Panasonic DMR-HS2 Progressive-Scan DVD Recorder/PVR with 40 GB Hard Drive (Silver)
The HS2 is an amazing digital entertainment unit!!
The best way to think about this new entertainment appliance is this way: DVD player and recorder + VCR + TIVO + Photo Viewer.  With that said, in many ways the HS2 brings the benefits of total digital entertainment right into the comfort of your living room.  This unit is great for anyone who wants to edit their own vacation, family fun or \\"life\\" videos, record high-quality video either from television, VHS, or camcorder as well as archive digital photos!  So if you've cam-corded thousands of miles of kid birthday parties or recorded 5,000 old TV shows, the HS2 gives you the ability to edit right on the RAM disc or hard drive, and then make a DVD-R to view, share with your friends or even archive.  One particular feature I really like about the unit is \\"time slip\\" recording, which is truly remarkable, because it allows simultaneous recording and playback of the same program at the same time-thanks to DVD/RAM technology.  For instance, you can watch the beginning of a TV show while the end is still recording, which I think is very cool.  Now contrary to some misconceptions, you CAN record onto popular DVD-R discs using the HS2 that WILL play on your buddy's DVD player, or your grandmother's DVD player for that matter.<br />But if you really get to know the HS2, you can easily title your programs, choose a menu color, set it to skip commercials, divide programs, all while recording very high quality video.  The internal hard drive can record up to 52 hours for normal or standard recordings, and for the highest quality video it will store 8.5 hours.  If you're looking for a DVD recorder that really does it all, this unit that is quite versatile and covers all the bases very well, I recommend the HS2 highly.