Toshiba RD-XS34 DVD Recorder with 160-GB Hard Drive
Excellent DVD Recorder - TVGuide On Screen is a pain!
After reading numerous reviews, I finally took the plunge and ordered the item from Amazon.com.  Unfortunately, the unit never made it to my front door, UPS lost the package somewhere between their local office and my house!  Their website is still showing it as out for delivery - a week later.  I ended up buying it at a local store for a little less than Amazon was selling it for. <br /> <br />The RD-XS34 is a wonderful DVD Recorder.  It has the feel of a well built, quality unit.  The user interface is pleasant and recording, playback onto HDD is straightforward.  Editing recorded content is a breeze and chapter points are created every 5 minutes (configurable to 10 mins, upwards).  Importing from a DV Camcorder via firewire is painless and chapters are created automatically.  I've had no problem burning DVDs. <br /> <br />The only downside to this recorder is the user of TVGuide On Screen.  This does not control a satellite receiver, thus you have to program your satellite receiver to switch to a channel at a particular time and also program the DVD recorder to turn on and record (from Line 1 - in my case) at the same time. <br /> <br />In order to setup a manual recording, you have to navigate through the TV Guide On Screen interface - which seems as though it is a completely different piece of software running on the machine. <br /> <br />All in all, this is a wonderful machine.