Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips CDR800 3-CD Integrated CD Recorder

I have experienced nothing but frustration and disappointment with this equipment. It has been a problem from day one and is not very intutitive to use, either. I will be packing it up and returning it for repair this week after only having it for 5 months, plus I have used it very little. It now will not open the CDR tray no matter what I do. When playing it in shuffle mode with 3 CDs in tray, it stops after about 15 minutes of music and I have to unplug it to get it to reset and do anything. When inserting a cd in tray to play it will not read the cd until I press play a couple of times and reopen and close the tray a couple of times. Previously, I had a Sony 5 tray cd changer for 12 years and never had one problem! Too much technology for a cd player recorder?

I have the Phillips CDR-820 model cd recorder and I have no problem using ANY brand of blank CDR or RW discs. I just used a Memorex Cool Colors CDR and it works just fine, I had no problem with finalization and it plays in all other cd players. I don't know what these people are talking about when they say you can use only Phillips blank media. I would suggest that you do not use these cheap, no-name CDR's, after all, you get what you pay for and this goes for all blank media. I love this cd recorder, it compliments my Sony mini disc recorder very well, they work well together. I would recommend the Phillips cd recorder, maybe some of the earlier models had problems, but this latest model works very well. I have never even used a Phillips blank CDR, Maxell works very well and is a good choice. Buy the Phillips 800 cd recorder and enjoy!!!

This review is probably moot, since Philips seems to be phasing out their cd recorders, but here goes. I purchased one of these from the "Scratch and Dent" section of my local Circuitous City, and I experienced the exact problem that others had, were the unit locks up during recording (extremely irritating!). So, I returned this unit and went to Best Buy and bought another CDR800 and this one seems to be ok. I haven't experienced the same problem and I've had it for nearly a year.

I need this unit because I still have a ton of vinyl and I wanted to commit some of my older LP's to cd. In this capacity it has worked wonderfully! The feature I really like best is the Track Increment button on the remote that allows you to break up the songs on an LP into individual tracks (I looked at a bunch of recorders and this one is the only one that I found that on). The 3 tray cd makes compilations easy to put together.

I hope this one lasts a while!

This product has excellent features but my unit will not finalize most discs after recording. Most of the popular blank audio CDR discs such as Maxell, Memorex, Fuji, Verbatim, etc. are not compatable with this machine. However, it will usually function with TDK discs.

I contacted Phillips about repairs (unit is still under warrenty). ...

If you buy this machine, be VERY careful to QUICKLY and thoughly test its operation using several varieties of blank audio CDRs. ...

I first got interested in the Phillips CDR through a firend who had one, but after reading several reviews was reluctant even though my friend had no problems.
However I decdided to take a chance on a used machine and have never regretted my decision. I did have the problems of OPC error and Update, but an e-mail to Phillips solved my problem which was using Memorex and TDK tapes. They sent a list of others and I now use Sony or Pengo without any problems.
I have been able to copy cassette tapes I had compiled and old LPs without any further problems.
I am a satisfied customer