Philips DVDR985 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder and Player
LESSON #1.  DON'T BUY 2ND GENERATION NEW TECHNOLOGY
The problem with this unit is one of reliability.  Phillips has changed its warranty policy from 1 year parts & labor to 1 year parts 90 days labor.  Does this tell you they have learned something? <br /> <br />This unit worked fine at first but after about 6 mos. began to exhibit reading problems.  It doesn't like +R discs.  +RW discs are just fine but my experience is after a while it refuses to read the +R discs it has just recorded.   <br /> <br />After 2 software upgrades from Philips which gave me added features but failed to solve my problem, I had to ship it to City of Industry, CA as Philips no longer maintains its own repair facility.  Fortunately the unit was under warranty and I only had to pay for shipping to L.A.  Returned repaired  after 2 mos. and worked fine for 4 months until same problem recurred.  Cannot record to +R disc without encountering \\"disc error\\", \\"disc empty\\" (just recorded on disc), or \\"disc contains unknown data\\".  Sometimes the content on the disc can be saved and finalized and sometimes not.  I am going to have to buy another +R/+RW unit as I have about 200 blank discs.  The same problem recurred, meaning the part they replaced also went defective after a short time meaning the design of this particular part is flawed.  There is no use repairing again as the part that replaces defective unit is itself defective.  DESIGN FLAW.  Possibly newer models have overcome this problem, one can only hope.  The only other Mfr.  offering +R/+RW recording format is Sony and every Sony product I have ever owned or been familiar with has gone bad before or just after the warranty expired. <br /> <br />I liked Phiips for optical disc technology because I had found it to be reliable through CD and DVD player technology, but this unit sucks.  Perhaps because it is a 2nd generation machine and bugs in this technology not yet worked out.  One can only hope these kinds of problems have been worked out by now in 4th & 5th gen. tech.