Sony DHG-HDD250 30-Hour High-Definition Digital Video Recorder (250 GB)
Does its job quite well.
Overall:  Does a fine job of recording Over-the-air television, <br />both High Def and Standard Def.  Very easy to pause/rewind/ff <br />\\"live\\" TV.  Overall, I am very pleased. <br /> <br />Pluses: Recorded material looks indistinguishable from live. <br />Good ATSC (digital) and NTSC tuners pull in every available <br />channel.  Excellent set of connections.  Ability to record <br />to a VCR.  Recording via OTA TV-Guide Listings.  Quiet. <br /> <br />Minuses: Disk drive spins all the time, though it is quiet <br />enough that I don't notice unless I'm right next to the box. <br />I cannot get Dolby Digital 5.1 to work with my Panasonic ED <br />Plasma TV via the HDMI connection.  However, the Digital <br />Optical sound output delivers perfect Dolby Digital 5.1 to <br />my Onkyo receiver.  Although I get the OTA TV-Guide listings, <br />they are rarely populated more than 2 days in advance.  Moving <br />through the listings is a little slow and clunky.  Essentially, <br />the listings are good for setting up recordings (if done 0 - 2 <br />days in advance) and not a whole lot else.  A couple of lesser <br />channels were missing from the Guide, but I was able to edit <br />some unused entries to add the missing ones.  I find some of <br />the control choices to be counter-intuitive. <br /> <br />I bought the DHG-HDD250 about a month ago.  Attached the antennna <br />connection, HDMI to the TV, composite and IR blaster to the VCR, <br />and I was good to go.  I did an auto-scan for TV stations and <br />got everything I could expect to get.  (In other words, all the <br />stations that my Panasonic TV and Samsung 451 HD tuner could <br />get.)  Removing the unneeded analogue stations and too weak <br />digital stations from the tuner default was typically easy. <br />I could immediately pause/rewind/ff \\"live\\" TV, and it was <br />indistinguishable from the live signal.  It took several days <br />before the TV-Guide listing started populating, though I was <br />able to immediately start scheduling recordings using the <br />\\"standard VCR type input screen\\".  Once the TV-Guide listings <br />appeared, I reset each recording since the manual recordings <br />don't get the program name or description.  It took a very <br />careful reading of the manual to figure out how to \\"jump\\" <br />ahead or back in the listings, rather than slowly scrolling <br />by 1/2 hour blocks.  (The secret:  while viewing the listings, <br />start entering a number.  This brings up a menu of choices <br />for the number.  Ahead that many hours.  Back that many hours. <br />Go to that channel.  See what I mean by counter-intuitive <br />control choices?)  The only thing that didn't work as advertised <br />was the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound via the HDMI interface.  The <br />choices are Analogue (PCM), or Auto Digital.  PCM worked fine. <br />My TV's choices are Analogue, Digital, and Auto.  With the Sony <br />box set to Auto Digital, I could not get sound to my TV with <br />any of the TV's settings.  Luckily, the Optical sound output <br />worked great for either Digital or Analogue settings.  Obviously <br />the Digital sound output is much better when a matching surround <br />sound system is used. <br /> <br />At the time I am writing this, the Sony DHG-HDD250 is the best <br />way for us antenna users to have \\"Tivo-like\\" HD recording of <br />our TV broadcasts.