Toshiba RS-TX20 DVD Recorder with 120 GB TiVo Series2 Digital Video Recorder
A TiVo I can (affordably) live with...
This is a pretty nice unit.  120GB hard drive, which means 32 to 141 hours of recording capacity depending on video quality.  MPEG encoding artifacts become pretty apparent in motion scenes at medium quality (94 hrs) so I'm sticking with High for most recordings, which means 46 hrs storage on the hard drive.  Of course the great positive here is that you can archive to DVD the stuff you want to keep.  There's no editing of the material before you burn, but if you have a PC at home, you can always rip the DVD and probably edit more easily there.  This unit, as well as the Pioneers, has a major advantage in that it comes with TiVo basic (3-day program guide, no \\"season pass\\", \\"wish lists\\" or home media features) so you don't have to pay TiVo the $13/mo subscription unless you really want that stuff. <br /> <br />A few nits: <br />* menus can seem pretty slow at times, as does the program guide <br />* does not display amount used/free on hard drive <br />* even \\"live tv\\" is displayed with \\"best\\" compression (i.e. not the native line-in signal) <br />* DVD burns are only at the same quality you originally recorded the show <br />* remote is too symmetrical; i've pointed it the wrong way 3 times already! <br />* $100 rebate requires perhaps 10-12 weeks of premium TiVo subscription <br /> <br />As for the HD complainers, come on.  How many people are even receiving HD content, let alone recording it?  Since the dawn of analog videotape, home recording options have always been inferior in quality to broadcast/prerecorded-content.  I agree that if you have satellite HD, it's much more compelling to go with an integrated DVR/converter box that can save the programming in its native format.  But most of us don't live in that world.  We just want to time-shift our shows.  I had been using a VCR up till now and this is much better.   I don't doubt there will be better recorders in the future, but this is a nice combo IMHO. <br /> <br />BTW, I suggest doing a websearch/price-compare as you may not find your best deal here (hint hint).