Philips HDRW720 DVD Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive
Good When Timer Settings Not Erased
I have owned the Philips HDRW720 DVR for about 2 years now.  When it is working, I really enjoy it.  I can record video regularly, edit them, save them to DVD, and delete them.  This includes home videos that can be transferred to the hard drive via the input jacks. <br /> <br />The default video compression rate is 2.5 hours per DVD, which is around 60 hours of video on the 120GB hard drive.  That can be adjusted for more video (less quality) or more quality (less video).  You can record on 4.7GB DVD+R or DVD+RW, but not on DVD-R discs and not on dual density discs.  Once finalized, the discs will play on most any DVD player. <br /> <br />The TV listings (TV Guide) are free (unlike Tivo) and come via a broadcast signal overnight.  My understanding is that it comes from a 3rd party company via your local PBS channel.  It also sets the system's time and date.  You can record via the TV listings or manually set the date/time/channel.  This all works great except for the periodic resetting of the listings, which also wipes out all of your timer settings.  It appears that the timer settings are saved in memory, and NOT on the hard drive, where it should be saved for recovery.  This resetting of listings/timer settings has been occurring randomly about every 30 days.  I once went almost 60 days without a reset.  I notified Philips of this problem, and a system update disc was sent out.  It did not help the problem, and actually caused the system to power reset randomly for a short time thereafter.  Eventually my system was out of warranty, and Philips really could not fix the problem.  Via some research on the internet lately, I have found out that this 3rd part company via PBS may be the cause, as other brands of non-Tivo DVRs have also experienced the same loss of listings and timer settings, including Sony and Panasonic, with no resolution as of yet.  I did read one posting that said that Sony had been in contact with this 3rd part company (I am not naming the companybecause it is not certain who it is, although one company, in particular, was noted as the possible source). <br /> <br />So this timer reset problem is my primary frustration with this machine.  I have gotten used to it, and look at the \\"TIMER\\" indicator on the LCD regularly.  If it is missing, then I know that the timer settings are gone, and I need to reprogram them asap.  Since Philips appears to no longer make any new models of this DVR, I had been looking for a similar replacement of another brand.  But since I have found out that the others are having problems too, I have decided to stick with the Philips DVR until it dies.  I also use my other DVD/VCR recorder (RCA) to record important shows as a backup, and have never had the timer setting reset there.  There are no TV listings on the RCA either, but it does get the show name when recording, as it shows up on the DVD disc title.  So I suspect that it does not use the same source as the Philips and other non-Tivo DVRs.   <br /> <br />When this Philips DVR is working, it works well.  I really like it.  And it usually is working well.  But when the settings reset, I do tend to get ticked off, especially if I miss a recording.  So I have to give the Philips HDRW720 DVR a rating of 4 out of 5 (actually would be 3.5, so I rounded up).  I really wonder, though, why Philips did not continue to improve on a good DVR like this? <br />