Philips HDRW720 DVD Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive
Slapdash effort by Philips
This product seems to have been hastily slapped together and shipped with very little quality control.  I spent a total of 2 hours on the phone with their tech support, and found that I knew more about the machine than they did.  They did, however, have a better user guide - mine was clearly an earlier, incomplete version.  They also agreed to send me a CD with a software update, but by then I'd decided to return the unit.   <br /> <br />Here were some of the problems: <br /> It wouldn't properly play several DVDs that played fine on my old DVD/VCR deck and on my PC's emulator, as well as many other DVD players out there. <br /> Several buttons on the remote didn't behave as documented.  (To exit one system menu, you have to shut down and restart the machine because the documented procedure just doesn't work.) <br /> Documentation is full of typos and is not clear.  The user guide is not indexed.  Info is missing; for instance: the info on getting the remote to work with your TV was not there (it is there in newer versions of the User Guide.) <br /> Poor user interface.  The remote buttons are small, close together, and not clearly labeled.  There are color-coded function buttons; a clever idea, but impossible to differentiate in a dark room.  And most of us watch TV in darkened rooms... <br /> No online support.  The website didn't carry the software update, email queries are bounced back with a request that you use the phone, etc. <br /> <br />I'll be trying a different product, and I won't buy Philips products in the future.  I did learn something: most of the vendors have PDFs of their user guides online, so you can see for yourself the quality (or lack thereof) of the docs and of the user interface design.  I wish I'd thought of this earlier... <br />