Philips MDV630R DVD Recorder

Pros: Low cost recorder with good features, easy operation
Cons: Reputation for long-term quality problems

The Magnavox MDV630 and MDV650 are the same machine, with the 650 having extra blank disks in the box and offered only through certain retailers. This unit is made by Magnavox's parent company, Philips. As a result, it uses the same inner workings ...

Pros: Acceptable price, nice color, dependable.
Cons: Large, bulky. Manual could be more informative. Needed easier way to type information onto discs.

This is my first review ever. If at least one person on the planet finds this review helpful, then I'll be satisfied. Apparently there are two different names for the same recorder. One is "Philips MDV630R" and "Magnavox MDV630R". Philips is the ...

Pros: You can get these on sale for ($300 some places (open boxes)
Cons: Timer only has 6 entries, falures DVD +R disks very high

I got a MDV630R on sale at Frys here in town. It can use both DVD r and RW. It does have iLink/Firewire inputs for digital recording. The newer units have had updates to record up to 6 hours. The origional units can be upgraded via software ...

Pros: Has functioned with hard use for a year now with no problems.
Cons: No editing functions to hide commercials, etc.

Being a self-described "expert" on the Philips/Magnavox recorders, I'd like to offer some praise for this little workhorse machine. I have a HUGE vhs collection I have been trying to put onto DVD. I have owned 4 Philips 985s Two Magnavox 640s and ...

Pros: Very much like setting up a VCR. But do read the manual.
Cons: Image is an 8 out of 10.

When the price dropped below $200 for a DVD recorder I decided it was time to replace my aging but nice Sony VHS-VCR. After all DVD media is about as cheap as VHS tape, and some of my old VHS movies (not on DVD) and industrial videos I made are almost 20 years old and need to be copied to a more stable medium.

I can now do this.

It works very well.

The machine nearly exceeded my expectations.

Color bit depth rate and M-PEG compression are seen but not too bad. Images are sharp. The 2 channel Dolby digital encoding is better than I expected.