Philips DVDR985 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder and Player
Room for improvement
I have had my 985 for a month now. While I am enjoying it immensely, it has drawbacks and glitches that make me wonder if I have once again chosen a format that won't last (I was a Betaphile to the bitter end). When it works right, this machine is great, and introduces a whole new world of home video possibilities. The drawbacks are:<br />1. The instruction manual is badly written, making the \\"learning curve\\" much steeper and more difficult than it needed to be.<br />2. The \\"+R\\" and \\"+RW\\" format may be more compatible with existing DVD players, as backers claim, than the \\"-R\\" and \\"-RW\\" format, but I'm not sure it's so. I can report that DVD+R discs, properly \\"finalized,\\" play on my three DVD players, but not on my computer's DVD-ROM drive. DVD+RW discs will play on only two of my three DVD players and not on the computer. There may be a software solution for the computer. Of the three relatives I have sent home-movie discs to, two players played the \\"+R\\" discs and one did not.<br />3. Tapes recorded to disc via the EXT2 connection are sometimes too bright, with distinct shadings lost, gray turning into white, and a generally \\"overexposed\\" look. This does not apply to tapes recorded via the CAM3 \\"firewire\\" input, which requires putting a DV or Digital 8 camcorder in between the source deck and the 985. Tapes recorded via CAM3 are, however, slightly \\"washed out\\" in comparison to the originals. There doesn't seem to be any input that does not present one of these bad effects.<br />4. On occasion, if you let the disc record to the end, without manually stopping the recording process, the disc becomes unreadable. This happens randomly to about one in four discs.<br />5. Labelling and finalizing tracks, index pictures and the disc itself is a tedious process.<br />6. If you don't record the whole disc, an \\"empty track\\" annoyingly remains on the menu display, and cannot be deleted even on a \\"finalized\\" DVD+R. This is no big deal but could confuse a new user of a disc, suchas a relative sent a disc of home movies.<br />7. Chapter stops added to a DVD+R after the initial recording do not work on any player other than the 985 itself. Added stops do work on a properly \\"conformed\\" DVD+RW.<br />On the whole, my experience makes me wonder \\"What if I'd bought the Panasonic?\\" Since I don't have the budget for two machines and this one is performing at least tolerably, I guess I won't find out.<br />There is a website [...]with lots of information and sometimes helpful discussion forums about Philips and other \\"+\\" recorders.