Philips DVDR 3380 DVD Recorder

Needed exact this. It's refurbished. Is expensive for a dvd player. Delivery time was before expected, remote with it. Is good. Packaged well.

I have now ditched my second Phillips DVD Recorder soon after the Warranty expired. The first cost me £[...] and lasted for 13 months. The second was £[...] and lasted for a similar period. I have a large house (4000 sq ft) and have oodles of electronic equipment. I am extremely careful with my gear and have never had the slightest bother with any other make. I should mention that the only TV I have ever had bother with was, yes you've guessed it, made by Phillips (and I currently have 11 TVs in use at home)! I have now replaced my faulty Phillips DVD Recorder with a Sony and would urge anyone who is considering the purchase of a Phillips to think carefully -- yes it is easier to use than other brands and yes the picture is good, but experience has taught me that the build quality is a problem. If you do buy one consider an extended guarantee. The very best of luck with whatever you get. Caveat emptor!

Almost 4 years ago, I reveiewed a much earlier Philips DVD recorder on Amazon. We're now two generations on and this current Philips DVDR shows substantial progress in the time, with one yawning exception - the remote control! Overall, this is a well-designed and reasonably easy-to-use piece of equipment. In contrast to one previous reviewer, I found the DVD to be a doddle to set up. For a simple installation, just follow the supplied 'quick setup guide' and you're done in less than 5 minutes.Four stars rather than five due to the unhelpful remote control and minor technical issues with previoous DVD recorders described below. If this is your first DVD recorder, the technical issues will not apply to you, so ignore them! Bearing in mind that my first DVD recorder cost GBP250 from Amazon in 2003, the current price has to be a bargain!The DVDR comes with all necessary leads, including a reasonable quality SCART cable and a substantial manual. A remote control and the batteries for it are also included. The DVDR is much, much less bulky than previous generations. It fits neatly under my Thomson 4212 satellite receiver, allowing around 4 inches more shelf space alongside for more DVD storage. Even better, unlike the retrograde third-generation DVDRs Philips produced, there is no internal fan generating background noise. In use, this DVDR is essentially silent.Recording modes and some facilities have been streamlined since Philips earlier models (no 2.5, 3 or 8 hour recording modes), but these are no real hardships as recording quality is good even up to the 4 hour per DVD standard. As previously, 6 hour per DVD mode is only really adequate for 'time-shifting' TV programmes you will not wish to keep. Picture quality is sharp and the integral analogue tuner is better than average, though that will be irrelevant in a couple of years' time in the UK! What a shame that an integral Freeview tuner isn't included...The operations manual is hugely improved over previous Philips products. The instructions themselves are much more clearly laid out and there is a comprehensive section on how to cable the recorder in multiple with other contemporary equipment such as satellite or Freeview boxes, other DVD players or even your old VCR. Top marks for whoever rewrote the previous terrible manuals.Alas, praise cannot be extended to the remote control which is actually less user-friendly than previous Philips models. Previous standard buttons (e.g. the monitor button for switching between TV and DVDR) have disappeared to be replaced by less intuitive ones and the remote still has no fast forward/ rewind buttons. Instead, you need to press and hold the skip forward/ back buttons, with the inevitable result that you end up jumping forward five minutes rather than finding your chosen spot quickly. Utterly frustrating!One other issue may emerge for users of previous Philips DVD recorders, or, for all I know, earlier generations of other DVD recorders. It will, as far as I know, not affect users for whom this is their first DVD recorder. The software in this recorder encodes in such a manner that a recorded DVD should play back OK on any other DVD player or recorder. I have certainly not found any issues with playback on either PC or standalone DVD players. However, a DVD recorded on this machine and played back on a first/second generation Philips player (e.g. DVDR70/75/80 series) can NEVER again be edited or erased on the earlier player. It will be editable/ erasble on the machine on which it was recorded (i.e. the one I am reviewing). If that sounds complicated it is! I can live with this, but I am having to be careful that I don't end up with a series of DVD+RW disks which can't ever again be edited on my earlier equipment. Philips really should address this issue in their manual and/or provide a CD software upgrade for older DVD recorders.

Simple & easy to use, seller very good, would buy again

I have purchased two of these machines in the last 3 years - both have only lasted until just after the warrenty expires, and then the laser goes! Philips sent an upgrade disk, which just made the situation worse. Their "customer service" solution now is that I get the machine mended via them (£200+) or find a private engineer (£80+), but as it's out of warrenty, there's nothing else they can do. I have read a few more reviews online, and many say this machine is fundamentally flawed - I would agree. I was foolish enough to believe the first machine breaking down was just bad luck, so purchased another, I will not be getting a third!

I've been using this equipment for 3 months now - my first experience of DVD. I'm very pleased with this model and like it's neat appearance. At first there was a problem with a message saying an upgrade was needed. I could record on Philips -RW discs but not on +RW discs made in Taiwan. I contacted Philips website and they sent me a CD to upgrade my recorder and this problem was soon sorted. The picture is clear, colour and sound are fine. I do feel it takes a long time to load and set timer recordings, compared to my old VCR, but can't compare with other DVD models! Like others, I'm not keen on the remote and find I can only see the buttons when wearing my reading glasses - a bit of a nuisance! However, generally I'm happy with this purchase and have even managed to record good copies off my old videos with the right scart connections!Since writing the review above in May, I've had to return my recorder to Philips for repair. Suddenly, I couldn't play or record any disc and the message read 'Unknown Disc Type'. After 6 months of average useage the disc rotation motor had WORN OUT and couldn't be repaired, so Philips replaced the whole machine with a new one. I only know this because it had a different serial number and I rang Philips to ask what had happened. Apparently, a disc shouldn't be left in the tray when not in use - something I wasn't aware of - and this probably caused the motor to fail. So beware! I only hope this new recorder lasts longer than the first one, as the guarantee only covers the year from the original purchase date!

Excellent