Review on Philips DVDR3576H Recorder 160GB Built by Emmanuel Nguyen

I read several reviews on this site before purchasing this item. I was pleasantly surprised that this unit can record a program and play back a pre-recorded program at the same time. Based on the reviews here I have the impression that this is not the case. I was wrong, that's it. Also, I have no problem recording one program and watching another on a digital TV. As I said in several other comments, I connected it to the antenna with a splitter. One side of the splitter feeds the TV and the other side feeds this recorder. I don't have a TV antenna connector on the back of this unit connected to anything. I don't know what results I would get if I did. But the way I connected it, it works perfectly. Another review says they also need scaling when capturing 16:9 content. Hope I can shed some light. The instructions clearly state that it records and outputs 16:9 content as 4:3. For the reasons I'll explain in a moment, I use both component and HDMI outputs on the same TV. TV Sony HDTV. When using component inputs I have to manually stretch the screen when playing 16:9 content. 4:3 content comes out fine. When using HDMI, 16:9 content is automatically stretched to fit the screen, but the same goes for 4:3. 4:3 content is distorted by stretching and I can't stop it. So I use HDMI for 16:9 displays and component inputs for 4:3 displays. A bit annoying but easy to handle. Another test report found that the device is not intuitive to use. I do not agree. Mine ran almost without management contact. I just read the manual to fill in the details. In doing so I discovered that it can record and play back simultaneously and that the output is always 4:3 regardless of the content (see above). I did not find a signal level meter for the antenna input. It may be there, but if it is, I've either missed it or it's well hidden. They are very useful when aligning the antenna. If you have forgotten in this device, then this is already completely oversized. Overall I am very happy with this recorder. My only complaint (other than the signal strength meter) is that there should be more of these on the market. Also an HD device would be nice but given the current price of Blue Ray players this type of recorder would probably cost $700-1000 in HD format. Although it's an SD device, if you like the look and feel of a standard DVD, you'll probably like this one too.