Very nasty product

I have had this machine about 6 months and it's just about to go back to be repaired again. Even when it's working, it's so painfully slow that you end up pressing the button several times thinking it's not doing anything. It takes about 2 minutes to warm up for a start. The most annoying thing for Sky/cable viewers is that it never remembers to default to the scart socket on startup. So you have to go through an agonisingly slow process of selecting ALL the other possible inputs in turn before being able to select the main scart input. Pretty irritating when you have to do that every time. Frankly it's rubbish and Philips should be ashamed of themselves. I've had one of their microwaves for 20 years and the bulb hasn't even gone yet. Something's gone a bit wrong with their quality since then it seems.

Badge engineered Brilliance

Firstly this is not a Philips product. Its actually a badge engineered LG model which I might add is a good thing. LG make really good DVD players and their video recorders while a little crude have an excellent reputation for reliability.

The dvd plcture on this model is superb and also the dvd loader fitted is great. It works very well with interactive dvds. The video recorder is good but a bit clunky compared to something like a Panasonic or Sharp.

Anyway here's a couple of tips for anyone buying these.

One thing you may come across using scart rgb is a vague patten over the screen, basically a weak translucent image. You can cure this by cutting one of the scart plug pin connections at the tv end. Basically you want to disconnect the composite out connection from the tv's scart. This will give you a crystal clear rgb image.

Secondly if you want to run region 1 or other region discs rather than region 2 you can do it in the following way. Insert your foreign dvd. Wait to the region lockout appears. Press 'display' on the remote. You'll get a little box come up like 1/2 or 1/3 etc. Use the right key to move it to 2/2 or 2/3 or even 3/3 and press enter or play and it will skip the region lockout! A simple hack to enable you run any dvd you want. This unit will convert all ntsc material to pal playback so you won't have any problems displaying films not in pal format.

Also just in case you haven't noticed it. To picture search you have to hold in the skip chapter button. It will then go to 2x. Hold it in again and it wil got to 4x etc. You have to keep doing this and it will top out at 100x picture search. Its an awkward system.

Because of its easy multiregion hack and superb dvd picture I think this is one of the best dvd/vcr combi's out there.

Erratic and frustrating

I bought this to play .avi/Divx files. And I'm hugely disappointed. You might insert a disc and it will give you a menu and then play the file perfectly, then later you might insert that same disc and it will display BAD DISC or WRONG FILE CONTENT. And unfortunately the latter instances far outnumber the former. The fact that the player is capable of reading and playing the discs sometimes and not others lead me to conclude that it is the player, not the disc, at fault. You might argue that you get what you pay for, but even a cheap player still ought to play content consistently.

A great DVD Recorder

I now own two of these DVD recorders and think they are excellent.
They have Digital and Analogue Recorders with Philips Guide+ electronic program guide

Best features for me:
* Analogue and Freeview Tuner
* Guide+ EPG
* Keyword Programme Search - search the entire program guide for any key word, tremendous feature
* 250GB Hard Drive -
* HDMI output
* Firewire Input - Camcorder footage to Hard Drive for easy edit then burn to DVD
* Video Input - copy your old VHS to DVD very easy
* External Set-top Box control - Switches your Virgin or Sky box to the correct channel automatically
* USB port - Plays AVI files, Music and Pictures straight from your USB stick
* Automatic Advert Editing

PLUS: EASY TO MAKE MULTIREGION:
Open HDD browser, make sure that no file is selected
Press:
Play
159 12 12 12 005 255 (numbers appear in display)
Play