it doen't crop or letterbox. The fact that the data stream is actually anamorphic widescreen (16:9 squeezed to fit the same data stream as a 4:3 picture) doesn't matter to the recording hardware. There should be some way to tell the unit to set the 16:9 anamorphic flag bit in the DVD headers, but usually there isn't. But flag can be fixed later on your computer by using a program such as IFOedit if you want full compatibility.

bingolong

06-01-07, 01:42 PM

Has anyone played with dubbing yet? The most I did was pop in a DVD I had burned with the Magnavox I had, hit play, then hit the direct dubbing button to copy it to the hard drive.

Was the dub from dvd > hdd in real time or at high speed?

Chuck44

06-01-07, 01:56 PM

Was the dub from dvd > hdd in real time or at high speed?
The manual states High Speed dubbing can only be done
fron HDD to DVD, not the other way around.

TimSH

06-01-07, 02:16 PM

Real time as Chuck44 noted. I'm interested to see how well high speed from HDD to DVD works. I can't see doing a lot of that, but from time to time, I may.

kenavs

06-01-07, 03:23 PM

Has anyone played with dubbing yet? The most I did was pop in a DVD I had burned with the Magnavox I had, hit play, then hit the direct dubbing button to copy it to the hard drive.

I haven't actually played around with dubbing from hard drive to DVD via the menus yet. I admit I need to read the manual more closely, but it looks like multiple recordings can be selected and burned to disk in one shot via that method? True?
I did some more playing with mine.
I dubbed a 30 minute title and a 1 hour title from the HDD to a Verbatim DVD+RW rated as 1-4x. I opened the dubbing menu, selected the 2 titles, and started the dubbing process with no further intervention required. It took about 21 minutes, which checks out with the 4x speed.
I was able to play the DVD in my very cheap DVD players: An Insignia NS-DVD1 and a Magnavox MSD124.

erf2u

06-01-07, 03:42 PM

Has anyone had any need or desires to "Merge" titles? I noticed or could not find in the manual that this is available on this unit. (BTW, I just pick up this unit at wally mart. because of the HDMI upconvert)

I also have a toshiba SX-35 unit that I am very happy with at the moment and this unit can merge titles and has slightly more editing functions.

Anyone have thoughts?

edvhdavs

06-01-07, 04:46 PM

It may mean the recording is done as an NTSC signal (Standard Def 4:3 anamorphic- like a standard DVD format) but will be recorded from an ATSC tuner signal output which will be clearer with 5.1 DD formatted audio.

timbo512

06-01-07, 07:45 PM

Got mine hooked up tonight. Light years ahead of the Polaroid. That one is going back tomorrow. OTA its loses 55.1 which the Polaroid picked up. I dunno the LG wouldn't pick up 55.1 either. Must be something different about the tuners. No worries, I never use that channel anyway. I'll just miss out on some of the NBA and MLB local games. Don't really watch those much.

Menus and remote are amazingly better. Will be playing more over the weekend I am sure. BTW.. I plugged it in, walked away, came back, and the time was set. Works like previously stated.

Dartman

06-01-07, 08:01 PM

Well I picked up a second unit after work in trade for my first one. So far the tuner picks up everything the LG4200a I have does and has a dead on lock too on QAM :D
The first one was definitely defective as it would only pick up to 85 on it's own and kept loosing all QAM channels.
This one when finally done had up to 117 with many subs and even got the discover channel on 104.3, the LG calls it 104.303 and the first unit would not pick it up even when I direct entered the number. So far no channel loss, set time automatically right after I had initial setup done, picture and sound are clean and in stereo when apliable plus it has a bunch of extra audio/video options to fine tune the box, and the remote works and it's quiet.
So beware, some of these things have a bad digital tuner in them, test the crap outa it after you get it to make sure you have a good one.
Happy camper now...

Kelson

06-01-07, 09:21 PM

The reports on this unit are quite encouraging. It seems to be a fully functional model without any really gross warts (other than poor QC for units going out the door). A 1st gen unit this good for $300 is going to set the bar pretty high. It is going to be very hard for Panasoinc to come in with a $450 HDD unit unless it does something really spectacular. And, by the time they do Phillips should be on at least their 2nd-gen model.

Here's a thought, nearly all markets are not broadcasting digital at full power and probably won't until they can turn off their analog transmitters. Once digital broadcasting is up to ful power, we may see many of these signal reception problems disappear.

TimSH

06-01-07, 09:48 PM

Timbo, mine won't pick up 55.1 either in North Olmsted. My cheap ilo TV gets it sporadically. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not. Actually, this unit got 55.1 for about a day, then it disappeared. TV dropped it at the same time. I don't think they're at full power. Atmospherics probably have a lot to do with it. Can't get 25 either, but they're notoriously hard to get. 3.1 & 3.2 come in perfectly, which the TV can't get. Happily, I get 49.1, 2 & 3 just fine. I hear that 49.1 will switch to PBS HD with 49.2 becoming their SD feed (slightly different programming on both) as of July 1. I'm curious to know where you're at. I'm in a high rise at the corner of Columbia Rd. and Mastick (just south of 480). Have clear line of sight to the Parma antenna farm.

Glad to hear you got a good one Dartman.

Dartman

06-01-07, 10:05 PM

Yeah, thanks Tim, think I'll let it run for a while then decide about popping it open and trying a bigger drive. Need to get a HDMI cable too and see what I get with that. I have to admit for a SD signal across Svideo it sure looks clean, no dropouts or channel loss as of yet either.
Need to try the direct dub as well to see what I end up with on the machine and when I go back to another disk...hmmmm...the possibilities... :cool:

mrow2

06-01-07, 11:14 PM

For my DVDR3575H I first hooked up component connectors. Am curious about the upconversion capabilities so I want to try HDMI. I know HDMI cables are expensive and I went to the superstore we have near here and there are some at $80, $60, $40 and $20 for 6ft / $24 for 9ft. The $20/$24 ones were in two different places in the store. I bought one of the $20 types, can always return it if I need to. Any reason not to use this one? I intend to use it and check the pic for any problems. If it's good, I'm wondering why we'd need to spend 80 bucks for a gold plated connector cable in a package that looks like it would survive a 1 mile undersea dive. In the past I did some research on various cables and the general consensus was that pricey cables were overpriced.

Dartman

06-02-07, 12:35 AM

Well it finally lost all the digital presets tonight but I think I know what did it...
I was on analog mode and hit setup to manually add/delete the normal channels I don't want, when I went back to digital mode it tried to scan the last channel it was on then quit with a blue screen. I did a rescan and it found all the channels of both types fine again so I did another analog edit and after I went back and forth then did a bunch of channels it lost the digital ones again...hmmmm.
So I did a manual add of the native channels I remembered from the digitals and it found them again and allowed me to add them back in and they stayed put, plus my analog edits are still there as well. So it still isn't perfect but as long as I didn't trick out my channel lineup it was doing fine. it would re find every channel again, the first unit would not find half of them.
I think for those of you doing OTA atsc/analog this might not be a issue.
I think another brave soul using QAM should try what I did to see if their unit does it as well so we know what works and what doesn't for sure. Then maybe if it's consistent we can let Philips know and hope for a firmware update to fix what we find...

FullOnShred

06-02-07, 01:22 AM

That's what I don't understand about the Pause Live TV deal. It seems redundant to just doing a scheduled or one-touch recording, as it doesn't have any additional functionality that I can tell, and you can't save the buffer.

I tried both and neither seem to work.

I missed this one earlier. Actually, try HOLDING the REC button Down for 3-5 seconds in a row. I got mixed up in my earlier post. Sorry. Please let me know if this works. thanks.

cosmotravis

06-02-07, 01:27 AM

the 3575 arrived today in the display box via UPS with no banged up corners or ripped box. Ups has a history of bringing broke items. haven't had a chance to mess with it yet. Does anyone know if there's an update for it? and after the update, is it better?

you're right murow, all the pricey things are just that, pricey. anyone that's in the accessory market is in for a money machine. Get the people to make them for 25 cent's a piece, pay the help another 10cents per item and resell in america for 20 dollar. We need to figure out who makes ipod knockoff accessories and invest in their stock. Probably better than mcdonalds.

Chuck44

06-02-07, 06:41 AM

Here's a thought, nearly all markets are not broadcasting digital at full power and probably won't until they can turn off their analog transmitters. Once digital broadcasting is up to ful power, we may see many of these signal reception problems disappear.
I hope you're right about that. What's your source?
BTW my 3575 has better DTV reception than either my STB
or my Toshiba TV. :)

rickie

06-02-07, 10:23 AM

Dartman

06-02-07, 10:31 AM

The one on display was a open box unit, box was also beat up but unit might be just fine if they'll sell it.
My old one they said they were going to write a defective tag on and send back or whatever they do with them. Anyways that box was in great shape and I hadn't even opened the bag with the manuals and cables in it.
The new one seems to still be holding the channels as long as I don't mess with resetting the analog ones again.
I also slapped in a dvd I burned last night and started playing it then hit direct dub, it capped the whole thing right to the HD just as claimed. Once it's in direct dub mode only way to stop it is to hit stop on the front of the machine, otherwise remote is locked out and it just goes till it's done in real time.

rickie

06-02-07, 11:24 AM

jim55avs

06-02-07, 12:45 PM

rgazzara

06-02-07, 03:53 PM

Also Monoprice on this site.

Chuck44

06-02-07, 04:05 PM

Am I just missing it or is there nothing in the DVDR3575H/37's menu
for hard disc maintainance? I don't see anything either in the manual
or the menu, either for defrag or format (my Lite-On HD-A760GX has
a defrag feature).

Dartman

06-02-07, 04:17 PM

Don't think I've seen anything like a format or defrag function in the setup menu but I'm still learning the menus and what they can do. Maybe they figure delete multiple titles is the same thing who knows.
The 2001g polaroid has a format function as you know.

Chuck44

06-02-07, 04:24 PM

PrestonD

06-02-07, 05:20 PM

Unless someone reports some significant issues this one seems to be leading the pack on doing the best job so far of all these gen 1 atsc dvd recorders.

Dartman

06-02-07, 05:29 PM

kenavs

06-02-07, 05:56 PM

I just noticed something rather strange. The specific problem doesn't actually effect me, but it could effect others, or may be demonstrating a subtle issue.

I am OTA only. My TV is a Philips 42PF7320A, which has it's own ATSC/NTSC tuner. The antenna feed goes through a passive 2 channel splitter to my DVDR3575H Recorder and the TV so they get virtually identical input signals.

The Denver PBS station is KRMA. Its digital transmitter broadcasts 2 minor channels (6.1 and 6.2) on its assigned UHF 18 frequency.

I don't have issues with 6.1. If I watch through the Recorder, 6.2 has no sound. If I watch through the TV tuner, the sound is there. The 6.2 broadcasts are in Spanish (which I don't speak), which is why this specific problem has no effect on me. I didn't notice the issue for a while since I quickly skip through 6.2 when looking at the recorder output. On 6.1 The sound is the same, whether the audio is set to 1/2(English) or 2/2(Spanish) according to the info display. On 6.2 there is no sound at all, regardless of whether the audio is set to 1/2(English) or 2/2(Spanish) according to the info display. KRMA is the only digital station I have active that reports multiple language choices.

The sound is fine on 2.2 and 9.2 which are the other minor channels I receive normally. The other local PBS station is KBDI. With my current antenna alignment, the signal is too weak to watch it, but there is sound on 12.1, 12.2 and 12.3(Spanish).

I have tried every audio setting I could find on the Recorder and the TV that I thought would have an effect, but still no sound on that one minor channel.

I am curious if anyone else has seen anything similar.

kenavs

06-02-07, 06:05 PM

Chuck44

06-02-07, 06:12 PM

I just did some playing with an OTA program I recorded a couple of nights ago. I used the "Delete Scenes" to remove the leader, commercials, and trailer. I then did a "High" dub to a DVD+RW disk. I am not a real videophile, but I am personally delighted with the results.
I love the Delete Scene feature. With my Lite-On I could delete scenes,
but first I had to Split the program at the beginning, then again at the
end of the commercial, then go back and delete, then I had to Merge
the sections back together. It worked, but this new system is much better. :)

kenavs

06-02-07, 06:13 PM

Well my QAM tuner still looses channels but so far I just add them back in and it doesn't do it every 5 minutes like my first unit was doing. Manual says you can only delete digital cable channels, not add. You can add or delete analog so maybe it has something to do with the way the tuners are tied together.
Think I'll just bug Philips and see if they know about it and have fixes on the way or a work around.
The dubbing functions are hidden in the setup menu unless you just want to do a slow disk to HD by using the direct dub button. It does work, the dvd I slammed in there was complete, chapters and all, but only 2.0 sound.
The disk I made from it has very good burn quality but I did use some premium TY media.
It will be interesting to see if anyone else reports your issue. One would have to wonder if your cable provider is doing something with the channels that is confusing the recorder, since you had such bad experience with both the Polaroids and your first Philips. I'm OTA only, so I can't offer any experience.

suplex

06-02-07, 07:45 PM

I just went to my local Wal*Mart to see if this unit was in (the website said Out of Stock for online purchases, but said my local store was In Stock). So I went to the shelf and they had a sticker for it, but no display unit or any stock either (it was right next to the Polaroid 160gb w/Digital Tuner that they had in stock).

I am in no immediate hurry for the Philips 3575, but I do plan on getting one when they have them. Most websites that sell it (ie: B u y . c o m) are out of stock, and A m a z o n is taking pre-orders, but I would rather get it locally in case of any problems for the easier return ability.

Does anyone in here know where I can get my hands on a download-able Owners Manual? The Philips website just has the leaflet and not the full manual.

wajo

06-02-07, 07:51 PM

Well my QAM tuner still looses channels but so far I just add them back in and it doesn't do it every 5 minutes like my first unit was doing.
With Kenavs not having channel dropouts with OTA, you might see if you're being bitten by the "DST bug."

Pretty easy to check:
1.Set clock manually.
2. Turn DST OFF.

Some people have had to reset their units before making the clock changes, but try the clock changes first just to see???

This has stopped channel loss from some Philips units.

kenavs

06-02-07, 08:57 PM

Does anyone in here know where I can get my hands on a download-able Owners Manual? The Philips website just has the leaflet and not the full manual.
When you are on the Philips Consumer Products DVDR3575H/37 page, if you look to the right of the picture of the unit and just down a little you should see the link to "Product Support". There you will find:
+ User manual
Posted Date: 04/19/2007 Size = 13,982 KB
+ Leaflet
Posted Date: 05/29/2007 Size = 379 KB
+ Quick start guide
Posted Date: 04/19/2007 Size = 1,647 KB

suplex

06-02-07, 09:09 PM

When you are on the Philips Consumer Products DVDR3575H/37 page, if you look to the right of the picture of the unit and just down a little you should see the link to "Product Support". There you will find:
+ User manual
Posted Date: 04/19/2007 Size = 13,982 KB
+ Leaflet
Posted Date: 05/29/2007 Size = 379 KB
+ Quick start guide
Posted Date: 04/19/2007 Size = 1,647 KB

Thanks, exactly what I needed.

mrow2

06-02-07, 11:03 PM

Do not waste your money on high priced HDMI cables. You can get 3 gold plated HDMI cables for $20, free shipping. http://www.pcmicrostore.com/partdetail.aspx?q=p:10504653&kbid=1237

I bought three a couple months ago and they work fine.

Keep an eye out on www.techbargains.com for super deals on high tech toys...

Ok thanks for this! Now I have an HDMI question: As I mentioned I had been using component connectors then switched to HDMI. Pic clear enough and possibly a little sharper but I lost all ability to resize the pic's aspect ratio in the Sony 32" LCD set. I push the button to rotate settings and get on screen message saying that's not available with this signal. In component hookup, can rotate the Philips unit thru all the aspect ratio options, it's great! Am really disappointed. Maybe this has been discussed here, see talk about flagged 16:9 recordings etc, don't know the terms. But I think I am going to undo my HDMI hookup and go back to component if that's the only way I can get the gamut of aspect ratios, the distortion is too strong to view them stretched. I tried the Video aspect ratio settings in the Philips, they didn't give the desired result, distortion still strong one way or another. Am I doing something wrong? This is confusing, why would it be engineered this way? Must admit, ability to play back any recording with any aspect ratio is good, with component it works just like a normal channel. It seems that I am recording in 16:9 too.

Other question: Can we use both HDMI and component hookups and switch TV inputs from one to the other? this would allow some HDMI viewing in 720, 1080 modes if the incoming signal aspect ratio is correct.

Well I've answered my own question but for others, it appears you can have both a HDMI connection and component together, and when the aspect ratio is right for HDMI then that input can be used on the TV or AV center. Maybe newer sets than mine correct for this, but I've not had any other input problems except this one in HDMI input for changing aspect ratios. The difference between pic clarity using HDMI vs component seems to be small, but the case can be made that HDMI upconverted to 720 or 1080 is just a little bit clearer.

lionz

06-03-07, 09:19 AM

Hi,
I finally hooked up the philips to our older 50in big screen TV that is not a HD TV. I hooked up my indoor antenna to the philips to pull in digital OTA channels. I had used this indoor antenna previously on my HDTV downstairs before i hooked up my outdoor antenna and i was able to pull in our 1 local station. I can not get the philips to pull in any digital channels however. Is it because the TV is not HD? I would think that since the Philips has the digital tuner, it would tune it in and then send it to the TV. I know i will not get a HD picture, but wanted to get the better reception and sound from the channel. Any ideas??
thanks

wajo

06-03-07, 09:26 AM

What connections are you using from the Philips to the TV?

One remote poss.: Maybe your Philips is set to progressive and your TV is interlaced, and/or you're using Component cables???

Might make sure you're sending a 480i output to that old TV (does the Philips have diff. settings for output scan)???

TimSH

06-03-07, 09:44 AM

lionz, it's not because of the TV. The position of the antenna probably has a lot to do with your ability to get your local station(s). Building materials, trees, etc. can all impact your reception.

Have you tried hooking it up to the outdoor antenna?

Sierra71

06-03-07, 10:10 AM

TimSH is right,

the TV has nothing to do with it. If you can see the menus and such from the philips your TV is set up OK. Indoor antennas are lousy unless you're close to the stations. If an outdoor antenna isn't an option for you, try a good amplified indoor unit and place it by a window.
I've had good results with a RCA job from Target. I think it was like 25 dollars.

Sierra

Chuck44

06-03-07, 10:52 AM

You did push the DTV/TV button on the remote...

Tomel

06-03-07, 11:48 AM

I posted a question some time ago regarding temporary OTA signal loss due to multipath and how the Philips reacts during a recording.

See #190, Page 7

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=830253&page=7&pp=30)

So far, I have not seen an answer. I hope I didn't miss it, since there's apparently a lot of expertise represented here. Can any of you OTA users help?

lionz

06-03-07, 12:13 PM

Hi,
Thanks for all the responses regarding my indoor antenna use. I did push the DTV/TV button and it scans for the channel, but then just comes up with a blue screen. I did the auto search, and i have just tried to turn it to the channel, but just get a blue screen. The channel that i am trying to get is like 20 miles away. I am in MN, and most of the stations are out of the twin cities. I can get those with my outdoor sporadically, but I have always been able to pull in this local one with this indoor antenna. The only reason i havent hooked up the outdoor to this one, is mainly because there isnt a great way to do it. I may eventually, but I may just look for a newer indoor unit and see if that works. If not, I will just take it back. i welcome any other suggestions and thanks again for the ones you all have already given.

TimSH

06-03-07, 12:43 PM

Dartman

06-03-07, 12:51 PM

Do you have another digital tuner tuner in your house that does get the channels with that setup? if it does look at the way its pointed when it works and then try it with the philips pointed the EXACT same direction, Digital is very picky about that so you might be off a tiny bit so your not getting signal. Also are you just entering the channel number your other box sees or having it do a auto scan for all OTA channels? If you just entering the channel directly it's possible it really isn't the right one and the other box assigns a normal style number like 8.1 or something when it's really 32.3 or something like that just so it has same number as the analog channel we all know and love does...
My first unit seemed to have a defective digital cable tuner even though analog worked fine, haven't tried OTA atsc yet.

Chuck44

06-03-07, 12:55 PM

Is the indoor antenna amplified at all? If not, you may want to try an amplified antenna. If it is, try unplugging the power for the amplifier. From what you've told us, I'm guessing that it may not be a very strong signal. I have a devil of a time getting the local PBS station where I'm at, and have effectively given up. Luckily, I can get the PBS station from Akron, much further away, just fine.

Curious... have you checked antennaweb.org? I'm curious to know what zip code you're in and what the availability of digital stations is where you are. If reception with an outdoor antenna is sporadic, then I'm guessing you're not going to have a lot of luck no matter what device you have trying to tune them in.
20 miles is a long ways off for an indoor antenna, especially when
trying to receive UHF/DTV.
I'm about that distance from the transmitting towers for the several
DTV stations I get in my area, and I use an outdoor antenna.
Even so, thunderstorms, high wind & heavy rain etc. can cause
an occasional drop out.
As TimSH said, if an amplified indoor doesn't help you'll need
to hook up to a properly aimed outdoor.

Sierra71

06-03-07, 03:42 PM

One note about amplified antennas, if you have the gain set too high I've noticed that it will cause dropouts too. Usually, the amplifiers used in these applications have a crummy signal to noise ratio and even though the tuner "sees" a signal, it may be too distorted and/or too noisy to work. Think of the amplifier "overdriving" the tuner.

Also, it seems both the polo and philips units had/have issues with digital tuners not working. I returned 2 Polaroids for this reason but the philips works OK

Edit:

Did walmart pull this unit off the shelves?

It's gone from walmarts website, not even listed as out of stock. All the display models at *every* store in the Portland/Vancouver area gone too. I got the last one in the area.

Dartman

06-03-07, 04:13 PM

I think they just underestimated the demand for these but we'll see. I got a e-mail telling me my unit was delayed and they were working to get more but if it took more then 10 days they would cancel my order.
I called my site to store shop and they had just got 3 in, one of which should have been mine. I canceled my online order and got the first one there, it had cable digital issues so I returned it the next day for this second one, they only had the display left which had been opened when I checked them all out anyways.

This new one still looses the QAM channels when I switch to analog and back on occasion but at least it will get the channels again if I direct enter the right ones. I'm beginning to think it has issues trying to lock then just drops all the previously added QAM channels as the add/delete list has digital 1 listed as delete when that happens and no other channels will tune till I manually add them back in. I think next time I swicth modes I'm going to try leaving it on a dead input so it doesn't try to rescan a possibly funky channel.

Chuck44

06-03-07, 04:31 PM

...It's gone from walmarts website, not even listed as out of stock. All the display models at *every* store in the Portland/Vancouver area gone too. I got the last one in the area.
It's still listed as out of stock on this page. (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5663214)

Sierra71

06-03-07, 04:40 PM

I tried switching back and forth ATV to DTV and it seemed to hold the channels but I don't have cable so I can't test the QAM portion.

Compared to the polaroid, the tuner in the philips has *much* better PQ. the polo seemed to have a lot of artifacts compared to the built in tuner in the TV. Imagine a super compressed DIVX. (which BTW the philips plays, polo doesn't)

Did you guys notice the polo unit would delete a digital channel from the list if the signal dropped out for more than 10 seconds or so? It had to re-scan to get them back. This may be because of a faulty tuner though. The philips doesn't seem to do this.

Dartman

06-03-07, 05:02 PM

I just called tech support and he said tuner must still be faulty as he hasn't heard of any issues with THIS particular unit, I know the 3455 had some issues but it's basically a Polaroid 2001g. This sucks, don't know if I want to try another one or if they even have any left...
Well I bought the warranty this time guess I'll see what they say, wish somebody else has digital cable hooked up to one to try it...

Chuck44

06-03-07, 05:09 PM

FlyBoy1975

06-03-07, 05:12 PM

Is the indoor antenna amplified at all? If not, you may want to try an amplified antenna. If it is, try unplugging the power for the amplifier. From what you've told us, I'm guessing that it may not be a very strong signal. I have a devil of a time getting the local PBS station where I'm at, and have effectively given up. Luckily, I can get the PBS station from Akron, much further away, just fine.

Curious... have you checked antennaweb ? I'm curious to know what zip code you're in and what the availability of digital stations is where you are. If reception with an outdoor antenna is sporadic, then I'm guessing you're not going to have a lot of luck no matter what device you have trying to tune them in.

Hi Tim,

I just looked up that web site and entered my address. It claims the correct analog channels, but no digital channels. I know we get tons of digital channels here in our town. I wonder if this web site has old data.

Dartman

06-03-07, 05:49 PM

Good luck Dartman. I hope they get more in stock soon
so you can exchange without a long wait.
Nope everybod'ys outa stock except the wally world I bought mine from. They wont sell me the demo, he claimed it has holes drilled in it so the crackheads get junk.
Guess I'll wait till more come in, maybe next shipment will have better QC, I did buy the extra wally world warranty to try and help with extended exchanges.
Philips wants like almost 200 bucks for 2 extra years.
Other then the cable digital channels loosing it I love this thing, very nice video quality on the digitals and I just tested and as long as I enter the true channel number on the timer recording it picks up the channel fine and records like it should so at least it's still usable for my main purposes.

wajo

06-03-07, 06:14 PM

Other then the cable digital channels loosing it I love this thing, very nice video quality on the digitals and I just tested and as long as I enter the true channel number on the timer recording it picks up the channel fine and records like it should so at least it's still usable for my main purposes.
Have you tried setting your clock manually and tuirning DST OFF?

Dartman

06-03-07, 06:21 PM

Have you tried setting your clock manually and tuirning DST OFF?
Yeah I tried that. Do i need to do anything else like reset all to defaults or is just setting all that off good enough?

Chuck44

06-03-07, 06:24 PM

Nope everybod'ys outa stock except the wally world I bought mine from. They wont sell me the demo, he claimed it has holes drilled in it so the crackheads get junk.
Guess I'll wait till more come in, maybe next shipment will have better QC, I did buy the extra wally world warranty to try and help with extended exchanges.
Philips wants like almost 200 bucks for 2 extra years.
Other then the cable digital channels loosing it I love this thing, very nice video quality on the digitals and I just tested and as long as I enter the true channel number on the timer recording it picks up the channel fine and records like it should so at least it's still usable for my main purposes.
All I use mine for is OTA, and it's great. The video recorded in SP mode
seem even clearer than with my Lite-On HD-A760GX.
I hope I never have trouble with it, as I'd hate to give it up, even for
an exchange. :)

wajo

06-03-07, 06:29 PM

Yeah I tried that. Do i need to do anything else like reset all to defaults or is just setting all that off good enough?
I've been trying to determine if a reset is needed as well...most people just report success or partial success, with no details.

One person with a Panny and Dish STB had complete success with a reset (>30 sec unplugged for his Panny), then the clock/DST changes.

Prob. best to reset first just to be sure?

Dartman

06-03-07, 06:30 PM

Yeah same here, when a new one come in I'm just going to cash buy it then test it to make sure it's better, then take back the worse one.
As long as the timer recordings work with the channels I manually put in it's not so bad. if it wouldn't take the channels no matter what that would be a deal breaker.
Maybe I can take some of the load off the panny e80h and retire the 2001g soon.

TimSH

06-03-07, 07:02 PM

Sorry to hear you're still having problems Dartman. Since I'm strictly OTA, I have no way to test the QAM portion of it. I can say I've got no problems with it losing channels when switching between analog and digital, though it's not really a fair test for the problem you've got.

TimSH

06-03-07, 07:04 PM

Hi Tim,

I just looked up that web site and entered my address. It claims the correct analog channels, but no digital channels. I know we get tons of digital channels here in our town. I wonder if this web site has old data.

Hmmm... What's your zipcode? You say you know you get tons of digital channels, if you go to a site like TitanTV and tell it to pull up the OTA broadcast listings, does it show the digital channels you think you should be getting? or ar you maybe getting stuff from neighboring cities thanks to atmospheric conditions, etc...

Demuddle

06-03-07, 07:36 PM

wish somebody else has digital cable hooked up to one to try it...

My SIL has two of these still sitting in the boxes and has digital cable, if you could get me explicit instructions on how you hooked yours up and a test procedure I could maybe get her to give it a try...she's got to take them out of the boxes sometime :rolleyes:

wajo

06-03-07, 07:39 PM

My SIL has two of these still sitting in the boxes and has digital cable, if you could get me explicit instructions on how you hooked yours up and a test procedure I could maybe get her to give it a try...she's got to take them out of the boxes sometime :rolleyes:
Dartman can give you specifics, but I have a request:

Please ask her to set her clock manually and set Daylight Saving Time (DST) OFF.

lionz

06-03-07, 08:02 PM

Hi
Dartman, I have digital cable hooked up to this unit but i guess i am a little lost with the QAM. My digital cable runs off of one box and supplies three TV's. One on channel 3, channel 10 and channel 13. Then from those channels i can turn to whatever digital channel we have in our lineup with our remote for the digital cable. I have done scans for channels, but that is all i get. Is there something i can do to test to help you out?
Also i did pick up a philips indoor amplified antenna. 46db i believe. Still dont get anything though. If i hook it up direct i get the analog channel fine, and I know i am getting it through the antenna, because it goes out if i move it a little, or out completely when i shut the power off for the amp. My zip code here is 56080 for those who were wondering. I did have my previous indoor antenna hooked up to my HDTV digital tuner and it worked fine. This was downstairs in my house, where as the one i am trying now is upstairs so i figured the reception would be better. I am using a switcher box to switch between cable and antenna, but even if i hook it up direct i still dont get anything. It has been rainy here today and my reception is always better at night through my outdoor antenna on my HDTV so maybe I will try a little later again. Otherwise I will just take the antenna back and go without, or at least until i decide to hook up my outdoor antenna to the recorder.
thanks again

acteon

06-03-07, 08:19 PM

Spassvogel42

06-03-07, 08:20 PM

Does anyone know what happens with these recorders if you feed it a 16x9 signal? I know you can't record HDTV, that's not what I'm after, but what happens if you feed it a 16x9 signal, can you burn a letterboxed DVD? Or would you have to have a TV with a 16x9 pulldown in order to view the content correctly?

FlyBoy1975

06-03-07, 08:21 PM

Hmmm... What's your zipcode? You say you know you get tons of digital channels, if you go to a site like TitanTV and tell it to pull up the OTA broadcast listings, does it show the digital channels you think you should be getting? or ar you maybe getting stuff from neighboring cities thanks to atmospheric conditions, etc...

Hi Tim,

On Titan, I count 23 digital channels which is what I expected to see. NOTE: I am a non digital household at the moment, but I am going on what I have observed at others in the area. I get most of my programming from my non-HD DISH PVR.

We are east of Dallas, TX and have a lot of digital channels.

mrow2

06-03-07, 11:24 PM

Ok thanks for this HDMI cable info! Now I have an HDMI question: As I mentioned I had been using component connectors then switched to HDMI. Pic clear enough and possibly a little sharper but I lost all ability to resize the pic's aspect ratio in the Sony 32" LCD set. I push the button to rotate settings and get on screen message saying that's not available with this signal. In component hookup, can rotate the Philips unit thru all the aspect ratio options, it's great! Am really disappointed. Maybe this has been discussed here, see talk about flagged 16:9 recordings etc, don't know the terms. But I think I am going to undo my HDMI hookup and go back to component if that's the only way I can get the gamut of aspect ratios, the distortion is too strong to view them stretched. I tried the Video aspect ratio settings in the Philips, they didn't give the desired result, distortion still strong one way or another. Am I doing something wrong? This is confusing, why would it be engineered this way? Must admit, ability to play back any recording with any aspect ratio is good, with component it works just like a normal channel. It seems that I am recording in 16:9 too.

Other question: Can we use both HDMI and component hookups and switch TV inputs from one to the other? this would allow some HDMI viewing in 720, 1080 modes if the incoming signal aspect ratio is correct.

Well I've answered my own question re: using twin hookups but for others, it appears you can have both a HDMI connection and component together, and when the aspect ratio is right for HDMI then that input can be used on the TV or AV center. Maybe newer sets than mine correct for this, but I've not had any other input problems except this one in HDMI input for changing aspect ratios. The difference between pic clarity using HDMI vs component seems to be small, but the case can be made that HDMI upconverted to 720 or 1080 is just a little bit clearer.

Added notes: My analog reception is the worst of any of my components. I have a pretty good antenna, I see more wiggles and artifacts with the Philips tuner, the Sony TV is the best, and the JVC VCR is somewhere in the middle. My digital reception is ok, but I don't think we can measure signal strength with the Philips so I don't know if it's degraded or not. All the channels come in, on the TV they generally range from 80 to 92 on the strength meter.

Tonight I transferred uncut version of Bladerunner from a HDD recording I made last nite from local PBS, to a DVD. I didn't know what I was doing, never saw any resolution choices but it recorded at SP and the quality seems about the same as the original on the HDD. The transfer took about 20 mins for a 2 hr movie.

I'd still like some feedback re why the aspect ratio seems very limited on TV screen with HDMI conn vs using component cables whereby the options are all there, using the TV pic size menu.

Dartman

06-03-07, 11:32 PM

QAM problem same as Dartman

Set clock manually and DST off as wabjxo recommended. The unit still forgets the QAM channels.

Inputting the numbers manually only works half the time. For example, main channel 1 has 5 subchannels (1.1, 1.2, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 Weird that there are two 1.2 when using this unit).

When I manually input 1 it will only display 1.1 and sometimes 1.2, never the second 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4.

I am plugging the cable in straight from the wall. No box. No matter how many times I unplug,rescan, etc., it forgets the digital channels.

OK, then it's the unit and not just mine. The guy claimed he's never heard of it happening on these but they've only been out about a week and most users are doing ATSC OTA.
It seems to only happen when going from QAM digital cable to regular analog cable for me.
Channel 6.1 here is actually 80.1 and channel 10 is 80.13 through 15 so I manually add 80 and I get 6 through 10 back. Add 76.1 and I get 12.1 to 32.2 back, 91.1 gives me 2.1 back, then I add the on demand channels which are 94, 100, 114, and 115 and that give me all my hd locals and in the clear on demand channels back till it looses it again.
I make note of the direct channels rather then the remapped equivalent and direct enter them for the timer recordings because it does pick up the channels as long as it has the native channel entered, I tested it when they were all forgotten and it still works. I also noticed it doing the 80.1 only thing when going to 6.1 so I have to add the major channel then all the subs come back, as 6, 8 and 10 are all under 80 subs. For some of them I have to use the sd channel rather then the HD because of the no subs thing on 80 and others, or use the analog channels which are never affected when it loose the presets.
Yes try plugging in your boxes straight from the cable that feeds your hdtv box now and you should find all the QAM channels, if not then you have a defective tuner like my first unit that would only get to 85 when I had up to 117 active here.
I think everyone that has this problem needs to call so they get the idea that it's not a bad unit, but a bad design that needs firmware or something to fix it.
They said I could ship mine back or trade with my store. I can't trade when they don't have any, and not much purpose if everyone using QAM has the same issues as me. I don't want to wait two weeks to get a unit with the same problems back either.

I also reset my unit as well, lost channels shortly thereafter again.

Chuck44

06-04-07, 06:16 AM

kb7oeb

06-04-07, 06:30 AM

I am thinking of buying this unit and have some questions. If I pass my HD satellite through this, what picture will I get? 16:9? 480p?

The conversion takes place inside your satellite box, not in the recorder. All modern HD satellite receivers will output video with composite or s-video and both connections by nature are 480i.

The 16:9 question is dependent on what your satellite receiver outputs. Some have options, my dish box can crop, letterbox or do anamorphic.

The easiest way to find out is connect an old 4:3 analog tv to your s-video or composite jack. What you see on that screen is what the recorder will record.

I read this upconverts to 1080i. Will it downrez and then upconvert? Your satellite receiver will down convert to 480i and the recorder can up convert back to 1080i (will no longer be HD)

My HD set actually has a digital tuner - NOT HD. Will the picture look like it does when I view OTA digital?
I'm not clear on what you mean by digital tuner but not HD, the tuner in your TV is not involved when viewing the recorder or your satellite receiver. The digital OTA tuner in the recorder will internally downconvert HD OTA channels to 480 and then can upconvert back to 1080i. No ATSC dvd recorder currently passes the received HD signal as HD.

Nearly all sattelite HD receivers have internal OTA tuners that will pass HD to your tv set.

kb7oeb

06-04-07, 06:32 AM

Is it possible to replace the hard drive in this model?

Jim1348

06-04-07, 08:12 AM

I am interesting in seeing one of these. Are they generally in stock at the big box retailers?

Chuck44

06-04-07, 08:33 AM

I am interesting in seeing one of these. Are they generally in stock at the big box retailers?
No. They were in stock on Wal*Mart's website for about three days,
and sold out. A few of their stores have one or two on the shelves.
Look back through this thread for more info.

rickie

06-04-07, 09:40 AM

Added notes: My analog reception is the worst of any of my components. I have a pretty good antenna, I see more wiggles and artifacts with the Philips tuner, the Sony TV is the best, and the JVC VCR is somewhere in the middle. My digital reception is ok, but I don't think we can measure signal strength with the Philips so I don't know if it's degraded or not. All the channels come in, on the TV they generally range from 80 to 92 on the strength meter.

Tonight I transferred uncut version of Bladerunner from a HDD recording I made last nite from local PBS, to a DVD. I didn't know what I was doing, never saw any resolution choices but it recorded at SP and the quality seems about the same as the original on the HDD. The transfer took about 20 mins for a 2 hr movie.

I'd still like some feedback re why the aspect ratio seems very limited on TV screen with HDMI conn vs using component cables whereby the options are all there, using the TV pic size menu.

A number of tv sets sets lock the amunt of changes you can do when connected via HDMI. I have a set that when I watch an upconverted signal 720 or 1080 on a DVI input (predessor of HDMI) it looks into the format set my the recording.

You might try changing output to 480 and see if this allows you to change pic size. Although, then you dont get the upconverting of course)

Rick

mrow2

06-04-07, 11:58 AM

A number of tv sets sets lock the amunt of changes you can do when connected via HDMI. I have a set that when I watch an upconverted signal 720 or 1080 on a DVI input (predessor of HDMI) it looks into the format set my the recording.

You might try changing output to 480 and see if this allows you to change pic size. Although, then you dont get the upconverting of course)

Rick

I did adjust both the Philips and the TV, could not get satisfactory aspect ratio either way for 480 broadcasts using the HDMI connection and input; the HD 16:9 come in fine. But now, I am using two sets of cables: component from the Philips to one input on the TV, and HDMI to another. Can rotate back and forth depending on the content. Seems to work ok. Not convinced that there's any significant improvement using HDMI set at 720 (my Sony's resolution) vs 480 on the component cables.

mkjnovak

06-04-07, 01:46 PM

Could someone check if digital OTA channels are completely deleted if temporarily unavailable?

I am trying to decide whether to add this or the 3545 to my list of tried recorders. If they delete channels when not received, I will eliminate them from consideration. Otherwise they look quite promising.

I bring it up because I had experience with Philips TVs behaving the same way. In an area needing antenna rotation, it was unacceptable.

So, if anyone has first-hand knowledge that it can tune to a black nothing and not delete the station, please let me know.

Or, if someone would be so kind as to see if all their channels disappear with no antenna, I would be very greatful. I wouldn't normally ask, but now on my third recorder, I feel my try-and-return cred is getting a little thin.

Thanks,
Take care,
Mike

timbo512

06-04-07, 04:18 PM

No my PBS stations don't come in regualrly. they are still there when scanning through the channels. I get a blue screen instead. it should fit your needs.

mrow2

06-04-07, 09:16 PM

jobedo

06-04-07, 09:38 PM

Picked one up to day QAM problem same as Dartman, have learned when going from OTA to cable if you hit the back button it cancels the channel search and maintains your previous analog settings . QAM is alway gone on cable anyway so it saves time just have to use add channel to restore QAM settings.
I set up some test recordings going back and forth from analog to QAM and they worked so maybe they can fix this with firmware update
Joe

pomeroy

06-04-07, 10:02 PM

Went to wal-marts website they said 1 store had it in stock :) drove 25miles only to find they did not :mad: on my way back decided to stop at the other walmart that had it listed as Limited, and was shocked to find 2! Anyway got back home and really impressed with the Philips picked up all my hd channels with just rabbit ears, nice machine, Seems like it takes it a while to read disks :confused: I had a regular Philips dvd player and love it plays everything" You have it we play it" plays my PAL disks from the UK, However my only complaint is that this machine does not play PAL??? It plays Video-cds! Still not enough for me to take it back but it hurts me that it won't play PAL

Dartman

06-04-07, 10:29 PM

Well then I guess no point in me getting yet another unit. We need to just let Philips know that this is not a isolated thing and they need to get to work on it.
Guess I'll call em again sooner or later and maybe even point them to this thread.
The folks using it for OTA only haven't had any problems so far, just those of us doing digital and analog cable.
I THINK if you just leave the thing on a active digital cable channel before you shut it down it might keep the programing. If I jump over to analog or just any external inputs it sooner or later looses the programing, mostly sooner lately.
I've got all the main channels memorized now so I can just add them back in and I have set the channels that use subs it might miss in timer to the SD equivalents just to be safe on my timer recordings.
Mine has never lost the analog cable channels so far by the way, and at least they are all stereo and SAP.

jusdafaksjack

06-04-07, 10:52 PM

As a new member to the forum and to the Philips family of products, I find these these threads very interesting.

Help!!! My son and daughter, trying to "help" Mom out with setting up her new DVDR, they missed the initial setup of the recorder, and I am unsure as to how to reset the box so it will function with my digital cable, vs the default "antena" setup. The box does not recognize any of the channels when I perform any scans - in any mode, or adding the channels manually...

I have read the book twice, checking to see if I had missed something - did I?

lionz

06-04-07, 11:01 PM

Dartman

06-04-07, 11:15 PM

kenavs

06-05-07, 12:58 AM

Hi,
Ok - hooked up the OTA with my outdoor antenna, and everything works wonderfully. I will be taking back the indoor, dont know why I thought it would be hard to hook up my outdoor antenna. I just split it and ran it through the ceiling and it is all taken care of. One thing i noticed last night. I dubbed a HDD recording to DVD. It recorded fine and played in the philips fine. I put it in my DVD/VCR player in the bedroom and it just came up saying check disc, but would not work. I then put it in the computer DVD player with no problems. I then put it in my portable DVD player with no problems. I then tried our portable TV with a DVD player in it that we take in the van for the kids and it the video is fine, but the audio is choppy. Any ideas as to why this would be or is it just the other machines not recognizing the recorded DVD from the philips? I am using Maxell DVD+RW for my recordable media.
thanks
I clipped the following from Page 38 of the manual
" Following discs are recommended for good recording quality and are proven to be compatible with this unit. However, depending on the media condition the unit may not read the disc properly.
Verbatim DVD+R 8x, DVD+RW 4x,
DVD-R 8x, DVD-RW 2x
JVC DVD-RW 4x
Maxell DVD+R 4x/8x/16x, DVD-R 8x/16x
SONY DVD+R 4x/8x/16x, DVD+RW 4x
TDK DVD+R 4x/8x/16x
Performance of any other discs are not guaranteed.
• You can play back DVD+RW on most DVD players without finalizing. However, if you have added or deleted chapters, or made chapters hidden, you must perform “Make Edits Compatible” before being able to see those effects on other units. (Refer to page 98 for more details.) To play back discs other than DVD+RW on other DVD players, you will need to finalize. "

You may note that the only +RW disks specifically verified to work are Verbatim and Sony, but since some of your players can read them, I don't think that is the problem. Not all DVD players can read all DVD formats. Some old units could only read -R or +R and no RW at all. You need to check the manual on the ones that can't read the disks.

I have written Verbatim DVD+RW 4x and HP DVD+R 16x with my unit and read them with my cheap DVD players. I did not have to finalize the DVD+RW media, which is consistent with the notes in the manual.

FYI
As I previously posted, the time to "HIGH" dub using the DVD+RW 4x was about 1/4 of the length of the recorded material.
With the HP DVD+R 16x, it took 33 minutes to "HIGH" dub a 2 hour title and about 2 minutes to finalize. I didn't get the 12x I was hoping for, but that doesn't really bother me since I don't expect to create large numbers of DVDs. It is also possible that the unsupported media I used, forced a slower recording process. Maybe someone using one of the listed DVD+R or DVD-R can post there record times using "HIGH" dub.

kenavs

06-05-07, 01:32 AM

With my hookup involving component cables for the standard def digital channels and HDMI for the hi-def channels (because I cannot adjust aspect ratios on the TV's HDMI circuit evidently) I've had difficulty seeing the difference between a 480i version of a 1080i broadcast vs the HDMI image upconverted to 720p which is my set's standard. There is a difference but on less clear broadcasts, shows with good definition but not the startling clarity of a live broadcast, it is nearly impossible for me to discern any real difference in the images. But the live Hockey game I saw tonight was an example of how detailed the DDVDR3575H's recorded image can be. Really clear, and from the sofa one could be fooled into thinking it's Hi Def for a moment. Playing back the same clip repeatedly, I could see the difference in the upconverted 720 image on HDMI vs the 480i image on component cables. It is not a great difference, but looks smoother and just a bit sharper.

I am wondering if anyone else has experienced the locked 16:9 aspect ratio on HDMI that I have, my set is last year's Sony 32" Bravia. The picture has been great, but I'd sure like to have all pic sizes available on the HDMI circuit. Also, is anyone else using two sep video hookups from the Philips to the TV, as I am? Is there any downside to this? My 720 HDMI signal is a little bit darker with identical picture settings when compared with the TV HD tuner, but can be compensated for with the controls.

I just got my HDMI cable and used it to connect to my Philips 42PF732A (It's High Def with built in ATSC/NTSC tuners). I also have S-video and analog Audio connections on another set of the TV inputs. My 60 year old eyes see little difference between the 2 feeds. As I understand it, the DVD recorder is doing an up-convert to feed the HDMI and my TV is doing the up-convert to drive the screen when fed by the S-video, so the 2 units are actually having an interpolation contest, and they may be closely matched. An OTA High Def program looks a little bit sharper using the TV's built in tuner.

With my TV, I have about 6 scaling choices with the S-video feed. With the HDMI, I only have Widescreen and Automatic. The Automatic will stretch the width, if the recording had Pillar Bars" and stretch the height if the recording was Letterboxed. If you wonder why that might be useful, a local digital station adds Pillar bars to a Letterboxed version of some of their high def programs when they re-broadcast them at a later date. You need to stretch the image in both directions to fill a 16x9 screen.

I am not aware of any issues with keeping both feeds connected.

edvhdavs

06-05-07, 03:54 AM

edvhdavs

06-05-07, 04:18 AM

TO: spassvogel42:

Your Q: Does anyone know what happens with these recorders if you feed it a 16x9 signal? I know you can't record HDTV, that's not what I'm after, but what happens if you feed it a 16x9 signal, can you burn a letterboxed DVD? Or would you have to have a TV with a 16x9 pulldown in order to view the content correctly?

Answer: HDTV signal will be recorded on an NTSC formated DVD with anamorphic equivalent process to preserve the ratio & get the most SD resolution when played thru a 16:9 display. It's the best way to preserve quality of content other than the native HDTV resolution using a machine capable of thru HD record. ie: A D-VHS machine or a blue-ray recorder (Only available in Japan & Korea) until ????.

If you tell the Philips that you have a 4:3 display, I am not sure if it will shrink the horizontal size to fit your 4:3 and add black bars to top & bottom. Your DVD copy may preserve it that way but you may not want to use this letterboxed version if someday ( I know you will)upgrade to a 16:9 display.

jobedo

06-05-07, 06:28 AM

As a new member to the forum and to the Philips family of products, I find these these threads very interesting.

Help!!! My son and daughter, trying to "help" Mom out with setting up her new DVDR, they missed the initial setup of the recorder, and I am unsure right and you can choos how to reset the box so it will function with my digital cable, vs the default "antena" setup. The box does not recognize any of the channels when I perform any scans - in any mode, or adding the channels manually...

I have read the book twice, checking to see if I had missed something - did I?

Push Setup on the remote , general settings, go down to channels arrow over right and you can choose digital cable and re scan
Joe

TimSH

06-05-07, 07:05 AM

Tomel

06-05-07, 08:05 AM

If the signal is lost temporarily in the middle of a recording, does the Philips continue recording the blank screen or does the recording stop. On a Panasonic model I tested, the recording stopped if the signal was lost.

mrow2

06-05-07, 10:01 AM

I just got my HDMI cable and used it to connect to my Philips 42PF732A (It's High Def with built in ATSC/NTSC tuners). I also have S-video and analog Audio connections on another set of the TV inputs. My 60 year old eyes see little difference between the 2 feeds. As I understand it, the DVD recorder is doing an up-convert to feed the HDMI and my TV is doing the up-convert to drive the screen when fed by the S-video, so the 2 units are actually having an interpolation contest, and they may be closely matched. An OTA High Def program looks a little bit sharper using the TV's built in tuner.

With my TV, I have about 6 scaling choices with the S-video feed. With the HDMI, I only have Widescreen and Automatic. The Automatic will stretch the width, if the recording had Pillar Bars" and stretch the height if the recording was Letterboxed. If you wonder why that might be useful, a local digital station adds Pillar bars to a Letterboxed version of some of their high def programs when they re-broadcast them at a later date. You need to stretch the image in both directions to fill a 16x9 screen.

I am not aware of any issues with keeping both feeds connected.

Thanks Ken well with these verbal descriptions what I think you're saying is that your Philips TV at least has some HDMI pulling and stretching adjustments available and mine does not. If a HI Def program content coming from the DVDR then on mine it's ok. But if not, the aspect ratio will be wrong. It is resolved with the dual video hookups I have, so that will enable me to use the machine quite satisfactorily and maybe I can tweak the menus so that it works more compatibly with my ancient Sony A3 3-ch receiver. I would never know to try to determine, when purchasing a set, all the pitfalls one can trip on regarding these various conflicts and features. I thought the major downside to choosing the set I chose was that it had only one HDMI input when two seemed desirable, but I finally decided I probably would not use more than one anyway since I am not on cable or dish any more (cost way too high - I can afford it; absolutely won't pay ransom prices for this geographical area of So Calif).

chrisb0

06-05-07, 10:42 AM

mrow2,
Regarding you question about HDMI and component:
My 720 HDMI signal is a little bit darker with identical picture settings when compared with the TV HD tuner, but can be compensated for with the controls..
In your video setup on the Philips, is there a HDMI setting option for RBG color space to "normal" or "enhanced"? When I set it to "enhanced" on my 3505 DVDR (essentially the same as the 3575 but without the HD), my video output was way too dark on my plasma no matter what settings I tried, but returning it to the "normal" setting gave me back the right shades of black.

Also, be aware that many HDTVs have different adjustment ranges for different input types (tuner, component, HDMI). Your TV settings may depend on the input type since where the +-X user adjustable range falls within the typical TV's 0-100 (full) range varies for each input. On my 3505 and a new panny plasma, my brightness settings were very different with all other settings the same for a disk viewed over component versus 720p HDMI. This is how I initially discovered the effect of the "extended" RGB setting over HDMI.

If you think you have differences, I would recommend getting either a true calibration disk or at least any dvd that has the THX label on it (see thx.com/home/dvd/search.html) because they contain a "THX optimizer". The test patterns there really helped me set my picture and brightness levels over component and HDMI. [note - My plasma gives me AR control over the input, so I don't need to switch back and forth from HDMI to component.] I don't know what you can use for a reference in the case of OTA/cable broadcasts. For me, I chose to use settings similar to the HDMI input which seem to work well on my particular TV.

kenavs

06-05-07, 02:22 PM

I am OTA only, so the cable/QAM issue does not effect me, but I am very curious. I think I have seen 3 users post that they are suffering from the problem. I would have thought that there would be more, if the problem is universal.

I would think it would be informative if anyone who is using the DVDR3575H with cable and not seeing the QAM loss problem would post that fact AND who their cable provider is. If users come forward, who do not have the problem, it then might be informative if all users who have the problem would post their cable provider to see if a pattern shows up.

I have not noticed any significant failure reported by anyone using these units OTA, which leads me to believe that Philips made reasonable efforts to design a quality product and to deliver units that work correctly "Out of the box". That makes me wonder about the cable problem. Philips certainly should have detected if these units do not work properly on ANY cable system, but I suspect that cable systems are sufficiently different that the units may work on some, but not others.

TimSH

06-05-07, 02:25 PM

lilyarbie

06-05-07, 02:33 PM

otaguy

06-05-07, 03:23 PM

I just checked Wal-mart.com's webpage on these units and they are back in stock after being out of stock for a while. Here's the web address for these units:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5663214Wow, I was just going to post the same thing. I just ordered one. None of the stores in the Philly area have them yet, at least as of a couple of days ago.

wyntrout

06-05-07, 03:35 PM

I just saw one of these Philips DVDR3575H's still boxed at one of the local Wal*Marts here in Jacksonville, FL, for $298. There wasn't much information on the box at all so I didn't get it. I've just looked at the Philips site and they say nothing about QAM in the available pdf file or elsewhere. Does this unit have QAM capability? I want it to record clear, unencrypted HDTV from my cable. My Sony DHG HDD250 will do this and my TV will display anything not encrypted -- Mitsubishi with NTSC/SDTV/QAM/ATSC. The Sony will record and play any High Def, unencrypted signal, but it's a single-tuner recorder.
Will the Philips tune QAM/unencrypted HD cable signals and record them in some manner allowing native 16x9 format playback?
Thanks for any help/info. Wynn

Chuck44

06-05-07, 03:39 PM

DonB2

06-05-07, 04:42 PM

"If the signal is lost temporarily in the middle of a recording, does the Philips continue recording the blank screen or does the recording stop. On a Panasonic model I tested, the recording stopped if the signal was lost. "

Tomel.

What model Panasonic did you notice this on?

On the Dell site it says this about the Panasonic DMR-EZ17S Progressive Scan DVD Recorder:

With Accutune™ Digital Tuner, it receives both digital and analog broadcasts. It uses a signal processor to effectively control noise and distortion, and its matching circuits allow it to transform and separate digital or analog signals. When digital broadcast signals drop out, generally the picture either disappears or becomes filled with block-noise, but the Accutune Digital Tuner produces a beautiful picture even under difficult reception conditions, such as when there are obstacles interfering with direct signal access

Sure seems like you are not experiencing what Panasonic is expecting.

-DonB2

lilyarbie

06-05-07, 04:43 PM

The unit does have a QAM tuner to decode unencrypted channels on your cable. The only problem is that the recorder only records them in 480i quality and not 720P/1080i/or 1080P. It does however take the 480i picture and reupconvert the resolution to an HD resolution (720P/1080i/1080P). It won't however look as good as your Sony unit which from what you stated, records at full HD resolution. As long as you set the unit to display at 16:9 mode, it will record the the widescreen picture. The only thing is that the anamorphic flag is not enabled. This means if you display the picture on anything else, you will get a 4:3 picture that looks squished. That means if you burn a dvd of something you recorded in widescreen and play it back on a different player with another widescreen television, it will display pillar bars(black bars vertically displayed with a picture in the middle of the screen) and have a squished picture. If you play it on another player with a regular square tv, the picture will fill the screen, but will be squished. I don't know of any dvd recorder currently that will enable the 16:9 anamorphic flag. You can overcome this by burning to an RW disc and transferring the dvd files to your computer and using a simple program called IFOedit. Click on the movie portion of the IFO file while the file is opened in the program and select 16:9 aspect. If you want it to letterbox and or pan & scan while watching it on a 4:3 set, enable these options as well. There has also been noted some problems with the QAM tuner. Not everyone on this forum has noted the problem, but certain ones have. The problem as I understand it is a problem where the digital tuner forgets the channels. I've heard resolutions to the problem such as shutting off the automatic Daylight Savings Time mode and automatic clock mode, but I've also heard from some that this didn't completely solve the problem. Anyways, hopefully I've given you enough information to make your own decision on whether or not to buy this unit. I bought mine last night and use it for the harddrive recorder as well as the dvd recording. I also use it for the OTA ATSC tuner. Overall, I am very pleased with this unit. The recording quality is much better than my old Lite-On unit was. I also enjoy being able to record shows on the fly without having to worry about popping in an RW disc and having to wait a minute or so before being able to record a program. This unit is very similar to the 3505/37 dvd recorder unit except for the addition of the harddrive and the 1080P upconversion. The 1080P upconversion looks very nice on my father's Mitsubishi 65" DLP television. I figured I would buy something like this with the upconversion since I plan on buying a 1080P later on down the road whenever my 35" analog tube dies. This unit does everything I need. It was well worth the money to get all the features I would ever want in a dvd/hard drive recording unit. It would be nice to have Double layer support recording, but that's not really an issue to me since dual layer discs cost a bit much more money per disc than regular single layer discs.

wyntrout

06-05-07, 05:11 PM

Thanks, Lilyarbie. I've had problems with Comcast from day one here with seemingly not enough signal. I had analog service only and when I got my Mitsubishi WD-52525 it tuned everything that wasn't encrypted -- cable and over the air -- two RF inputs. I got digital service and two of the Motorola 3416's in January and still have problems with video and audio dropouts, so I back up a lot of programs with my analog DVD-RAM recorders and My Sony HDD250. If the DVR recording is too crappy, We watch the next best recording. The Sony OTA is usually the best with full HD. And for TimSH, the Sony has RF inputs for cable and OTA and did tune every possible channel -- all of them! I can't use the TV Guide for scrolling much on it as there are four or more channels for each and every station! I always punch in the channels direct -- 25.1, etc. It would take too long to try to get rid of all those "duplicates."
If my Comcast output was as advertised, I would not need anything else, but they can't seem to find what the problems are. It's external and the repair techs scratch their heads.
I really would like to have a dual-tuner, High Def recorder with a large hard drive -- something like the Comcast 3416's but OTA as well. The Sony is the only thing I ever saw and it was quickly discontinued.
Thanks, again. Wynn

TimSH

06-05-07, 08:09 PM

wyntrout, sounds like you're looking for a Tivo series 3.

tylie2

06-05-07, 08:38 PM

I just got the Philips Saturday.
I hooked it up and I didn't set the clock , I just went through the menu and recorded on it abit. Then I turned it off. So when I went to bed, there was a noise that woke me up. Like it was trying to start up, but the unit is turned off, it'd last just a couple of seconds, then it's like it would click off. It keep doing it about every 10 minutes. So I unpluged it. So the next morning when I plugged it back up I set the clock. I never heard the noise no more until I had to unplugged it again for a storm we was getting. Then when I plugged it back in, not with the clock set, then about 10 minutes it started doing the same thing.
Has anybody else has this experience? Can someone check to see if there unit does this too? Should I take it back and try to get another one or is this the way it's suppose to be? I'd really appreciate any input you all can give me.
Thanks so much.

wyntrout

06-05-07, 08:56 PM

The TIVO S3 would almost do, but for the forever ongoing monthly fee to TIVO. The Comcast DVR's seemed like great deals at $12 each a month rental, since I didn't have to worry about obsolescence. But in practice they are not reliable in my case, and it's too painful trying to watch live or recorded with video and audio dropouts. I'm ready to return all of their DVRs and tuners and go back to analog cable with HDTV OTA, hence the need for more ATSC recorders. I have 2 Pan DVD-RAM and 1 Toshiba DVD-RAM/HDD recorders for analog but the poor cable signal has always been a problem ~ 9 years. I finally tried going digital this past January with Comcast, and as I feared I now had a weak digital signal that amplifiers wouldn't help, either.
As for the TV Guide -- that looked like trying to stack grains of sand... and about as much fun since any channel rescan with all RF inputs connected would put me back where I was. I think that there were about SEVEN channel duplicates for major networks like CBS! I did use Favorites, but it's not as good as the Comcast TV Guide.
I've been really researching the manufacturers' sites for news or info on DVD/HDD recorders. The Panasonic DMRE75 with DVD-RAM/VCR/HDD would be neat if updated to a useful HDD size ~500GB and their new tuners with real HDTV storage and output, including cable and OTA full support... and 2-way cablecard?
(sigh). Cheers!

lionz

06-05-07, 10:32 PM

Hi,
Just a quick note regarding my inablilty to play the recorded discs on some players either because of audio or video problems. I dont have the option of finalizing the disc because it is a DVD+RW. The manual says the +RW do not need to be finalized. So it isnt even an option for me when i try to. This is not a huge problem for me and it may be that those players just dont support +RW.
I am still a little confused with QAM. I have researched it a bit, and i understand that you pick up unencrypted digital channels. I use digital cable and i am using OTA. How can i check for QAM? Thanks

lilyarbie

06-06-07, 12:02 AM

As for the QAM tuner, you'll have to run a cable connection to the RF in of the unit. Then go into the auto channel scanning option menu and select the last option. This should be something like cable (analog/digital). It will scan in all unencrypted analog and digital signals on your cable line-up. You cannot use both OTA and QAM on the unit. You can only use QAM or OTA. This is because the unit does not allow it due to the fact that some OTA channels use the same frequencies as some of the channels on the upper line-up of cable.

Dartman

06-06-07, 12:31 AM

Good point kenavs. I'd also be curious to know if the units having problems are within a specific serial number range / batch, etc. There may have been a bad production run or something along those lines.
Good idea, I was posting the last serials of the Polaroids I tried but every one of them had horrible dropouts so I gave up and got the Philips. I would have kept the polaroid if I could have gotten good QAM reception. One unit was quite a bit farther along in serial then the others and same issues.
One guy posted that he was so Pissed that he wanted to scream, but he tried one more unit and got one that had perfect reception even on QAM cable. I think both the philips units I had/have are very close in serial from the same store and they were made in April this year. The last numbers of the latest one are 6417.
Been playing with the editing, seems OK, will use frame skip forward and backward,has pause and slow forward and back and can frame by frame forward and back. It's also frame accurate as far as I can tell. It wont do title merge, which would have been nice. It has recorded all my timer shows on QAM just fine because I hard set the channel numbers direct so no matter what the digital channel memory is up to it seems to catch em just fine.
Maybe I should try just one more just in case but 3 other guys with issues, unless they all are from the exact same run as mine....
Most you guys are using OTA and nobody has issues with that so far.

TimSH

06-06-07, 05:43 AM

I have a feeling these are going to be on the market for a little while, Dartman. Since you've got it functional for now, I'd probably give it a month or two and see what the reviews say from people picking them up later. If there's a revision, we should know here shortly after it starts to show up and Walmart does have that nice 90 day return policy...

Tomel

06-06-07, 05:52 AM

DonB2 . . .

In answer to your question, it was Panasonic DMR-EZ17. I discovered this anomaly when I was doing a test recording and happened to be in the same room during the test. I noticed the recording would stop and the recorder would actually turn itself off. A few seconds later, the recorder would turn itself back on and resume recording. This off/on sequence left a lot longer gap in my recording than it would have if the recorder had just kept recording through the temporary signal loss (I'm subject to some minor multipath signal loss in my location when it's windy or rainy). I subsequently verified what was happening by pulling off the antenna connection during a recording.

Hopefully, someone can let me know how the Plilips handles this type situation.

jobedo

06-06-07, 07:27 AM

My last 4 serial numbers are 3188 manufacture date APRIL 2007
Joe

jim55avs

06-06-07, 09:13 AM

atrac

06-06-07, 09:26 AM

DonB2

06-06-07, 10:02 AM

Tomel,

"In answer to your question, it was Panasonic DMR-EZ17. I discovered this anomaly when I was doing a test recording and happened to be in the same room during the test. I noticed the recording would stop and the recorder would actually turn itself off. A few seconds later, the recorder would turn itself back on and resume recording. This off/on sequence left a lot longer gap in my recording than it would have if the recorder had just kept recording through the temporary signal loss (I'm subject to some minor multipath signal loss in my location when it's windy or rainy). I subsequently verified what was happening by pulling off the antenna connection during a recording.

Hopefully, someone can let me know how the Plilips handles this type situation. "

Do the manufactures dream up these anomolies in their sleep?

Why on earth would they turn off the record? So frustrating as dell sell this unit and I have a $100.00 off coupon for it. I did plan on getting the version Panasonic DMR - EZ37K with the VCR built in but I am sure it has the same anomoly.

BTW- I suffer from Multipath issues also.
-DonB2

DonB2

06-06-07, 10:25 AM

atrac,

"I probably missed someone posting this (tried a search but couldn't find it in this thread, only the Polaroid), but I wanted to confirm that it's normal for my unit to stop recording five minutes before each show is over when using the timer?"

Is this when recording to Hardrive or DVD?

-Donb2

TimSH

06-06-07, 10:56 AM

artac, when recording to the Hard drive, I don't experience this problem. I record things back to back from different channels and never appear to lose more than a few seconds. I also have autochapters set for every 5 minutes.

If you're recording to DVD, I can see how there would be more delay as it takes substantially longer to close the recording and open a new one than it would on the hard drive, but 5 minutes seems excessive.

Chuck44

06-06-07, 10:59 AM

I probably missed someone posting this (tried a search but couldn't find it in this thread, only the Polaroid), but I wanted to confirm that it's normal for my unit to stop recording five minutes before each show is over when using the timer?

I set it to record "On the Lot" and then "America's Got Talent" last night and it cut off the last five minutes of "On the Lot," then started recording "Talent" on time.

Is this because I have my track marks set to five minutes, or is it just the nature of the beast?

If it's normal, I gotta let this thing go back. :(
Your clock was set properly?
The timer programs were set for the exact times?
If set for a one hour show, it only recorded 55 minutes?
I ask these basic questions because I thought mine had
a fault - it wasn't shutting off after a timer recording.
Then I RTFM and discovered it waits one minute after
the recording ends before shutting off. Nothing wrong
with it after all. :)

lilyarbie

06-06-07, 03:59 PM

I think I'm going to go ahead and purchase a 3 year service plan for this unit. At least if I should have any defects that arise after my 90 day return policy and anytime after my manufacturer warranty expires and 3 years thereafter, I would have this product covered. It's too bad the store don't sell the 3 year option. It's just $23.88 compared to $17.88 for the 2 year service plan (only $6.00 for an extra year of coverage). Note: Somebody I think stated earlier in this thread that the service plan extends your return policy to the store. It does not. It covers damages and defects just like your manufacturer warranty. It states that it may also feature in home service repairs. Anywho, this was my plan since I figured $300 was a good amount of money to spend out. I figure I would at least cover my investment. I was also going to get one of those UPC surge protectors. I got to thinking earlier today that since it is summer time, brownouts can occur and I thought what better way to preserve the harddrive than to make sure it has battery backup. That way if I am in the middle of recording a show and the power goes out, I could simply stop the recording and shut down the unit without it screwing up the harddrive completely.

FullOnShred

06-06-07, 04:45 PM

Sounds like a fine plan lilyarbie.

wyntrout

06-06-07, 05:33 PM

Lilyarbie, that's the best thing that anyone can do to protect their electronic equipment. I have APC UPS's on every piece of electronics in my house -- I mean ALL! On my 52" DLP Mitsubishi I have a XS1500 series with the extra battery pack. That takes care of my TV, the cable DVR, my DVR, and the RF amplifiers. With the exception of the extra battery pack, I have various sizes of APC UPS's powering my computer system, VCRs, DVRs, DVD Recorders, TVs, Clocks, phones and anything else that can be affected by power outtages. Too many people just put a surge protector or maybe one of those $400 power conditioners on a few pieces of equipment. Most equipment can handle a small voltage variation but few things can stand sudden losses of power. That really can shorten the life of many things, especially hot projection TV lamps, hard drives, and any recording devices in use.
I lived in rural Maine for five years and power variations and outtages cost me several hard drives (Back in the late 80's) and every conceivable fuse in some VCRs. I swapped an extra hard drive for a tiny UPS and stopped the computer problems. I eventually added them to every thing and don't have to worry about missing recordings or losing the phones or TV's. Most cordless phones are useless without AC power. I can always shut stuff down if the outtage is longer than the UPS's can handle. I have the alarms on those things set for the last 5 minutes of available battery power. I have 9 or 10 in service at the moment. I watch for sales and rebates. I got my last XS1500 for $50 + tax at Office Depot!
If you use a generator (I live in Florida) you must use UPS's for sensitive equipment.
Also I just got a Panasonic DMR-EZ475VK (comes with HDMI cable) and hooked it up. I started this while waiting for the channels to be tuned. So far I have found that I must choose OTA or cable with only one RF input. I've been spoiled by the TV and Sony DVR having two RF inputs. $299 + tax at Costco. I am heavily committed to DVD-RAM and want to wait until there is more choice for the DVD/HDD recorders. Thanks for your inputs -- all of you.
Oh, and I did delete a few of the channels on my DVR. There were only 288 so it was doable with only 5 each for the major networks!
Oh joy! The Pan takes DVD-RAM cartridges! If only it had USB and Compact Flash support.

arteephact

06-06-07, 06:44 PM

I bought one of these at Walmart last week after returning the Polaroid unit. I much prefer the menu's and overall functioanlity of the Philis unit over the Polaroid, but the ATSC Tuner on the Polaroid picked up the Digital CBS that is 30 miles from my house on a cheap antennea that this Philips cannot find. All other Digital stations near me come in just fine.

I have not bothered with QAM as I run S-Video out of my Diital Cable box into the unit. I have only played with recrding a few things, but I have been satisfied with the quality so far.

I recorded Mindfreak last night off A&E through the S-video and on the hard drive it has a symbol on the title screen with a line through the DVD. I can play the title back off the harddrive but it will not let me copy it to DVD because it is copy protected....never had that before on my ILO...is there a hack for that ?

suplex

06-06-07, 08:54 PM

I recorded Mindfreak last night off A&E through the S-video and on the hard drive it has a symbol on the title screen with a line through the DVD. I can play the title back off the harddrive but it will not let me copy it to DVD because it is copy protected....never had that before on my ILO...is there a hack for that ?

Depending on how you are recording...Yes. I am going to assume that you recorded Mindfreak by setting your Cable Box to whatever channel Mindfreak aired on and then connecting the Cable Box to one of the Line Inputs of your DVD Recorder. Then as you said, it recorded...but you can't copy it.

What you need is this: http://www.xdimax.com/grex/grex.html

Run the S-Video connection from your Cable Box, into the Grex unit, out of the Grex, and In to your DVD Recorder. This should clear up the problem for you.

In the event that you used the DVD Recorders Tuner to record the program (lets pretend that Mindfreak aired on channel 150, and you recorded it by setting your DVD Recorder to record off of channel 150) then I really wouldn't know how to correct that as you would need a device that eliminated copy protection through a Coaxial Cable line.

The link I gave you can only eliminate it through either S-Video or the RCA/Composite Video.

Hope this helps.

atrac

06-07-07, 12:55 AM

Your clock was set properly?
The timer programs were set for the exact times?
If set for a one hour show, it only recorded 55 minutes?
I ask these basic questions because I thought mine had
a fault - it wasn't shutting off after a timer recording.
Then I RTFM and discovered it waits one minute after
the recording ends before shutting off. Nothing wrong
with it after all. :)

:o The answer to your first question is "no," and I certainly feel like an idiot. :D

Thank you for clearing that up. Sometimes the most obvious is the least obvious.

avskip

06-07-07, 12:59 AM

The unit does not get very hot. It has a fan, all of the ATSC units and maybe a lot of the other units too, have a small fan in the rear, from what I could observe (ie the Polaroid I think and also Panasonics. Seems quiet, slow rpms for sure, gets the excess heat out. I have fans all over my systems and I did a lot of experimenting to get the rpms down so I would not hear them. When it's off it stays cool; I've had VCRs that got warm even when they were off. Hope that helps. HDDs generate a fair bit of heat, but the electronics must do that too since the non-HDD units have fans too.
I'm curious if the HDD spins down if the unit is left on without the HDD being used? I saw one that did that... I think it was a Sony model.

DrBrain

06-07-07, 03:25 AM

I've got both the new Polaroid and the new Philips so I can do a side by side. The loser goes back to Wal-Nuts. :D

m82a1pa

06-07-07, 09:51 AM

I've got both the new Polaroid and the new Philips so I can do a side by side. The loser goes back to Wal-Nuts. :D

I wonder what Wal-Mart is doing with all those Polaroid returns. Mine went back after I picked up the Philips last Saturday.

arteephact

06-07-07, 10:22 AM

Further testing on this unit last night....

It would not playback a PAL encoded DVD for me....but oddly enough playing back DIVX content worked fine encoded at both 29.97 and 25 frames per second.

Tomel

06-07-07, 10:39 AM

DonB2

Actually, stopping recording when there's a signal loss, MIGHT have been a good feature . . . if they had simply paused the recording and then immediately started recording again when the signal returned. It would have eliminated just staring at a blank screen. However, by actually stopping the recording instead of pausing it, the gap in the recording was much longer than the actual signal loss. In fact, when I looked at the title menu for a 2-hr movie I recorded, the Panasonic had actually recorded the movie as three separate movies.

vfoxpro

06-07-07, 10:49 AM

I picked up the 3575 just yesterday, and I must give it props on some things although I still like my OLD panasonic better.

I just use analog cable input and the tuner is just a little better than my Panasonic.
I (like many others on this thread) had that dreaded Polaroid thing and the RCA DRC8000N prior to this one. The RCA's tuner caused wavy lines and the remote is not responsive at all (took a second for it to act on any command). The Polaroid had a little better tuner than the RCA, but still not as good as my Panasonic.

Finally the local Wally store had this in stock. The tuner quality is surprisingly good. Like I said, I just have analog cable so I can't comment on the SDTV portion of it.

A couple of things that piss me off about this unit are:
1. Unless I'm an idiot, you can't name your recordings when adding manual timed events. You can edit them AFTER they get recorded, but that's just pointless if you're recording TV shows. So, if you record 10 shows a week, you can't easily tell which ones which.
2. If you do decide to edit the name after the recording happens, you have to do it Cell Phone Text Messaging style (ie: hit the number 2 three times to get the letter C). That's just stupid. All other DVRs I've had use an on-screen "pick your letter" system.
3. With my Panasonic, I can set the timed recordings to overwrite the old recording (like for weekly shows). This way, I don't have to remember to go and delete stuff before the hard drive runs out. The Philips DVR definitely needs this feature.

All in all though, I'm more than likely keeping this system unless something horribly goes wrong with it over the next few days. I'll still use my Panasonic for DVD watching and most of my recordings. There's just times that I needed another system to record other shows, and this system should be just fine for the few times I'll use it.

If you have the money (450.00 at CC store), I'd try the Panasonic first, but this is definitely a good "cheaper" alternative.

FullOnShred

06-07-07, 02:21 PM

On the previous Philips Dvdr you could definitely name a program as you were scheduling the event. I am a bit surprised they would have dropped that ability. On the DVDR 3455/37 it was done by using the up and down and side to side arrow keys.

My Philips also allows you to chose "delete oldest recording" as an option so you don't have to keep a close eye on the HDD status.

Just curious, have you read the manual?

zzyzzx

06-07-07, 02:22 PM

So as far as I can tell, if I'm strictly OTA, and only interested in SDTV (on a 4:3 TV) , and want a hard drive in the recorder, then this is the DVD recorder for me, correct? I only have to wait for the next batch to show up at Wal Mart. Correct?

Chuck44

06-07-07, 02:42 PM

On the previous Philips Dvdr you could definitely name a program as you were scheduling the event. I am a bit surprised they would have dropped that ability. On the DVDR 3455/37 it was done by using the up and down and side to side arrow keys....
I always wished I could do that with my Lite-On HD-A760GX,
but that feature was not supported.
Likewise I see no such feature listed, either in the menu or
the manual for the DVDR3575H/37.
Both machines do support editing the title names after recording.

Chuck44

06-07-07, 02:44 PM

So as far as I can tell, if I'm strictly OTA, and only interested in SDTV (on a 4:3 TV) , and want a hard drive in the recorder, then this is the DVD recorder for me, correct?
Yes.
I only have to wait for the next batch to show up at Wal Mart. Correct?
Yes. :)

vfoxpro

06-07-07, 02:57 PM

Thanks for replying - I didn't "read" the manual, but I did skim through it. Plus since another member mentioned not seeing it in the manual, I'm assuming Philips decided to skip these features.

And yes, all other DVD Recorders do have letters on screen and you scroll with arrow keys to name stuff, but not with this one. I had to go back to the 1900s when text-messaging was difficult.

zzyzzx - as far as what you're wanting.......yes, this is a good choice, but I'd also look into the latest Panasonics if you want to spend some money.

Chuck44

06-07-07, 03:04 PM

...zzyzzx - as far as what you're wanting.......yes, this is a good choice, but I'd also look into the latest Panasonics if you want to spend some money.
None of the Panasonic models for 2007 have hard drives.

vfoxpro

06-07-07, 03:12 PM

Chuck44

06-07-07, 03:29 PM

kenavs

06-07-07, 03:33 PM

You are correct - terribly sorry. When I was looking for one, I was looking at the eh75v, but it came out in 2006, and it doesn't even have what he's looking for. Terribly sorry that I misspoke.

I did relook at the Philips manual online and confirmed that it is old text-message style of editing names and you can only edit names after it has recorded.

There is a place in the manual that specifically states "The unit makes a title list with the index automatically." So I'm assuming some other old-school "programmer/devloper" team created the software for this thing.

I guess I must be "old school". I don't have any big problem with the automatic title names. They are "idiot proof", which is important for a product which, at only $300 for its feature set, will be picked up by a lot of non-tech types. The date, time, and channel combination are going to create a unique file name, and I don't record enough programs that I have a lot of trouble identifying the program from that information. If I decide that I am going to keep a title long enough that I would have trouble identifying it, I will then insert a program identifying name to the front of the auto one.

STEELERSRULE

06-07-07, 07:53 PM

I would have like to get this unit, but the QAM problems are too much for me to handle, as this would be used with analog cable(which appears to have no problems), and the CLEAR QAM tuner for digital cable reception.

For those who have used the QAM side(Dartman in particular):

The unit just REMOVES QAM channels on it's own? Or does it remove them after switching from cable to OTA? I am assuming it places all the cable channels(analog first), into one big channel map for tuning, correct?

Some of these units tuners(on the QAM side) are defective? They only tune up to like channel 85, and LOCK? Or do they tune all the way up too channel 135, like alot of other QAM tuners?

Some of my channels are at 126 and above, and I ned to know this.

It is a shame if these things need some sort of firmware update in order to fix it. If that is the case, I'm out. I just wish they would release the damn thing when it is READY, not before then.

The CLEAR QAM problems unfortunately completely turn me off of this unit.

Although it seems to handle the NTSC(analog cable and TV), and the ATSC/OTA quite well, at least according to most.

jim55avs

06-07-07, 08:04 PM

I wonder what Wal-Mart is doing with all those Polaroid returns. Mine went back after I picked up the Philips last Saturday.

You can pick one up on Ebay for around $160.

CPotatoe

06-07-07, 08:51 PM

jobedo

06-07-07, 09:33 PM

I would have like to get this unit, but the QAM problems are too much for me to handle, as this would be used with analog cable(which appears to have no problems), and the CLEAR QAM tuner for digital cable reception.

For those who have used the QAM side(Dartman in particular):

The unit just REMOVES QAM channels on it's own? Or does it remove them after switching from cable to OTA? I am assuming it places all the cable channels(analog first), into one big channel map for tuning, correct?
Some of these units tuners(on the QAM side) are defective? They only tune up to like channel 85, and LOCK? Or do they tune all the way up too channel 135, like alot of other QAM tuners?

Some of my channels are at 126 and above, and I ned to know this.

It is a shame if these things need some sort of firmware update in order to fix it. If that is the case, I'm out. I just wish they would release the damn thing when it is READY, not before then.

The CLEAR QAM problems unfortunately completely turn me off of this unit.

Although it seems to handle the NTSC(analog cable and TV), and the ATSC/OTA quite well, at least according to most.

My scan locks up at 120 and i have to hit back and manually set the QAM channels. So far even thought it looses the channels it has not missed any of the QAM recordings i have set . It looses the channels any time , i will just be changing QAM channels and it will be gone.
Joe

Dartman

06-07-07, 10:05 PM

It mostly seems to loose the QAM channels when going from analog to digital but yes it can just hickup and loose them at any time. I have hard set all my timer recordings to actual channels and not the virtual ones it adds after like 2.1 when actual is 90.1. It also seems to only manually tune the major first channel and not all the rest of the actual channels subs, so for those I use the actual SD cable ones just to be sure even though the HD subs looks nicer even if it isn't true HD. So far it has recorded every show I wanted this way, even after it forgot all the QAM channels again.
I also noticed while editing out commercials that when it had a brain fart the delete function for the unwanted portion did not work till I powered it down for a few minutes and then started again so it all maybe tied together in whatever part holds the QAM memory.
As far as the naming timer recordings does yup, no naming each one as added, need to do it afterwards, pretty weird. At least it has a playback of the title with sound in the preview screen so it's kinda easy to figure out what it is that way as well.
I'm starting to like the editing as I can fast forward, rewind, pause or frame step forward and back and use the commercial skip functions as well, even before I go into portion delete mode I can scan right to the spot then hit the right edit button and setup the part I want to loose rather then always starting at the beginning and having to rescan to the next spot like some make you do.
The machine has some very cool features, some very glaring omissions, and a bug with QAM but I Like it enough to stick with it for now as I think I have workarounds for the QAM part and the rest I can deal with so far.

lilyarbie

06-07-07, 11:43 PM

Actually, you don't really have to wait until your Wal-mart store gets one of these. You can use the Site-To-Store shipping option online. All you have to do is pay for it online. They charge you the regular price as you would pay in your store and whatever sales tax is applicable to your area. They ship it free of charge to your store and you simply pick it up. If there is any problem with the unit, you can simply refund it at your wal-mart store or exchange it out for a unit that is available in your store.

Elfy

06-07-07, 11:54 PM

My thoughts on the DVDR3575H:

1.) REMOTE: I do like the remote. It's a nice size and well built. I find some of the buttons a bit small (like stop) but all in all it is very nice. It does need to be pointed directly at the unit or it will not get the signal from the remote. I wish the remote had volume control for my monitor as found on some panasonic units thru punching in a brand name code (very nice feature IMO).

2.) 1080P UPCONVERT: I first tried hooking up my unit to my 1080p 42" westinghouse monitor thru hdmi hdcp, but the unit would only let me select up to 1080i (hmmm, i found this a bit strange but I've come to the conclusion that it's not the dvd/hdd/recorder but the hdcp hdmi input on my monitor is buggy and yes it's a 1080p monitor... had the same problem with other 1080p upconvert players)... So I hooked the unit up thru hdmi to dvi cable with a separate audio cable and I was able to select 1080p. No real biggie for me. The picture thru hdmi / dvi cable is wonderful.

3.) DVD 1080P UPCONVERT: THIS IS, IMO, THE VERY BEST FEATURE OF THE DVDR3575H!! I find the 1080p DVD upconvert absolutely amazing / unreal!!! The picture quality of my dvdr3575h with playing dvd's thru 1080p upconvert is much much better than my computer. I am running my computer thru a 7900gt 256 evga DVI cable with nvidia purevideo video decoder and fdshow 1080p upconvert, and the dvdr3575h has a noticable picture clarity improvement over my computer. I plan on using this unit for watching all dvd's!!! I didn't think it was possible! Very very impressive thru hdmi/dvi cable from unit to 1080p 42" monitor.

4.) ANALOG TUNER: The analog tuner on this unit is very nice. It's fast and gets the job done. I have the unit hooked up to my cable company and the unit is set up on the cable analog/digital setting.

5.) QAM / DIGITAL TUNER: I'm not overly impressed with the QAM tuner on this unit and it is somewhat buggy. Yes, it does get QAM channels, BUT you are not allowed to memorize sub channels which is very very very annoying IMO. You are only allowed to mem main channels and all the sub-channels within the main channel. It took me a while to figure this all out and the QAM tuner is absolutely non-user friendly. For example, if you want to memorize channel 81.4, then you are forced to only memorize channel 81 and all other sub channels of 81 such as 81.2, 81.3, 81.5, blah blah blah (WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS @ PHILLIPS THINKING!!). Forget allowing the automatic channel memorization feature of this unit to mem digital channels for you. I found myself going thru each individual digital channel, writing them down on paper, and then entering them in by hand insuring that I didn't miss any digital channels. Also, every once in a great while the unit will stop viewing digital channels. My quick fix for this problem is to hit the analog / digital button,,,, go to analog,,, then flip back to digital and the unit will pop the digital channels back up. This unit does fill the bill in terms of receiving and viewing QAM signal and it will work for me especially along with the other features of this unit, but the samsung "tuner only" HDTV Digital Terrestrial Receiver Model: DTB-H260F completely blows this thing out of the water. Surfing thru digital channels on this unit is also rather slow and I've seen much better, but........... it's ok.

6.) START UP FROM POWER OFF: One very nice feature of the DVDR3575H is how fast it will start up and view channels (especially digital) from power off. Some other units, such as the panasonic line, take about 30 to 40 seconds (and yes, I'm not kidding) to start up. The start up on the DVDR3575H is very very impressive. I would say from power on (with digital channels selected) to actual viewing is about 9 to 10 seconds in comparison to other brands of about 1/2 minute.

7.) HDD RECORDING: So far, i'm impressed with the overall HDD recording. Pause of live tv, title listing with individual windows w/sound, editing features, and over all stock 160gb hard drive size is very nice. I'm completely in love with the "scene delete" feature of this unit combined with the skipping feature = you can take a time recorded movie and rip out the commercials / unwanted stuff very fast. At the highest quality setting of HQ, you are able to record about 34hours of material. Very impressive.

8.) Dubbing: The fast dubbing from HD to DVD feature is very nice, BUT I have run into a few events where the unit will not allow me to select "high speed" AND EVEN HQ dubbing from HD to DVD (MOSTLY WITH LARGE 2HR MOVIES). On large dub files the unit will only allow me to select SP or lower resolution settings which is kinda disappointing IMO. This forces me to watch the entire movie (yes, at regular speed,,, all 2 hours of it) just to transfer the file from HD TO DVD!! ouch!All in all, the dubbing feature is very basic and is ok.

9.) SPECIAL FEATURES: Some of the features such as skip, replay, pause live tv, and editing is very nice. I find myself using skip a lot especially thru commercials. I have changed the default skip feature from 30seconds to 1minute as this helps in editing long movies.

10.) INPUTS/OUTPUTS: Very basic here and very comparable to other brands / units. HDMI/COMPONENT OUT, OPTICAL OUT, and USB INPUT is nice. I tried hooking up my segate external hard drive thru the usb port and the unit DID NOT recognize my external 250gb hard drive. There might be a way around this but I have not figured this out yet.

11.) NON HIGH DEF TV PASS THRU: This unit does NOT pass thru native high def signals which is somewhat of a negative for me, but I must admit..... downscaling high def signals @ 480 resolution is still rather amazing. High def viewing is still rather impressive, but you can "just tell" it's not true HD. I guess that is what you get for having a HDD / DVD recorder as such true HD recording would suck up hard drive space rather quickly.

12.) ANALOG/DIGITAL TUNERS ARE NOT COMBINED: Analog and Digital channel tuners are not combined. You must hit a button to switch back and forth from analog and digital. I can live with this.

13.) SPEED OF TUNER SURFING: Analog = fast,,,, Digital = slow. I wish one of these companies could get an ultra fast digital tuner.. Oh well, I'm starting to live with this.

All in all, I'm impressed with the DVDR3575H. I will be keeping this unit after going thru 1 digital tuner, and 3 other tuners/dvd-recorder units. 1080p, hdd, dvd-recorder and I'm sold. I use it more for Picutre in Picutre tv viewing while gaming and screwing around on my computer anyway. Yes, I'm a geek like that.

The DVDR3575H would be absolutely amazing if it only had high def pass thru, improved QAM tuner, and improved digital channel surfing times. BUT, i'll be keeping this DVDR3575H and into the future :) !!

Elfy

Dartman

06-07-07, 11:56 PM

I did site to store and the store I wanted it sent to got 3 the day after they sent me a mail saying they were on backorder and I'd either have to wait or they would cancel my order if it took longer then 10 days. I bought mine at the store and canceled online by phone. Was still showing processing even after I got a cancel confirmation.
I don't understand why one of the 3 at my store wasn't held for me...

nicholasmcgrew

06-08-07, 08:16 AM

Just got mine last night. I had the Polaroid for a week and brought it back. This one is leaps and bounds better. It's not the dream machine, but it's nice having one that works like it says it will. My QAM reception gets everything that my TV does, which is more than I can say for the Polaroid. Haven't tried the ATSC, since I loaned out my rabbit ears to a friend . . .

I only played with it for an hour last night before I went to bed. I tried recording to the HDD only so far. But it seemed to work well. I mainly want to use this as I used my VCR. Record the show, watch it once, and be done with it. I figure I may want to record memorable shows or shows to watch on the road to DVD.

Have to see if I have any of the QAM drops that others have talked about.
--Nick

FullOnShred

06-08-07, 01:49 PM

Elfy wrote

"8.) Dubbing: The fast dubbing from HD to DVD feature is very nice, BUT I have run into a few events where the unit will not allow me to select "high speed" AND EVEN HQ dubbing from HD to DVD (MOSTLY WITH LARGE 2HR MOVIES). On large dub files the unit will only allow me to select SP or lower resolution settings which is kinda disappointing IMO. This forces me to watch the entire movie (yes, at regular speed,,, all 2 hours of it) just to transfer the file from HD TO DVD!! ouch!All in all, the dubbing feature is very basic and is ok."

Elfy, you can't dub 2hrs. of HQ quality material to a Standard blank DVD with any DVD Recorder. Only 1 hr. will fit at HQ quality. You can dub 2hrs. at SP mode, no more. You might want to rethink your original HDD Recording Quality Settings if you want to archive entire Titles of more than one hour to one DVD.

Another alternative is to record in HQ, then split your Title into 1 hr. HQ chunks, burn them to DVD RW, put on computer and rejoin and shrink them onto one DVD using DVD Shrink. It is much more trouble, but I do this with Basketball games because SP quality is not satisfactory to my eye. I usually split 1 game into 2 HQ Titles, 1st half, 2nd half, then burn to 2 DVDs at HQ, put both on my computer, rejoin and Shrink them onto 1 DVD with DVD Shrink. The quality is better than an SP original of the same material. Oh, and I edit out all commercials so I am encoding and recording only material I want to view. Saves room on the DVD for better quality. :)

shk795

06-08-07, 02:07 PM

I've had my 3575 for about a week now, thanks largely to the information I gathered from this forum. I'm generally very pleased with the unit; however, I have noticed a couple of quirks that bother me a bit.

1.) INCONSISTENCIES IN BLACK LEVEL (BRIGHTNESS)
The 3575 digital tuner puts out nice deep blacks that look good with any of the three default settings on my TV. (I have the recorder connected, with component cables, to a Panasonic 42" plasma.) However, when I play a commercial DVD, the picture looks washed out with the same default TV picture settings. I have to lower the TV black level from 0 to -12 (out of +/- 25) to get a good picture. The result is that I have to use two different TV picture settings: one for the digital tuner and a different one for the playing DVDs. It would be much nicer if the black levels were all the same, either high or low. This behavior is not a deal breaker, but it seems odd in an otherwise excellent piece of equipment.

(By the way, in the process of setting the DVD playback black level with an AVIA test disk, I tried some of the other tests on the disk. The 3575 handles motion noticeably better than either my TV or my '03 Pioneer DVD player. I, like Elfy, think it may turn out to be a very good DVD player.)

2.) SLIGHTLY BLURRY DIGITAL TUNER
Compared to the OTA tuner in my DIRECTV H20 satellite box (set to 480i or p), the 3575 digital tuner is a bit less sharp. It's not a big deal, but it is noticeable. Both boxes are connected to identically set up component inputs. I also compared the 3575 digital tuner to one in a Panasonic EZ17. The EZ17 tuner was also a bit sharper, but had such a bad case of jaggies (especially noticeable with baseball or basketball), I took it back. The 3575's picture is easier on the eyes than the EZ17's, even if a bit less sharp.

I'd appreciate any thoughts or comments from anyone who finds these issues interesting.

ValVita

06-08-07, 04:41 PM

Bought this unit yesterday from Walmart. I have the SV-2000 DVD Recorder (non-HDD) model that I believe is made by same parent company (Funai?). Anyway, some of the menus are similar. Figured the learning curve wouldn't be quite so steep...

BUT, one of the functions I've never been exposed to before is "Delete Scene". It's found in the HDD title editing menu. I'm only use to Hiding Chapters, which I use routinely on my SV-2000 when editing commercials out of TV episodes. (The Philips also uses Hide Chapters when editing directly to a DVD.)

I test recorded short segments in HQ and SP quality to the HDD to practice the "Delete Scene" function, and all seemed well. But later I timer recorded a show off the Hallmark Channel in SP to the HDD, successfully split off and deleted the unwanted "tails" from the beginning and end, and then attempted to use the "Delete Scene" function on the commercial segments. It allowed me to proceed through all the "are you sure you want to do this?" mini-screens... and then wouldn't delete the segment. Instead up popped a big red circle with a slash through it, letting me know the function was not permitted.

I don't understand. Why did "Delete Scene" work on the test segments (same speed, same destination HDD), but not on the timer recording? Anyone else experience this? What do I need to do differently to make this work?

Thanks!

ValVita

FullOnShred

06-08-07, 04:54 PM

ValVita, have you perhaps accidentally "Protected" or "Locked" the recording?

kenavs

06-08-07, 04:54 PM

I test recorded short segments in HQ and SP quality to the HDD to practice the "Delete Scene" function, and all seemed well. But later I timer recorded a show off the Hallmark Channel in SP to the HDD, successfully split off and deleted the unwanted "tails" from the beginning and end, and then attempted to use the "Delete Scene" function on the commercial segments. It allowed me to proceed through all the "are you sure you want to do this?" mini-screens... and then wouldn't delete the segment. Instead up popped a big red circle with a slash through it, letting me know the function was not permitted.

I don't understand. Why did "Delete Scene" work on the test segments (same speed, same destination HDD), but not on the timer recording? Anyone else experience this? What do I need to do differently to make this work?

Thanks!

ValVita
I have been able to do what you describe on normal OTA broadcasts which were timer recordings with my DVDR3575H.
You might check to make sure you have not accidently set protection on the title.
I am OTA only, but the other question might be if the Hallmark Channel sets some sort of security flag.

Chuck44

06-08-07, 04:58 PM

I have been able to do what you describe on normal OTA broadcasts which were timer recordings with my DVDR3575H.
You might check to make sure you have not accidently set protection on the title.
I am OTA only, but the other question might be if the Hallmark Channel sets some sort of security flag.
I agree. The timer function would not have anything to do with it.

ValVita

06-08-07, 05:09 PM

Thanks for trying to help me sort this out. :)

The Protection setting was the first thing I checked. Just to be on the safe side, I turned it ON, and then OFF again--to make sure it was indeed OFF. Didn't make any difference.

Does anyone know if Hallmark (off of Dish satellite) programming is copy protected? If so, it's the first time I've run into it. The SV-2000 taped the same show yesterday without a problem. How would I check this on the Philips?

ValVita

Bill R (# 2)

06-08-07, 05:51 PM

Does anyone know if Hallmark (off of Dish satellite) programming is copy protected?

ValVita

No, it is not copy protected. The only two channels that DISH has been testing copy protection on is HBO and Cinemax. And, IMHO, they are going to lose a hell of a lot of customers if they start copy protecting stuff that customers want to record. I know that it is the program vendor (not the satellite company) that are forcing the copy protection issue but customers are going to blame the satellite or cable vendor if something won't record.

STEELERSRULE

06-08-07, 09:18 PM

I am sure this has been gone over, but:

1. Does this unit have FLEX/MN modes to record like the Panny and Pioneer models?

2. What type of record modes does it have? The usual suspects I presume(HQ/1 HR, SP/2HR, LP/4HR, EP/6HR, SLP/8HR), but are there any "tweeners" between any of them?

3. Does this unit record the 16:9 image off of a digital channel at 480i correctly to be shown on a 16:9 TV with no bars on top and bottom(or on the sides for that matter)? In other words, say the program in question is a 16:9 show. Does the unit record the 16:9 show correctly on a digital signal? This would be great for a HD Widescreen football game/sporting event, even though it would be 480i, which would be fine.

Dartman

06-08-07, 09:29 PM

It does have a flex mode called auto that guesses the bitrate to fill up a disk fully, also has SPP that is 3 hour mode I'm pretty sure. I think the widescreen programs I capped off the tuner have stayed WS, I'll have to play with it and double check.

STEELERSRULE

06-08-07, 09:40 PM

Thanx Dartman for the prompt answer.

But does it have a record mode between HQ and SP. My Sony HX-900 has an HSP(1 1/2 hour) mode, and I wondering if it had that.

Can you list the recording modes for me here.

I will have to investigate that "AUTO" recording mode further, unless someone wants to elaborate.

P.S. Is that record mode AVAILABLE on the HDD so that you can High Speed Burn to a DVD-R? I am guessing it has to be burned at the same mode to HS Dub, which would make sense. If that is the case, it would not lose any resolution/bitrate on a HS Dub, which would be nice.

But, that DAMN MOTHER $%#^@@&@ BAD QAM Tuner is just keeping me away from this unit. I wish it would not lose it's channels. I wonder if it has to do with the fluctuation of signal, and if it disappears for a SECOND, the unit erases the channel thinking it is no t there. Hopefully, that will be fixed.

Dartman

06-08-07, 09:53 PM

All I remember is the spp mode and auto in the manual. a link to it is listed back in the thread if you want to read through it. It's very well written and HUGE with lots of info.
The QAM tuner almost never looses lock, drops out, pixelates, anything, it just works. You can direct enter channels when the memory goes away but it will only get the main first channel and not tune the other subs till you add it back in. I just enter the native channels in the timer mode and so far it has recorded everything I added so far.
The 3 Polaroid 0160's I tried couldn't keep a QAM signal to save their lives or I would have kept one. A user on that thread finally reported he got one that everything worked perfectly so maybe later units then the early ones I had have been fixed.
I think Philips will end up doing a Firmware update or something once they truly realize it's a design fault and not a few bad QAM tuners. IF the one I site to store ordered shows up I'll probably go ahead and take it home to see if the second batch has the same issues, then take the worst of the two back.

OK it has HQ, SP, SPP, LP, EP, SLP, and auto if going to dvd disk when dubbing, HD just has the 5 speeds. High speed can also be available for dubbing but the one time I used it it took 32 minutes to do just short of two hours.

Rick2456

06-08-07, 09:56 PM

Steelerule,

Had my for a week now. Yes, it seems to just drop the entire channel list in QAM after the initial scan and continues to intermitantly, sometimes before the day ends. Not a good thing, since I hoped for a more stable/better tuner from this second tier company. Won't be able to rely on this to record a scheduled event set to a digital channel. I'll have to think about returning it or not.

Pick mine (DVDR3575H) up today and had the same digital tuner issues. Took several times of setup/scanning to get the digital cable channels into memory. Then, I noticed the channel would change all by itself. In other words, switch from one station (channel number would not change) to another with no action on my part. Weird and frustrating. I am taking it back to wallyworld tomorrow. Hope someone knows what the heck this is all about. Good luck.

Dartman

06-08-07, 10:06 PM

IF your watching the on demand QAM in the clear channels they will do that as the subscriber decides to stop watching the movie or the channels fill up. Otherwise it should stay on channel till you change it or signal drops off for some reason. When I'm done doing a timer recording it's still on the QAM digital channel I set it too even if the qam channels have been forgotten again. It doesn't loose it till I try to change channels and find out they're gone again.

Rick2456

06-08-07, 10:48 PM

Dartman

06-08-07, 11:04 PM

It depends on why its doing it. For some channels like on demand when the customer stops watching it it just drops out and usually your tuner will go to next working channel. If it's just dropping normally active at all times channels then it's probably bad, plus we know about the QAM digital channel memory problems that most seem to have, but the tuner still works, just forgets all the programmed channels.
My first one wouldn't auto scan for active cable digital channels past 85 and did sometimes just stop receiving channels for no reason, latest one just looses the channel memory but can receive all in the clear active channels fine on channel scan or direct enter.

bondiablo

06-09-07, 04:08 AM

3. Does this unit record the 16:9 image off of a digital channel at 480i correctly to be shown on a 16:9 TV with no bars on top and bottom...I just figured this out myself, not sure if anyone else has noticed it yet or not, but how it records a 16:9 image depends on how you have it set for TV Aspect. In General Settings under Video you set TV Aspect to either 4:3 LB, 4:3 PS or 16:9 Wide. If set to LB the recording will be letterboxed, black bars top and bottom. If set to PS the picture will fill the screen but the sides will be cut off. If set to Wide the whole picture will fill the screen.

chrisb0

06-09-07, 09:03 AM

Does this unit record the 16:9 image off of a digital channel at 480i correctly to be shown on a 16:9 TV with no bars on top and bottom(or on the sides for that matter)?

Like bondiablo said, if you tell the Philips you have a 16:9 display, it will record so that it fills the full frame on playback to a 16:9. However, if you burn it to a DVD (R/RW) and try to play it on a computer, I'm betting it will show up as 4:3 squished because it doesn't properly set the anamorphic flag. It you play the disc on the Philips it will still display 16:9 even without the flag set. This is what happens on my 3505 (mostly same but w/o HD). The workaround for DVDs you want to keep is to burn them to a RW, copy to a computer with DVD burner, and use a program like ifoedit to set the flag (search these forums for more info), and then finally burn your "final" copy. Depending on your final use for the discs, the missing flag may not be worth the hassle of fixing. [A side note - very few if any of the ASTC DVDRs that are under discussion on these forums seem to properly set the anamorphic flag].

Dartman

06-09-07, 01:05 PM

Well talked to support again about the digital cable channel memory issues. Now he stated they were aware of a problem but no firmware or anything was available so I should send it in for repair/replacement. I told him the 3505 unit which is probably the same machine without a hard drive now has a beta firmware to fix the same issues and he didn't have a clue and told me to send it in again, I said no point if ALL the units do it. He said then tune the digital cable channels manually and wait for a new firmware... I told him at least 5 other people I know about are having same issues and they should hit this forum.
I guess Andy from their new product division is working on the 3505 so I posted this on that thread because he follows that one and let's hope they see it and start really working on this one as well.

kenavs

06-09-07, 03:49 PM

I was playing around on the Philips website. I logged in to www.philips.com. I then selected US English. I then entered dvdr3575 in the search box in the upper right corner.

I was shown the following choices:
-----------------
Hard Disk/DVD Recorder - 160 GB - DVDR3575H/37
Benefit from the convenience of recording directly onto a 160GB hard disk with this DVD recorder. To keep something longer, simply record your selected programs onto ...
Consumer Products, HTML, 0k, English - May 27, 2007

Contact & Support - DVDR3575H/37
Hard disk recording and playback made simple
Consumer Products, HTML, 0k, English - May 27, 2007

Contact & Support - DVDR3575H/37B
160 GB Hard Disk/DVD Recorder
Consumer Products, HTML, 0k, English - May 26, 2007
-----------------
It was not obvious to me what the difference is between the files offered under the DVDR3575H/37 and the DVDR3575H/37B Support entries. The second ones due have the b added to the file names but the posting dates and file sizes look the same.

I have no idea of the significance of a b version, but I just thought others might be interested.

chrisb0

06-09-07, 03:54 PM

I have no idea of the significance of a b version, but I just thought others might be interested.
I think the "b" designation is for "black", as in the unit color. Most of the Philips I have seen in stores are sliver, but maybe they are planning a different cover.

STEELERSRULE

06-09-07, 09:13 PM

With the QAM issues aside, it seems Phillips has made a pretty darn good HDD recorder at this point.

They seem to have addressed all of the previous problems(lockups and the like) of the previous NTSC only models. At least so far.

It seems that the NTSC/analog and the ATSC/digtal recording seem to be going quite well for most.

But we are at the beginning, of course. Only time will tell if it can hold up, and/or be a winner like previous Pioneer and Panny models of the same ilk.

Hopefully so. But please let them fix that QAM issue. If that get's resolved with a batch sent out later in the year, then I will probably get one.

But it seems most are more than happy with it at this point.

P.S. With regards to those using the OTA/ATSC side of the recorder:

1. How is it's reception? Does it lock on quite well, and does it seem to not need alot of signal to LOCK ON?

2. Are there any major MULTIPATH issues with it at all, for those who would know?

If not, then it appears all Phillips really needs to do is solve the CLEAR QAM side of the recorder.

oldjarhead

06-10-07, 01:09 AM

I'm having the same problem with my 3575. I was able to delete the 1st two scenes, but from then on, it won't let me delete any scenes. Does anybody have any suggestions? I've checked to make sure it's not "protected" and I've left the editing screen and come back in, all to no avail.

Bought this unit yesterday from Walmart. I have the SV-2000 DVD Recorder (non-HDD) model that I believe is made by same parent company (Funai?). Anyway, some of the menus are similar. Figured the learning curve wouldn't be quite so steep...

BUT, one of the functions I've never been exposed to before is "Delete Scene". It's found in the HDD title editing menu. I'm only use to Hiding Chapters, which I use routinely on my SV-2000 when editing commercials out of TV episodes. (The Philips also uses Hide Chapters when editing directly to a DVD.)

I test recorded short segments in HQ and SP quality to the HDD to practice the "Delete Scene" function, and all seemed well. But later I timer recorded a show off the Hallmark Channel in SP to the HDD, successfully split off and deleted the unwanted "tails" from the beginning and end, and then attempted to use the "Delete Scene" function on the commercial segments. It allowed me to proceed through all the "are you sure you want to do this?" mini-screens... and then wouldn't delete the segment. Instead up popped a big red circle with a slash through it, letting me know the function was not permitted.

I don't understand. Why did "Delete Scene" work on the test segments (same speed, same destination HDD), but not on the timer recording? Anyone else experience this? What do I need to do differently to make this work?

Thanks!

ValVita

kenavs

06-10-07, 01:19 AM

oldjarhead

06-10-07, 01:27 AM

I have removed all the commercials from a 3 hour movie broadcast which reduced it to 2 hours and from 2 one hour TV programs without seeing this problem.
Does everything else still seem to work?
Can you record a new title?
Can you delete scenes from a different title?

I'll have to give it a try in the morning. I've only recorded one thing on it so far. I'm recording thru a cable box. My Panasonic DMR 95H hasn't had any problems like this, so I'm just wondering...

Thanks for your help!

kenavs

06-10-07, 01:38 AM

I'll have to give it a try in the morning. I've only recorded one thing on it so far. I'm recording thru a cable box. My Panasonic DMR 95H hasn't had any problems like this, so I'm just wondering...

Thanks for your help!
As I said, I have not seen the problem. One thing to consider is that everything I have worked with has been regular OTA programs. The 2 reported problems involve programs recorded from cable.

Has anyone experienced the delete scene problem with an OTA program?

Dartman

06-10-07, 03:08 AM

Mine did it when the digital tuner lost it's memory while I was editing as far as the not letting you delete scenes. I turned it off for a few minutes finally and then it let me edit again. So the issues affect the editing functions too and if your not using it to tune digital cable you wont notice the digital cable channels are gone.... confused:

Tomel

06-10-07, 06:22 AM

SteelersRule . . .

In answer to your questions

1) No problem with signal lock-in (certainly better than the Panasonic, the Samsung or the Lg)

2) Some multi-path, but not major and in line with what I typically expect in my location

The only weird thing I've run into (and have not yet figured out) is that I cannot seem to get the digital channel of the local ABC affiliate. The Philips picked up the signal and added the channel to the channel list, but I'm just getting a blank screen on that channel. I can get the analog signal fine (broadcast antennas are in same location, about 5 miles away). The signal strength is fine since I'm getting the digital station on my Olevia HDTV and my LG LST3510A set-up box located in other rooms. If anyone has a thought about this, let me know. When I turn to the ABC station, the word "scanning" appears on the screen briefly, then a blank screen.

GSfromCT

06-10-07, 07:48 AM

SteelersRule . . .

The only weird thing I've run into (and have not yet figured out) is that I cannot seem to get the digital channel of the local ABC affiliate. The Philips picked up the signal and added the channel to the channel list, but I'm just getting a blank screen on that channel. I can get the analog signal fine (broadcast antennas are in same location, about 5 miles away). The signal strength is fine since I'm getting the digital station on my Olevia HDTV and my LG LST3510A set-up box located in other rooms. If anyone has a thought about this, let me know. When I turn to the ABC station, the word "scanning" appears on the screen briefly, then a blank screen.

Tomel:
Try tuning in the actual channel the ABC affiliate broadcasts on. This happens with ATSC set top boxes too. Usually its a PSIP issue at the station so the channel does not map to its virtual channel correctly.
With a STB and a station sending out improper PSIP, usually what you'll see is a black screen on the virtual channel (some boxes will say No signal or have full signal with a black screen) and a proper channel to view on the actual RF broadcast channel.
When the station fixes its PSIP issue, the station should come back on at the virtual channel number correctly. Sometimes you'll need a re-scan.
You can also check your local area in the HD Local info section here. If its a PSIP issue, somebody else in your area will be having problems with their STB too.

jobedo

06-10-07, 09:58 AM

Bad news, my QAM timer recording was black screen . It failed to find the channel, so for me its unreliable. I will switch to OTA but my reception isn't good enough to hold the signal so if they can't fix it ,it will have to go back.
Joe

Chuck44

06-10-07, 11:10 AM

Tomel:
Try tuning in the actual channel the ABC affiliate broadcasts on. This happens with ATSC set top boxes too. Usually its a PSIP issue at the station so the channel does not map to its virtual channel correctly.
With a STB and a station sending out improper PSIP, usually what you'll see is a black screen on the virtual channel (some boxes will say No signal or have full signal with a black screen) and a proper channel to view on the actual RF broadcast channel.
When the station fixes its PSIP issue, the station should come back on at the virtual channel number correctly. Sometimes you'll need a re-scan.
You can also check your local area in the HD Local info section here. If its a PSIP issue, somebody else in your area will be having problems with their STB too.
I've seen that exact problem with my local CBS affiliate.
It's supposed to show as "10-1" but when they're experiencing
the problem I have to tune it in as "52-1".

Dartman

06-10-07, 11:18 AM

Well mine will do a black screen too if I try to set a QAM virtual channel rather then the true channel I'm trying to record after it has lost it's mind again. If I can I set the true channel, but because it wont map out all the subs till it's added to memory again sometimes I have to use the SD channel rather then not get it in digital at all, last resort I use the analog channel.
You might want to wait out the 90 days to see if Philips does indeed either send out a fixed unit to stores or just post a firmware fix soon. They are aware that QAM memory has problems and the rest doesn't. They keep telling me to send it in rather then saying they are working on firmware, the level 1 techs are clueless.
Call em and let em know yours doesn't work too, maybe they get on this quicker the more folks let them know they also have bad units and will just return them rather then letting Philips keep their money.
I'm going to hang onto mine and see how it goes, we have 90 days, then the factory warranty, then the extended one if you got it.

jobedo

06-10-07, 11:24 AM

Would you explain a "QAM virtual channel rather then the true channel".
Joe

wajo

06-10-07, 11:31 AM

Would you explain a "QAM virtual channel rather then the true channel".
Joe
Here's a good explanation by Budget_HT. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10674451#post10674451)

chrisb0

06-10-07, 03:41 PM

Well, I've returned my 3505 DVDR in favor of the 3575H unit with HDD. I really wanted the convenience and flexibility of the HDD recording.

Couple of thoughts I wanted to add:

My thoughts on the DVDR3575H:
...
6.) START UP FROM POWER OFF: One very nice feature of the DVDR3575H is how fast it will start up and view channels (especially digital) from power off. Some other units, such as the panasonic line, take about 30 to 40 seconds (and yes, I'm not kidding) to start up. The start up on the DVDR3575H is very very impressive. I would say from power on (with digital channels selected) to actual viewing is about 9 to 10 seconds in comparison to other brands of about 1/2 minute.
...
12.) ANALOG/DIGITAL TUNERS ARE NOT COMBINED: Analog and Digital channel tuners are not combined. You must hit a button to switch back and forth from analog and digital. I can live with this.

13.) SPEED OF TUNER SURFING: Analog = fast,,,, Digital = slow. I wish one of these companies could get an ultra fast digital tuner.. Oh well, I'm starting to live with this.
...
Elfy

6.) START UP FROM POWER OFF: does seem faster with the 3575 compared to the 3505 (disc check was kinda slow). I don"t normally keep a disc in since I primarily will be recording to the HDD.

12.) ANALOG/DIGITAL TUNERS ARE NOT COMBINED: when switching from analog to digital tuning, the switch can be kinda slow.

13.) SPEED OF TUNER SURFING: doesn't seem too bad to me as long as your not switching between A and D. The 3575 is much faster changing channels than the 3505, especially the digital ones (although still a little slow compared to my TV's tuner).

DIGITAL TUNER SENSITIVITY : seems a bit lower than my plasma's tuner (a recent model). I was just watching a digital PBS broadcast OTA and saw a small amount of blocking/noise in the image with the tv's tuner. When I switched to the 3575, the blocking was much worse and was more-or-less unwatchable. I don't know if it was a pure signal strength issue (tv's signal meter said 40-50% ish) or if it was multi-path. I can't really complain, though, considering I have a set of rabbit ears and a loop antenna in my attic for reception & the PBS station is the only one I have issues with.

All in all, I like this unit so far. I hope to keep this unit for a long time to come. I only do OTA, so the QAM issues some folks are reporting aren't affecting me...although I won't say no to a firmware update if one becomes available to fix the QAM problem.

crabboy

06-10-07, 03:51 PM

It seems that the problems discussed all are in regard to the QAM tuner. So, do I conclude correctly that this is a good machine for NTSC/ATSC cable users?

bondiablo

06-10-07, 04:27 PM

If you do risk everything to try that, please post the results
(good or bad) here in this thread.
My 2001G still has the original 80GB, but my Lite-On
has a 250. :DIf anyone wants to send me a hard drive I'll risk it and be the guinea pig. :p

Tomel

06-10-07, 04:36 PM

GSfromCT . . .

Thanks, you nailed the solution to my problem. Got ABC digital loud and clear now.

ValVita

06-10-07, 04:52 PM

I ran my Philips 3575H model through some more tests regarding the "Scene Delete" function. So far, my findings haven't gelled into a reliable theory yet on why I still can't consistently delete scenes. But maybe my trial and error attempts will help someone else, or at least spur others' insight into what to do to help this issue.

In my earlier post, I explained how I attempted to timer record two 1-hour back-to-back Hallmark channel episodes via S-Video from Dish satellite at SP speed. The Philips allowed me to split off the "tails" but would not allow "Scene Delete."

Since then, I've made further tests:

1). Picked two other channels at random (TV-Land & Biography) to manually record similar 2-hour segments. Both permitted "Scene Delete" without any trouble at all. Worked beautifully throughout the entire recordings!

2). Encouraged that the first failed test might have been a fluke or due to some unknown error on my part, I again tried to record a 2-hr. movie off of Hallmark. This time manually. The "Scene Delete" function worked flawlessly on the first commercial segment. But the second segment would NOT delete, nor any of the other commerical segments deeper into the recording. :confused:

By this time I was seriously suspecting Hallmark channel was slipping some kind of do-not-mess-with-the-commericals flag into the signal. But even that theory couldn't explain why ONE commercial segment would delete, while the rest wouldn't.

3). Sunday, I manually recorded the Bellmont Stakes off the local ABC DTV affiliate. (I'm in love with the Philips digital tuner! The reception is sharper than some of my satellite channels.) When it was over, clipped the recording to just the twenty minutes of the actual race and a few interviews. This left about two commerical segments to delete. Again, the Philips allowed me to progress through the entire "Scene Delete" mini-menu then popped up the dreaded red circle/slash.

I wondered if MAYBE the "protection" that was screwing me up was ONLY on the commerical segments, and not on the actual show. Maybe that was why I was only able to cut one commerical segment out of the earlier Hallmark movie? Maybe, the time it worked, I'd unwittingly set the Start and End on frames of movie instead of commerical?

So, I tried deleting the scenes based on that theory. I made sure the Start and End locations were on frames of Bellmont, not in-between fade-out black or actually on a commercial. AND IT WORKED!

4). Convinced now that some sort of tamper-protection was indeed involved, I routed the antenna signal through an old iLo which was firmware hacked to ignore VHS and some DVD copy protection. Hoped this might filter out broadcast flags, if that's what I was dealing with. Tested it with a brief recording of ABC DTV's Entertainment Tonight, and it seemed effective. Scene Delete worked fine on the ET test recording.

5). Timer recorded ABC DTV's "Ruffian" Sunday night through the hook-up explained above. When I tried to Scene Delete, making certain the Start and End frames were set on the movie not a commercial, it would NOT delete. Furthermore, when I tried to dub the unedited 1hr-59min. movie to a blank +RW, up popped a red error message. It said it couldn't record that file to that disc. :(

Now all my theories are up in smoke and I'm right back to square one... almost. The problem still seems somehow to be channel-related. And worse, my failed attempts to Scene Delete the first Hallmark recording and Ruffian seem to be corrupting my Hard Drive a little. In edit mode the HD will no longer play through those segments I tried to delete without sticking/freezing. Play, pause, Rewind, F-Forward won't work then, and the only way out is the Return function.

Argh! Some things about this machine are great, but a few others... well, it's frustrating.

ValVita

shk795

06-10-07, 05:17 PM

Has anyone noticed black level (brightness) problems with the 3575H?

The picture from the 3575 digital tuner looks good with the default settings on my TV. (I have the recorder connected, with component cables, to a Panasonic 42" plasma set to "cinema".) However, when I play commercial DVDs, the picture looks washed out with the same default TV picture setting. I have to lower the TV black level from 0 to -12 (out of +/- 30) to get a normal picture. As a result I'm using two different TV picture settings: one for the digital tuner and a different one for playing DVDs. It would be much nicer if the black levels were all the same. This behavior is not a deal breaker, but it seems odd in an otherwise excellent piece of equipment.

Chuck44

06-10-07, 05:24 PM

FWIW, last night I recorded the two episodes of COPS on Fox (OTA-DTV).
Then today, because of the above posts I went through the one hour
recording of the two shows and did Scene Delete on all the commercials.
It all went without a hitch - no problems.
I only use my 3575 for OTA - no cable or satellite.

Chuck44

06-10-07, 05:31 PM

Has anyone noticed black level (brightness) problems with the 3575H?...
Some shows appear a little darker and more color intense,
but it's hardly noticeable. I've seen VCR's and other
tuners do the same thing...

wajo

06-10-07, 05:41 PM

Now all my theories are up in smoke and I'm right back to square one... almost. The problem still seems somehow to be channel-related. And worse, my failed attempts to Scene Delete the first Hallmark recording and Ruffian seem to be corrupting my Hard Drive a little. In edit mode the HD will no longer play through those segments I tried to delete without sticking/freezing. Play, pause, Rewind, F-Forward won't work then, and the only way out is the Return function.
Seeing Chuck44's success in scene delete and no pause/FF/REW problems with his OTA setup suggests something you could easily try.

First, disconnect any inputs from your Dish and see if disc ops work OK.

Next, if you have your clock auto-set with DST ON, set your clock manually and turn DST OFF.

See if either of these make any diff. (Some people have also done a machine reset before making the clock changes, but not sure if nec.)

kenavs

06-10-07, 09:42 PM

GSfromCT

06-11-07, 05:38 AM

GSfromCT . . .

Thanks, you nailed the solution to my problem. Got ABC digital loud and clear now.

Great to hear!
We have to cut the broadcasters some slack. Digital is still kind of new and way more complicated to them. When digital is the only thing broadcasting, I'm sure the stations will monitor their transmissions more closely.

Sierra71

06-11-07, 06:51 AM

Chuck44

06-11-07, 07:00 AM

Well,

This thing is magic.
it has shown no indication of flaking out like the polo 1601.

Has anyone found out how to name a timer recording that hasn't been recorded yet?
It'd be just wicked cool if it used the broadcast program data to name the recording...
(firmware upgrade?)

Peace, Sierra
So far, it cannot be done.

Tomel

06-11-07, 08:18 AM

Really like the Philips so far, but have run into another issue that maybe someone can help me with.

Recorded a movie directly to DVD-RW (SP, autofinalize). Played back fine on my Lg LST3510A.

Recorded a movie to the Philips HDD. Dubbed it to DVD-RW (SP, finalized). Would not play on my Lg LST3510A. It would play on the Philips and it would play on a Toshiba DVD Recorder. What's going on??? The Lg would try to read it (could hear the disc spinning) and would then spit it out (tray would open).

Why would it play when I recorded directly to DVD, but not when I recorded it to HDD and dubbed to the DVD (disc was new and I used the same disc for both tests, erasing the disc on the Philips between tests).

swangdb

06-11-07, 09:12 AM

I bought a DVDR3575 at the local WalMart last week. They had three units.

I am using it with an old SDTV and Knology cable in Columbus, Ga. This picture quality of this cable system has never looked great to me. It's not terrible, but not great. I've played DVDs through this TV and the picture quality is pretty good, so I blame the cable for the picture quality.

I connected the new unit and soon discovered that I had twelve digital channels too. According to the cable company web site, these channels aren't included with our service. Five of the channels are CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and PBS. The picture quality of these channels is much better than the quality of the analog version of these channels. All of these channels are there every time I look at the digital channels, though they are a little slow to appear.

I am happy with the DVR capabilities of the unit. Recording/playing back programs with the Hard disk, Pausing live tv, starting over a program that is being recorded (chase play?), it's all good.

I recorded a program from a VHS tape (using our old VCR) and it worked fine. I recorded it in HQ mode, I'm not sure it was necessary.

I burned a DVD+RW of a recorded program from the HDD and it played on a different DVD player in the house (also a Philips).

I wish it had an EPG, I already made a mistake and set a timer an hour early. I work on Central time but live in Eastern time. Normally this isn't an issue for me but I need to be more careful when setting timers. I can live without an EPG for now.

I haven't tried to delete any scenes yet. That's not a vital thing for me, though I plan to record some old programs from VHS tapes and it could be an issue then.

From reading this forum, it's obvious that I'm more easily satisfied than many of the subscribers. I wanted basic DVR capabilities with no monthly fees and I wanted a DVD burner. The digital tuner is kind of a bonus. Plus I don't have a great tv. I think of this unit as kind of a temporary solution for now. Of course I suppose all technology is temporary. Sometime in the next year or two I will probably get a better television. Eventually I would want a high definition DVR/DVD burner with an EPG and a faster digital tuner, but for now I am happy with this unit.

BobOnTampaBay

06-11-07, 10:07 AM

gadfly,

When people realize they can get a great picture with an antenna, and a cheaper price on other television channels with satellite, it will force their hand.

Also, their are alot of powerful people that own alot of those broadcast networks, and they could force them to leave their analog signal alone, if their ad revenue(viewership) is directly hurt by that move.

Money talks, as always.

IMO broadcasters now have little reason to encourage OTA viewership. They would rather have you watch their signal via CABLE or mini-dish satellite since, in many cases, they get a a kick-back from those providers for each subscriber every month.

Today 80% of the American population is paying for "free" TV. We are heading to an ALL subscription TV business model. Broadcasters love it, Cable operatiors love it, Mini-Dish satellite operators love it and the general public doesn't have a clue!

Who knows, several decades from now the broadcasters may decide to abandon their OTA signal (electricity and towers are too expensive) and just feed their signals to the cable/satellite cartel.

oldjarhead

06-11-07, 11:44 AM

FullOnShred

06-11-07, 11:48 AM

I am curious. Does this model have 2 different Title Menus. Like maybe HDD Org, and then also a Playlist area with same Titles listed? My Sylvania HDRV200F (made by Funai) does. In HDD Org area you are making "real" cuts and material is lost once you pull the trigger. In the Playlist area the cuts are just held in memory and you can "redo" them endless times.

ValVita

06-11-07, 04:37 PM

Item 5 may not be a real issue. If you are trying to use "HIGH" mode for the dubbing to the DVD, remember that the size needs to be evaluated in bytes, not minutes. The number of bytes to store a given number of minutes at a given level of compression is approximate. If a 2 hour program was recorded in SP it may just fit on a DVD or be a little too big.

I hadn't thought of that, so I checked. The file was about 100mbs within range. It should have fit. I played around with the various options anyway just to see if it might make a difference, even though it meant real-time recording and re-encoding (?). The file still stuck at the same commercial segment. None of the three files effected (2 TV episodes, 1 movie) would play or dub past the failed Scene Deletes. I had to finally chalk these recordings as lost.

But my fiddling with the dubbing modes proved interesting on its own--

***High Speed dub does NOT record at the same size as the original file. (Presuming the SP setting shows the true size of a movie originally recorded in SP.) My experiments showed a difference of anywhere from 30mbs - 100mbs smaller than original.

***Auto Fit dubbing doesn't just shrink a big file to fit, but can also expand a small file to fit.

... Which makes me think that (other than High Speed dub), the Philips is utilizing it's simultaneous play/record feature for the other dubbing options. On the SP, SPP, LP, EP, and Auto settings it plays back the file on the HDD at the quality in which it was originally recorded. Meanwhile, it sets the disc drive to record at SP, SPP, LP, EP, or Auto Fit quality.

Does that sound right? I should have probably realized it sooner. But this is the first machine I've owned with this feature so the revelation took awhile.

I know real-time recording is generally to be avoided because of re-encoding (?). But, if I record a movie that's 1hr-28min. long at SP and High Speed dub, it leaves a lot of wasted disc space. I can't help wishing those unused mbs could be utilized for higher pic quality. If I record the original in HQ, then real-time dub at Auto Fit setting, it seems that might be achieved. Unless the quality loss due to re-encoding is so bad it cancels out any gains? What's the prevailing wisdom and experience with this?

ValVita

ValVita

06-11-07, 04:42 PM

ValVita

06-11-07, 04:59 PM

Seeing Chuck44's success in scene delete and no pause/FF/REW problems with his OTA setup suggests something you could easily try.

First, disconnect any inputs from your Dish and see if disc ops work OK.

Next, if you have your clock auto-set with DST ON, set your clock manually and turn DST OFF.

See if either of these make any diff. (Some people have also done a machine reset before making the clock changes, but not sure if nec.)

Tried the second recommendation, with a reset. Doesn't seem to have made any difference with the older recordings (before I deleted them), or with newer recordings made after the settings change. But I left all the settings OFF, anyway, just in case.

Have not tried disconnecting the inputs yet, but that's next. I put it off because my S-video Red/Blue cables are real monsters to plug and unplug! (The ends are so big, they barely have room to go in next to each other.) Sometimes I'm concerned I'll push the connector back into the machine, the cables go on so hard. So I have to be really careful, and I don't like taking them on and off any more than is absolutely necessary.

ValVita

suplex

06-11-07, 06:31 PM

Hey Everyone:

I picked up my Philips 3575 from Wal*Mart on Sunday (06/10) [Bought it online and they shipped it to my local store] and so far, still doing some various tests like the rest of us, I am having trouble getting some digital channels to tune in.

I know I won't be able to tune in anything like HBO, Starz, Showtime, etc..., but I would really love to get channels like: Discovery, Sci-Fi, TBS, The Learning Channel, and basically all of your Non-Premium "Basic" cable channels.

The only ones I can get are: CBS, NBC, ABC, UPN9, CW11, FOX, (your typical 2-13 lineup).

Does anyone know in here if I have something set wrong? I set it to scan the Digital channels and can't figure out what else I may have to do.

I currently use Verizon Fios as my cable TV provider and I think they utilize QAM more than ATSC, so I am wondering if I am actually not getting as many Digital channels as I thought I was...at least until February of 2009.

If anyone could convince me that after Feb of 2009, when everything goes digital, my Philips 3575 will tune in all the channels (other than Premium Movie Channels) I would feel a lot better about keeping the unit. It stands to reason that it would work that way, at least with a firmware update if not automatically.

I am going to try contacting Philips, but in the meantime if anyone has any ideas...please let me know.

Thanks.

beachbum_50

06-11-07, 06:56 PM

Suplex - the only channels you are going to get with a QAM tuner are the OTA channels.
The only other thing that might come through is if someone is watching an On Demand movie.
All the other channels you are trying to get are scrambled.
To get them you still need a cable box from your cable company to watch them.

Bill R (# 2)

06-11-07, 07:48 PM

Suplex - the only channels you are going to get with a QAM tuner are the OTA channels.

While that is likely true for a good number of cable systems it is not true for all of them. For example, my cable system has almost 300 digital channels and about 105 of them are unencrypted. Over 50 of them are music channels (including 45 Music Choice channels). For months they ran two of their PPV channel unencrypted but have now encrypted them. Every once in a while they will show one of those real expensive (over $30) PPV "events" in the clear. They also move stuff around a lot. I have to do a scan fairly often to make sure my channel list is up to date.

jim55avs

06-11-07, 07:56 PM

suplex

06-11-07, 08:12 PM

I'll have to do a little more research. I will try contacting my cable company (Verizon Fios) and see how many channels are "A": Digital, and "B": Un-Scrambled or "Clear". Then I will see if there are any known issues with the Philips 3575 by contacting Philips and seeing what they may be able to do about it.

If I can't get anywhere yet, I think it will be worth it for me to send it back to Wal*Mart and get my $298 back. Then I will just wait until February of 2009 and see what new Digital Tuner/DVD/HDD Recorder comes out by then.

It's a shame because I really do like the Philips recorder and would love to keep it if I can get all of my "Clear" channels to tune in. I hope there is a fix for it.

If I have to return it though, I can still use my Pioneer 640 to record via the Line 1 Input where the Analog Tuner won't tune in anything at all.

TimSH

06-11-07, 08:23 PM

jobedo

06-11-07, 08:24 PM

kenavs

06-11-07, 08:42 PM

Here's something I've found:

I went thru the title that wouldn't let me delete any scenes after the second one. I went to the middle of it and deleted the commercials from there to the end. Then, back to the middle and worked my way back to the beginning deleting the commercials. It worked like a charm. No hang-ups at all.

I have a theory that deleting at the beginning and end of the title somehow locks it up. On my next one, I'll leave the beginning and end until the last and just work from the middle. I'll let you know how it works.

In my case, when I have removed all the commercials, I have always worked from front to back. When I have been carefully doing that, I have never had a problem.

I recently remembered that I did have one scene delete problem when I was just playing around with a test recording. I had set the start and end points for the scene to be deleted and then done the preview. I decided to change those points. As I recall, I used the up arrow to move back up to the set start point, moved around to a point in the title close to the original start point and selected that new start point. I believe that was where I got hung up. I couldn't navigate in the title. I backed out somehow. I may have used the Stop button or the backup function. My memory is very shaky on this. I got a system error message telling me to power down and power back on. When I did that I was able to get back in to the title, and do edits on it. Since there was no damage to the file, I wrote it off as pilot error or pushing a button I should not have. I now wonder if this is related to the scene delete issue some are reporting. Have others been trying to redo the scene start and/or end point when they got in trouble. If that is the case, maybe there is a bug when this is attempted. Perhaps the originals are not properly removed and the system winds up with 2 scene start points and gets confused. If anyone who has experienced a scene delete problem remembers doing this, maybe we can do some testing.

jlooney

06-11-07, 10:09 PM

Brand new to this forum. Thanks for all the great info on this new Philips unit. I've been following this thread with great interest, and am torn.

Should I buy this new Philips, or shell out the extra $140 for the Panasonic DMR-EH75VS . Can someone point out the main advantages the Panasonic has for the extra $140? Any advantages to the Philips unit other than saving $140?

Thanks.

Dartman

06-11-07, 10:35 PM

Main thing is it has a hard drive. Cap what you want, watch it, edit it, toss what you don't, then burn the keepers to disk, plus or minus...
If Panasonic made a unit NOW with a hard drive and digital tuner we might be all over it but here in the U.S. they don't so this is what we have to deal with.
I have a old Panasonic e80h and I love it but the hard drive is small and it only burns to RAM and minus media, plus it's old and the hardware has improved as far as decoding chips and like that. Many of us also have the first polaroid that could be upgraded to a bigger Hard drive but it's tuner sucked and so did the remote without help.
We are all hoping this one will end up doing most things well and we'll hang in there and try to get it to that point I guess.

suplex

06-12-07, 05:56 AM

suplex, do you have any evidence that the channels you want are in fact clear? For example, if your TV does QAM, do you get them in the clear on that tuner but not the Philips recorder? I'm willing to lay odds that the problem here isn't with the Philips, it's that the channels aren't clear to begin with.

As a side note, I think we're going to see more and more of this from the cable companies as they move more of their programming to digital. Yes, I know, they don't have to. They're not covered by the 2/2009 mandate for digital broadcasts, but it makes financial sense for them to move to digital. Frees up lots of bandwidth they can use for other things like data and voice services, and they can force their boxes on people who otherwise wouldn't get one. Then they can charge you for a box for every TV you own instead of letting you get a metric buttload of channels on all 9 TVs in the house when only paying for one (in their eyes).

I'm willing to bet you lunch that the only thing they send in clear QAM are the local broadcast channels. The rest requires thier box to decode. (but let's make it a reasonable lunch... Maybe Ruby Tuesday's or TGI Fridays...)

Hey TimSH:

I did a live chat last night with someone from Verizon Fios (my cable company) and they said that anything over channel 49 is digital and will require a box to tune in. I think that basically says it all right there.

So now my only thing to decide is whether or not it's worth it for me to keep the new Philips unit just for OTA channels (hoping they still tune in after 02/2009) and maybe to keep it as a back-up unit in case my Pioneer 640 ever dies on me, so I will still have a DVD/HDD unit. As it is I am recording using my Pioneer 640's Line Input (because it has an Analog Tuner) so if anything happened to it, I could use the Philips as a replacement.

The thing that really bothers me is that there probably won't ever be a DVD Recorder that will record everything (other than Movie channels) ever again unless you go with a Cable Company provided one.

By the way TimSH, I guess I will be picking up the tab.

beekeeper

06-12-07, 06:15 AM

Some questions-

Is the QAM problem with all cable providers or specific ones? Since it is fairly new to both the stations and cable providers, maybe the problem is not with the Phillips but how they handle the signal and set up the channels. It seems OTA is not an issue, only cable. How about dish?

Is it confirmed that you lose all scheduled programs when you have even a one second or less power glitch or does it take longer? For people like me who have 10+ scheduled programs, that certainly is a major problem. We can get those short hiccups about every other week. Plays havoc with my router.

Can you save/record the buffer when in time shift/chase play or whatever it is called? The Polo and old Phillips allowed that by pressing the record button and holding it for a few seconds. Or you could go back to the point where you wanted to start recording and press record, then FF to the end and press stop.

How many characters are allowed in a title?

How simple is the editing process (set up menu/chapters/titles/frame cuts...) or is it counter-intuitive like some recorders?

Does it pick up digital cable signals from some cable providers when subscribed to expanded analog? I would be happy with the normal OTA stations like CBS., ABC, since we are at the edge of OTA analog reception.

Anyone have the Phillips and another recorder in the same setup? I am tempted to keep my Polo and add the Phillips (I split the signals so I can use two recorders at the same time).

An observation- DVD-RW recorded on some machines are picky when played on others. None of the -RW recorded on my Polaroid 2000G are recognized by my Panasonic. But both have no problems with -R media from either. +R and +RW are fine in most machines except older Pannys. So just because a DVD from the Phillips does not play in another machine is not always the recorder's fault, but may be the machine you want to play it on.

Chuck44

06-12-07, 06:40 AM

Some questions- ...
You can download the 13 MB manual here. (http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/d/dvdr3575h_37/dvdr3575h_37_dfu_aen.pdf)

biker19

06-12-07, 08:15 AM

Hey TimSH:

I did a live chat last night with someone from Verizon Fios (my cable company) and they said that anything over channel 49 is digital and will require a box to tune in. I think that basically says it all right there.

What he didn't tell you is that there's a digital version of all the chs below 49 also - those that are clear QAM. Those are the SD versions of those analogs. In addition there are HD versions of the chs that are HD capable - the network chs (those in the 800 range on the STB). Unlike all the variations with other cable cos FIOS is pretty fixed in therms of line up and is unlikely to change much even with the 09 analog shutdown. Some time after 09 they'll probably turn off all analogs but still keep the below ch 49 tier in clear QAM - that's when a unit like this with its QAM tuner will come in handy. All of the rest of the cable cos will probably go to this scheme, so until an HDD equipped DVDr comes out with a cable card slot (or other decryption scheme) you won't be able to record the "expanded" chs (anything encrypted) directly from the coax (except a CC equiped HTPC).

Kelson

06-12-07, 11:28 AM

Hey TimSH:

I did a live chat last night with someone from Verizon Fios (my cable company) and they said that anything over channel 49 is digital and will require a box to tune in. I think that basically says it all right there.

So now my only thing to decide is whether or not it's worth it for me to keep the new Philips unit just for OTA channels (hoping they still tune in after 02/2009) and maybe to keep it as a back-up unit in case my Pioneer 640 ever dies on me, so I will still have a DVD/HDD unit. As it is I am recording using my Pioneer 640's Line Input (because it has an Analog Tuner) so if anything happened to it, I could use the Philips as a replacement.

The thing that really bothers me is that there probably won't ever be a DVD Recorder that will record everything (other than Movie channels) ever again unless you go with a Cable Company provided one.

By the way TimSH, I guess I will be picking up the tab.Did you ever try hooking up your Pioneer 640 direct to the FIOS output? FIOS is supposed to transmit the lower 50 in analog CATV to help support older TVs. Try setting your 640 to cable input and hook it up to the wall socket. You may not need to us the line-ins.

Tomel

06-12-07, 11:42 AM

Here's a question for one of the DVD Recording experts following this thread.

Let's say I make a SP recording on the HDD drive and that the recording is 2 hours 10 minutes long. After the recording is completed, I edit out the excess time at the beginning and end of the 2 hour movie, leaving 1 hr 57 minutes (I do this edit on the HDD). Once the editing is complete, I dub the recording to a DVD-RW disc.

When I did this procedure I got an error message part way through the dubbing and the dubbing stopped. I tried dubbing in the "High" mode, the SP Mode and the LP mode. Same result. The DVD-RW was formatted on the Philips and previous recordings had been erased.

Does anyone have an idea why this occurred? I'm wondering if it's because the original recording in SP mode exceeded the 2 hour capacity of the DVD-RW and, even though I edited out this excess time, somehow the Philips came to the conclusion that the movie would not fit on the DVD-RW, thus stopping and producing the error message. I'm not an expert in how a HDD edit actually effects the data on the HDD. I assumed that the data would be erased from each end and any lead-in or lead-out info would be rewritten contiguous with the 1 hours and 57 minutes remaining. However, maybe the lead-in lead-out info remains where it is and there is just blank space where I edited out the excess time. This would explain why the Philips may have concluded there was inadequate space on the disc causing it to abort and produce an error message.

Your thoughts?

FullOnShred

06-12-07, 12:25 PM

On the old Philips DVDR you could have definitely fit the shortened Title at SP mode. It only wrote to DVD the 1:57 that you wanted without any of the cutout parts. I would try again with a different DVD blank. And if the second -RW won't work try a cheap DVD-R.

Chuck44

06-12-07, 01:18 PM

...When I did this procedure I got an error message part way through the dubbing and the dubbing stopped. I tried dubbing in the "High" mode, the SP Mode and the LP mode. Same result. The DVD-RW was formatted on the Philips and previous recordings had been erased...
You didn't say exactly what error message you received.

kenavs

06-12-07, 01:32 PM

kenavs

06-12-07, 01:50 PM

A couple of things. I switched mine to OTA yesterday and because i had to reset my antenna three times and unpluged the wire from the antenna, NOT the back of the DVD recorder,(with the DVD recorder shut off) it lost the digital channels every time and would not let me set them manually.The analog were still there but had to rescan to get the digital channels back.
On editing i split the recording in two and then i could not get the first one to edit and then it would not play it at all. The second one edited just fine But i had to delete the first one
Joe
I want to be sure I understand exactly what occurred that resulted in lost channels.
Did you:
1.Remove your cable connection, and attach an ordinary antenna feed to the RF input.
2.Run setup, select antenna, and learn the analog and digital stations.
3.Verify that you had both.
4.Disconnect the antenna, but not connect anything else to the RF input.
5.Checked and your digital stations were lost.

I ask this, because I have disconnected the antenna several times, and not lost my Analog and/or Digital OTA stations.
I believe you would be reporting the first channel loss suffered when configured strictly for OTA using an ordinary antenna.

ValVita

06-12-07, 03:36 PM

Here's a question for one of the DVD Recording experts following this thread.

Let's say I make a SP recording on the HDD drive and that the recording is 2 hours 10 minutes long. After the recording is completed, I edit out the excess time at the beginning and end of the 2 hour movie, leaving 1 hr 57 minutes (I do this edit on the HDD). Once the editing is complete, I dub the recording to a DVD-RW disc.

When I did this procedure I got an error message part way through the dubbing and the dubbing stopped. I tried dubbing in the "High" mode, the SP Mode and the LP mode. Same result.

Sounds suspiciously similar to what I experienced with a 1hr-58min recording off of ABC DTV when I tried to delete the scenes and dub to a DVD+RW. The scene delete function wouldn't work (red circle with a slash through it), and repeated attempts seemed to corrupt the file. When I tried to dub it complete with commercials to a +RW, it reached a certain point (the failed edit scene) and popped up a red error message. The title never would dub all the way through, no matter what speed setting I used (High, SP, Auto, etc.)

I sincerely hope this is not your problem, but it might be worth checking out.

Have you tried Fast Forwarding to about the general area or a little beyond on the HDD title where it stopped dubbing to the disc? Can you play through that area of the title directly from the HDD, or does it stick and freeze? If so, is the trouble spot anywhere near a deleted commercial segment?

ValVita

Tomel

06-12-07, 03:56 PM

Thanks to those responding to my dubbing problem. In answer to the questions asked:

o I didn't make a note of the error message -- if it happens again, I will

o I had no problem going through the movie on the HDD, so it does not appear to be a glitch in the HDD recording.

o I did try several different DVD-RW's including a brand new one that I formatted on the Philips

o Since I posted this question, I went out and purchased a DVD+RW and tried that. Believe it or not, the dubbing worked fine in High mode. Hmmm, worked on +RW, but not on -RW. Strange.

I'm still playing/experimenting with the Philips within the 30-day Walmart return window.

Chuck44

06-12-07, 04:35 PM

...o Since I posted this question, I went out and purchased a DVD+RW and tried that. Believe it or not, the dubbing worked fine in High mode. Hmmm, worked on +RW, but not on -RW. Strange...
Different recorders (and drives too) like different media.
A good rule of thumb is, if you find one your recorder likes,
stick with it. :)

suplex

06-12-07, 05:28 PM

Did you ever try hooking up your Pioneer 640 direct to the FIOS output? FIOS is supposed to transmit the lower 50 in analog CATV to help support older TVs. Try setting your 640 to cable input and hook it up to the wall socket. You may not need to us the line-ins.

I am going to try that now that you suggested it, never dawned on me before, and maybe a similar situation will occur where it tunes in channels like CBS, NBC, UPN9, FOX, etc..., but not anything above channel 50.

I can always go the Line Input route, that lets me record anything, if I need too, but you peaked my curiosity with your suggestion and I have to go try that now on my Pioneer 640.

suplex

06-12-07, 05:32 PM

Some time after 09 they'll probably turn off all analogs but still keep the below ch 49 tier in clear QAM - that's when a unit like this with its QAM tuner will come in handy.

Are you suggesting that my Philips may actually work better in 02/2009? Or maybe at least not get any worse?

Now that I know it's not a Philips defect, and it's my cable company that's causing certain channels not to tune in, I am leaning more on the side of keeping the Philips. It really is a very nice unit and only it and the Polaroid (they talk about in here) have Digital Tuners...DVD...and a HDD, which may be a nice thing to hang on to.

Purple Laser

06-12-07, 09:15 PM

I am still experiencing the QAM channel list losing its memorized digital cable channels after I return to analog channel list and then go back to digital. This problem was discussed earlier in this thread. Has anyone discovered a solution or a work-around ? I have two new Philips units with this symptom. Any light on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

Dartman

06-12-07, 09:29 PM

For now just enter the true channel to tune it in, not the virtual one it creates, and if it's the second sub of a main channel it wont tune it directly so you'll have to manually enter the main sub channel into channel memory again then it can tune all the other subs on it as well.
I have all my main channels memorized and I just re add them into memory when it looses them, plus I use the main hd channels or their SD channels on timer as they will still tune in on a timer recording as long as it's the main sub or a direct SD channel, and of course analog works fine always.

zzyzzx

06-13-07, 10:18 AM

I just got this last night, and while I haven't had time to experiment, I think this thing is fantastic. with just rabbit ears, I get all my local channels in perfectly, and even two weather channels. I programmed in three recordings overnight and they came out just fine too. And yes I am using this to watch TV over the air.

biker19

06-13-07, 11:01 AM

Are you suggesting that my Philips may actually work better in 02/2009? Or maybe at least not get any worse?

No, what I'm saying is that all older units (like your Pio) without a QAM tuner won't tune anything connected directly to the coax after analogs are turned off. Not only that but I'd venture to guess that recording via QAM probably gives better PQ (especially on HD material) than via an NTSC tuner.

ValVita

06-13-07, 07:33 PM

Several more tests later, I've determined the Delete Scene failures my Philips 3575H is experiencing are not the result of--

__auto clock set (Off or On)
__inputs from sat/antenna
__dropped out channels
__timer function
__unknown protection flags in the channel signal

Instead, it seems almost certainly to occur in any recording 2hrs or longer, OR in successive back-to-back recordings totalling 2hrs or longer from any source.

I arrived at this conclusion by timer recording the same two TV shows off of Hallmark today that twice before failed to Delete Scenes. Before, I recorded them together as one title, then split them afterwards. This time I recorded each episode separately. The first title Deleted Scenes flawlessly. The second would not.

I think this indicates a serious problem with the hard drive. But a friend suspects firmware issues and warns whole batches of Philips 3575s on the market could have the same problem. Which one of us is on the right track?

If it's just a freaky hard drive, then I want to go to Walmart tomorrow to get a replacement. My serial number ends with an 8xxx. Should I search for a SN significantly lower/higher to be on the safe side? Or will it matter?

Thanks!

ValVita

Dartman

06-13-07, 09:09 PM

I think it's firmware, the 3505 does similar things and they fixed it with a update that's not out of beta yet.
I doubt a newer machine will help but it's always worth a shot just in case I'm wrong.
Try to find one with a significantly higher serial or build date as IF they have a updated model it should be a higher serial, not lower, or even have a letter or number after it to signify a revision.
I have had editing problems on one recording so far and I just turned it off for a few minutes finally and it then deleted scenes fine.
I don't want to be without mine playing the revolving machine roulette, I tried 3 Polaroids, all with the same tuner problems or I would have kept that unit.
Anyways I think the editing and QAM channel memory are part of the same issues and we know they are aware of the memory problems, you might want to call about the editing problems so they can tell you to send it in or return it... ;) At least it might get them working on a fix.

JimThePilot

06-14-07, 09:53 AM

I read the post and wanted to report my experience with the 3575H-

I am OTA only.

Everything seems fine EXCEPT after some unknown length of time it looses the channel list for digital. I think the analog remains okay but I would not swear to that.

For me, It seems that after a timer has fired (late night stuff) it turns itself off, I have never seen it do this and I assume it is a sleep function. I often find in the morning that the unit has turned off, even if I left it on the night before.

MOre times than not it will power up in a blue screen and not digital channels, I then have to re-scan.

I have also set several timers in the same overnight period and find that the first one or two may record fine but then (I am making an assumption here, after it looses the channel lineup) the third timer records but is ALL black, no video or audio, presumably since it recorded from what it thought was an empty or vacant channel.

SOrry for the drawn out info. I hope I didn't miss a solution in the post.

Question-

Hoping for a best case here, how will Phillips distribute an update to fix this? Can something like this be downloaded and burned to a dvd and then inserted into the unit to upgrade the firmware? That sure seem like magic to me but I hope they can do it!

I am really happy with the unit other than the lost channels, espically after trying the polaroid unit.

Jim