I bought my first D-R550 to replace a cheap DVD player. I wanted an ASTC tuner, and I wanted to record like a VCR. The product did what I asked of it, plus a little more. I've since purchased a second for another TV.

Pros:
: Nice looking - sleek and black
: VERY nice recordings
: No-problem setup
: ASTC high-def over-the-air tuner
: Works with my Phillips universal remote control (PMDVR8) - code is 690, if you need it. It's not in the Phillips manual
: Nice DVR-like feature allowing you to pause what you see while it continues recording the show

Cons:
: Took a couple of tries to find a DVD-RW that would work. Memorex didn't work, and neither did Verbatim. I ended up using Imation.
: Manual could definitely use some work. Can be challenging to locate what you want in there.
: I tried to watch a recording on another DVD player, but it wouldn't work. May have been the disk, though.
: Pet peeve - there is no... Read more

This unit works OK as a DVD burner. I use it as a DVR to watch shows as they are recorded so I can skip the commercials or record using the timer and watch them later. I wish it had a second tuner so I could record one show and watch another. But, the main reason I bought this unit was for the ATSC/QAM tuner. I have it connected to my projector so it was intended to be my main tuner. It is awful. Analog channels seem to work OK. It takes about 20 minutes to scan the extended cable channels. That would be OK if it the digital channels worked the next time I accessed them. After I scan the channels, I can use the up/down arrows to scroll through them. Several channels it finds are unused or encrypted so I see a blue screen. Digital channel changing is slow but acceptable. The problem is that the next time I scroll through the digital channels or enter the channel by number, they are gone. Blue screen on every channel I enter and it takes about 10 seconds to switch to the... Read more

The built-in tuner didn't work properly and I had to return this to Amazon. When I connected my cable to this Recorder, the picture came out really snowy and unclear. I know it's not my cable connection either because using the same wire connected to my Samsung DLP HDTV which has a QAM Cable/ASTC/NSTC tuner, the picture came out clear. I even connected my cable to my 10-year old analog VCR tuner and again the picture came out clear. So I concluded that the Recorder's tuner was defective. Additionally, when I tried to auto-program my cable's DTV (digital) channels, the Recorder malfunctioned doing that. Some channels got in, some didn't. Even for the DTV channels that did get in, as I was flipping channels using the Recorder remote, periodically, the channels would turn blue screen...I had to turn off the Recorder to get the DTV channels working again.

The remote control is the lightest remote I've ever felt because it felt extremely cheap.

As for the... Read more