Panasonic DMR-E80H Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with Hard Drive , Silver
Brilliant Machine!
I bought this machine primarily to archive old home movies and TV shows (Mystery Science Theater 3000!)that will never be fully released on home video.<BR>Anyway, the 80 hour HDD makes editing a fairly simple process, and will automatically save a scheduled program to the HDD when you forget (like I do) to place a blank DVD-R in the drive.  Add to this the fact that the picture/sound quality is among the best out there and this machine becomes a very attractive purchase, especially at Amazon's price.<BR>The only reason I give this only 4 stars is the fact that it only uses DVD-RAM as its rewritable media, which isn't a deal-breaker, but DVD-RW would have been more compatible with other machines.  Supposedly, DVD-R is more compatible with other players than DVD+R, which affected my decision to buy this model.  As it is, I've tested my newly created DVD's in an older Toshiba player, a Playstation 2, and various computers, and they've worked in all without a hitch.   <BR>The TiVo that I already owned has primarily become a fancy channel-changer since I got this, since copying directly to DVD is so simple.<BR>One caveat, which I think others have mentioned:  Be sure to read the owner's manual competely, maybe even a few times.  There are features in there that take awhile to get used to.  Once you understand them, however, you will find this machine simply incredible. <BR>Impress your friends.  If you're in the market for a set-top DVD recorder, I highly recommend this one.