LITE-ON IT CORPORATION LVW5045 DVD /hdd Recorder
My LVW5045 is great!
I bought it in early February, 2006.  I use mine simply like a VCR but with a hard drive rather than tapes.  It works great and the timeshift feature allows me to start watching a recording while it is still recording and fast forward through commercials.  You can also search through what you have previously recorded via easy to use thumbnail pages.  I don't know about recording to DVD's/CD's - but that isn't why I bought it.  Keep in mind that this has only one tuner so you can only record/watch one thing at a time whereas many current DVR's that require a monthly fee have two (maybe three?) tuners.  Thus on the competitor's models you can record up to two shows at a time.