Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips DVDR80 Progressive Scan DVD Player / Recorder

I received this machine as a replacement for a previous dvd recorder (Philips dvdr985) that Philips could not repair. Both machines did the same thing. After having them for 6-7 months they stopped functioning properly. The timer will not work so unless you are home and use the qtr button the machine will not record. The machine will turn on, but nothing will record. When using a dvd+r disc using the M4 mode to record, it will erase the first movie recorded. Disc error messages when finalizing and unknown data messages occur with regular frequency no matter what type of disc (dvd+r or dvd+rw) or manufacturer. My unit is still under warranty but I was told by Philips I would have to pay to have the unit shipped to and from them if I want them to look at it. Since this machine is doing the same thing as my previous one I am electing to toss it in the garbage rather than spend any more time and money dealing with it and Philips. Sony is now making a dvd recorder that will record dvd+r and dvd+rw discs so I am buying that one.

If you value your sanity, avoid this piece of junk like the plague. In less than a year of ownership, we have had multiple problems. At times the recorder has stopped timer recording with no rhyme or reason--ex: one day I was watching the tv while it recorded a football game....with a half hour to go it just shut off, and when I got it turned back on and checked the timer settings, I hadn't goofed, it really was supposed to record for another half hour. I guess the recorder got bored with the game and didn't want to record any more!

Then there have been the times when I've recorded a program, and then when I've tried to watch it, I get the message "disc error" for no apparent reason. Or, how about recording two hours of home movies only to have it decide that it doesn't want to finalize the disc? Talk about frustration.

What other problems have we encountered? Even when the unit is functioning normally, if you set it to time sequential programs on different channels, you'll lose about the first minute of the second program. That's because the recorder finishes recording the first program, has to do something to finish (I'm not sure what), and then it will start the next recording. By that time you've lost the beginning of your next show.

Other things: I've recorded a +R disc and then (disc never removed) tried to create the titles and finalize the disc. The unit won't do it, instead it gives the message "data not detected." Again, a waste of time and money.

Or....you can put in a finalized disc that has played in the recorder before, but you'll get the message "no disc." Later it will play the same disc. We're talking about discs without smudges, dirt, scratches, warping etc.

Then there are the times when you're trying to watch a commercial (movie) disc....it will freeze throughout a scene, then after a few seconds play for a second or two, freeze again etc. etc. until you give up in frustration. At that point we take the disc, put it in a different player in another room, and watch there. It's the same disc, nothing altered about it, it's just that other brands can play it but the Philips gets glitchy.

Last week I almost had 3 months of wasted work on my hands. I had finished tranferring all our home movies to dvd, and was making copies for all the family members. I hadn't finalized the discs, though, because I wanted to first make sure that all the titles and dates were correct. I had 45 unfinalized discs and suddenly the Philips no longer wanted to finalize anything! I would reset the unit, it would finalize two or three, then do nothing....I must have spent 6 hours resetting the unit over and over until I could get the discs completed. I had to throw out three discs because the finalizing went wrong and the discs were unreadable in any player, i.e. ruined.

If the glitchiness of this unit wasn't enough to make you avoid it, let me tell you about my failed attempts to get help from Philips customer service. It started about three months ago when I was having problems recording; the unit would no longer record on blank discs it could previously use. I called customer service and was told that I needed a firmware upgrade, and that it would be sent in two weeks because it was backordered. After a month with nothing received, I called back and was told that my case would be referred to a specialist, who would call me. Another two weeks went by with nothing. So, I called back and was again told the same thing. By this point I was tired of the runaround, so I asked if I could download the upgrade off the internet. I was told how to do this, and after downloading, burning my own cd and putting it into the unit, it upgraded and seemed to work. The "specialist" never did call, but since it seemed to be functioning, I didn't care.

Well, since then all these other problems have cropped up. I have called Philips repeatedly, to no avail. In their favor, at least they have moved their customer service center and the new people seem to know much more about the product. But, the company doesn't support even their own service reps. In numerous calls, I have been unable to find out the location of a repair place. I have tried using the Philips automated system that says it will let you enter your zip code and then you'll get a repair location; after three transfers you get--can you guess--kicked back into the customer service menu! So, I tried looking it up on the web, but that doesn't work either. Even when I enter the zip code for one of the repair stores listed on the back of my manual, it gives no results. Maybe those stores exist, but who knows? The last thing I want to do is mail off this very expensive piece of junk to a place that may or may not exist!

So....I tried e-mailing Philips customer service. What happens? You get a return e-mail telling you to call them! But if you call them, even the reps don't have any way to access repair location information! Who ever heard of a company where the company itself doesn't know where they fix their own product??

Honestly, at this point I'm wondering if my only recourse is to contact the Better Business Bureau, and hope that they can help.

After all these headaches, two days ago we bought a Pioneer DVR-520H-S recorder. This one has an 80G hard drive, and I'm finding out that having a recorder with a hard drive is a huge advantage. It simplifies recording and editing; I can record to the hard drive and then only copy what I really want to keep. I know, with the Philips you can do the same thing onto a +RW disc, but good luck getting the Philips to work! Plus, editing isn't nearly as easy as on the Pioneer. The Pioneer is much more user-friendly, and guides you through each step of whatever process you're trying to do (copying, recording, etc.) I am VERY happy with the Pioneer DVR-520H-S, and would strongly recommend it over the Philips DVDR80. If you don't want to go with Pioneer, I would still check out recorders with a hard drive, so far we're finding it to be much more useful. Regardless, please spare yourself hours of frustration and many wasted dollars on ruined discs; buy something besides the Philips DVDR80.

I bought my DVDR80 in August of 2003. About six months ago, it just quit reading DVD+R. It still read DVD+RW. Now it doesn't read them either. Whether the disk is made on the PHillips unit or on my PC with NERO, the disks will not read. IT still reads and plays commercial DVD. I have a $500 DVD player. {Looks snazzy though!} I made ONE recording I kept with this unit. That makes this a $500 recording. I could have bought a lot of DVDs for that. I am going to replace this with a standard DVD player. This was a bad and an expensive idea.
Think about it long and hard before you buy this. Wal-mart has a DVD Recorder for about $250. It hurts less to throw one of those away.

I am going to make this short and sweet. I am on my fourth Philips DVD unit in less than two years. There is very little help from Philips, if it were not for the in-store warranty I would not have any working machine at this time. The biggest problem with the Philips recorders are continued failures in their lasers and software. Philips will avoid supporting these products at all costs. What a horrible waste of my time, money, and sanity. Please boycott all Philips products, as thousand of Philips DVD recorder owners are in the same boat I am.

Good day

I am not one generally to anthropomorphize electronics, but after more than a year with this recorder I am left with the notion it has serious problems. I have spent more than 16 hours waiting for and talking to Philips customer service...they can read you the manual, but since you're reading this I assume that will be as much help to you as it has been to me. At this stage I know more than customer service about their machine. The interface is difficult and cumbersome I recommend avoiding the system. It periodically will not recognize DVD-R disks, although it always recognizes DVD-RW media. It randomly changes channels, stops recording in the middle of a program, etc.
Try Sony I hear their system is easier to use.
This is a shame because when it works it makes beautiful quality images.