Philips DVDR3455H/37 - Page 7

The Time Shift Display Bar is a major PITA. There should be some way to turn it off, or adjust its "hang time", but I haven't found it. The darn thing stays on for 25 seconds EVERY single time you use another Tuner control!! At the most it should stay on for 5 seconds. Then if you want it back you could press the Display button. I am CONSTANTLY having to press the Display button twice to get rid of that aggravating thing!!

Philips should pay me $75,000 a year to explain things like this to them. They really seem clueless about some MAJOR consumer end preferences.

I am so glad someone else believes as I. How could phillips programmers be so bad.

Maybe Philips will post new firmware soon to fix the display bar "problem" and others. I really like the Unit but it seems they could improve it with better software/firmware. I upgraded to the latest firmware when I got the unit.

Hi guys, this thread is super long. what is the general concensus about this model? is it good or bad? is it better than the Pioneer DVDR-543HS?

yeah superlong, I know how that goes. My opinion, the philips does the job well for 300dollars. you could spend 140dols more and get a panasonic that doesn't have some of the functions I like. No opinion on the Pioneer, good luck and let us know which one you get.

Will the Philips 3455H except my Direct TV HD boxs output of 480P through the s-video cable. Thanks for any help in this..

no

S-Video and Composite (RCA red, white, yellow) are strictly 480i.

The only common "multi-scan" (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p) connections in North America are Component and HDMI.

That is what I run to my TV is HDMI. But I would be running s-video to the DVR and the to the input on my TV as s-video or component. Would this work?

Yes, as long as it's 480i on the S-Video from the HD box to the DVD Recorder.

The display on my recorder is very dim. Is this a common complaint, and is there a way to change the brightness of the display?

I haven't seen this question asked yet, but since the buffer thingy appears to always be on, apparently writing data to the disc drive, how quiet is the thing? If I get it, and set it up in my bedroom, any sort of 'click' noise could be annoying....

thanks everyone for all the info. I was going to purchase the phillips 3455. I became a little leary after reading some of the comments. Last nite the Pioneer 543hs was on sale online at bestbuy for $314 can whereas the phillips was $297.

The small price difference and the cnet editors choice on the pioneer 533hs, the pioneer was the one I bought.

Thanks FullonShred for your insight. Man, I just cannot feel comfortable with this Philips product, no matter how many times I play with it. There's always something that makes me a bit angry that I have to fork over 300 bucks for it (annoying display bar, picture quality less sharp than actual tv, etc.)

I saw a few people earlier that got it for 115-150 bucks. Just out of curiosity, where did you guys get such a good deal for it? 300 bucks is just too steep for such an error-prone product, but I would consider keeping it for less than 180. Any insight? Thanks!

I got 2.5 questions...

1. Does anyone know what make the HD is and is it possible to swap it out for another? Would you need to format it or load it with anything to get it to work?

2. Does anyone know what the video bitrate and audio settings are for each of the recording modes?

Thanks for the props, Avid. I will do a re-print of how I got my great deal. Not available at this time unfortunately.


How I got my deal(repost):

So I go into WalMart after my workout tonight. On a whim I wander back to electronics to look over the DVDR's, specifically the Polaroid 80gb model, thinking I might take one home to see if I can deal with the mono sound. For the price, what the heck. No Polaroid 80gb model to be found, not even a Sku for it. I happen to look down in the undershelf stock and spot the Philips 160GB model, about 7 of them all stacked up, but they are not individually marked. The shelf tag under them reads Philips DVD Recorder $144.88. I am thinking NO FREAKING WAY MAN! But hey, what do I have to lose, right? I put one in my cart with my groceries and head to the front. Cashier rings up my junk, the DVDR rings at $298.00. I politely tell the lady,"Pardon me, but the shelf tag says $144.88, I really would not want this at $298.00. She says"Let me call electronics" which she does. They verify the shelf tag at $144.88, tell her it is wrong but it's their mistake so go ahead and sell me the one I have at that price!! Well, she has to call a Top Manager to OK that big a deal, and it takes her a while to get over to us. Top manager OKs it, but now the register has sat idle too long and won't continue, so we have to unbag my 4 bags of groceries and ring everything up again - the lady is having problems so she has to double ring a few things,subtract a few things etc.etc. . Then the main lady has to come OK it all again. Then the register wanted to balk at my credit card (it's a good card, I have excellent credit ) but it finally spits out a receipt for $159 and some change. At this point (30 minutes or so) I am not even thinking, I am just ready to get outta there and out from under the baleful glares of those in line behind me (I warned them we might be awhile! ), so I sign the slip and head home. I get home and check the receipt - she has doubled charged me for some cherries, but it hits me that the total bill shoulda been bigger, so I look line by line and somehow, somewhere in all this scanning/deleting/re-scanning a "Vendor Coupon" for $40.54 has been entered!!! I refigure my whole bill and after the overcharge for the cherries I figure out I have a grand total of about $115 dollars in this DVDR, including tax!!! Totally, completely whacked! Now I HAVE to keep the darn thing whether I like the sound or not! Anyway, that was my trip to WalMart.

I'm stuck in a setup limbo. I tried to hook up my new unit last night but I ran into a problem during setup. Im trying to connect the machine to a new Sony Bravia 32" TV which has an available component inputs (I'm using Video 5) and also an assortment of available video inputs. According to the setup manual they suggest setting up the recorder first and then enable the component.

Then the manual says -
If your TV accepts Progressive Scan signal, see the chapter
Setup Menu Options - PREFERENCE settings for detailed set up.

Nowhere in the manual can I find Setup Menu Options - PREFERENCE settings.

So I tried the following -
With the recorder connected via video cable to my Bravia (Video 3) I was able to get through the setup.

Leaving the video cable in place I also coneected the component cables to the Bravia. I then went to the setup menu (sub menu -video) on the recorder and attempted to change the progressive scan to "enabled".

The picture on video 3 (video) waves and blinks out. Then it reappears about 5 seconds later with the submenu showing progressive scan "dissabled"

I've actually tried to switch to the Bravia's Video 5 (component) during the 5 seconds to see if there would be a menu prompt or something. Once I saw some interference, other times I saw nothing.

I'm fairly sure that the Bravia will auto connect to the Philips at 480i so I tend to think that either the Philips may have a problem or that there is a menu hoop I haven't jumped through.

Anybody connected via component calbes, please help out if you can.

Thanks

I'd guess it is asking you to confirm that you can still see the picture when it switches to 480p. It reverts back if you don't give the confirmation. I'm not sure why you don't see the picture on VIDEO5 though. Is there a picture there normally, without trying to switch to Progressive Mode? Since you have a fixed-pixel display (Bravia) and they all have deinterlacers anyway, going to Progressive Mode won't have much affect on the picture. So you may be perfectly fine sticking with 480i.

I was wondering if the switchback to disabled was due to me not confirming a "do you see this?" question. I actually switched the Bravia to the component input before pulling the trigger on the "enable" menu just to see if any menu briefly showed up on the component side. Didn't see one.

Whoa, I think I've made a logic leap that wasn't necessary. The owners manual gave me the impression that I had to enable progressive mode just to get the component output to be "on". With both the video cable and the component cables plugged in I only have a signal to the video input of the TV, not the component input. As far as the two different video connections possibly the recorder's output defaults to the video mode if more than one is connected?

I'm going to reinstall everything tonight with just the component cables connected and see if I get a 480i signal through. If the component output works at 480i I'm fine with that.

Thanks

Not having your particular DVD Recorder model, I have to guess, but in my experience, all the outputs are active at the same time, I've not heard of a situation where the Component Video outputs are only enabled when Progressive Scan is enabled. That would be unfortuante if that's the case, you'd like to be able to use the Component Video outptus regardless of Interlace/Progressive Mode.

I wish I could remember what and where, but I just recently ran across a recorder or TV spec. list that stated "Priority" next to the Component Connection item.

Sounded as if only that connection would be active even when other connections are in place?

Just tried out the "component cables only" approach - Nada

I plugged in the video cable and its a gorgeous picture

Anybody know a quick route to resetting everything to default settings, just in case I managed to mess it up during setup?

If not -
next I swap inputs to the Bravia to rule out a bad video 5 input
Then I'm going to have to try another set of cables to rule out a bad set (have to move the huge entertainment center to accomplish that )

And finally, I'll have to decide whether to deal with returning it or defaulting to video or SVHS.

The cable is S-Video, not S-VHS. S-VHS is the video cassette recording format.

Multitasking is not my friend - from what brain belch did I type S-VHS?

My blunders go lower than that though.
I decided to test the connections as best I could from the front of the cabinet so I switched the component cables in the back of the TV and plugged my little old DVD/VCR player into the video 5 - nice picture. Then I knew it wasn't the video 5 input on the TV.

Before I moved the monster entertainment cabinet again I thought I'd plug the original cables back into video-5; first to see if there was a chance that the cables were not snug enough before. (small chance, I had plugged and unplugged these cables more than once last night) And second for the cables to not fall into an inaccessable place in the back of the cabinet. But this time, working from the front of the cabinet and looking over the TV I could reinforce the TV from the front as I inserted the cables. I noticed that the Y cable seemed to resist more so I gave it just a little bit extra push and it slid about 1/8" further.

You guessed it - I turned it on and had an excellent signal via the component connection.

I'm just glad my son wasn't here. So many times I've embarrassed him when I fixed his sound system's "major problem" by identifying and tightening a loose connection. He would have had a field day with me.

Thank You Bobkart and wabjxo for offering help. I'm happy that I have the unit up and running even though I'm somewhat embarrassed to reveal what the real problem was.

That's probably happened to all of us at one time or another.

Glad to hear you got it working!

Has anyone tried to record 16X9 from a video camera through the firewire port? I have a Sony DSR-PDX10 and when I hook it up to the unit using the firewire port it records in squished' 4X3. I don't foresee using this function very often but it sure would be nice if it respected the WS flag as I do everything in anamorphic widescreen.

Here's a great review of shooting 16:9 and DV, date 2002 but most still applicable.

Here's a good article on 16:9 and DV using examples from your specific camcorder.

Both taught me lots on 16:9 from DV and may explain why you're getting 4:3?

Thanks for the links wabjxo. I have been using my PC to capture with Scenalizer, edit with Ulead Media Studio Pro 8 and author with DVDLab Pro for a few years now with excellent results. I use my Sony 50 LCD WS TV as a computer monitor and I have the Philips hooked up using the component connections. The player is set up for the WS TV and everything plays correctly from DVDs. The problem is the Philips doesn't mark it's recorded mpg files from the firewire port with the WS flag.

With more and more people using real 16X9 capable cameras maybe they'll fix it in a firmware update.

Can someone help me out. I am a new guy to this dvr. I am trying to figure out recording to dvd for play on other dvd players. I have successfully burned 5 hours of tv onto a disc at one of the longer recording settings, however anything I have tried to burn and finalize that was recorded in SP will not play on other recorders. I am using dvd +R 120mins dvd's.
Can someone enlighten me as to what I am doing wrong??

Can you try a DVD-R? It should work with a DVD+R but there may be some older players that balk at DVD+R . . . ?