Philips DVDR3300H

.../> Philips DVD-R 3300H/05

TYPE:
Digital Video recorder with Hard Disc and DVD-RW

TUNER:
Terrestrial Analogue PAL/SECAM

STORAGE:
HDD: 80Gb Maxtor ViewMaster PATA (Upgradeable)
DVD: 4x DVD-Rewriter Supports DVD±RW, DVD±R, (S)VCD
CD-RW, CD-R (Region 2, ALL only)

CONNECTIONS:
FRONT: 1 x S-Video, 1 x CBVS, 2 x Audio L+R, 1 x Digital Video
...
...I have now owned my Philips DVDR3300H Digital Video Recorder (DVR) for six months and I have found it to be an excellent all-round alternative to the more expensive units from Sony, Panasonic etc.

Unusually this DVDR3300H was manufactured in Hungary and not the Far East, as is the norm these days for electronics goods. The quality of construction appears to be of a very high standard, with an all-metal casing, proper ventilation and ... more

SPECIFICATIONS:

PRODUCT:
Philips DVD-R 3300H/05

TYPE:
Digital Video recorder with Hard Disc and DVD-RW

TUNER:
Terrestrial Analogue PAL/SECAM

STORAGE:
HDD: 80Gb Maxtor ViewMaster PATA (Upgradeable)
DVD: 4x DVD-Rewriter Supports DVD±RW, DVD±R, (S)VCD
CD-RW, CD-R (Region 2, ALL only)

CONNECTIONS:
FRONT: 1 x S-Video, 1 x CBVS, 2 x Audio L+R, 1 x Digital Video
REAR: 1 x RF In, 1 x RF Out, 2 x SCART i-link comp,
1 x S-Video, 1 x CVBS, 2 x Audio L+R,
1 x Optical Digital Audio, 1 x Coaxial Digital Audio.

RECORDING MODES (HDD/DVD Hrs):
HQ (16/1)
SP (32/2)
SPP (40/2.5)
LP (48/3)
EP (64/4)
SLP (96/6)
SEP (130/8)

DIMENSIONS
(W x H x D) 435 x 65 x 340mm
Weight: 4 kg

PRICE: £230 - £320 available from most high street electrical retailers.

REVIEW

INTRODUCTION.

I have now owned my Philips DVDR3300H Digital Video Recorder (DVR) for six months and I have found it to be an excellent all-round alternative to the more expensive units from Sony, Panasonic etc.

Unusually this DVDR3300H was manufactured in Hungary and not the Far East, as is the norm these days for electronics goods. The quality of construction appears to be of a very high standard, with an all-metal casing, proper ventilation and a well-organised interior. The styling of the thing is a little off-the-wall, Philips' designers were obviously having an off day when they put pen to paper and sketched out this model's facia, but this is of little consequence and was not really a consideration when I made my purchase.

In common with the vast majority of DVR's the DVDR3300H does not come equipped with an internal DVB-T tuner or satellite/cable decoder, so Free-to-Air or subscription digital TV is not directly recordable and a separate set top box must be purchased if these are required. This could add an extra £30 - £100 to the overall price and must be taken into account when comparing this system with ones that internally support digital TV broadcasts. I already have a DVB-T Personal Video Recorder and do not specifically require that feature in this unit. With the exception of Channel 5, which has always been a bit snowy in my area of the UK, the analogue tuner is fine for terrestrial broadcasts, providing a strong crisp recorded image that is, in my opinion, streets ahead of the current Free-To-Air digital channels for clarity and consistency. The level of signal drop out on FTA digital systems is atrocious and ruins far too many recordings. I don't have (or want) Sky or cable and until the FTA channels are broadcast on a wider bandwidth I will stick to recording programmes broadcast by the four main channels via the analogue tuner.

Also in common with the vast majority of DVR's the Philips has only one tuner, so recording two or more channels simultaneously is not possible. Support for multiple tuners has been a feature of most DVR control processors for many years, but it is rare that any manufacturer takes advantage of this option. You don't get to sell a customer two of something if one will do the job, do you.

If you research the bulletin boards, as I have done recently, it would appear Philips seem to have earned themselves a bit of reputation for the unreliability of their DVD Recorders. DVRs are still fairly uncommon and most of the complaints I unearthed seem to be along the lines of users not being able to get their Philips to do something it's not supposed to do, like record copy protected movies. At the time of purchase I wasn't aware of any of this and fortunately made my decision based on my prior knowledge of Philips equipment I had obtained myself. To date I have yet to experience any problems that would lead me to consider not purchasing a Philips product again. Other than a few very minor glitches, I have had sterling service from my DVR, although I suppose I may just be particularly lucky in this instance.

THE PACKAGE

My DVR came boxed in a high quality rigid carton with plenty of Styrofoam packaging to ensure the recorder was safe from shocks. In the box were the DVR, a remote control unit, a single SCART connector, an antenna cable, two AA batteries and an operations manual that includes a quick setup sheet.

It would have been nice if Phillips had supplied audio cables and maybe one or two blank DVD-R's, but you can't have everything.

THE UNIT

The DVDR3300H comes in a neutral pale grey livery and apart from the plastic facia is entirely constructed of metal. It's quite large and heavy for something that's supposed to replace a VHS recorder and in actuality contains very little extra in the way of mechanicals. The extra size is all about heat. Unlike a VHS recorder this unit has a hard disc that is continuously active from the moment it is switched on and generates a considerable amount of heat. This heat requires a lot of air space to dissipate if no active (noisy) cooling system is to be employed. As a consequence the case is much larger than its contents appear to require. Intake vents on both sides and a very quiet speed controlled extractor fan at the rear assist airflow through the recorder.

Positioning the unit was a little awkward, due entirely to its depth, which is somewhat greater than the depth of the shelf on my TV stand where it is sited. As a result the front of the unit overhangs the shelf by a couple of inches and the rear of the unit is tight up against the TV stand's rear panel. This does not assist the ventilation of the DVR one little bit, but until I get another stand will have to suffice. Despite these problems the DVR seems quite happy in its confinement.

In common with all home entertainment devices, the majority of the DVDR3300H's connectors are at the rear of the unit. This is normal and should not present a problem, but of course with the depth of the unit already proving troublesome adding extra inches with SCART cables just makes things that little bit more awkward.

SEEN FROM THE FRONT

The front panel of the DVDR 3300H is a quirky affair that takes a bit of getting used to. Rather than opt for the angular style currently favoured by most high-tech manufacturers, Philips has chosen to round off the facia of this unit. The top and bottom thirds of the facia curve away from the centre to mate with the case and are coated in a matching grey paint. This has the effect of highlighting the polished chrome and plastic centre panel of the facia and helps to soften the rather chunky appearance of the recorder. The front of the recorder is virtually free of controls, with the exception of a flush standby button on the far left and a ring of source controls (Play/Stop/FF/FRW/REC) on the far right. Had any major Asian manufacturer made this unit the rest of the facia would probably have been a nice flat panel with subtle displays and indicators on it, but this is a Philips and they're Dutch, so it comes as no surprise to discover the design is a tad more ornamental. The left of the facia sports a chunky raised Philips logo that looks out of focus and causes your eyes to cross whenever you look at it. Sitting beside the logo is the DVD drive door which, rather than being simply flat, is embossed with an incongruous groove that creates a raised bar across its centre. Far from being decorative this groove provides surfaces from which sunlight is reflected causing an unnecessary distraction. To the right of the DVD drive door is the button that opens the tray, unlike all the other buttons on the unit this one is raised quite considerably from the facia and looks just as out of place as the DVD drive door. To the right of this button is the recorder's main display panel, which sits behind a transparent Perspex window. The display provides status information for the system using subtle pale blue LEDs. The display panel itself is hardly sophisticated in its programming, it displays a 24-hour clock while in normal standby mode and the current TV station or recording being viewed when active, but it can't display both simultaneously. Curiously the display doesn't scroll, so any recording or channel name with more than eight characters in it is truncated, rendering the displaying of it a bit of a pointless exercise. The right third of the facia is occupied by the remote control sensor, followed by an annoying one inch diameter hoop of electric blue LEDs that is there to indicate the hard drive is active, (which it is all the time, unless the recorder is in standby mode), and the ring of source controls which has a hoop of bright red LEDs that illuminate when the unit is recording to one of the drives. Below the source controls is a pull down panel that reveals the forward connectors for digital and composite video sources, ideal if you want to plug in your video camera or VHS player and transfer your home movies to the system.

SEEN FROM THE REAR

Permanent connections to the DVDR3300H are made at the rear of the unit. Here there are enough connectors to satisfy the majority of user's needs. The power cable is a built-in type and comes with a moulded 5A fused three-pin plug.

Connection to a television set can only be made via the SCART, CVBS or S-Video connectors. The recorder does not broadcast a UHF TV signal and cannot be viewed through a TV's antenna input. This will not be a problem for 99% of purchasers, but should be taken into account if you have a very old TV.

Two SCART sockets are provided, one is specifically for output to a TV/Monitor and the other is intended for use with external sources such as DVB-T and cable receivers. It's important not to transpose the SCART connectors because SCART-2 feeds its input to SCART-1 to allow the output of a device attached SCART-2 to be viewed on the TV, this won't happen if they are connected the wrong way round. (Note: it may be possible to use both SCART connectors as source inputs if the S-Video or CBVS connectors are used as the output, although I can't confirm this is the case because I haven't attempted to configure the recorder this way).

Audio output from the recorder to the TV can be via the SCART connector(s) or via a pair of stereo jacks. If you feed video via the S-Video or CBVS leads you will need to make separate connections for audio via the stereo jacks.

If basic stereo sound is not good enough for you the DVDR3300H is equipped with both coaxial and optical digital output ports that will allow a high-quality signal processor or amplifier to be attached, such as those found in home theatre surround sound systems. The unit supports Dolby digital output for multi-channel sound.

Overall the rear connections are arranged in a reasonably organised fashion, allowing fairly straightforward connections to be made. Approximately one-third of the rear panel is connector free; this has been done to ensure the cooling fan is not obstructed by any of the cables or connector blocks.

WHAT'S INSIDE

Internally the DVDR3300H is essentially a microcomputer equipped with a PAL/SECAM TV tuner. A custom CPU and GPU are used to drive the system, there is a Flash ROM to hold the basic operating system and RAM circuitry to buffer the video data gathered from the various inputs. Storage is provided by a single 80GB PATA hard disc and a DVD Rewriter, both of which can be substituted for upgraded models. The DVD-RW is a Philips model and is pretty basic, but it is only used for creating permanent copies of the data from the hard disc. The hard disc is manufactured by Maxtor and is optimised for video recorders. It could be substituted for any larger PATA hard disc if required, but I would recommend sticking with ones that are designed to work in this type of unit.

REMOTE CONTROL

The DVDR3300H comes with a full function remote control that can access all the features of the recorder, with the notable exception of opening the DVD drawer (?). At six by two inches it's incredibly compact and easy to handle. Unfortunately this compactness has forced the designers into a compromise between the size and number of the control buttons and they have not really found the right balance. For some odd reason almost one-third of the remote control is occupied by large numbered channel selection buttons which are hardly likely to get much use in the UK. This is wasted real estate that could have been better occupied by some of the tiny editing buttons that are squashed into the bottom third of the remote. These are controls that are needed daily and need to be easy to access, Philips apparently disagree. The middle third of the remote supports the general menu and playback controls, they are well positioned and of the right size. My first impression of the remote was that it was originally created for a DVD player and recording controls were added as an afterthought. As with a lot of branded equipment, too much space is wasted with pointless logos and badges and this remote loses an inch and a half of control space to them.

In use the remote sits comfortably in the hand, but due to its thickness tends to angle upwards. This leads to the recorder ignoring the remote's commands because the infrared transmitter is not pointing at the receiver. Even with constant use I still find myself frantically pressing a button until I realise I'm aiming at the ceiling. The recorder's infrared sensor doesn't have much in the way of range when the remote is operated at an angle and it completely ignores reflected signals, so accurate aiming is essential. Having said all this, most remote controls are cumbersome and very few have any kind of angular range, so the Philips remote is no real exception.

OPERATION

STARTUP

For a device with a hard disc and fan in it the DVDR3300H is exceptionally quiet. When first switched on you get a hardly discernible buzz from the fan that quickly vanishes as it slows down to its operating speed. The hard drive whirrs a little as it gets up to speed and initialises itself, but is impossible to hear once fully active and the DVD drive does one quick calibration pass then stay silent even when operating. The most I can hear as I write this, (I'm three feet away from the unit in silent room writing with a pen), is the gentle hum of the cooling air passing out of the rear of the machine. Surprisingly the ticking of my small mantle clock is considerably louder than this machine.

Like all modern home entertainment devices the DVDR3300H has an initialisation phase before you can use it. This consists of a few basic questions about the languages and locations to use for the various features, the TV display format you want to use and then a search for your available analogue channels. Once this is completed you are ready to use the recorder. Subsequent start-ups will be automatic, with the recorder setting all the appropriate features and then tuning into the last accessed channel.

You can start the recorder by pressing the standby or DVD drawer open buttons on the recorder itself or one of the Standby, Play, Stop, Timer, Rec, Pause, DV, Tuner, TV/HDD buttons on the remote. Frankly why so many buttons should start the recorder is a mystery, because selecting a specific button activates no additional functions?

SHUTDOWN

In common with many modern devices the DVDR3300H does not have a Power Off switch. Unless you unplug the recorder at the mains, the best you can do is put the unit into standby mode. This is logical for a device that is used to make timer based recordings, but it does mean the recorder is using electricity all the time. Fortunately this is restricted to a paltry 3W per hour in standby mode, which is the equivalent of leaving a 100W light bulb burning for less than two minutes. There's also a Low Power Standby mode that presumably uses even less electricity. Of course if you desperately want to balance out your carbon footprint, you could always go to bed a bit earlier and turn out all the lights.

CHANNEL & PROGRAMME SELECTION

The DVDR3300H is very basic in the channel and programme selection department. There has been no attempt to provide an EPG (Electronic Programme Guide), so you will need a listings magazine/paper to select your programmes from. Selecting a channel is performed from the remote control via the numbered channel buttons or the Channel Skip (up/down) buttons.

RECORDING AND PLAYBACK

Note: This recorder supports Digital Rights Management software such as Macrovision and can be prevented from recording certain copywrited programmes and films.

RECORDING QUALITY

The DVDR3300H has a range of compression levels that can be used to create your recordings. The lower the compression level used the higher quality your recordings will be and the fewer recordings you will be able to store on a disc. (Refer to the specifications at the head of this review for recording capacity provided in each mode).

Through experiment I have concluded that the two highest quality modes HQ and SP are only required when you want a near perfect image for editing on a computer. For general recordings the SPP and LP modes give the best balance between quality and size. The remaining modes EP, SEP and SLP are of increasingly poorer quality and are only of use where storage space is a critical factor and you probably don't intend to keep the recordings for long. Personally I tend to use LP mode the most, because the quality exceeds that of VHS yet it allows up to three hours of recordings to be transferred to a DVD, ideal for TV series etc.

There is also a Sport mode available to enhance the quality of recordings containing rapidly moving subjects. I have this switched on all the time.

The choice of recording mode is crucial when planning any recording, because it cannot be adjusted once the recording has been made. The best rule of thumb to help you decide which recording mode to use is to ask yourself if you are going to want to keep the recording. If you are then choose a mode that will ensure the recording can fit on to a single DVD. I would not opt to divide a recording over several DVDs unless I was going to transfer them to a PC for editing and reassembly on a single DVD. Of course if the recording is excessively long you may have no choice but to straddle it over a number of DVDs.

TIME SHIFT & PAUSE LIVE TV

Unlike VHS recorders DVRs can support temporary recording features that enhance your options in addition to allowing you to simply archive a broadcast.

TIME SHIFT

The DVDR3300H provides a Time Shift buffer that is active whenever the device is operating. The Time Shift buffer holds up to six hours of video data from whichever channel the recorder is currently viewing. At any point the Time Shift buffer can be rewound to a previous point in the broadcast and replayed. At the same time the Timeshift buffer will continue to store current broadcasts as you watch the previous ones. This can be useful if you are prone to missing the beginning of programmes, as I often am, or you like to skip the adverts. The data in the Time Shift buffer is not automatically retained, so it is not directly used for making recordings. You can choose to transfer any portion(s) of the six-hour buffer to the hard disc if you wish to do so by simply rewinding to where you want the recording to start, pressing the Record button on the remote and then entering a length for the recording. As the Time Shift buffer updates any marked portions will be transferred to safe storage on the hard disc. The Time Shift buffer will be emptied if the recorder is placed in standby, the recording quality mode is changed or the input source is switched to the DV port. The buffer will then be restarted from the current time. Any marked recordings will be stored to the hard disc before the buffer is emptied. It is important to note that the buffer will be lost, including any marked portions, if the recorder loses mains power for any length of time.

Moving around the Time shift buffer is restricted to the Fast Forward, Rewind, Jump and Play functions. FF and RW can be performed at up to 32 times speed, so rapid transit through the buffer is possible. Pressing the Play button will send the system to the point in the buffer where the last viewing session ended. You can jump forwards or backwards in thirty-second increments, or jump to a specific point in the Time Shift buffer by pressing the SELECT button on the remote control and entering the start time of the desired recording.

PAUSE LIVE TV

At any point during a broadcast the live TV signal can be paused to allow the viewer an opportunity to perform another task, such as answering the telephone, without missing any portion of a programme. The broadcast can then be resumed when ready and viewed as a recording from the Time Shift buffer. If you have to switch channels before a paused program ends, to avoid missing the start of another programme, it is possible to switch to the live broadcast, change channels and then resume watching the paused programme. Once the current buffered program ends you will find the next programme you selected has been buffered and can be watched.

INSTANT RECORDING

Instant recordings can be performed at any point during a broadcast. If you wish to record a programme, simply switch to the appropriate channel and press the REC button on the remote when the programme begins. You can then enter the duration for the recording (up to six hours) via the number buttons or continue to press the REC button to select the duration in intervals of one half hour.

Once a recording begins the channel is locked to prevent accidental switching.

An Instant Recording can be halted at any point by pressing the STOP button on the remote. The portion of the recording completed will be saved onto the hard drive.

TIMER RECORDINGS

Timers can be set to enable recordings to be made without user intervention. Two types of timer recording are possible, Manual and VideoPlus+.

A maximum of eight (8) timers can be set at any one time.

Manual timer recordings can be made by selecting the TIMER button on the remote and then by choosing Timer Setup from the Timer menu. You will be presented with options to select the channel, date, start and end times, whether or not to repeat the recording on a daily/weekly and if to use the VPS/PDC programme markers provided by the broadcaster. When you're happy with your settings, you can then confirm them and exit the Timer menu.

VideoPlus+ recordings are set up in pretty much the same fashion through the TIMER button menu; the only difference is the entering of a VideoPlus+ number from the listings magazine you are using. Entering the number will generate a page containing the details of the selected programme that can be adjusted if necessary.

Once the timers have been set the recorder can be placed in Standby mode and left to activate when the set times occur. Alternatively the recorder can be left active, in which case a timer warning will be flashed up on the TV screen at the appropriate time giving you the option to continue with the recording or cancel it.

All Instant and Timer recordings are made to the Hard Disc, it is not possible to record directly to the DVD Recorder.

PLAYBACK

Recordings can be played back from the Hard Disc or from the DVD drive. If desired the recorder can simultaneously record TV broadcasts and playback existing recordings from the hard drive or DVD drive.

PLAYBACK FROM THE DVD DRIVE

Note: The default configuration for the DVD player is Region 2. There is a multi-region code available to fix this restriction. If you want to know what it is leave a message in my guest book.

The DVD drive has all the basic features you would expect from any standalone DVD Player, but also has the ability to play back ±RW discs and discs that have yet to be finalised.

For those of you who don't know: More often than not, as a DVD recording is being created several separate recording sessions will be required to store all the data required on the disc. Until all those sessions are complete the disc's format is held "open" to permit new data to be added. Normal DVD Players are unable to read these open discs because the format is incompatible with the standard for DVD Read Only discs that they are programmed to expect. Finalising an open disc converts the format so that it matches the Read Only format of a standard DVD disc. Once finalised no further data can be added to the disc.

Having a DVD player that can playback from an open disc is very useful. It permits you the option of transferring a recording from the hard drive to a DVD disc and then erasing the hard drive recording to recover the space it used. The DVD's format can remain open, allowing further recordings to be made while still allowing access to those recordings without first finalising the disc. If you are recording a TV series or holiday videos etc., this makes it easy to fill a disc over time, while still having access to the recordings already saved.

When you insert a disc into the DVD drive, the recorder's software will check the format and contents; it will then perform one of three functions:

PLAY: Pre-recorded DVDs, SVCDs, CDs will begin playback.
MENU: DVDs recorded by the recorder will display their content menu.
EMPTY: Blank unformatted DVDs will be shown as Empty.

Playback of DVDs you rent or buy is simply a matter of inserting the disc in the DVD drive, the DVD will playback automatically. The same applies to music CDs. Tracks on a music CD can be selected with the number or up/down selector buttons on the remote control.

DVDs created by the recorder will generate their own contents menu when they're inserted into the DVD drive. On a DVD-R or DVD-RW disc the menu displays each session (recording) on the disc as a box containing the recording title, date and time stamp, length (hrs/mins) and a screenshot of the first frame of the recording. If the disc is not finalised there will normally be an empty session box at the end of the menu that displays the free space available. On a finalised DVD-R the end session box on the menu will indicate an empty recording is present with no other details.

Playing any of the recordings on these types of DVD is simply a matter of using the remote to select the desired recording and pressing Play to start it.

Once a DVD recording is playing you have a number of options available to you to enhance your experience. Some of these will be provided by the creator of a published disc and are beyond the scope of this review, others are provided by the recorder's software. At any time during playback you have access to the basic Play/Pause/Stop/Rewind/Fast Forward/Frame Forward-Frame Back/Chapter controls. These are the same as almost any common-a-garden DVD player and are accessed via the appropriate remote control buttons. In addition you are supplied with a number of playback options via the Play Mode button and the T/C menu.

Pressing the Play Mode button repeatedly during DVD/VCD/CD playback will toggle through the following options:

REPEAT CHAPTER: The current chapter will be replayed.
REPEAT TRACK/TITLE: The current CD track or DVD title will be replayed.
REPEAT DISC: The current disc will be replayed.
REPEAT A-B: Replays a marked section of the disc.
SHUFFLE: Randomly playback the contents of a disc.
SCAN: Play the first 10 seconds of a chapter or track.

In DVD/VCD playback the T/C menu has the following options (these may vary depending on the disc):

TITLE: Allows the selection of a specific title on a disc 1-99
CHAPTER: Allows the selection of a specific chapter within a title on a disc 1-99
ZOOM: Permits up to 4 times enlargement of the picture on the TV screen. The picture can be panned using the arrow keys on the remote.
ANGLE: Permits the selection of a specific camera angle on DVD's that support this feature.
SLOW: Permits the selection of slow motion playback speeds 1-8.
SEARCH: Permits jumping to a specific time point in a recording.
AUDIO: Permits the selection of a soundtrack, language or channel on a DVD that supports multiple audio features.
SUBTITLES: Permits the displaying of subtitles in a selected language.
SOUND: Permits the selection of a surround sound mode.

SPECIAL DISC TYPES (MP3/SVCD/Picture Disc)

The DVDR3300H can play back discs containing MP3 music files as well as ordinary music CDs. MP3 discs must be recorded in single session, otherwise only the data on the first session of a multi-session CD will be displayed. Both album and track information are displayed for the disc. If the ID tag for an album or track has been programmed the TV will display this information as well, this can be used to show details of the artist or other relevant or interesting information.

SVCD (Super Video Compact Disc) is a low cost method of recording video data on CD-R discs. The data is highly compressed and of much lower quality than DVD recorded video, but is acceptable for recordings of low importance or short duration. The DVDR3300H treats SVCDs as though they were DVDs and allows basically the same playback options for them, although it is not able to create them.

Picture Discs are used to store huge numbers of digital still photographs on CD or DVD media. The DVDR3300H can be used to retrieve these photographs and display them individually or in a slide show format. The images must be stored in JPEG format. Thumbnail pages of images can be displayed to make picture selection easier and a special T/C menu is available to control features such as the picture order, speed, zoom etc.

PLAYBACK FROM THE HARD DISC DRIVE

All recordings made by the DVDR3300H are initially stored on the hard disc. Accessing these recordings is a bit like accessing a huge DVD, although the playback features are not as sophisticated as those available to the DVD drive.

To playback a hard disc recording you press the HDD button on the remote and the recorder will display the HDD content pages. Each page displays a list of up to five titles along with a screenshot box and info box. The titles are listed in chronological order dating from the most recently stored to the oldest. This order cannot be reversed or rearranged in any other way, so it is not possible to create an alphabetical list of titles for example. This is an irritation when you make as many recordings as I do and many of the recordings are series episodes. It is also not possible to get rid of the superfluous screenshot or time stamp data, to allow more than five titles per page. This is another frustrating point, especially when you have thirty or more recordings to scroll through. In my opinion the software programmers spent far too much time trying to make the menu system appear simple and pretty, presumably to convince the novice user they could easily live with it, and far too little time making it work flexibly for everyone.

If a recording hasn't been renamed, its title entry will normally consist of the date and time of the recording. As you move through the list of titles the menu generates a screenshot and some additional info for the currently highlighted title. The screenshot, which is simply the first frame of the recording, cannot be changed and is just a complete waste of screen space and program code. The additional info indicates the recording quality mode used HQ, SP, EP etc, the total duration of the recording (in hours and minutes), the recording method (usually PAL) and the recorded channel.

Once the required recording has been located in the HDD contents list playing it is simply a matter of pressing the Play or OK button on the remote. While a recording is playing you can do pretty much the same things you can do with a basic DVD, except you don't have an option to jump to a specific time point in the recording. I have no idea why this very important feature is missing, but I'm sure if enough owners complain loudly enough it may show up in an upgrade.

When you have finished accessing the hard disc content the recorder can be returned to the normal TV display by pressing the Tuner button on the remote.

EDITING RECORDINGS

Note: These options apply to recordings on the hard disc, DVD-RW and 'open' DVD-Rs (finalised DVD-Rs cannot be edited).

Most recordings will be made using timers or will be from TV stations that carry advertising. One of the nice features of this type of recorder is the ability to edit out the useless bits of a recording so that they don't spoil it when you come to play it back. Editing can also be used to shorten recordings or extract just the bits you want to keep before transferring them to a DVD.

CHANGING THE TITLE

The most basic editing feature available is the option to change the name a recording displays when it is selected. If you are lucky the TV channel will broadcast the name of a programme so that your recorder can use that info for the recording title. In the UK this facility is not available on terrestrial analogue TV and you will always have to edit the title of a recording if you want one that actually makes sense. Once a recording has been made you can access its title via a menu attached to it in the HDD contents list. The title can be changed to anything you want and can be used any number of times in the HDD contents list, this is because the title does not effect the recorder's own indexing markers, it's there for the viewer's benefit only. The title can consist of up to 64 characters from a list of 128 symbols that include full upper and lower case English alphabets, a set of digits 0-9 and a range of punctuation and special symbols. Creating a title can be a tedious job because the remote does not have a keyboard and the characters for the title must be laboriously selected one at a time by scrolling through the available list. The torture is made worse by the lack of a continuous scroll option for the character table, meaning each character must be located by endless presses of the remote selector buttons. What's the betting the remote keypad is the first bit of hardware to fail. This particular foible needs a fix now!

The 64 character length of the title is also a bit pointless, because once it's stored the HDD contents list can only display the first 26 characters and can't scroll, so what use are the extra 38 characters?

MARKING CHAPTERS

Chapter Markers are special indexing flags used to divide up a recording into sections. This allows the viewer to skip to or select specific points in the recording to view, rather than viewing the whole recording or using the Fast Forward/Rewind functions to find the part they are interested in.

By default the DVDR3300H inserts a chapter marker into a recording at five-minute intervals. The interval is fixed and cannot be adjusted to a more useful length, but fortunately the auto-insertion can be switched off altogether if required in the Setup menu. I did this on the second day and have never switched the facility back on.

Switching off automatic chapter marking will mean your recordings will not contain any indexing markers, so if you want them you will need to insert them manually. This is easy to do, but is not a simple as it should be. On my old VHS recorders I could insert an index marker by pressing the Index button during recording or playback and the recorder would mark the spot instantly without the need to interrupt the recorder. With the DVDR3300H the process is similar, but not as flexible. The first thing I discovered is that chapters can only be inserted once a recording is complete, so if I am watching a program as it is being recorded I cannot mark an interesting point in the program simply by pressing a button. When the recording has completed it is then possible to edit it and chapter markers can be inserted. Of course this means you have to watch the whole thing all over again, which is irksome even at 32 times speed.

To insert a chapter marker you must first locate the point in the recording you want the marker to be located. This can be done by watching the recording at normal speed or fast-forwarding through it. At the intended chapter marker point it is best to pause playback, if you don't the chapter marker will probably end up being inserted several seconds after the intended location due to the time it takes for the recorder to access the Edit menu needed to display the chapter marker tools. Once you have the Edit menu open you can insert the marker and then move on. Incidentally, if you are thinking, as I did, that it would be far more sensible to open the Edit menu first then move through the recording marking chapters as you go, forget it. Once the Edit menu is open you can't access the Fast Forward or Fast Rewind functions, they are tied to the remote control buttons used to control the menu, so you are left with watching the recording in real time with a big blue menu sat on top of it or wrecking your thumbs and the remote control by making thirty second jumps through the recording.

Chapter markers inserted into your recordings are permanent, unless you choose to delete them. Individual markers can be deleted in much the same way they were inserted. Additionally you can delete all the markers in a recording in one go.

CHAPTERS & SCENES

The part of a recording between two adjacent Chapter Markers is known as a 'Chapter' or 'Scene'. Chapters/Scenes can be replayed in isolation or can be hidden from the viewer altogether.

Hiding scenes is one of the most useful editing features of this recorder, allowing the removal of advertising breaks and other undesirable sections of the recording from view. Hidden scenes are not deleted and can therefore be unhidden at any time in the future, the recorder simply skips over the hidden scenes and continues playback at the next unhidden scene. However care must be taken if you hide scenes in a recording on the hard disc that you later intend to copy to a DVD. The hidden scenes will be omitted altogether from the new DVD recording and will not be available for future viewing. If you wish to retain access to the hidden scenes of a recording to be transferred to DVD, unhide them before you make the copy then hide them again using the DVD's own Edit menu. If you do not wish to include the hidden scenes from the hard drive recording on a DVD copy, simply leave them hidden, the result will usually be a much shorter recording that plays back without interruption.

EDITING ACCURACY

Anyone who has ever edited video will know how crucial it is to have access to every frame of a recording and how much better recordings look when sections can be matched at frame level. Unfortunately Philips engineers don't think like video editors and have opted to make chapter marking a less complicated affair by inflicting a one half second limit on the accuracy of marker insertions. To the layman half a second may not seem like a lot of time, but in the world of video editing it is a yawning chasm of time (approximately 13 video frames) in which an untold variety of data can be lost. For example, at normal rates of speech an entire sentence can be spoken in less than a second, or visually an object can move several feet if it is travelling at high speed. If you are trying to match two scenes of a programme following an advertising break, or chop out an unwanted bit of a home movie, it becomes a real pain if you cannot match the soundtrack or visual data without fudging the intersection.

My recommendation is to only edit recordings that don't require accurate timing using this recorder. If you do require accuracy, transfer the recording in its entirety to a DVD and edit it using more sophisticated PC software, the results will be much better.

DIVIDING & MERGING RECORDINGS

Presently it is not possible to merge multiple individual recordings into a single recording using the DVDR3300H. Perhaps this is another glaring omission the software programmers would care to address at some later date.

A recent update of the recorder's software introduced the option to divide a recording into two new separate recordings. This allows very long recordings to be divided into chunks that can more easily be copied to DVD. In my opinion this new feature is Philips method of addressing the more important problem of not being able to convert the level of compression used when transferring a high quality recording from the hard disc to a DVD. Chopping a recording in half is easier to program than a whole new compression conversion routine.

DELETING A RECORDING

Recordings can be deleted from any  

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