Panasonic DMRE85HS Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive Recording
How to decide if this Panasonic's right for you
The current bunch of DVD recorders seem much the same - until you get down to the reality of what some of the features really do.  This unit's a good package that works well - but still, it's important to be aware of how important some of the features are to you. <br /> <br />Panasonic, and the `TV Guide Onscreen' program guide it uses, fall in the `not Tivo' camp.  The Tivo-based units benefit from the souped-up program guide, but come with surprising restrictions: you can't edit out commercials before you save a program to DVD, and you can't move things back and forth (record on hard drive, save off to dvd, bring it back in later). <br /> <br />If you get a hard drive unit, an on-screen guide is important. Recordings get stored along with the name of the show, picked up from the program guide, making it easier to find what you're looking for later.  TV Guide's offering doesn't work if you're on satellite, and might not work if your cable provider or local broadcasters don't pass the signal.  But given the odds are it will work, you're likely to get a lot without the Tivo monthly charge.  Yes, there might be setup work; yes, it takes several days before it fully `fills up'.  But it does tell you what's on, often has detailed information about shows, and ends the wondering what-show-is-this when you tune in partway through a show.  (If the guide doesn't work for you though, trade it in-it's pretty integral to having the machine work well.) <br /> <br />Having a DVD recorder means never accidentally recording over something you wanted to save; much faster access to whatever's been recorded, and of course a lot less shelf space needed for tapes. <br /> <br />Add the hard drive to the same box, and you don't have to run out of space when you forget to change tapes/discs or are gone for a few days; if the hard drive's getting full, you high-speed-dub `saver' shows to the removable DVD's; and you can edit commercials out before saving shows to disc. <br /> <br />If you have home movies & VHS recordings you want to edit before turning into DVD's, having both hard drive and DVD recorder in the same box makes the job faster & easier than it would be otherwise.  Be aware, though: you don't get quite the same degree of precise editing capability you'd get on a computer (you can't always cut out sub-second snippets). <br /> <br />One last cautionary note:  this unit brings together a lot of features, and for about the first week, a lot of things aren't going to be immediately intuitive.  If you weren't terribly happy getting to know VCR's, this machine will bring back those memories.  But if you like to drive your gadgets a little harder, this is probably a good choice - and a good value at the Amazon price. <br />