Philips DVDR985 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder and Player
It works great as it's supposed to
I recorded a program within 30 minutes after taking it out of the box. I only tried LP quality (3 hrs.) and it is very good. It only takes seconds to erase a DVD+RW disc. I have not tried any DVD+R disc since I am afraid that I would make mistake and waste discs.<BR>I plan on transfering some S-VHS tapes onto DVD+RW or +R discs, but I really doubt what the other reviewer said - \\"The record quality is maybe as good as SVHS,but vhs copys are much better than from SVHS.\\" I think it's all in the source. It is true if a particular VHS tape looks better than a S-VHS tape if from different sources, you could end up with better VHS and translate into better DVD. To me, he just does not understand the difference between S-VHS and VHS. Let me put it this way, if you record program off air and your antena could only get you ghost images, even if you use HQ recording, your DVD would still not look anywhere close to a third generation VHS recording of a rental movie. And you blame on the DVD recorder? Get real.<BR>One thing I wish for is that Philips should offer black finish on the unit. It does stand out on my stereo rack with all other units are in black.<BR>The DVD+RW disc does make quite difference. I used Verbatim and Memorex brand. Verbatim disc is so smooth that operates like VCR, once you stop recording, within a few seconds, you can play the recorded title. With Memorex disc, it shows a message \\"Post Formatting\\" for a minute or two before you can do anything. I did not see such message with Verbatim disc. Also, when using Memorex +RW disc, it ran into \\"Disc Error\\" after an hour or so in SP mode which never happened with Verbatim disc in any mode. The price difference on these discs is about $.85/disc with Verbatim is more expensive. Now I can see why people will get bunch of coasters with ... DVD+R discs.<BR>Another thing I wish it had is a keyboard connection like my Pioneer DVD changer that allows me to type in titles.