Philips DVDR985 DVD+R/+RW Format DVD Recorder

Despite the quagmire over standards and compatibility issues with current DVD playback technology amongst manufacturers, Philips shakes up the market with a reasonably priced DVD recorder.The recording functions are easy to use, recordings play back on most DVD players, provides excellent playback of prerecorded DVDs, CD-R/RWs.

Note: Since my original review, long term reliability issues on some production batches of the 985 have surfaced. The following reflects performance at the time of test.

Pros

Cons

I found the DVDR985 to be a good performer on the following parameters:

First: The DVDR985 only DVD recorder on the market under $1,000 whose recordings can be played in almost any DVD player, whether recorded on a write-once (DVD+R) or re-writable (DVD+RW) disc. The test recordings I made played equally well on both the Pioneer DV-525 and Pioneer DV-341 DVD players and my Sony VAIO desktop computers' DVD-Rom drive.

Second: The DVDR985 generates a navigation menu on each disc, with a representative still frame and all other pertinent information. The user can either create chapter stops within each recording manually or automatically.

Third: Features both analog and DV (IEEE-1394) video input capability, you can capture video recordings made with a miniDV or digital8 camcorder in real time, as well as dubbing those old VHS and 8mm home movies through the standard composite or S-Video inputs.

Fourth: The DVDR985 built-in cable TV tuner can record TV shows with the ease of any VCR. This unit even has VCRplus built-in.

Fifth: This unit not only performs very well as a DVD recorder, but is outstanding in its capabilities as a standard DVD player. Dolby Digital and DTS pass through was excellent, as well as the standard and progressive scan component video outputs.

Sixth: The Philips DVDR985 also does great with CDs, CDR/CDRW discs as well.

Do to questions regarding long term reliability of the 985, I have reduced my original 5-star rating down to 2.5-stars.