Editorial Review:Item Description:Philips HDRW720 DVD Recorder and Hard Disc Drive - The concept is to record for today on the Hard Disk storage drive then, if you want to save the recording forever, preserve it by recording it on the integrated DVD recorder. Channel Blaster - The channel blaster is a special accessory that lets a DVD Recorder control cable boxes. It sends infra-red remote control commands in order to switch the set top box on and select the correct channel FlexTime - With FlexTime you can watch a program while it's still being recorded, thanks to the extreme speed of a Hard Disk. You can also watch a different progam from the Hard Disk while it's recording something else A very large built-in memory records the program on screen when you press the pause button. When it suits you, you can resume the program from the moment you pressed Â?pause' as if you're watching a live program TV Guide On Screen is an Interactive Program Guide - a free guide that shows what's on TV for the next couple of days and lets you program the timer of the DVD Recorder with the push of a button Ports - 4-pin iLink IEEE1394 / S-Video in/out / A/V Composite in/out / Component Video in/out / Coax and Optical Digital Audio out / G-Link for Channel Blaster DVD Recorder can also play DVD-R - DVD-RW - CDR/RW - MP3 CD - Audio CD - Video CD - Picture CD English, French, Spanish on-screen programmable menu display Remote
Amazon.com Item Description: The Philips HDRW720 DVD recorder/hard disk combination lets you adjust your TV viewing to suit your everyday life. You'll have the option to record up to a staggering 192 hours--8 straight days--of television directly to the built-in 120 GB hard-disk drive (HDD) to watch and delete programs at your leisure. Or you can save programs to DVD for life. Your choice. The HDRW720 also offers the easy-to-use
TV Guide onscreen electronic program guide (EPG) so you can just point and click to record your favorite programs.
Viewed programs are automatically stored on the adjustable 6-hour HDD buffer, from which you can retrieve them, watch them again, transfer them to the hard drive, or simply record them onto a DVD+R/+RW disc. A feature called FlexTime lets you watch the beginning of a program while it's still being recorded. And, with the touch of a button, high-speed archiving will copy a recording from the hard disk to recordable media. Thanks to Instant Replay, you can immediately repeat exciting or memorable TV moments at the press of just one button.
You can also use the HDRW720 like a traditional VCR, burning televised programs directly to disc using helpful VCR Plus+ programming data. A DVD recorder is perfect, of course, for archiving your home videos, and the HDRW720 features a front-panel i.Link digital-video connection for easy DV camcorder hookup, perfect copies, and 2-way camera control.
Recording functions include safe record, one-touch record (OTR), track append, track divide, automatic/manual chapter marker insertion, Smart Chaptering, favorite scene selection, and Selectable Index Pictures.
The HDRW720 is also a first-rate DVD
player, featuring progressive-scan video outputs, Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround sound passthrough, MP3 CD playback (CD-R/CD-RW), and compatibility with most DVD media (including video-mode DVD-R and DVD-RW).
Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of 'someday,' the HDRW720 will deliver the full potential of your DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.
Top-of-the-line component-video inputs and outputs help minimize digital and line-scan artifacts on compatible advanced televisions, while composite-video, S-video, and RF coaxial video inputs and outputs bring compatibility with nearly any video component and television monitor. Audio inputs consist of 2-channel analog jacks.
Two sets of left/right analog-audio outputs channel audio to Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions. Both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround-sound signals can be routed through the player's digital-audio outputs (1 each of RCA coaxial and Toslink optical) for direct connection to a full-featured audio/video receiver.
What's in the Box DVD recorder/hard disk, a universal remote control, remote batteries, a channel blaster (IR extender cable), a blank DVD+RW disc, an AC power cable, a composite-video cable, a stereo audio cable, a coaxial RF antenna cable, an S-video cable, a component-video cable, a digital-audio coaxial cable, a user's manual, and warranty information.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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* Obviously an awful excuse for a product ...
I read dozens of these reviews before buying Pioneer DVR-640H. The fact that only refurbished HDRW720 units are available should give you a clue to their reliability or ergonomics problems. My Pioneer has been awesome for 6 months now, no complaints, and it records to DVD +/- R/RW DL (Dual Layer)! But, unfortunately for you it appears Amazon doesn't sell it anymore, try elsewhere because it is highly recommended!
Rating: 
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* Philips HDRW720 DVD Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive ...
This is a great product and I'm completely satisfied
Rating: -
* terrible ...
We bought this for archiving videos from a video camera. The interface is just horrible and just not well thought out. The owner's manual is poorly written. Half the time the player spits the empty DVD out saying "disc full" without having archived anything.
Dont buy it. Its not worth it, and if you have high blood pressure it can even be dangerous to use.
Rating: -
* Don't buy ANYTHING made by Philips!!! ...
If you are thinking about buying a Philips product....THINK AGAIN. Their products are TERRIBLE, and their customer service and policies are even WORSE.
I bought this player at Costco for $200, thinking I got an awesome deal--a dvd recorder with a hard drive! I thought the TV Guide feature was great--it was like having a Tivo, but without the monthly subscription fee. I really enjoyed this unit for a whole 5 months.....until it broke down. No warning, no nothing--it just stopped responding to anything I tried.
God help you if you ever need to deal with Philips customer service! They make YOU pay to send THEIR defective unit back (which makes me think that they get so many defective products back that they'd go bankrupt if they covered to ship all of them back). I had to wait a whole month to get my replacement unit, and when I finally did, I got an upgraded unit--the DVDR3445H. Cool, right? Nope. Not in the least. This so-called "upgrade" lacked all the features I had enjoyed about the HDRW720--No TV Guide function, the menu interface sucked, and perhaps one of the most annoying things--the DVD player restarted every time you shut it off, or switched over to the TV or hard drive. Honestly--any DVD player made in the last DECADE is advanced enough to pick up where it was last stopped, but not this one. The DVDR3445 was basically an over-priced VCR...only less reliable. 6 weeks (WEEKS!!) after receiving it, that too broke down without warning. Since it was a different model than I originally bought, I couldn't even return it to Costco (which I really wish I had done in the first place). I called customer service and tried to explain that 2 units breaking in the course of a couple months wasn't acceptable, that I didn't want a new unit because I didn't like that particular model, and frankly, I had no desire to have another product made by Philips. The manager on duty told me that something had to be returned THREE times before a refund could be authorized, but he would make a note in my account saying that I should be given another upgrade, with all the features my original product had. Well, either the manager didn't know the features of his products, or he blatantly lied to me, because those features are no longer in existence. So when my THIRD unit came back to me, it turned out to be the exact same model that I didn't like. I called Philips, and their manager told me that they don't issue refunds ever--yet another lie the previous guy told me. He refused to do anything to fix the situation, claiming it's "Not their policy". Not their policy to satisfy customers? Apparently.
I will NEVER buy another Philips product as long as I live, and I strongly urge others to do the same. Their products are terrible, and their customer service and policies are even worse. Save yourself the trouble and buy something dependable like Sony or Panasonic. It might cost more now, but it'll save you a HUGE hassle, and will probably end up being cheaper in the long-run because you won't have to spend $20 every couple months to send back the broken unit, and wait another month for ANOTHER crappy product.
Rating: 
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* Good When Timer Settings Not Erased ...
I have owned the Philips HDRW720 DVR for about 2 years now. When it is working, I really enjoy it. I can record video regularly, edit them, save them to DVD, and delete them. This includes home videos that can be transferred to the hard drive via the input jacks.
The default video compression rate is 2.5 hours per DVD, which is around 60 hours of video on the 120GB hard drive. That can be adjusted for more video (less quality) or more quality (less video). You can record on 4.7GB DVD+R or DVD+RW, but not on DVD-R discs and not on dual density discs. Once finalized, the discs will play on most any DVD player.
The TV listings (TV Guide) are free (unlike Tivo) and come via a broadcast signal overnight. My understanding is that it comes from a 3rd party company via your local PBS channel. It also sets the system's time and date. You can record via the TV listings or manually set the date/time/channel. This all works great except for the periodic resetting of the listings, which also wipes out all of your timer settings. It appears that the timer settings are saved in memory, and NOT on the hard drive, where it should be saved for recovery. This resetting of listings/timer settings has been occurring randomly about every 30 days. I once went almost 60 days without a reset. I notified Philips of this problem, and a system update disc was sent out. It did not help the problem, and actually caused the system to power reset randomly for a short time thereafter. Eventually my system was out of warranty, and Philips really could not fix the problem. Via some research on the internet lately, I have found out that this 3rd part company via PBS may be the cause, as other brands of non-Tivo DVRs have also experienced the same loss of listings and timer settings, including Sony and Panasonic, with no resolution as of yet. I did read one posting that said that Sony had been in contact with this 3rd part company (I am not naming the company because it is not certain who it is, although one company, in particular, was noted as the possible source).
So this timer reset problem is my primary frustration with this machine. I have gotten used to it, and look at the "TIMER" indicator on the LCD regularly. If it is missing, then I know that the timer settings are gone, and I need to reprogram them asap. Since Philips appears to no longer make any new models of this DVR, I had been looking for a similar replacement of another brand. But since I have found out that the others are having problems too, I have decided to stick with the Philips DVR until it dies. I also use my other DVD/VCR recorder (RCA) to record important shows as a backup, and have never had the timer setting reset there. There are no TV listings on the RCA either, but it does get the show name when recording, as it shows up on the DVD disc title. So I suspect that it does not use the same source as the Philips and other non-Tivo DVRs.
When this Philips DVR is working, it works well. I really like it. And it usually is working well. But when the settings reset, I do tend to get ticked off, especially if I miss a recording. So I have to give the Philips HDRW720 DVR a rating of 4 out of 5 (actually would be 3.5, so I rounded up). I really wonder, though, why Philips did not continue to improve on a good DVR like this?
