Panasonic DMR-E55S Progressive Scan DVD Recorder / Player , Silver
Dosen't meet my needs, but possibly worth considering
I bought and returned this unit from a different retailer.  I didn't spend a lot of time with it, but my thoughts might still be useful. <br /> <br />The deal breakers for me were the following: This unit doesn't remember your current position in a show when switch to a different show, or when you turn the unit off.  To use this, I would literally have to write down where in a show I was before I stopped watching, and then fast forward through the show to get to the same spot.  Also, I wanted to be able to watch the shows I recorded on PC.  It turns out DVD-RAM is VERY incompatible with most drives.  None of my DVD-ROM or DVD-RW drives in any of my computers were able to read the discs, which for me was important.  (I wanted to be able to watch shows in different locations). <br /> <br />Other negative stuff: <br />This unit, like a VCR, doesn't record a scheduled show unless it's turned off.  That makes no sense, because the unit is capable of recording a show while it plays back.  Sony's DVD recorders, for example, don't force you to turn the unit off before it records. <br />On that note-the image of the show being played back seems to \\"jump\\" forward-sort of like it has a bad frame rate, if a show is being recorded at the same time.  That said, the feature is at least sort of useable. <br />I wasn't thrilled with the image quality.  I think it's possibly better than Tivo, but the colors to me looked a little washed out-not bad though. <br />This unit, like all stand alone DVD recorders, doesn't really have that much recording time.  To get good quality you have to increase the quality setting, which drastically reduces the amount of recording time you have.  I discovered that on some days I wouldn't really have enough recording time on a DVD-RAM disc to grab all the shows I want at the quality settings I want. <br /> <br />Also, I don't like the unit's interface.  I've used Tivo, which is of course much, much easier to use, but I even preferred the Sony VCR thiswas supposed to replace.  Brining up menus feels slow, the directional buttons aren't very responsive, and menus to me don't feel very intuitive. <br /> <br />This probably sounds pretty negative, but aside from the top two points, this seems like a pretty nice unit (and Amazon's price is certainly good).  The unit allows you to set 16 shows to be recorded, and the interface for that is pretty solid.  (My old VCR only let you set it for 8 shows, which isn't enough for me).  You can also give shows you record a name-like if you record \\"Lost\\" every week, you can give it that name, so that it shows up by name in the list of shows on your DVD-RAM disc.  Entering names is a pain, but worth it for repeating shows.  The menu screen for selecting recorded shows is sort of neat-in addition to the time, station, (and optionally the name), it displays a video clip of the beginning of currently selected recording.  The response time for the menu is a little sluggish though. <br />The unit seems solidly built, and is fairly quiet when in operation (and dead silent when you switch it off-unlike Tivo). <br /> <br />It doesn't meet my needs, but it's worth considering!