Panasonic DMR-EH75VS DVD Recorder / VCR Combo with 80GB Hard Drive, HDMI, SD Card, and DV Input
The only one of it's kind to date
I have been holding out on buying a DVD recorder until one came out with VHS, DVD, and a hard drive (HDD).  This unit finally delivers!  It definitely has some cons, but this unit is the best you'll get if you want to record onto a hard drive first, edit out the commercials, and then transfer to DVD.  The advantage to this method is that you can record say 2.5 hours in SP mode (2 hr mode), edit out a half hour of commercials, and then transfer to DVD.  If you have to record directly to DVD before editing out the half hour of video, you would have to use a longer recording mode and therefore reducing the video quality.    Some of the things that can be improved upon:    - Consistency of auto-chapters:  When copying directly to DVD, I've gotten chapter stops at 5 minutes and 8 minutes.  When copying to the hard drive, there is no rhyme or reason.  Why is this not consistent?    - Chapters are not maintained when copying from HDD to DVD in different recording mode:  After copying to the hard drive, you can set your own chapter stops.  These chapter stops are maintained when the video is copied to DVD in high speed mode (and therefore at the same video quality setting).  However, if you record to HDD say in XP mode, edit out commercials, and then copy to DVD in a mode where it fits onto one disc (say, SP mode), it makes the DVD without any chapters!  It should maintain the chapters that it allowed me to create.  (The reason you would use this method to make a DVD is because you might not know how long the program is without commercials prior to editing them out.  So you would want to copy to HDD in the highest quality mode possible)    - Loss of sound when \\"shortening a title\\":  When you edit out a section of video, I have sometimes noticed a loss of sound for a few seconds before and a few seconds after the edited section.  It also pauses briefly during the removed section.    - Can't copy a VHS to HDD or DVD and edit commercials on the fly:  I should be able to easilyplay a VHS tape and record it to DVD and press the PAUSE button at the start and end of a commercial to edit it out.  My old Go Video VHS to VHS deck has this simple feature... why wouldn't a brand new $500 VHS to DVD unit be able to do this?  Are you listening, Panasonic?    - TV Guide built in DVR is not easy to navigate:  If you want to skip ahead through 3 days of listings, it's not so easy to do.  But for a DVR with no monthly fee, I can't complain too much here.    - Need to use both coax AND RCA cables:  Most combo units allow you to use only the coax connections in case you have an old TV.  With this unit you are REQUIRED to use both, which doesn't make any sense.    - Bad remote layout: The 'Function' and 'Navigator' buttons are too close to the directional wheel which is used for editing your videos and typing title names.  The result is that you will often hit the wrong button by accident and leave the screen you were working in.    There were a few other basic features that you would expect to have, but I can't think of any other drawbacks right now.  Overall, this is actually a really GOOD UNIT, certainly the only one of it's kind... I just figured I should tell you of the drawbacks to make sure you can live with them before buying it.