Panasonic DMRE85HS Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive Recording
Great unless it breaks!
PART 1 -- SERVICE: One of the biggest factors for me in purchasing an expesive piece of electronics like this is service. On that point, I have to give Panasonic a ZERO. <br /> <br />There must be a LOT of these breaking because the parts have been back-ordered for mine for 60 days and they tell me it will be another 30 days until the parts come in. <br /> <br />So, let's do the math... you have a one-year warrantee, but if it fails, you don't get to use it for 3 months of that one year. Assuming the parts come in when they say they will. Ouch! <br /> <br />PART 2 FEATURES: <br /> <br />It's a great machine when it works. The TV guide listing, while not as powerful as TIVO is really nice if you don't need all of TIVO's features. You can edit out commercials fairly easily. Entering titles is a pain, however on a remote control (nothing beats a keyboard and that is simply not an option on this machine). The harddrive holds plenty of shows, but be sure you back things up you want to keep to DVD (see bad service part, above). <br /> <br />PART 3 VHS CONVERSION: <br />This thing rocks at converting old VHS (or, in my case, old BETA) tapes to DVD. The quality on SP is great and the TBC does a great job. <br /> <br />PART 4 PROBLEMS: <br />WAY too many false positives saying that a show is copy-protected. I had to get a MACRO remover to copy some of my 20-year-old BETA tapes that were filmed by me! In short, if the machine says you don't have a right to copy a video -- even if the call is WRONG! -- it simply won't let you burn it to DVD. So, I plunked down another two-hundred bucks for a good external TBC and MACRO remover. Problem solved. <br /> <br />PART 5 CONCLUSION: <br />If you're like me and need to preserve those old tapes before they degrade any further, it's a great machine. Don't expect reliability, however, nor good service. I can only give it two stars because a 4 for the machine, averaged with a 0 for service and reliabilty, equals a pathetic score of 2...