Any chance this Philips DVDR3575H has a fuse which has failed. (2025 Update)

I had one of those, way back in the day. I only used it for playing what I managed to download and burn to CD\DVD. It played anything you could throw at it. On a video forum, one guy said it would probably play the serrated lid from a can of tuna. I eventually gave it to my sister and she used it for quite a few years, eventually selling it to a friend of hers. Those things must have been workhorses.

I hope you figure out a solution.

If the tray opens and closes, it is not the fuse. Will it play a dvd given the correct commands, even without the display working.

I was able to find and download the service manual for this item at:

Your decision of course how much it's worth in time, effort and $$ to disconnect the device, open the case, and look for a fuse. This appears to be a very complicated conglomeration of multiple circuit boards using many ICs etc. Well beyond my experience and knowledge to suggest anything additional. Personally, it sounds like an appropriate activity for a fully retired person. Nothing to lose. You can't break it! It's already not functioning. You can prossibly find a replacement on ebay.

On that vintage machine from Philips I would be highly suspicious of failed power filter capacitors.There was a lot of "counterfeit"electrolyte circulating amung capacitor manufacturers back then. Look for swelled caps. The tops should be concave. You will likely find several convex. There are scribed marks in the end of the caps (usually) which allow them to swell without bursting. Replacing the caps may not totally solve the problem as resistors connected to them may have overloaded and burned out as well. Also sometimes diods or transistors are overloaded and fail but USUALLY re-capping solves the problem. Get low ESR caps if possible.

I found a webpage question from someone with that very model who says he replaced the fuse, by accident with 1amp instead of 2, and it quickly blew. But the specs that Retired sent show no fuse! Figure that out.

Removing it from it's book shelf was indeed difficult. First I foudn some white tape to label the wires with and I unlike electrical tape, a regular pen worked, didn't need indelible. But it turned out the tape was not white but clear. Still it should be good enough.

Then I twisted pretty hard but couldn't remove the

Then the rubber feet were stuck hard to the receiver below it.

Finally got it out and in another room saw that indeed thhe panel light went on, though dimly. And it appeared to play, and the foot meter advanced when it did. And the DVD drawer opened and shut with the remote. Ugh, I hope I didn't drag it out of the shelf for nothing. Connected a TV, and no picture. Ah, but that's becauze I connected it to Signal In, not Out. Still no picture. Ah, that's because no antenna Pound a twist tie about a foot long, stipped off a half inch to the wire underneath, still no picture. So it's broken, just like I thought.

Except now, I wonder. a 12 inch wire would have been plenty for analog tv. Is digital on a lower frequency, longer wave length that would not work? Or must signal strenghth be higher?

Thanks. Very helpful.

The Japanese part? I don't think so. But almost all is in Engish. That's just the guy who sent it in wanting credit for himself and maybe his company.

It's worth endless effort, assuming I have some chance of success.

A few years after I got this, I looked for another because I knew this would fail someday, and there were only 1 or 2 alternatives DVDR's with Hardrive, and one was $600 and even it had some4thing I didn't like.

This week, when I first looked on ebay, before posting here, I found they were no selling for 30 to 70 dollars, on ebay. Whoopee. But one of he ebay models I found on Amazon complete with a video review in which he pointed out that one could not play one recording while watching a different recording. That's pretty important. At least I do it all the time.

Going back to ebay, this time I searched on Philips and found a whole bunch of things I hadn't found before, including 9, count 'em, 9 versions of just what I have now, ranging from a real auction that has now 5 more days to run but started at $15. Seveal are listed as Tested, but only 4 of the 9 have remotes, and the box itself only has 5 buttons. There is not much one can do, or test, without the remote. But even the ones that have remotes, am I to think they tested everything? maybe must that it turned on and the screen said Playing and Record (two of the 5 buttons) and the DVD drawer opend (one more of the 5 buttons. A fourth is Power and the fifst is Stop.) Did they even connect a TV to see if something was coming out the other end? They all promise in the standards for Used that it works completely, but they can't even change channels without the remote. So they assume it works but I'll have to ship it back if it doesn't.

Micky, as I recall, that device had an old NTSC (analog TV signal) tuner in it. You many need to find an old digital to analog converter box and put that between the antenna and the antenna input of the Phillips device. I'm not surprised that you couldn't tune in an TV station on a TV tuner that only receives analog TV signals. You must not have used that DVDR since before the implementation of digital TV broadcasting.

I record everything I watch on TV using a tuner card in my desktop PC or network attached tuner boxes (HDHOMERUN), and appropriate software (SAGETV), and outputting from my PC video card to the hdmi input on the TV or through a FireTV box. If the TV is off, the PC scheduler turns it on for scheduled shows.

try playing a tape or dvd. If they work it is just the tuner incombatability. If they don't, you have a problem - possibly the caps as I noted.

I've got a pair of FLEX 4K receivers that pick up 15 ATSC3 channels but 7 of those are DRM protected so no longer usable. Makes me wonder how long before broadcasters shut off ATSC1, effectively killing the DVR.

The major telcom TV providers, e.g., Comcast, Verizon, etc. want you to rent their DVRs for at least $10/mo. and subscribe to their over-priced bundle of channels rather than use your own DVR to record over-the-air broadcasts in areas where OTA reception is available. (In cases when they stream their programs over the internet, unless you find an illegal, pirated way to watch, you still need to subscribe to have access through their paywall.) They or their family of companies own many of the OTA stations. No surprise that they will DRM encrypt their broadcast signals to force people to purchase their channel packages and rent their equipment. Of course, their stable of high priced lobbyists, intellectual property and corporate lawyers have won the day in Congress, at the FCC, and in the courts. It seems broadcasters no longer need even to pretend to perform a public service. They only need to serve the best interests of their shareholders. I understand the need to protect intellectual property and collect royalties etc. but their strategy to bundle etc. enables them to charge well beyond their costs + a reasonable profit.

Who do you have to "subscribe" to to get them?

Or, does this just block off recording?

The current rule is that some time in spring of 2028 they will be allowed to stop transmitting atsc1, but they left open that they may change the rule, which I assume means delay it longer.

There still are a lot of cities where there is no atsc3, and more importantly, it's not backward compatible, so they will either have 300 million obsolete tvs or they'll have to have another converter box giveaway.

I came across a youtube channel by the antennaman or antenna man. Easy to find in youtube. He's clear, easy to watch, concise, not bloated, and he has one among many where he talks about atsc3.

I've thought about this a bit before buying a new 15-year old dvdr, but I'm going by my usual rule, to assume nothing will ever change until after I'm dead, say 2052. By then even my new old dvdr will have failed.

It has both. Or I couldn't have been watching ota tv for the last 15 years.

I can't rememgber now. Either that's part of the one I have or I'm already using one. I also have a couple separate converters. One is connected in front of the VCR, which I have connected with an A-B switch to the cable running to all the other rooms.

It doesn't play tapes but I did play the DVD and the foot counter showed it progressing (and the "hdd in use" light came on, but nothing came out the other end.

Could be the caps, but that's a repair that will tke me longer than I want to wait. Why I haven't already bought one of the 9 (actually 8) that are for sale now, I don't know Two more got listed in the last few days, so ebay is not going to sell out, but the longer I wait, the longer I won't have anything.

I bypassed the dvdr and connected the antenna straight to what I guess is the analog converter. When the DVDR is on, the red light on the converter changes to green, but when I connected the antenna, it stayed red. However on one TV, despite the light not changing to green, I could get channels 13.1-6.*** On another I could get nothing. Then I remembered that besides convering, the converter has digital pass-through and it's the smart tv that's getting tv. It includes a comedy station (Catchy) and Movies!, which is enough to keep me happy until the new one comes.

Saturday is for wackos but the other days are good. They had a great history of the lightbulb and power distribution in the US. IIRC, they have about 4 hours a day, or maybe 6, which they repeat for 24 hours.

They even make A-B switches with remote control so you don't have to get out of your chair.

That sounds like a great system.

I thought about that for myself a few years back but it would take a lot more work than just replacing the DVDR. Because all the incoming and outgoig wires go to my bedroom, and all my video and audio stuff is on a bookshelf next to my bed, and the computer is in anoher room. I looked into controlling the computer from my bedroom.

I copied the HdHomeRun and the SageTV and if I ever can't replace the DVDR or I move to an old-people storage facility, I may do it your way.

BTW. back to my original post, since I get no output from the harddrive or the DVD, and the foot counter indicates that the HDD is progressing, it means that some output circuit has failed and the harddrive is still working after 15 years of heavy use. I'm very impressed.

We're also now thrilled that Google let us open source the SageTV platform! The source code is now available on GitHub......

The SageTV Forums can be accessed here

There is also an android version of sagetv ( sageTV miniclient) that can be loaded into android based TV's or devices like my firetv 4K to view the recorded programs. It accesses the files on my network that SageTV server on the PC directs from my TV tuner boxes. That is what I use most of the time for viewing. The android version looks and operates just like the PC version.

I suspect fewer and fewer people live in areas where they can receive usable OTA reception, at least not without having a highly directional antenna at high elevation connected via a signal amplifier. As more and more high rise construction encroaches on the suburbs, people who might have received decent reception 10 years ago can't do so anymore; especially those who live in 2-3 story townhouses or single family homes or on the lower floors of taller buildings. Those in more rural settings and highly urbanized areas can't either (due to either or both weak signal strength and strong multi-path interference). This leaves fewer people in the mamma bear - intermediate locations.

As far as urban reception is concerned, when I lived in Manhattan back in the late 60s, before commercial digital TV broadcasting, even analog reception OTA was completely impossible in many neighborhoods even though you might be only a mile or so from the transmitting tower on top of the Empire State Building. Cable was absolutely required in those areas. And, antenna reception also was interrupted every few minutes due to the airplane traffic to and from Newark, La Guardia, and JFK airports. Oh, and the police, news, and traffic helicopters constantly added their contribution to the multi-path problems caused by all the tall buildings and airplanes.

We did when I lived in Philadelphia until 1981. We had the three networks, a PBS and two UHF stations. No way to record anything back then either. When we moved, cable was a necessity.

Times have changed. I do watch the 6 o'clock news live, everything else I watch is recorded and I FF the commercials.

I see no reason to go back 45 years.