This thing is next to useless!

I have had nothing but trouble with this player since I brought it - truth be known, I have brought two now as I returned the first thinking it to be faulty, only to find the next displayed exactly the same faults! Well, where do I start! It's so noisy! When on standby you get this really anoying high pitched whine, which is even louder when vhs tapes are played. This was almost enough for me to throw it through the window. Then, the standby screen which is blue and carries features such as"PLY" and"HI-FI" leap up and down. The menu button on the remote only works if the batteries are brand new (I kid you not) and the fast forward and fast rewind buttons don't function at all when the player is in VHS mode. This means you can't just leave the tape to rewind, you have do do it bit by bit! I'm just going to email the supplier in the hope that they will see fit to refund my money so I can buy a completely different model. If not, I'm just going to throw it through the window and buy another just the same! Just don't buy it: as you can see, it's so much more trouble than it's worth!

No problems at all

I have had one of these for about 10 months. It has had extensive use. I have recorded to hard disk, transfered from hard disk to DVD, transfered from (de CSS) disk to HDD and played all my (large) DivX and xVid collection without a single glitch. I may just be lucky, but I am inclined to think that this is a great product, and that I am using it properly.

Badge engineered Brilliance

Firstly this is not a Philips product. Its actually a badge engineered LG model which I might add is a good thing. LG make really good DVD players and their video recorders while a little crude have an excellent reputation for reliability.

The dvd plcture on this model is superb and also the dvd loader fitted is great. It works very well with interactive dvds. The video recorder is good but a bit clunky compared to something like a Panasonic or Sharp.

Anyway here's a couple of tips for anyone buying these.

One thing you may come across using scart rgb is a vague patten over the screen, basically a weak translucent image. You can cure this by cutting one of the scart plug pin connections at the tv end. Basically you want to disconnect the composite out connection from the tv's scart. This will give you a crystal clear rgb image.

Secondly if you want to run region 1 or other region discs rather than region 2 you can do it in the following way. Insert your foreign dvd. Wait to the region lockout appears. Press 'display' on the remote. You'll get a little box come up like 1/2 or 1/3 etc. Use the right key to move it to 2/2 or 2/3 or even 3/3 and press enter or play and it will skip the region lockout! A simple hack to enable you run any dvd you want. This unit will convert all ntsc material to pal playback so you won't have any problems displaying films not in pal format.

Also just in case you haven't noticed it. To picture search you have to hold in the skip chapter button. It will then go to 2x. Hold it in again and it wil got to 4x etc. You have to keep doing this and it will top out at 100x picture search. Its an awkward system.

Because of its easy multiregion hack and superb dvd picture I think this is one of the best dvd/vcr combi's out there.