PHILIPS-IFA BERLIN

A Small change...A big difference

Present in Berlin during the IFA exhibition, Philips were what could be termed a "Class Act" at the show. The Dutch based manufacturer was lavish in the means unleashed to present their entire audio and video ranges. Prontopro, Flat TV, Monroe, Cbright, Csmart, DVD-Q50, DVD-952... These were the latest novelties on the stand, which had part of its surface dedicated to DVD, and more particularly the recordable variety.

In this sense, current day VCR’s should be shaking in their boots, after the recent announcement of the permanent shutting down of their production with all efforts henceforth to be concentrated on DVD-R. The inventors of the Compact Disc have already primed the sale of their first home recorder/player, the DVD-R1000

The first great leap for the market of DVD-R has thus finally been made, with Philips being the first manufacturer to attack the European consumer market for digital recording.
It should be noted that Pioneer, JVC, Panasonic as well as Hitachi have already hit the Asian markets with first and second generation machines, with a prohibitive pricing policy (more than 6000 Euros for a Pioneer DVR-1000 recorder).
Philips are thus making the big step… or should we say giant leap that we’ve been waiting for for so long, with the DVD-R1000 which was in fact presented for the very first time at the CES as well as at CeBIT in Hanover in March.

No bigger than a normal DVD Player, the DVDR-1000 will soon offer the public the possibility to record in digital format on a DVD-R support as well as on re-writable DVD-RW. Both offer a capacity of 4.7 Go by side (equivalent of more than 7 CD-R on one sole disc of 12 cm) and in the not too distant future, 9.4 Go using both sides. "Ease of use" is the catch phrase of Philips, who had wanted to propose a machine whose setting up could be effected by any amateur, because it suffices to select the channel desired and to press the "Record" button.
In the connection department, it looks pretty similar to a VCR… linking via the antenna cable to the TV – with the only difference being that here we connect a digital video cable.

The price argument is still a little weak for the moment, because the DVDR-1000 will be sold for between 1830 and 2287 Euros and you’ll have to fork out more than 18 Euros to acquire ONE blank disc... Makes for expensive copies… Oops! I should say recordings…

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