review of PHILIPS DVDR615 recorder

[lordsmurf]

In years past, Philips has never made good machines. Philips encoder chipsets produced grainy videos, and the machines were PLAGUED by all kinds of random errors and failures. Magnavox uses the same chipset, and has often garnered the name "maggotbox" because of it's lack of quality.

Philips adopted the LSI encoder chipset for the DVDR615, so being in the market to upgrade my old 5001, I've been testing new units, especially LSI ones. I was hopeful that it would be a decent machine.

Initially I said $250 price tag was far too high, but last week Circuit City knocked off almost $75 on it, bringing it just below $180, so I gave it a shot.

I also read a lot of reviews, hearing about ALL SORTS of problems. I was hoping it to be mindless blathering, as usual, but it's not.
- https://www.videohelp.com/dvdrecorders.php?DVDnameid=329&Search=Search&list=1#comments
- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/B000204SVU/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/102-1178...&s=electronics

They were all right. THIS UNIT IS A HUGE PIECE OF TRASH!

THE GOOD:
- The LSI chips are very likely in there. The video quality is quite good, especially at M2 and M3, and it has some additional (adjustable!) noise reduction controls. The video encodes are clean, remove chroma, and the grain from tapes was totally removed, but no sharpness was lost. Nice!
- The tuner was excellent as well.
- Even though the manual says otherwise, it played R2 PAL discs without flinching.

But that's all that was good.

THE BAD:
- The machine is plagued by everything else not working. Nothing works.
- The menus are confounding (but workable). Sometimes the unit is unresponsible trying to manage through the maze of multi-layered menus.
- The coax output doesn't work real well.
- The timer recordings don't work.
- The machine will often not turn on.
- The very first time I went to plug it in, it would not turn on, I had to try a couple times for the power to come on.
- There were times where the machine would freeze while recording.
- Never have I seen a DVD recorder that would start recording in the middle of your previous recording, rather than add new recordings at the end. Nothing is safe in this unit.
- Worst. Player. Ever. It does not bring up the DVD menus when playing a disc, it takes you to some stupid Philips track menu, and you have to finagle around mashing buttons and selecting stuff from menus to make it play a freaking disc!

Same old Philips crap quality.
Better chipset, same garbage workmanship.
Back to Circuit City it goes.

[hech54]

I wouldn't buy another Philips either...I love mine but I also think I got lucky with mine...

[JimLely]

Philips makes two different DVDR615s for the US market -- DSDR615/17 and DVDR615/37 (Yes, it's hard to believe but true). The 615/17 has an interface (menu) like last years DVDR75 (use of symbols) and earlier models, while the 615/37 has a new, wordy interface. Which 615 is yours?

For the record I really like all 4 of my Philips DVDRs. They have great functionality and have been dependable. My Lite-On 5006, on the other hand, is very disappointing.

[jsganz]

Is the DVDR615 the ONLY model using the LSI chips?

[lordsmurf]

Is the DVDR615 the ONLY model using the LSI chips?

Yes. The only Philips using LSI chips.
All the others are craptacular Philips chips, which are noisy.

[David K]

I have the 615/37 Model and have had it since January 2005 (7 months)
My experience compared to Lord Smurf's

The menus are confounding (but workable). Sometimes the unit is unresponsible trying to manage through the maze of multi-layered menus.
True enough. But like all systems, you eventually learn how to get what you want by finding out what the system likes and dislikes.

- The coax output doesn't work real well.
No comment. Only use RCA out.

- The timer recordings don't work.
Mine has worked perfectly. I've had a few bad RW discs and when that happens it can seem like the timer did not work, but that is a media problem not a timer problem (at least in my case).

- The machine will often not turn on.
No problems there.

- The very first time I went to plug it in, it would not turn on, I had to try a couple times for the power to come on.
Once again, no problem there.

- There were times where the machine would freeze while recording.
Once again no problem there.

- Never have I seen a DVD recorder that would start recording in the middle of your previous recording, rather than add new recordings at the end. Nothing is safe in this unit.
Never happened to me. On the 615/37 they make a big point about it always going to a blank free title, so perhaps LS's machine was the 615/17.

- Worst. Player. Ever. It does not bring up the DVD menus when playing a disc, it takes you to some stupid Philips track menu, and you have to finagle around mashing buttons and selecting stuff from menus to make it play a freaking disc!
Agreed! It took me months to discover how to get to the "regular" DVD menu. You need to hit the "disc" button.

All in all, the video quality is excellent, and it has been dependable once I figured out its quirks. But not the most user-friendly unit.