Toshiba SD-H400 Combination Progressive-Scan DVD Player and TiVo Digital Media Server
Why did I wait so long?
I finally left the stone age and retired my DVD/VCR combo and bought<BR>the Toshiba SD-H400 DVD/DVR combo.  I'm kicking myself for waiting<BR>so long to do it.  The DVR with TiVo Basic is so much more capable<BR>than the VCR.  Here some of the benefits over a VCR:<br />1. Watch a recorded show while recording a show.<BR>2. Watch recorded shows in any order.  No more fast forwarding/rewinding<BR>to watch the show you want.<BR>3. No more programing 2 VCRs to record all the shows you want when going on vacation.<BR>4. Record more shows than you can watch in a week to have something to watch<BR>when your primary shows are repeats.<br />It has 4 recording quality modes.  The medium quality (2nd to lowest) is<BR>similar to the lowest quality in a VCR which is fine for most shows.  You<BR>can get about 45 hours of shows in the mode. The TiVo Basic has alot of capability<BR>for me.  You can use a trial offer of the Plus service but I haven't tried<BR>it yet.  The Season Pass feature of the Plus service sounds the most interesting<BR>but I'm not sure Plus is worth a one time $299 or $13/mo.  The TiVo manual<BR>describes the extra capability of TiVo Plus.  This is good to get an idea of<BR>the extra features so you can be ready to use them in the trial period<BR>to see if they will be worth the extra money.<br />The only downsides I see now is that I don't think any companies are offering<BR>to upgrade the Hard Disk in the Toshiba.  The other is that it does not seem<BR>easy to incoporate all the features of the provided remote into a learning<BR>universal remote (at least my old Sony one).<br />If you were thinking of getting a DVR but the cost of the machine and full<BR>Plus service is too high, then a DVR with TiVo Basic is a great choice.