Philips DVDR 5500 > Reviews > A good player, with a few teething troubles

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback	Good
Sound Level	Good
Ease of Use	Average
Range of Features	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Freeview, divX playback, USB slot
Disadvantages:	Occasional freezing

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I bought this product from Laskys in November 2007 for around £135. I was very impressed with the spec - ability to play divx files, as well as freeview and a usb socket.

The manual is thorough and easy to follow, although set-ups which involve several other players or set-top boxes may be a bit complicated. The machine can be used as a digital freeview box if you don't have one, but I rarely use this feature as my tv is digital.

The initial set-up is was automatic and it ran through with no problems, but then froze up and none of the buttons worked. I checked the manual and this was covered by the troubleshooting - simply unplug and allow the recorder to reset. I did this and it worked fine. However, it has done it again several times since. I'm not sure if this is going to be a continuing problem but it has been freeze-free for a couple of weeks now so fingers crossed.

Recording is on DVD+/-R or RW and DVD+R DL discs. The manual provides a brief description of these formats. A variety of recording qualities can be used, but the default allows 2.5hrs of recording time. Timer recording is simple, via either the tv guide or the videoplus system, or by manual entry. Instructions for this are easy to follow.

When the machine works, I am very happy with it. It plays most of the divx discs I have tried, as well as pre-recorded ones. It did freeze once when I had set it to record, which was very annoying. I found a glitch on the DVD-RW disc afterwards, but I don't know if the recorder made it.

I have just tried using the USB socket. I have a cruzer micro 4gb flash drive which I bought to use with the player. The drive has had its software removed. After a bit of confusion, because the player lists 'Video' , 'Music' and 'Pictures' to the left side of the menu and these folder names are also present on my drive, I found the files and the mp3s played with no problem. Mp3s on CDs are also fine, but I have not yet tried jpegs.

The recorder also has the ability to have a camcorder attached but I can't comment on this as I don't have one. There are a number of other advanced features which I haven't yet tried, for example making a slideshow.

I have only tried the editing features once so I am no expert and may have done something wrong, but when I finalised the disc the edits were lost!

The product comes with Philip Premium Home Service warranty, which includes collection for repair and a service replacement set within 10 days if they can't provide a solution to your problem via their helpline. This seems like a good deal although I haven't tested it yet.

Overall, I would say this is a good player and it records well. The remote is quite complex and I'm still getting used to which buttons do the things I want, but recording and playback are quite simple. The freeview ability is very useful as I couldn't record digital channels from my tv previously unless I was watching them. My parents bought the same model as they liked mine so much and so far theirs has been trouble-free, so possibly mine just needs a full reset and a firmware update.

I have given a 'satisfactory' rating because of the freezes - if it has definitely stopped doing that, I would rate it as 'good'.