Philips DVDR75 Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder
a dream come true for recording television programs!
the DVD recorder is the biggest thing since the VCR! There are a few great reasons to get the DVD recorder.  <br />1) M1 recording quality is better than SP on a VCR.<BR>2) the DVD recorder is very quiet when on. I noticed my VCR makes noise when on.  This is nice because you don't hear any electric humming when watching television.<BR>3) The DVDs are longer lasting than VHS tapes<BR>4) repeated viewing will not affect the picture.<BR>5) DVDs are much smaller than a VHS tape<br />more detail on the recording settings. M1 is like finding gold.  The quality is better than SP on a VCR! If you really want the best quality don't use anything less than M1 unless it is for a one time viewing.  M1 recordings look almost as good as the original broadcast, unlike VHS tapes, where you can tell the quality drops a bit if you get close to the screen.  M1 recodings when paused loose a bit of clarity, but the pause function isn't used that often, so it's not a concern.<br />The crazy symbols used could be improved upon, for example for 'channel' they could just display that on the screen but instead you get a fork in the road type picture, but it's ok once you get used to it.  <BR>note that consumer reports rated the three DVD recorders (Philips, Panasonic, and Sony) as all having the same recording quality of excellent (March 2003 issue) so I guess your choice is what format you want to use. Philips is +RW and +R.<br />additional on problems<BR>- RECORDER BUGS -unfortunately, sometimes this machine 'turns itself off'.  I have discovered why.  when plugged into a vcr to transfer VHS to DVD if you give the recorder a command, and then quickly give the VCR a command like rewind, the recorder locks up and turns off, so I have learned to do one thing at a time and then this doesn't happen.  also, when [pausing out commercials] don't use the pause button to resume recording, just press record again or it may turn off.  Thankfully it's not a problem once you learn what not to do. Now that I am more careful the machine hasn't turned itself off on me.<br />- BRIGHTNESS PROBLEM  this is probably the only thing that concerns me.  but I still don't think it's a problem, because the brightness only shows up when transferring store recorded VHS programs to DVD.  on my own tapes, this doesn't happen.  Rewind the tape to the beginning and it should go away. The brightness is so obvious that it's easy to spot, and just rerecord the tape. It would bother me more if the brightness issue was sporadic or very slight, which would cause me to buy another brand, but it either records perfectly or all bright (probably only about 2% of the time on store bought or ordered tapes).  <br />NO FAST FORWARD BUTTON really is a minus on this unit, so I recommend using another DVD to play the recordings on.  (they say this machine is a also a first rate player. hmmm. not without a fast forward button.<br />RECOMMENDATION: buy a S-Video VCr to transfer your tapes. you'll transfer the VHS to DVD with the best clairty. (probably only for those of us that really want the best possible quality) but it is a noticible difference<br />CLAIFYING THE MANUAL: just go to input AUX 2 and plug in your Vcr into the AUX 2 outlet to transfer tapes.  once done, just arrow up to the desired tv channel to record off of television.