Philips DVDR3455H/37

Originally Posted by byroan

I bought one this past week and I love it. This is my first harddrive recorder. You can edit commercials for the TV shows you record and then burn them to a DVD disk.

Originally Posted by soultravler

Dear Philips Corp.

I am writing this letter about one of your products that I purchased. The DVDR3455H/37. This product has some good features. However like many new products introduced into the market place. Some companies or not always in tune with just how people use their equipment. I have a few suggestions that I believe can be instituted through a firmware update. That will make your product a superior buy at it's price range.

1. A lot of people use such devices as a tuner. That way they can hook it up to a plain monitor or just listen to the audio from a program. Such as some cspan programing or televised concerts. When people are doing this they just need the tuner. So if you could put a software program in the DVDR that allows the time shift feature to be turn off completely. That way there is no wear and tear on the hard drive. A small warning message can be put on the screen at startup and on channel changes to alert the user in case they forget that it is off. Also the feature can be set to auto turn on if some one hits the record button.

2. Once the unit is turned on you lose the LED time display. Most people actually use their units as a clock. The time display should always show the time or you should at least have the option to turn on a permanent time display option. This would be an improvement in a couple of ways. 1st all channels today display their logo so you always know what channel you are watching. 2nd When watching a program, it is good to know how much time is remaining in a program especially if it is a really good one.

3. When you are watching a dvd you should have the choice of viewing the actual time of day or the running time of the dvd. You should be able to toggle this feature from a remote control unit. Also the time slip function is on when you are watching a dvd. There is no need for this feature. You can pause and rewind a dvd at any time. Why time slip while watching a dvd?? Again the option to turn off the hard drive unit is needed.

4. There needs to be a commercial skip button on your remote. This feature should allow you to time jump when viewing saved programs at a 15 or 30 second interval. You should be able to set the time jump interval from the setup menu.

I believe if you can add these features through a firmware update. You will have a truly superior product. But as this product model stands (DVDR3455H/37) . It can at best be given a poor rating on features. Simply because most of these features have been standard on VCR's for years and DVDR's are suppose to be an improvement. As it stands there is know way I can recommend this product to a friend or give it a good performance rating to members of a help forum which I am a moderator for. As I have stated you have a good base product. It is just that the fine tuning of software features were not well designed. With the above improvements which are mostly software in nature you can put your product at the top of heap for this type of dvdr at it's price.

I hope you consider the updates. Thanks for your time

Originally Posted by caveman_17

I have a 36" Tv, I'm using the component RCA video cables (Pr/Pb/Y), and I'm recording in the HQ-highest quality mode. All this and the video is still grainier than my VCR recording in the 4 hour SP mode.

Originally Posted by byroan

I'm using component cables with a 120" projector screen and the quality looks great. I'm not even recording in the highest quality mode, I'm using SEP. The worst quality there is.

Originally Posted by wabjxo

Grainy on 36" TV at HQ quality, but "looks great" on 120" projector screen at SEP!?

Will the real truth please be told...or did they reverse the quality settings on this unit???

Originally Posted by soultravler

This unit offers a lot of recording and playback options. It is possible the people with poor picture quality did not get settings right. Software options are the weak point of this machine. It offers a lot but does not tie it together well.

Record options are HQ, SP, SPP, LP, EP, SLP, SEP
Play back through Rf, video inputs, S video, and compent video
You have a progressive scan playback if your tv supports it.
You can playback in NTSC or PAL
Picture shape can be played back in 4:3 LB, 4:3 PS, 16:9 WS

These are just the playback options. So with poor software menus. If you are not sure what you are doing you can easily end up with poor picture quality.

Originally Posted by bobkart

Change what?

Originally Posted by bobkart

Yes I know about Region Codes. They are associated with players, recorders, and discs themselves. He did not specify which of those he wanted to change the Region Code of. Hence my question. I guess since this Topic is about a recorder, I could have assumed that's what he wanted to change the Region Code of. But he may have been asking about changing the Region Code of a disc (it wouldn't be the first such question), in which case I could have helped him.

Originally Posted by soultravler

I should let some people know I am an old hand at burning dvd's from the computer.

But back to the Philips dvr. I actually had the machine home for a week before I decided to set it up because of what I was reading in the manual. But I set it up anyway. Mainly, because from a hardware stand point. For $300 this machine has it all. It is just when it came to programing all this hardware, they just got lost. It happens. They could have a new team of people doing dvdr software. Who are somewhat clueless about how these things should really work.

For example when you are watching a dvd. If you stop the dvd turn off the machine. Guess what it does not pickup where you stopped the dvd. Even the $29 dvd players give you the option of resume play or should I say to pick up where you left off. It are these little things that show that they have new people writing their software. I am confident that a firmware update will come soon to fix many of these little problems. And if they don't, I am sure there are hackers who can fix most of them. If you saw the miracles they performed on the first of the Apex dvd players you know what I mean.

A bit of advice from someone who has many edit dvd's. I would not waste my time with the editing software on this machine. Just get yourself some dvdrw disc. Record the shows to them. Get an oem version of nero. Use nerovision express to edit the the material and to make the chapters and menus. Then burn it to a 4.7 or dl. That way you know you will have a disc that will play just about anywhere.

If you by chance have a lot of dvd movies that you have copied for whatever reason. This machine does not play dvd's that have been compressed very well. It will freeze up on you eventually. Like a 8.5 movie put on a 4.7 using any number of software programs. It will however play dl copied disc with no problems at all.

Once again for the record. Hardware wise this machine for the money is unbeatable. Software wise it needs a lot help. But the great thing is that it can be made much better. And I am confident that Philips will get it there. Simply because it will be the best piece equipment on the market hands down.

Originally Posted by caveman_17

good point , I've assumed he was asking about changing region code from 1 to 0 on his philips dvr.

Originally Posted by caveman_17

Thanks for your insides, ...

Originally Posted by Robocardo

Yes. you are right.
I apologize with this forum if my question is not legal. I bought this great DVR that works fine, but i live in Argentina, so our Region code is 4. I need to change it. On the past, i did it with other models like DVP642/37 and DVP5100/37. But i can't find any references of this model.

Ricardo