Panasonic DMR-E100HS Progressive Scan DVD Player with 120GB Hard Disk
Great product, lousy manual
This is a feature-packed DVD recorder, and an excellent reason to retire your VCR. It's your only choice if you're looking for the ability to record to DVD coupled with Firewire input and a hard disk (to store and edit material). If you plan to do sophisticated editing, you'll be better off using PC or Mac-based DVD recording. But if you want the convenience of a dedicated set-top box that won't crash in the middle of a recording, this is the best choice for you.<br />However, if you don't already have a working knowledge of all the options and features available (various types of video filtering, setting up DVD menus, etc.), the manual and user interface are utterly cryptic. Many features and topics aren't even mentioned in the manual once.<br />If you want to do anything more sophisticated than using it like a VCR, plan on some trial and error (and plan on making a few coasters with your blank DVD-R media).