Philips DVDR3545V/37 Reviews

DVD-DVR recorder
by G. Dunshee from Maplewood,, MN United States, 2010-07-16

I gave this to my husband for his birthday, June 11. He still hasn't figured out how to make it work right, and he isn't a novice in these things. I wonder how the normal, average person would cope with it. I'm not sure what the issues are, but it certainly isn't intuitive at all.

Old school appearance but works well!
by GSCH , 2010-07-06

I have purchased several expensive VCR/DVD combo players/recorders over the last few years including Sony, Toshiba & JVC. With limited use, all 3 had problems in the first year such as the DVD tray stuck in the open position, the VCR eating tapes, the VCR heads misaligned and not reading the video, etc. And try finding someone these days to work on these electronics - doesn't exist in my area - and I plan to learn the basics myself.

In the meantime, I still needed a VCR/DVD combo with internal tuner - I have a couple of older but fabulous TV's and the tuner is needed so that I may record one program while viewing another. Tired of paying high end costs, I decided to give an older, refurbished model a try and I am very pleased so far - have owned it for one month.

For 1/3 of the price I spent on other models, this older Philips works like a charm. I could tell it was used - a few dings/scratches - but appearance was unimportant to me. I have not tried burning a DVD on it yet, but have recorded on VHS tape and have played tapes and DVD's with excellent results.

I bought this on Amazon, from Sales Masters for $118 (including shipping). Even if DVD burning proves unsuccessful, if it will just last a couple of years and continue to record on tape and play tapes & DVD's, I will consider this a great buy compared to other newer and more expensive models.

Great Unit But Description Lacking
by L. J. Prather from Southern, KY USA, 2010-04-19

As best that I can tell, this unit is a great unit. But be careful about the product's description. Maybe I should blame the Amazon dealer that sold the unit.
This is a rather complex unit. The instruction book that came with my unit was for a Philips DVP3345V/17. So I got the wrong instuction book. That unit only plays DVDs, not records. This unit records...and dubs...both ways. But this wrong instruction book doesn't tell me how to record DVDs and do dubbing. This wrong instruction book also says the unit does not include a tuner. But the description clearly says that it does. So I am assuming the wrong instruction book is incorrect and that this unit does have it's own tuner. Of course the wrong instruction book gave the wrong diagrams and instructions on hooking it up. So it took a bit longer to hook it up without the proper guides.
Most likely you may (or may not) need additional cables, wires and/or other accessories to hook up this unit. I know that I had to pay about $50 extra just for the extra accessories that I needed before I could hook this up. I think this product's description should be more clear in stating that you may (or may not) need additional materials. How much additional will depend on what you are hooking this unit too.
Without the proper instruction book, I cannot use all the features this unit has. So as best that I can tell, the unit is a fantastic performing unit. Even with the additional extra $50 that I had to spend to hook it up, I still consider this unit a steal at this price. I paid just $107 for this unit. So even with the extra $50 I had to spend, I still think of this unit as a terriffic deal. As best that I can tell without the proper instruction book to know how to work everything, everything is working like it should. Before purchasing this unit, I did a great deal of shopping around and comparing. I could not find anything even close to the same amount of features for anywhere near this same price. I have another Philips that is only a DVD player so I am familar with the name and it's a name that I trust.
But I guess you can tell that I am kind of P.O.'d at recieving the wrong instruction book. But the wrong instruction book is a problem that I can easily solve myself. It's still a great deal for a unit with this many features. So just be prepared that you may (or may not) need to do something extra after you recieve this unit. It's better that you know that up front instead of dealing with these hassles after you recieve the unit.

could be better
by bob g from det. mi, 2010-04-16

Player will only upscale with HDMI input. Not mentioned; also, must push button to switch from digital to analog channels rather than channeling up/down thru all. Still, good tuner/player/recorder for $120

be aware of what you buy
by D. Dryer from Park Falls, WI, US, 2010-01-09

I would not recomend this product, I purchased this item on line at the beginning of December for Christmass when it arrived and was hooked up I could not get the vcr section to work so I contacted phillips support the person it talked to asked me to try a couple of thing concluded that the vcr section was broken. (Their went christmas) So he had a replacement unit sent to my location. When I hooked up the and found the new unit vcr would not work this is when they informed me that their had to be a seperate hook up for the vcr becaue the vcr would not come in on the ant. to the back of my tv. which by now I had the cable box going to one location and dvd section to another location on the back of the TV so now I was out of location on my television. was forced to go out a purchase a special adapter to allow the VCR to come into the TV. After the addition purchase I was able to get the unit to funtion (I never went to school to be an Engineer). The VCR has a very poor quality recorder. We trying following the book but was very confussing and some of it was out of date. We have tried time recording the last couple of day and found the unit has cleared it memory 2 time by resetting the clook and date to a time a date in the past (3 or four months). I would not recomend the unit for us by anybody not even a person I disliked. If I was to purchase anothe electronic device i believe Phillips would be on the bottom of the list.