Is it dead ? Philips DVDR3460H

twistedcables

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I have had this HDD/DVD recorder now for almost 3 years and it has been working fine.

It has now stopped working at all...it will switch on and you can hear various whirring noises from within the unit, but you cannot access HDD, tuner, or dvd's etc from it...nothing. There is no warranty cover.

Is it effectively dead ? Would it be worth paying £50 for an investigation to the fault and cost of repair ? Or is it better to bin it and buy new.

Currently it receives a satellite feed and analogue aerial feed.

Any replies welcome
 
There may be a reset procedure for it, check the manual but personally if that doesn't work I'd put the £50 towards a new dvd recorder. Do you get any display at all? Is the dvd drive empty? A problematic disc can cause issues at boot up on some recorders.

I think a reset on that recorder is to unplug and then plug back in while holding the standby button on the recorder. As soon as the display on the front of the recorder appears release standby.

Again this will work best if no disc is in the tray. A half written or badly written disc will just keep causing problems at bootup.
 
Thanks for that. When I turn the machine on at the wall, it shows the time. When I switch on with the remote, the display shows PHILIPS and that's as far as it goes, no other function will activate. DVD tray won't open, hdd is not accessible.

I tried the reset you suggested but nothing there either.

Philips helpline said it was faulty and would need checking to advise the fault and associated cost.

We have used the unit a lot and enabling us to watch the TV we wanted as opposed to what was currently being broadcast.

I think the ££ might, as you suggest, be better spent on a new set up.

Any suggestions sub £200 ?

Thanks again
 
Does the dvd drive actually have a disc inside? You didn't make it clear. The factory reset procedure may require the drive to be empty. There may be a manual eject procedure for the model check the manual.

I suspect the real problem may be a failed or corrupt hdd. Always worth auctioning even a faulty dvd recorder on ebay you never know what you might get for it. Alternatively you have a IDE 250GB hard drive you can use elsewhere if it is just corrupt rather than faulty.

I'd recommend the sony 790 from argos which they have a few remaining for online ordering. Its superior to the new range which are a cost reduced design. It only has a 120GB HDD though which you might find limiting if you were used to 250GB.

Buy Sony RDR HXD790 DVD Recorder with 120GB HDD. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for .

Other options are Panasonic but I don't think the hdd models are available for less than £200 from retail stores. If you don't mind using ebay you can get some bargains there. Argos do a 250GB Panasonic for £250 which is currently £80 off. Its only £10 more than the 160GB model which is more limited in other ways too.

A really good retailer for dvd recorders is Richer Sounds as they do a 5 year warranty for 10% of the retail price which is a superb deal if you have a local store. You might try and get them to price match argos if you wanted the cheap warranty.

Generally Panasonic and the older sony range (pioneer based) are the most recommended dvd recorders. They provide good functionality, reliability and excellent recording results.
 
Bonzo, thanks again. I don't know if there is a disc inside - cannot open tray under any circumstances short of hammer/screwdriver action........not to be recommended.

Thanks for the info on the other makes etc. I was midway through an overal upgrade , so this failure is going to make me think wider now as to the purchases. I'll post a bit more on that later
 
What I was hoping to do was to purchase a blu ray player, probably the Sony bdp360, the humax freesat twin tuner with 320gb hdd, a receiver, probably sony again STRDH800 and a set of speakers. This would join the Samsung Plasma 50" PS50B451 and the philips dvd/hdd recorder. I've got 'wires' in the wall already. Now with the philips recorder going belly up I need to move onto plan B.

Plan B, could be the Panasonic DMR-BS750EBK Twin Freesat Tuners 250GB HDD Blu-ray Recorder and a set of speakers, and as the money would then have run out, the STRDH800 at a later date.

I like the idea and simplicity of the Panasonic holding the twin freesat (need these), the blu ray and recorder in one unit. However, if it fails it takes three items down in one fell swoop. Would it be better to get individual parts for that reason ?

Any ideas on speakers, for around £200, 5.1.

Thanks to anyone taking the time to read this, and to anyone offering an opinion.
 
Plan B, could be the Panasonic DMR-BS750EBK Twin Freesat Tuners 250GB HDD Blu-ray Recorder and a set of speakers, and as the money would then have run out, the STRDH800 at a later date.

I like the idea and simplicity of the Panasonic holding the twin freesat (need these), the blu ray and recorder in one unit. However, if it fails it takes three items down in one fell swoop. Would it be better to get individual parts for that reason ?



Thanks to anyone taking the time to read this, and to anyone offering an opinion.

I agree with earlier views that it is probably not worth investing further in the Philips machine. HDD failure does seem likely.

I would not worry about the issue of 'all eggs in one basket.' re the Bluray recorders. They are fiercely competent machines, and any worries on that score are offset by the great benefits of integration.
 
Also it has to be said Panasonic customer service is superb they make a real effort to keep the customer happy. Still recommend Richer Sounds for the 5 year warranty for 10% of the purchase price though.
 
Bonzo, thanks again. I don't know if there is a disc inside - cannot open tray under any circumstances short of hammer/screwdriver action........not to be recommended.

Thanks for the info on the other makes etc. I was midway through an overal upgrade , so this failure is going to make me think wider now as to the purchases. I'll post a bit more on that later

Generally discs are fairly easy to remove on many dvd recorders especially philips/lg ones I think. With the recorder unplugged and sufficient time for the psu caps to discharge (24hrs) you remove the lid and then remove the top of the dvd drive and remove the disc (normally the top of the drive is secured by a few small screws or can be even clipped into place).

However I don't hold out much hope that it would cure the problem but theres a small chance. Sounds more like a hdd issue. This is especially bad if some of the dvd recorders operating system is stored on hdd.
 
Thanks gavtech and bonso. I think I'm going down the replacement route and I'll put the other up on ebay.

I like richer sounds, they've been helpful on other things. Some separates I bought 10 years ago are still going fine....
 

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