Good Philips Buy

Maybe one of the newer HDD Philips Recorders on the market with 160gb hard disc space. Looked at reviews for the DVDR5500 which were not totally favourable, so plumped for the newer 5520. My first DVD recorder purchase mainly for the purpose of being able to download DV camcorder onto disc, wedding stuff etc.... but with nothing else to compare it too, I have to say that it is probably as good as any other DVD recorder on the market and being Philips better value than the other big names such as Panasonic and Sony which I also considered with similar specs with a digital tuner.

Pretty easy to set up but nothing in life is as simple as what our expectations would like so of course there will always be some that moan. So be patient. If just connecting recorder to telly for standard terrestrial / Freeview aerial viewing, no problem. If connecting with Sky etc.... again, be patient and read the instructions.

Overall, can't complain about any of the features, and quite pleased with the recordings done both onto the Hard Drive and directly to DVD disc.

I would definitely recommend the Philips DVDR5520H

Garbage

This dvd recorder has put me off Philips products for life. It is the worst piece of electrical equipment I have ever owned. As other reviewers have noticed it can simply stop in the middle of a recording. Some discs it simply will not read - on one occasion it would not read the second disc of a 4 disc boxset, even though every other dvd player I own would read it. Don't waste your money.

Great Value, Great Player

I've only used this player to play .avi (div-x) files and I have to say it works a treat. I have two other div-x players and this one plays files the others won't touch so ignore the other reviewer who gives it a low score.

If you get problems with audio out of sync with video (on any player), try pausing for a few seconds before resuming. It's also worth trying different media.

It looks good and it's dirt cheap - I got mine when it was £29.99 from Amazon.

Brilliant

I have never particularly liked the idea of an Ipod dock type arrangement. Great for holidays but not very impressive in a lounge or bedroom. Hi-Fi's just look right but who wants to mess about with CD's especially as more and more of your collection is digital.

I love this system because you can stick your collection on and never worry again about finding your Bon Jovi CD (joking, I would never ever damage my ears listening to Mr Jovi)

The ability to transfer music straight from laptop to Hi-Fi is just great as is the streaming radio.

Music quality is excellent.

The only minor complaint is that the display is really small but otherwise I am very chuffed with my purchase.

This thing is next to useless!

I have had nothing but trouble with this player since I brought it - truth be known, I have brought two now as I returned the first thinking it to be faulty, only to find the next displayed exactly the same faults! Well, where do I start! It's so noisy! When on standby you get this really anoying high pitched whine, which is even louder when vhs tapes are played. This was almost enough for me to throw it through the window. Then, the standby screen which is blue and carries features such as"PLY" and"HI-FI" leap up and down. The menu button on the remote only works if the batteries are brand new (I kid you not) and the fast forward and fast rewind buttons don't function at all when the player is in VHS mode. This means you can't just leave the tape to rewind, you have do do it bit by bit! I'm just going to email the supplier in the hope that they will see fit to refund my money so I can buy a completely different model. If not, I'm just going to throw it through the window and buy another just the same! Just don't buy it: as you can see, it's so much more trouble than it's worth!

Not what it promises to be...

Wanted a DVD recorder with built-in Freeview, saw this and thought,"Wow! Has upscaling, USB port for flash drive reading, looks stylish, and cheap too!". This all may be true, but what I didn't know until I got it home and set it up was how irritating it is to use!

The menu system is very unresponsive, taking literally several seconds to respond to a simple 'down' on the remote. As a result, it can take minutes to scroll down a few pages of the Program Guide. The firmware needs some serious de-bugging. I had this unit no more than 2 days, and it 'froze' on me more than six times. Each time I was doing nothing more complicated than accessing a DVD, viewing pitcures from my USB pen, or simply browsing the Program Guide for something to watch! The only solution when it hangs is to pull the plug (even says so in the manual) as there's no power switch.

But the worst thing for me was the image aspect ratio distortion. Digital broadcasts displayed beautifully when watched live, but if recorded to DVD then played back they would be stretched vertically, making them totally unwatchable. Oddly, setting the TV Shape option to Widescreen (I have an older PAL 4:3 screen), would correct the playback distortion problem, but render live broadcasts as vertically stretched instead.

On the plus side, the interface looks very swish, the DVD recording quality is excellent, and upscaling to 1080 is well performed. The facia is very stylish, and the front USB and DV ports are neatly hidden behing a flip-down panel.

You can't pause live TV with this unit though, which I presumed you could - my fault for not reading the specifications! I performed a firmware upgrade, downloaded from Philips web-site, which was very easy to do. Although I only had the unit setup for another hour or so, I didn't experience any more 'freezing' of the interface. Customer service, if you need it, is rubbish - I posted a query regarding the aspect ratio distortion, and am yet to get a response, over two weeks later.

I've also heard that these machines keep the drive spinning, even in standby mode, if you leave a disc in. Philips customer service have themselves admitted you ought to remove any discs from the machine when not in use, otherwise it burns out the motor in about 6 months. Seems so ridiculous I can believe it!

Summary: I returned mine. This machine looks great, promises the world, but leaves you pulling your hair out. Philips DVD recorders have been dogged with problems for quite a number of years, and this one is no better. Pay a little more and buy a Panasonic or Sony.

Rubbish

I have just thrown this piece of rubbish across the room - it simply does not work and never has. It costs loads and takes 10 seconds for the tray to eject the disk. Every button takes too long to work and then it randomly stops working and you waste DVD after DVD trying to make it work. Until you throw it across the room. Complete rubbish and the worst piece of hardware I have ever owned. DO NOT BUY

Lasted less than three months

I ordered this portable DVD player because it had quite a large screen and at the time I was having to go on longhaul flights for my job. While it worked at the beginning, it was very good but, unfortunately, it lasted less than three months before it would no longer play DVDs. Over that period it gradually deteriorated - some would play, some wouldn’t and some would if you kept removing and re-inserting them frequently. I tried all the ’help me’ stuff, like cleaning the laser head, etc. I was very disappointed.

Dont buy it - Period!

I bought the Belgian version of this device as it was on special offer, and 100 Euro cheaper than the Samsung one with the same spec. When I got it home i found out why. It crashes at the drop of a hat and having spent half a day trying to upgrade the firmware (I'm an electronics engineer so its not me!) I gave up. The hardware is fine and the build quality is good but without decent firmware its no better than an expensive paperweight. Ironically I bought it to replace a PC system as my wife was complaining that it was too unreliable. You dont need the hassle - honestly!

If you think you are safe buying Philips - don't, they are no better than any taiwanese no-name brand these days I'm sorry to say. No less sorry for them being the first company I worked for.

Philips spoiled this ship for ha'pth of tar

Gripes firsts - Despite the Philips blurb mentioning"VHS Index Search" -"VHS Time Search" 4 times, there is in fact absolutely NO search facility on VHS (only on DVD) - Philips eventually confirmed this to me after serveral stalls and investigations - only method is via small on-screen guage with no markings - which is essentially worse guide than looking at the tape itsself and guessing - so if this is important to you - dont buy it

That said - the actual quality of VHS recordings are flawless, even on a crap tape (which is why I kept it) - it also has 1 button dub from DVD 2 VHS - VHS also includes I.P. (intellegent play, SP/LP/IP), this is great feature which records at best quality at all time 'until' it calibrates there's not enough tape left on the spool, at which point it automatically switches to Long Play to fit the programmed recordings on - neat! (this all suggests the vhs is aware of tape positioning, it just doesn't tell you grrrrr)

The DVD includes an increadible 6 stage (manual says 4) ZOOOOOOM - and all stages maintain pixel ratio (no stretch or squash) - these are also fully functioning zoom modes (support play,still,pan,scan,ff,fr) - which is perfect for watching wide screen on square TV & vice versa, or just zooming for the helluv it (and unlike other manufacturers that advertise"zoom" or"3:4 compatability" (but only 'stilled', squashed/distorted))

The DVD virtually ignores layer changes ( blink and you'll miss them) - even some top brand DVD's hesitate for almost a full second when they hit a layer change.

Unlike the previous reviewer comment, I find you can certainly scan DVD'S (x2, x4, x8, x16, just hold down FF or FR button) + search by time + user defined marker searches + it even remembers where you watched upto on a DVD disc (even if you take it out and play upto 6 different ones in between)

I would give it 10/10 for performance in every way, but misrepresenting the VHS search means i can give Philips 3/10 best

Picture quality

I bought this DVD player but took it back as the picture quality stored on it was poor! I found the instructions difficult to understand and I was very disappointed in not being able to tune my digital tv into it!