Philips DVD755VR DVD/VCR Combi Best Buy

Great budget purchase - 26 Apr 2004

19 out of 19 found this review helpful.

This is an excellent little player. DVD is everything you would expectfrom a DVD, video is quiet and crisp and the rewind speed is like nothingon earth.
You'll do well to find a better combination unit at anythingnear the price of this machine.

Not just another Whine - 23 Feb 2004

14 out of 16 found this review helpful.

At first glance the machine was fantastic - superb picture quality on both VHS and DVD, most of the menus a doddle to use and all the features as advertised. Unfortunately, the machine is being returned.

After a short while we were suffering from headaches (no really!) due to the noise of the VCR (the DVD is silent). Its not that its noisier than most other machines (although fairly noisy), but the pitch at which the noise is produced - a whine somewhere at the top end of the treble.

If you have a good cabinet that will screen most of the noise, this is a fantastic buy, if not, look elsewhere!

Badge engineered Brilliance - 11 Feb 2004

43 out of 45 found this review helpful.

Firstly this is not a Philips product. Its actually a badge engineered LG model which I might add is a good thing. LG make really good DVD players and their video recorders while a little crude have an excellent reputation for reliability.

The dvd plcture on this model is superb and also the dvd loader fitted is great. It works very well with interactive dvds. The video recorder is good but a bit clunky compared to something like a Panasonic or Sharp.

Anyway here's a couple of tips for anyone buying these.

One thing you may come across using scart rgb is a vague patten over the screen, basically a weak translucent image. You can cure this by cutting one of the scart plug pin connections at the tv end. Basically you want to disconnect the composite out connection from the tv's scart. This will give you a crystal clear rgb image.

Secondly if you want to run region 1 or other region discs rather than region 2 you can do it in the following way. Insert your foreign dvd. Wait to the region lockout appears. Press 'display' on the remote. You'll get a little box come up like 1/2 or 1/3 etc. Use the right key to move it to 2/2 or 2/3 or even 3/3 and press enter or play and it will skip the region lockout! A simple hack to enable you run any dvd you want. This unit will convert all ntsc material to pal playback so you won't have any problems displaying films not in pal format.

Also just in case you haven't noticed it. To picture search you have to hold in the skip chapter button. It will then go to 2x. Hold it in again and it wil got to 4x etc. You have to keep doing this and it will top out at 100x picture search. Its an awkward system.

Because of its easy multiregion hack and superb dvd picture I think this is one of the best dvd/vcr combi's out there.

Philips spoiled this ship for ha'pth of tar - 25 Dec 2003

54 out of 57 found this review helpful.

Gripes firsts - Despite the Philips blurb mentioning "VHS Index Search" - "VHS Time Search" 4 times, there is in fact absolutely NO search facility on VHS (only on DVD) - Philips eventually confirmed this to me after serveral stalls and investigations - only method is via small on-screen guage with no markings - which is essentially worse guide than looking at the tape itsself and guessing - so if this is important to you - dont buy it

That said - the actual quality of VHS recordings are flawless, even on a crap tape (which is why I kept it) - it also has 1 button dub from DVD 2 VHS - VHS also includes I.P. (intellegent play, SP/LP/IP), this is great feature which records at best quality at all time 'until' it calibrates there's not enough tape left on the spool, at which point it automatically switches to Long Play to fit the programmed recordings on - neat! (this all suggests the vhs is aware of tape positioning, it just doesn't tell you grrrrr)

The DVD includes an increadible 6 stage (manual says 4) ZOOOOOOM - and all stages maintain pixel ratio (no stretch or squash) - these are also fully functioning zoom modes (support play,still,pan,scan,ff,fr) - which is perfect for watching wide screen on square TV & vice versa, or just zooming for the helluv it (and unlike other manufacturers that advertise "zoom" or "3:4 compatability" (but only 'stilled', squashed/distorted))

The DVD virtually ignores layer changes ( blink and you'll miss them) - even some top brand DVD's hesitate for almost a full second when they hit a layer change.

Unlike the previous reviewer comment, I find you can certainly scan DVD'S (x2, x4, x8, x16, just hold down FF or FR button) + search by time + user defined marker searches + it even remembers where you watched upto on a DVD disc (even if you take it out and play upto 6 different ones in between)

I would give it 10/10 for performance in every way, but misrepresenting the VHS search means i can give Philips 3/10 best

Good Stuff - 25 Dec 2003

9 out of 12 found this review helpful.

All in all this is a great item and i'm very pleased with it.It is quality and is not a bit noisy.