Panasonic DMRE85HS Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive Recording
Great for everyday recording
I ordered the Toshiba RD-XS32 on Sunday, Jan. 30, and it was estimated to ship in one to two weeks.  As excited as I get about having new electronics as soon as possible, I kept checking every day to see if it would ship early.  I'm glad I checked back.    On Wednesday, Amazon unveiled their Prime service, so I once again looked at the other DVD recorders to see if any were cheaper, knowing that I could inexpensively get it quick with a Prime membership.  Lucky for me, this one went down to $400 that day.  I cancelled the Toshiba and ordered this one because I trust Panasonic with video equipment more than Toshiba, it has more space, and I could get it faster.    First of all, Prime is a wonderful service.  After paying the $79 annual fee, I only had to pay $3.99 to get this one here by Friday (I ordered after the one-day deadline on Wednesday).  It came very promptly and there were no problems with the shipment.    Now on to the recorder.  My main intent for this product was to use the hard drive for everyday recording; I wasn't too concerned about the DVD capabilities.  I basically wanted a VCR replacement, meaning I didn't need a guide to depend on - I know how to set a VCR.    120 GB is plenty of space.  Even in the default recording mode (SP), it holds 55 hours.  When watching broadcasts, the recording time left for the media selected is clearly shown on the display.  That's much better compared to the 6 hour tapes I had to juggle before.    TV Guide - I gave it about 18 hours to download and it worked.  Again, I bought it to manually program times, so it won't affect me too much if it quits working.    The guide has a few quirks: The default listing didn't sort in channel order.  If this happens to you, you have to follow the directions under \\"Customizing the channel line up\\" on page 23 of the manual to fix the order.  Also, the guide downloads all the channels your provider has to offer, meaning if you don't subscribe to the package with everything, you may have to deal with moving channels past a bunch of channels you don't have.      Helpful Hint: To move each of the channels you don't have to the bottom, select each unwanted channel and type position 999 and hit enter instead of using the green/blue buttons.  After you have done that, then sort the channels you have using the green and blue buttons.    Also, while looking at the guide, the window that shows the current broadcast is by default set to change to the channel you are pointed to in the guide (meaning if you're originally on ESPN and want to see what's coming up on ABC, it will by default show ABC in the window while you're scrolling through the ABC listings.)  You have to select \\"Last Channel\\" (the name itself) and press the blue button to \\"lock\\" the display window on the current channel.    If TV Guide doesn't provide listings for a channel, it won't be included in your channel lineup.  The local sports channel on my cable network doesn't have listings in the TV Guide, so I couldn't get to it by using the channel up/down buttons - I had to type the number.  I just took a random network I didn't have and assigned it to that channel number, even though the listings would be wrong.    Remote - compared to what the Toshiba's looked like, this one is well-designed.  However, the most-used channel-changing buttons (the number pad and channel up/down) are smaller than on an average remote.  Also, I don't think there is a previous channel/flashback button.    Noise - Overall, it is quiet, but I don't know exactly how the fan runs.  It usually runs for two or three minutes after the machine is turned off, but after that, the fan seems to turn on and off randomly.  It may be synchronizing the clock or updating the listings at those times.    Editing - Plain and simple: Read the instruction manual before trying anything.  I accidentally deleted the actual show and left the commercials that were recorded just before and after because I wrongly assumed how the shortenfeature worked.    DVD-R writing - I tested it using a Philips 1-8x DVD-R.  Since I didn't turn on high-speed dubbing mode in the setup menu before recording the programs I dubbed, it wouldn't dub at high speed.  I dubbed in SP mode, and it played fine on the Panasonic, our Sony downstairs, and the DVD+RW burner in our Dell computer.    I don't intend to use DVD-RAM unless I get another DVD-RAM recorder, since there is more than enough space on the hard drive.    Overall, I have experienced no problems that could have been avoided by reading the manual beforehand.  It can get a little tedious to get all the channels in the order you want them, but when the guide works, it is very convenient.      I highly recommend this product.    DISC COMPATIBILITY UPDATE: IT IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH LIQUIDVIDEO 2x DVD-R's from Circuit City!  It will reboot the machine and do a self-check.  This occured once when one disc was put in and once when I tried dubbing to another disc.