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Review: I've been waiting for the format wars to subside before buying but in the end I got impatient and plumped for the DVDR890 (actually bought the 890 for parents and 880 for myself) as I liked the menu system and the idea of backward compatability - plus the disks seemed to be the most readily available and a reasonable price. I had read lots about peoples problems with the players and so was a little hesitant at first but I think there must be a few dodgy players out there since I've not had a single problem in just over a month with either machine. I must admit I was a little disapointed to find that none of the 4 DVD players I owned would spin up a DVD+RW, but they are all older than a year and I think Philips only claim 70% compatability. DVD+R disks work on all the players however (once finalised). I was impressed however with the recording quality - even the 6 hours on the DVDR890 is pretty good (think long play on video) - just don't sit to close to the screen. The other modes are great however, SP+ which gives 2.5 hours is fantastic. The editing features are straightfoward and I like the ability to select an image anywhere in the recording for the menu thumbnail. Had problems recording from my Telewest Digital Box (a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 4000DUB) (DVD recorder complained of copy protected) - however after a lengthy battle I've got a Pace box which works just fine. So my old video recorder is currently in the hallway, hopefully I'll never have to use it again - its such a joy popping in a disk and seeing exactly whats on it and also knowing exactly how much space is left (changes depending on recording mode). Even videoplus is great - enter all the programs and then it gives you a nice list where you can tweak start/end times and the recording quality (still don't like having to put it on standby to engage record timer - but that seems to be the norm these days). All in all I'm really pleased with my purchases and really hope that +R & +RW becomes the dominant standard. | 
DVD, TV & Video
