Panasonic DMR-EH50S DVD Recorder with 100 GB Hard Drive Recording
I consider myself a techie, and it really frustrates me
I have bought many Panasonic appliances in my time (phone/answering machines; TVs; VCRs, etc.) and I've generally been pleased with them (as well as the documentation). So I was happy to find that Panasonic had a combination HD/DVD Recorder with the features I wanted. I have now used it for several months. My experience with this unit has been mixed at best.      The Good:  1) Setup worked, albeit with frustrations.   2) I have successfully recorded dozens of shows with the TV Guide system. Every time I set it to record, the recording came through just as I planned (something that didn't always happen with my VCR, whether my fault or not). The only exceptions are sports events that go into overtime...it's not smart enough to keep on recording past the scheduld time slot.   3) Playback of recorded shows works well, and it has several fast-forward/rewind speeds to help you get to a specific part of the recording (or skip commercials).    Items (2) and (3) above represent the major reasons why I bought the unit (along with DVD recording), so on the whole, I'm satisfied. But getting this benefit has come with many frustrations and has eaten up lots of my time. (I can't yet comment on the DVD recording capability as I haven't used that feature yet, though it was originally a key reason I bought the unit.)    Some Frustrations  1) I find the TV-Guide system to be very awkward--If you really want the best, easy-to-use system for recording TV programs, and you don't need DVD recording, I'd recommend you just go the TIVO route. Much of the problem is the un-intuitive way that Panasonic has implemented parts of the interface using the remote. Sometimes to do simple things requires you to press buttons that seem completely un-related. For example, suppose you are watching a football game and you want to use the program guide. The guide provides a little video window so you can still see the game while you peruse the lisings. But the video window will change channels as you move through the channel guide (to whichever channel you are highlighting on the guide). How do you keep that video window channel fixed? There is a way to lock it, which entails moving the cursor all the way to the left, and then hitting the one of the blue/green \\"Action\\" buttons (labeled \\"Dubbing\\" and \\"Create Chapter\\" respectively). Not intuitive and poorly explained on page 28 of the manual.  2) The remote--A big disappointment, for many reasons. Here's a big one. The remote has a plastic ring that is supposed to help you navigate the TV-Guide interface (the cursor moves up and down rows in the listings as you rotate the ring). However, the tactile \\"clicks\\" that you feel when you turn the wheel in now way correspond to the number of rows the cursor advances on the screen--unless you turn it painfully slowly. But that entirely defeats the purpose of having a quick-navigation feature. It makes it impossible to use the ring to select channels (how can you when you don't know where the cursor will rest when it finally catches up to you?). So I never use it.  3) Users Manual--I am someone who typically has patience to read through manuals and even enjoys it on occasion. To be fair, this is a complicated piece of machinery, with lots of features. The manual is a considerable 75 pages (letter-sized paper), but it is still MUCH too terse. The manual is very frustrating. A Users Guide should be complete and easy-to-follow. I don't care if it takes 200 pages; give me something well-written, complete, and with a detailed index so I can easily find what I need.   4) The channels are downloaded in only partial numerical order. If you want all the channels in order, you have to go to a dedicated channel editor and move the channels up and down the list. I spent over 45 minutes re-arranging my channels and I'm still not done. What a complete waste of time. It's 2006. Why can't this machine sort items in numerical order?    Some Problems  1) The TV Guide system downloaded my cablechannels, but some of them were missing (not major channels like TBS, CNN, or E!--but ones I watch nonetheless). Basically, there is nothing you can do about that. For the missing channels you get no program guide and so you can only record shows on that channel by setting the recording times manually. Also, you can't use the DVR remote to tune to that channel. I ended up using my cable box remote to change channels (it's also faster than waiting for the noticeable pause while the DVR \\"sends\\" the channel to the cable box)    2) A month ago when I turned the unit on, it asked me which of two possible cable lineups I want to use (something it's only supposed to do during setup). Well, neither one was correct and I had to face the fact that my original channel lineup was gone. I had to setup my TV Guide all over again. Only this time I couldn't get it to work with my own zip code...it kept offering me the choice of two incorrect channel lineups. I was eventually able to get the correct listings by entering a neighboring zip code that shared my cable channel lineup.    Overall I gave it three stars because it does a good job of doing the most important thing to me--recording TV shows with little fuss. But beyond that I'm really disappointed in the remote design, the interface, and the documentation. It's a machine with great features, but I've spent *way* too much time trying to figure how to get them to work correctly. (In the end, considering the value of my time, paying a couple hundred dollars for listings on a TIVO system would have been *much* cheaper.) I don't know if other brands of DVR are designed better from a human interface point of view, but it's really turned me sour on Panasonic.