This is a nice one from Philips. There are one or two minor niggles and I'll get to them later.
Plug it in and run the auto setup, it will find all available channels but if like me and your main aerial is cable then it will not sort the channels in the right order. don't worry as its easy ... Read review
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the functions of your original remote control. Our remote controls are generic replacements which will do all of the functions of your genuine remote control Put-Batteries-In-And-Go (This remote has been made for this Tv / Dvd / Freeview box etc, only,so no setup required, no codes to put in) Specifically manufactured in our factory for this make/model. Every remote control is tested before it is dispatched. Our remotes are NOT universal - so you do not need to set them up or put codes into them, just put your batteries in and off you go. Each remote is generically made for the specific DVD / TV / Freeview.
A review by LawrenceP on Philips DVDR 3380 November 2nd, 2006
Author's product rating:
Picture Playback
Good
Sound Level
Good
Ease of Use
Simple
Range of Features
Average
Value for Money
Good
Advantages:
Easy set - up, simple to use, DivX playback, multiregion capable .
Disadvantages:
DivX navigation, remote is fiddly, only 9 characters to name recording .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
This is a nice one from Philips. There are one or two minor niggles and I'll get to them later.
Plug it in and run the auto setup, it will find all available channels but if like me and your main aerial is cable then it will not sort the channels in the right order. don't worry as its easy to swap them about by using the navigation buttons on the remote.
Once all the setting up is done with scart leads and audio leads or whatever, its time to pop in a blank disc. Good thing is, it supports +R(W) and -R(W). After the disc has been read you can select the recording quality with the 'recmode' button on the remote. Options are HQ - 1HR, SP - 2HR, EP - 4HR, SLP - 6HR. If you select 'rec source' to display a tv picture and then press the 'recmode' repeatedly, the recorder will cycle through the quality modes but it will also show you how much time is left for each mode even if you have partially used the disc. This is a great addition which some recorders don't have and it lets you see at a glance if your programme will fit on the disc. You can mix recording modes on the same disc.
The first niggle is when you want to name your recording, although the editing feature for this is easy to use and well presented, it will only allow 9 characters including spaces so if you have just recorded, " The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe" then you have problems.
You can play back DVD movies (duh!) as well as CD audio, VCD, SVCD, MP3CD, MP3DVD, JPEG, and the best of all, DivX 3.11, 4,5 & 6. Playback of DivX movies is a real treat, is saves hours of converting to DVD on your computer. You can also play copyright protected DivX movies that you download legally. When you insert a DivX disc (a DL disc will hold 12 movies) a menu appears with the list of movies on the left. You can highlight any movie using the navigation buttons and press 'select', this won't play the movie but will add it to your playlist which will appear on the right. If you want to play a movie right away just highlight it and press 'ok' or 'play'. Playback of DivX is very smooth and more importantly, in sync. There is a slight vertical banding but its hardly noticeable. The only problem with DivX playback is when you want to rewind or fast forward a scene, you can't do it in the conventional way. Instead you have to press the 'tc' button twice to get to the control options and select 'trick', I'm not sure why control of DivX has been done this way or why it had to be called 'trick' but it will open a menu which lets you navigate the movie. Pressing 'tc' will take you back to the movie. If your DivX movie came with subtitles then select the subtitle file before you select the movie file and you wil have....erm....subtitles on playback.
Inputs on the front are audio L+R, Video and a DV input for camcorders. Rear connections are, aerial in/out, 2 scarts, Audio out L+R, CVBS out, s-video out, and coaxial out.
Features include, Video plus, i.link (firewire), Timer recording, PDC, PAL, NTSC. No RGB option.
Now about the aesthetics, The recorder is about a centimeter in width smaller than a SKY+ box and a few cm larger in depth. This surprised me because it looked huge in the pictures. The controls on the front are arranged in a circle with the rec button in the centre. The rec button is surrounded by a red LED. The recorder looks much better than its pictures give credit. The remote is a bit fiddly with the buttons close together, not ideal for using in the dark but the main buttons are slightly larger so you will get used to feeling around for them.
Two of my friends have bought one of these after checking out mines and are very happy with their purchase.
Thats it.....I think............no wait, I almost forgot to give you the multiregion hack so here it is: No disc in machine, power on recorder, wait for 'no disc' message, press 0009 then OK, open then close tray and wait for 'no disc' message again, press 0086000 followed by 'OK', open/close tray again. Now you can go to America and bring back movies.
UPDATE.......Philips are selling this recorder on their UK website cheaper than in the shops, I think £69 so grab a bargain.
Advantages: View video and pictures direct from your Computer DATA DVDs Disadvantages: You need a PC with a DVD burner to create your DivX format DATA DVDs
...change DVDs thanks to the Philips DVDR 3380 supporting the great quality compressed DivX video format. This means that a whole series of the TV programmer 24, her current viewing of choice, can fit onto 2 DVDs as DivX video instead of 4 DVDs in VOB DVD-Video format.
The Philips DVDR 3380 offers all the connectivity you would expect to support all video sources in your non-HD video environment. Twin SCART sockets allow your VHS video recorder or ... ...switched on. The Philips DVDR 3380 records and plays all your movies and music in a mind-boggling range of formats (DivX, MP3, WMA and JPEG) on most DVD media (DVD+-R/RW, DVD+R Dual Layer). You can choose to record video in a range of quality settings allowing you to tyre-iron up to eight hours of VHS-quality video onto a single DVD. This recorder will handle everything from audio CDs, to DivX DVDs. I have even played a DVDR crammed with MP3 music ...
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Advantages: dead easy to use, very intuitive Disadvantages: can be a bit slow, remote control design
...a problem), I've had a Philips TV that was brilliant, and my old DVD player was a Philips.
I wanted to upgrade to a DVD recorder that can play Dvix, so why go for anything else than Philips???
WHAT DO I GET?
************************
In the box you get the DVD recorder, a remote control, a terrestrial antenna cable, and 1 SCART cable, a manual, and a quick set-up manual.
The latter allows you to set up the time, find the channels etc etc within ... ...recorder in itself wouldn't win a beauty contest, but we are after performance here (aren't we?). The remote control is noir nice nor ugly, but very badly designed. My old DVD player had exactly the same remote, but with half the buttons; so then it was ok, but on this one, they could have improved the design; there are no different colored buttons, they are more or less all the same size… So you hve to look at the remote to see what you wanna do…
...
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Picture Playback
Sound Level
Ease of Use
Range of Features
Value for Money
very helpful
30.03.2007
Great Value Review ofPhilips DVDR 3380by
Johnny5isalive
Advantages: See review, cheap I paid £79 for 1 and £40 for a second for my father. Disadvantages: Remote fiddly, start-up speed.
...recording could be better if Philips had of used a step by step wizard like Liteon do.
You can't delete individual programmes on RWs (liteon could) only erase whole disc, so if you still haven't watched 1 programme but want to make space to record something you cant and have to use another disc. All in all a good buy, so much so that I bought my father one who's been waiting for HDD recorders to become more affordable. He's pleased with the DVDR3380 ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Good solid entry level DVD recorder Disadvantages: You get what you pay for
...As you would expect from Philips it gives good picture quality playing back using prerecorded DVD's as well as those recorded movies.
SIMPLICITY ITSELF
The best thing by far about this DVD player is its sheer simplicity and is extremely easy to use. The DVD recorder allows quick recording and formatting of discs iso is perfect. Quick and easy connection with simple to follow instructions mean that it was connected very quickly and its idiot proof ... ...with all phoillips products (at least those I have seen anyway) Phillips have stuck with their fat stubby remote which although working well enough is completely cumbersome and ugly, but I guess you cant have everything!!
For an entry level model it is remarkably versatile it plays every Divx movie i have and has dual disc writing compatibility ( DVD- & DVD+), One last point (but only a minor one is the copious amount of instructions that come with ...
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Advantages: Simple to use and good functionality. Disadvantages: Startup is a little slow.
...with the recording problem with Philips brand 4x+RW discs. Having had some prior experience with PC drives, I logged onto the Philips website (search for 'P4C' ) and burned the firmware update for this recorder onto a CDRW. After updating the set, it was able to record onto the philips discs! It also seems to be able to record on most minus format discs and a few +RDL discs. Video and audio quality is OK. Build quality is OK. Remote is uncluttered ... ...needs getting used to. The main gripe I have is the long start up time but it seems that all recorders have this issue. HDD-based recorders, it seems, can have even longer startup times depending on the number of titles in the HDD! Why can't DVD recorders be like their VCR predecessors which they are supposed to replace? All in all, this recorder is good for its price and is much better than some other brands I've tried out.
And oh yes, to eject ...
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