Philips DVDR3575H/37 160G HDD DVD Recorder w/ ATSC tuner - Page 128  

You echo my very thoughts exactly. A lot of manufacturers use pretty much the same drives or similar designed burner drives in these units as a PC. Someone even mentioned in this forum a while back that he could use Dual Layered discs, but that the unit would only recognize the first layer only. I assumed this was due in part to the firmware only being able to recognize 4.7 Gbs of a DVD disc rather than whatever space is available on a dvd disc as a whole. Nevertheless as you said, adding such a function wouldn't carry with it a greater benefit in the end than the headaches that must be endured to hack something out like that. Another great feature I thought of on these units would be allowing them to either be WIFI or Ethernet capable in order to network these babies to a PC in order to stream from them or to do some sort of editing, deleting of the videos on the hard drive. Also, it might be a good idea to implement some sort of defragmentation scheme. (Note: I haven't seen anymore fragmentation errors lately, but whenever I copied my old family videos, I would experience a few corrupted videos as a result of video deletion and/or title separate feature.) I know I could go with some sort of media pc, but I want my video storage to be kept separate from my computer hence the reason why I bought a standalone unit.

The following article confirmed Dartman's view, and listed DVD recorder models that are firmware upgradeable to DL recorder. Note the article is dated Feb 2005! So there should be more.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/98

Thanks guys, I'd love to have dl burning and a few other features but I think for now we'll just have to be happy with what we have. I'm more then willing to try stupid things if I have a reasonable chance of getting something better in return, but I'm not going to brick a unit just because unless it so cheap or free I don't have anything to loose. I'd still love to figure out putting a bigger drive in it but until somebody figures out what format and layout the drive uses it's not happening and I didn't want to loose my drive then not have any way of recovering it which would probably make the unit useless.

I realize we are talking about burning dual layer disks since it plays movies and other store-bought dual layer recorded disks just fine. Many players have trouble with home-burned dual layer.

I found that the 3575 didn't play my home-burned DVD+R DL discs very well unless they were burned with book type set to DVD-ROM. That made a big difference.

I don't care at all about not being able to burn DVD+R DL discs in my DVD recorder. They're too expensive, too unreliable, too incompatible, and completely unnecessary for me since I prefer to transfer recorded video to my PC for editing and burning.

Amen.

Before I bought my Polo and Phillips I burned with my computer and a capture card. Nice thing about that was the great editing features on the computer as well as making much better titles. Plus, I could capture at the highest bit rate with a 250 gig HD and plenty of storage space to get a round tuit.

I mostly use the recorders for timeshift, and they are exceptional for that. They are also great for transfer of VHS tapes to DVD since quality is not an issue (in fact, even at SD they turn out as well as the origional).

But when I record my 8mm film home movies it will strictly be computer for editing and quality.

I use my hdtv card for HD only now. I cap my shows, use video redo and MF6+ to redo and edit then burn them to regular dvd's at full 1080i with up to 5.1 sound.
Glad I was stupid and bought a A-2 when they were being blown out last summer plays the homemade hd-dvd's like they were store bought if I do my job right.
Other then that I mostly use my good 3575 and my old e-80h for the analog and digital to 480p recordings. it's nice to just time shift the non critical, doesn't have to be hd, stuff with these two machines and the editing is pretty easy between them.
The PC takes a few more steps but is pretty fast as well, just not quite as easy or reliable still.
There is a hd-dvd to regular dvd guide right here for those that want to try it.

For organized info on the 2007 model 3575H/37 and 2008 model 3576H/37, click my signature... much easier to find basic and advanced info on features, setup and operation.

Philips/Funai make many recorders and players for many countries so it's easy to confuse them. Funai alone make more than 50% of all recorders for North America in many models and under many names, such as Magnavox.

The North American Philips DVDRs all have "DVDR" in their model number, a "H" for Hard Disk Drive (HDD), and a "/37" at the end for North American model, thus the Philips DVDR3576H/37 for this year's U.S. model.

They both have (and always did have) NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuners, 160GB HDD, etc. The new 3576 sells for $248.28 at Sam's Clubs, as described in the linked post.

My local Wallmart has 3576s on the shelf today for $298. 2-year X-Warranty is 28 bucks.

That's good to know, thanks. There's no Sams Club near me so I'll have to pay a little more.

Hi. I bought my 3576 on a Sunday a bit more than 4 weeks ago, and then had to go out of town for 3 weeks. It recorded about 35 shows while I was gone, did a very good job.

They range from 30 minutes to 3 hours.

What I'd like to do is press Play, and have it play the oldest title first and then go on to the next and the next, but what seems to happen is that after every title, it stops, goes back to the tuner, and I have to run up stairs to start the Play'ing again.

Is there a setting that would make it play continuously, like a CD would play one song after another, or like a VCR would do?

(I have tv's in other rooms connected to the 3576.)

I've tried two posts on this, but each time it comes back to using the Title screen, so you have to be able to use the remote on the playing unit.

The 3575/76 can play CDs and VCDs in various ways, and home DVDs play thru automatically, but not HDD Titles.

My aborted posts involved the INFO button, from which you can select Title and Chapter numbers to play, but then it's really no better than using the Title menu, and they both won't solve having to run upstairs to use the remote.

I've read about wireless remotes that might work but don't have any good refs for them.

Hey, 35 programmed recordings in a row... that might be a record... only had one slot left!

Here's an update.

I tried a bunch of different configurations and nothing really helped.

What did help, was changing all of my timer events to one minute before the hour (e.g. 8:59 instead of 9:00). Since I did this I have not had any problems.

I really believe that my cable provider (Rogers, Toronto) was sending some kind of signal that was confusing the DVR.

Anyway, problem solved. Thanks to wajo and co. for the suggestions.

Way back then when we were throwing out suggestions, I said:

"You should also try setting your clock manually (1st Clock option) AND turning Auto Clock and DST Off (2nd and 3rd Clock options)."

Did you try that with a Timer program set for the hour instead of 1 min, ahead?

>I've tried two posts on this, but each time it comes back to using the Title screen, so you have to be able to use the remote on the playing unit.

>The 3575/76 can play CDs and VCDs in various ways, and home DVDs play thru automatically, but not HDD Titles.

===> So is there a way to ask Philips to make changes to the Firmware? I'd also like playback to start with the oldest title, and now it seems to start with the newest. They could have two options, the way I want it and the way it is now. Both are pretty simple changes.

Are they likely to implement an easy change if they see a request?

>I've read about wireless remotes that might work but don't have any good refs for them.

I'll look into that some more. Thanks.

>Hey, 35 programmed recordings in a row... that might be a record... only had one slot left!

It was 35 titles but actually only 6 slots. One that did 5 days a week, and 5 that did once a week, so 10 times a week, and I was gone 3 weeks and 3 days.

It did a good job of recording, but it seems to want to play the newest first. I don't think my shows have a plot that runs from one title to the next, but some shows, like "24" or "ER" or a soap opera, do. Even Jeopardy and other game shows, none of which I record, should be seen in the order they are broadcast.

That's OK, how you got there doesn't matter since I was just excited about recording 35 titles unattended!

Wow! I just realized I'd been thinking TOO SMALL. Your experience means you could record a gazillion titles if set up the right way!
(Except the 3575/76 can only hold 600 titles on the HDD... bummer!)

Hey, Mike, in the Sticky thread, member plplplpl said you might want to try a remote control extender and gave this link.

If one of those "extenders" allows you to control your 3576 upstairs while you're downstairs, you could use the normal Title menu to play shows in a special order, OR go to this page on the INFO menu, bottom of page, which describes one way to set up a semi-auto-play routine for six titles at a time?

For resident experts-- I have been found this site after purchasing a 3575 from walmart online, and the remote worked, but the digital tuner (QAM) just wouldn't pick up anything, gave up after about 20+ scans and returned it to store. While fooling with it, found this forum, and went to Sam's Club and bought a 3576 off the shelf today. Guess what, something again is haywire, as the remote won't power it on... most of the remote controls work-- except setup! and it won't play a DVD movie. Connected to a Sharp 1080P LCD TV with HDMI and have Comcast Limited Cable (but we get both analog and digital channels, and local HDTV so things are good there). Questions are:
1--Right off, is it a return and exchange, they had about a dozen on the shelf, build date Feb 2008, or at least that's date on the boxes.

2--Is it the remote? or is it the DVR that's the problem?

3--If it's the DVR Is there a way to reset the machine (I've left it unplugged twice for over 10 minutes already)?

Thanks and sorry for the long post as new member, will keep it short next time.
AQuattro

Did you put the 3575, and your new 3576, 1st on the coax, run coax to your TV and a line connection from the 3576 to your TV as shown in the 1st sketch on this page and described under the heading "Connecting to Your TV"? MAKE SURE THE INCOMING COAX IS ON THE TOP COAX CONNECTOR (Antenna IN).

Then, did you do a Channel > Auto Channel Preset > Cable (Analog/Digital), as described on this page?


Don't understand this. You say remote won't power unit on, then most of remote controls work, except Setup?

Do you have batteries in the remote and placed in proper orientation?

If you can power the unit on with the remote, then press the SETUP button, go first to the Display menu and make sure the OSD Language is English. Then do an Auto Channel Preset as mentioned above.


When you inserted a movie in the disc tray, did you make sure the DVD drive was selected, then press PLAY.

Do you have a line connection from the 3576 to your TV (Composite, S-Video, Component, and/or HDMI), as described in the first link above?

to Wajo, -updating previous post

forgive my newness on replies... first, thx for reply.

Unit will NOT turn on w remote. Pressing Power button on DVR turns it on.
DVR is hooked up correctly (to my knowledge)-- cable in to top, out to splitter (VCR and TV). TV works fine w DVR On or Off.

I returned the first unit I bought to Sam's club and exchanged it. So far, knock on wood, this one seems to be working. It turned on with the remote and setup/autoscan works and I was able to view digital channels, albeit not per my known channel #, but some comcast series. I am rescanning because it seemed to miss some.

Final comment, daughter put in a movie and it's pretty dark. I had set RGB to enhanced. Wrong thing to do? I'll try it on normal setting. Unit has HDMI connection to TV.

Is this still the best on the market?
I have been following this thread for a while now and my wife is finally tired enough of not being able to record TV (now that her favorite show, So You Think You Can Dance is back on) to agree to spending the money.

Is this still the best machine on the market? I have only OTA HD/Digital TV. My TV has an internal ATSC tuner but I learned through this thread and others that I have to have a DVR with its own ATSC tuner in order to record digital TV. I wish I had learned that before buying my first DVDR which I could not return once I finally did learn.

I have been also following the Echostar TR-50 HDTV DVR thread but that machine still has no release date and no price information, so I am leary of waiting for it.

If you would rather see HDTV as pure HDTV, then you should wait for the TR-50. If you don't mind HDTV being downrezzed to SDTV and you want a HDD, then get the 3576.

If you don't need a HDD and don't mind SDTV downrez, you have many other choices as you've probably already read about.

There doesn't appear to be any "better" HDD units on the near horizon. Canada is supposed to be getting a couple of Pioneers w/HDD I believe, but they're also supposed to have analog tuners cuz Canada hasn't transitioned to digital yet.

I do want the hard disk drive, especially after reading the 15 advantages you listed in your other thread! Great info.

Just to clarify: I plan to copy my family's home videos from VHS to this unit's hard drive and then burn them to DVD. The problem I have had using a regular DVD recorder is that there are often several different events or segments on one VHS tape, but I want them to be separate on the DVD. So I basically had to sit there and tend the recording so I could stop it after a segment and then start a new recording or "title". (It's a very basic DVD recorder).

As I understand it, the 3476 will do away with the need to tend my recording, because I will be able to split the one long title containing the entire VHS tape into smaller segments. I am not talking about just creating chapters; I want them to be separate titles that I can then choose the order in which they are placed on my DVD when burning them from the HDD. Am I right in all this?

Yes, you can use the DIVIDE function to separate one long title into separate ones, and then rename them on the HDD. (Always best to change title names on the HDD since it's a faster write-to-disc than waiting till you do the dub and realize you want a custom title... can be done if before Finalize, just a little slower process.)

The only thing you prob. shouldn't do is make Scene Deletes, like commercials, first, THEN do a DIVIDE. The 3575 could freeze at times doing this, esp. if your HDD was full or nearly so. Many people have no such problem, so this is just a "heads-up." Even if it freezes, it's an easily recoverable situation. No reports yet on this with the new 3576... not sure if its new Front-End (FE) FW might be better in this regard or even if that's one of the things FE controls.

For more detailed info on editing with the 3575/76, see this post (if you havem't already).

Well, I called and found the 3576 at a couple local Sams Clubs in Phoenix and was planning on buying it tonight, but a friend just asked me why I am spending $250+ on this when I could just get a $40 converter box that also has a guide and use my current DVD recorder. That made me stop and think. True, I would not have the benefits of a Hard Disk Drive, but it might get me through until the TR-50 comes out and I can record in True HD. Plus the converter box should have a guide, right? I will have to do some more research.

Depends on what you want more, if you want an HD DVR get the Echostar box or a Tivo HD. This box doesn't do HD and doesn't have a program guide. If you will be burning a lot of dvds the hard drive makes it a lot easier to edit before burning to disc.

Sounds like one plan, anyway. Why don't you get one and try it, then let us know how you like it?

It sounds as if you're really looking forward to the TR-50 as your desired final system, not a 3576, so you can get there for $200 less.

Some boxes have the PCIP guide and some like the Zenith only have next/now guide. The PCIP guide on the Digital Stream box will go out ~30 hours "if" the stations provide that much info. They are "supposed" to go out 12 hours min. but in my area that's not always the case.
The Echostar TR-40(DTVPal) might have another guide system. People are hoping it will be something like TVGOS which might go out 7 days but no one is sure what it will have yet. Last I read it's due late June. Note it does lack the S-video out which may give you better PQ(does in my case). The Channel Master 7000 CECB does have a 12hr PCIP guide as well as S-video out.