Review on Philips DVDR3576H Recorder 160GB Built by Anthony Parker

I'm one of the few who still record TV shows, but not via cable, satellite etc. Only the good old free TV on the air. Since all transmissions will be digital from February 9th, I needed a new digital video recorder with a built-in digital tuner. I also wanted to be able to record hours of TIVO-style programming without worrying that the DVD would fill up after 8 hours. This is the only recorder I've found that doesn't charge a monthly or yearly fee for a recorder programming service like Tivo or Dishnet. After figuring out how to connect it, not that difficult, I found it worked fine. It plays DVDs and burns programs to the hard drive in digital format. It doesn't record in high definition, but I knew that and I'm pretty happy with the quality of the recording. If you wish, you can transfer and edit programs from your hard disk to DVD. I've only had mine for a month so haven't used all the features but for recording programs and playing at will it works better than the previous DVR I owned. If you want to search for a recorded show, you can select from the list by recording date, or you can watch a small video of the recorded show as an icon and I can actually identify my shows straight away. I bought it refurbished which comes with a 30 day warranty but I took the risk of saving about $100. I might find it a bad choice if it needs a refurbishment, but most electronics only come with a one-year warranty, and I estimate my chances of it lasting at least a year after the refurbishment. It's the same size as my previous DVR and looks brand new. In fact, I don't see any clear signs that it's been fixed.