Be warned!!! if youre considering buying this lemon. Ive had mine for one year. It started out ok, I was able to burn just about everything. The reviews I had read concerning this thing, shortly after buying it, were mostly bad. Errors when burning DVD+Rs, machine locking up. Taking unusual long periods of time to iniciate or play a just burned DVD. Not recognizing a DVD, saying that it was corrupt or that it did not contain any data and a couple of other things. Well I was optimistic, and commented that I had not encountered any such issues. Well most of the reviewers pointed out that I would just need to wait at least one year before I would see these problems. They couldnt had been more correct in their prediction. This piece of garbage has cost me many dvds that only serve as drink coasters now. Aside from the pure frustration of not being able to burn when I want to burn. It started with a few errors here and there. The machine locking up occasionally. It wouldnt burn a disc here and there, but now exactly one year, this thing does all of the above. Well I decided to replace it, instead of going thru the hassles of repairs and customer service which in itself can be a nightmare. SO I bought happily, I might add the Sharp DV-HR300. WOW what a difference, it does a million things and does them well. All the reviews I had read prior to buying it were positive, rightfully so. These Sharp people did their homework, and worked overtime to get this right. Awesome machine!!! Now my 985 only sits there as a player, and its starting to even do that badly. Brand new DVDS get stuck or skip when played back. Although the quality of sound and picture when played back from this deck are stupendous, who wants to sit there and watch an interupted playback. Well I gotta tell ya, This thing has left me totally bitter toward Philips. And I decided to write this review to help some other unfortunate soul who Like me trusted the Philips name and only wanted what was advertised. One last word about buying anything, look up and read the reviews about the product youre about to spend your hard earned money on. They really are an invaluable resource. I learned my lesson with the 985. So read read read. Cordially MannyCAM
Well Phillips doesnt exactly have a Sterling reputation for making good stuff! _X_X_X_X_X_[small]ASUS A7N8X-X, XP2500+ OC'd to XP3200+ Samsung 1024MB, PC2700 OC'd to PC3200 480GB [3x160GB, 7200, 8MB] EVGA, GeForce4 Ti4600 128MB Rules and Policies: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2487[/small]
Thats the truth...I really thought them to have pretty good stuff though. I do believe the problem is in the format itself and not so much the deck. Better yet, the way theyve set this deck to handle the format. The DVD+ series. Since they were the first that I know of to offer this format to consumers. I really think they rushed into producing these things, instead of waiting until all the bugs were worked out. Consumers ended up beta testing this thing for them. In any case this machine really sucks. And I refuse to send it in for any repairs. Even after the repairs consumers have seen the problems return. Its a lemon pure and simple.
I haven't ever used a Phillips DVD recorder, but my first CD burner was a Phillips sold by HP. It was the worst CD burner I've ever seen. After getting it replaced under warranty and then having the replacement die just after the warranty ran out, I didn't do enough research (I didn't know who made the HP) and bought a Phillips to replace it. That drive was slightly better, although it would give me Power Callibration errors if I used it very much. After those 2 drives I'm not surprised by any complaints about anything made by Phillips.
Yessir! Exactly. This seems to be a problem with the lower quality drives however you can kinda workaround it by burning slower (this workaround only works for so long however lol)
Actually my problem only occured when I tried to burn several discs, one right after another. Unfortunately I used to do a lot of burning for classes I was teaching, and when you have 20 people who all have to install Windows at the same time, they each need a disc, and when I was burning more than a couple discs I never got more than 4 done before I had to let it sit. Right before I gave it away (hey I couldn't charge my brother money for that POS) it actually burned 5 discs in a row. That was the last time I ever tried, and last I knew it was still barely (almost?) working in his PC, but since he's in Afghanistan right now it hasn't been used for a few months. _X_X_X_X_X_[small]Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a night. Set him on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life Backup A DVD With DVD Rebuilder & CCE Basic: http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd_rebuilder_tutorial.cfm[/small]
Well, as far as Im concerned, thats the last Philips product I will buy. I had high hopes for the 985 and was optimistic until I saw the problems for myself. An $800.00 setback. Live and learn.
That seems to be the issue with lower quality drives: endurance. I did ~170 discs successively with a LG burner before and it failed after that completely hehe .... with my ASUS burner here i can hit up 500+ discs in a row no sweat
Fortunately that shouldn't be a serious issue now. If you can't find a high quality CD burner for $50 or less you're not trying. Actually I've been thinking about buying an ASUS for my next one. The only burner I have right now is my DVD burner, but it's not a huge priority for me since I play very few games.
