Philips VR550 VHS VCR

I searched and searched ebay for a decent video, the phillips seemed to be plentiful, meet the specs i wanted and cheap. I did buy one and a week later the money was refunded and i was informed that the item was damaged !!. So finding another wasnt hard, but amongst the other VR550 vid's there were 'refurbished' ones, of which some were returned to the manufacturer for a reason which could be 'unwanted'. I feared that these may have been ex-rental and went for a seller that stated his was new. If the one i got wasnt new, i couldnt tell the difference, it was unmarked with the original phillips batteries included for the remote. The quality of the VR550 is excellent and has certainly made my video collections last a little longer. Hardly any 'hiss' on the audio and most of the time the picture was comparitive to the freeview digital picture quality that the sony tv we have, gives out. I did pay a bit more for my one but it was new so i thought it worth the extra money.

Whoever at eBay selected this item (out of 10 recent purchases) must have ESP capabilities. To start at the beginning, I bought it new/display/repaired to inexpensively and simply record The Apprentice if we were out, and Wimbledon during the day so we could see the whole matches and not just the highlights in the evening. It worked first time and the recordings were good enough for our screen. The only niggle was that the VCR control displays were too faint to see in daylight.
Then the evening before your email for this review, it was rewinding when there was a sound like a football ratchet from inside the VCR and the rewind came to an abrupt stop. Now it wont play, record, or fast wind although it does load and eject tapes OK.
So now I'm looking for the record of who I bought it from, and the hassles of 'do they deal with it' or do 'I have to go to Philips direct', and Where did I put the box it came in, and the postage is almost half its cost so what's the best thing to do - dump it?
If it had lasted 3 years I'd have been happy, lasted one year and that would have been about OK, but just a few weeks is oh so not good.....
Maybe our combined negative thoughts about the VCR that failed on the day before Wimbledon finals were powerful enough to trigger your selection process - just maybe.

Libran-Scorpion

Great video for the price. Picture quality is excellent and pause gives clear view of image. The controls are easy to use and handbook easy to understand. I already had this machine (bought because of the very positive reviews I read on this site) and recommended it to my neighbour who also bought one.

I bought it because my old one snatched a tape and would not let it go!! I haven't managed to get a picture yet on the Philips even though I have tried many times, each time starting form the beginning and unplugging etc. The book supplied does not clearly guide you how to connect when you have a Freeview box and after reading reviews from other sites, I now realise that it is not going to be an easy task and the reviews are not good! So although I have had it for 3 weeks now, it still isn't going and I still can't use it. The lady I purchased it from has offered to guide me through but I haven't contacted her yet, feeling slightly frustrated in not being able to do it myself! It should be easy - but it most certainly isn't!!

I wowuldn't buy this model if you intend to connect through you Digital Box (mine is Virgin Media) 'cos it ain't gonna be a quick connect!!

Value for money VHS VCR player with the latest bits & bobs.
Speedy rewind and fast forward, easy to understand operations.

I bought it to replace the old Philips that I'd had for years but had started to chew tapes. It was good value for money, I found a manual on the Philips website in minutes, setup was straightforward and the picture is excellent. The only slight downside is that it's maybe a bit noisy.

Great. well wrapped. timing fine...am very happy with the product so far. I dont know what else to say, apart from no problems this end

Having many tapes I had to have another machine to replace mine which suddenly stopped working. Looked on ebay and found this one. Turned out a good choice as this is ideal. Solid, easy to use and perfect for what I wanted. Philips have a good reputation and one of the reasons why I chose it.

The video if new would be a lovely good quality device,has some good features unfortunately as it was refurbished condition was average and some of the facilities do not function properly.

the item is very good i bought it for a precent fotr a friend and the friend as far as i knopw is very happy with the item but needs to get some lead for it so does not have it up and going yet

We decided to buy this as a replacement for the Philips VCR we already had that had never worked properly. It is a better/neater size with more functions and was relatively easy to set up. It is great value for money, which is the main reason we bought it and it looks good. There is nothing about it that we don't like. It is easy to use and gives a great picture.

Excellent VCR with very good picture quality. Fast wind is brilliant though it doesn't always cut in.

I purchased this machine because I have lots of family events filmed on VHS
and although these can be copied onto a DVD format or some other format, we do not get round to doing these things. I had bought a combo machine that plays DVD's and video tapes but it started to play up after a really short time.
I decided I wanted to have a straightforward dedicated video machine for my tapes. This one was in an almost new condition, has proved to be very simple to use and was a really good price.
I am very happy with this item.

I had thought that the item was new, but it was reburbished with scrathes all over. Am not impressed and would not deal again

I was pleased to find I was still able to purchase what is regarded as old technology. And to buy a machine which was a replica of our old machine which meant no wading through instruction manuals, excellent.

Every thing about this product is fine to me and i am very happy about this purchase. it was new and it is easy to use it.

My old video died on me and trying to purchase another one was difficult. Few people stock them any more. So I thought I would try e-bay. Success, not exactly as good as my original, having less features, but a bargain, and sold by a good e-bayer.
Well pleased with the product.

We decided to buy this VHS recorder because the old one that we had had become very unreliable and sometimes chewed up the tapes.However the VR550 did not have any instructions with it but they are obtainable on the internet and thus we had problems setting it up.We can play the tapes we wanted, but at this time we have been unable to record anything through our Sky box which is because we have not worked out how to do it.

Great value at £30. Does everything you'd expect of a VCR. I'm using it succcessfully to dub my old tapes to DVD.

This was an excellent buy. My father has all of his films on vhs, some on dvd but most on tape. His video recorder broke so I went to a high street store only to find the cheapest was around £60. So decided to look on e-bay. Glad I did as the one I purchased is a good bit of kit! and all for £30.

I purchased this machine because they other one had broken. We still have some old video tapes we like to watch.

I still havent received the VCR after more than 6 weeks so I cant really write a review on it. I have contacted the seller on two occasions over this time and they havent gotten back to me. I would really like to write a review soon!

I don't have a collection of archived VHS recordings, I just needed a simple machine to do the odd 'time-shift' and play films from the charity shop. As VHS is now on the way out I didn't want to spend much. This does the job. No VideoPlus and no PDC but I don't mind. Most of my recordings are from our cable set-top box. I chose Philips because the rest of the kit is Philips so I thought they would be happy to speak to each other.

Needed a "new" VCR as old one packed up and have lots of personal and sentimental vids.
Philips is a good reliable maker of most consumer electronics.
This machine is easy to use and does more than enough for normal uses.
Chose this particular make for its simpleness and the good price on e-bay.
My delivery was very prompt and the product as stated.