Panasonic DMR-EH55S DVD Recorder with 200 GB Hard Drive, HDMI, SD Card, and DV Input
Reasonable alternative to subscription DVRs (UPDATED 9/14/06)
Note: After a week, so far, so good.  Originally gave this 4 stars...would give it 4.5 if I could.  I was gonna drop the rating to 2 or 3 stars if the TV Guide features did not work well, but I'm getting to like it a lot.<br /><br />Why did I buy this product?<br /><br />1) Picture quality.<br />It was time to upgrade my DVD player.  I heard HDMI capable players did a pretty good job of \\"up-converting\\" DVD pictures to close to HD quality.  It also supports digital audio (TOSLINK) to my A/V receiver, which does not have HDMI.<br /><br />VERDICT (UPDATED): Very Good.<br /><br />- Recently got and installed HDMI (to TV) and optical digital audio (TOSLINK to A/V receiver).<br /><br />On HDMI Video, my father had claimed his Panasonic does a nice up-convert job. It is a *slight* improvement over component video, but it does a nice job.  My test case was \\"War of the Worlds\\", which is shot a bit rough and grainy.  Picture was much better on HDMI and new DVD player.  Ditto for 2nd test case, anniversay DVD of \\"JAWS\\".<br /><br />On digital audio, can't say the TOSLINK is any better than my coaxial digital, but it handles 5.1 surround from DTS or Dolby Digital very well (it also looks cool - red fiber optic - and sure beats old analog Dolby which is what I had to put up w/ temporarily).<br /><br />P.S. at my father's recommendation I got HDMI and TOSLINK A/V cables online at prices about 1/3 to 1/5 what you might pay in stores for \\"name brand\\" cables.  I must say he was right.  The cables were very good quality and they work perfectly.<br /><br />P.P.S. (off topic) it was a challenge to figure out how to enable the HDMI input on my Mitsubishi WD-52525 on my own.  Mitsubish TV support was *very good* (as has always been my experience).<br /><br />2) Free TIVO or TIVO-like service.<br />My cable company is rich enough.  The idea of paying an extra $21 / mo (cable box / dvr, digital service fee, dvr fee) as an \\"improvement\\" do recording stuff to my old DVD player/recorder was not appealing.  Panasonic unit uses the *free* TV Guide service.<br /><br />VERDICT: Good, unless you just *have* to have TIVO<br /><br />- I have many friends who have and *swear* by TIVO; from what I have seen, it has a nice remote, great interface, including the \\"sliding time bar\\" feature (you TIVO guys know what I'm talking about).  You TIVO addicts will find the interface and functions lacking in the TV-Guide / Panasonic combo.  In fact, many rental DVRs from cable companies don't stack up well to TIVO either.<br /><br />- *However*, as long as your cable operator passes along the TV-Guide signal to your DVR, I have found the *free* TV-Guide programming service is pretty good (I have Cox Cable and it works fine w/ TV-Guide).  For the first time, I can search for all Sci-Fi movies for the week and decide if I want to record some of all of them to the hard drive, then burn to DVD if I want to keep them.  Also, watching playback / fast forwarding / skipping commercials is definitely easier w/ something recorded to hard disk than a DVD+/-RW.<br /><br />3) Home video use and format compatibility<br />- My old DVD recorder uses DVD+R and DVD+RW; I have some old VHS to DVD home movies and wanted something that could still play them and I wanted to be able to still use my remaining DVD+R and /RW discs.<br />- I have also multiple digital video / picture cameras - some using MiniDV and some using mini SD cards.  I wanted the option of transferring recordings to DVD w/o necessarily having to do use my PC all the time.<br /><br />Verdict: Very Good..so far (partially Incomplete)<br /><br />- I watched my old DVD +R home movies and they work just fine (whew!).  Apparently this handles, DVD-RAM, DVD+/-R, and DVD +/-RW.  This also supports recording for the hard drive to dual layer +/- DVDs....so pretty much all the current bases are covered, format-wise.<br /><br />- Have not tried the Firewire or SD card inputs yet, but as with my old DVD recorder, I expect no problems w/ transfer and recording to DVD.  Apparently, you can also do some minor editing on the hard disk source prior to burnign to DVD...usually this is kludgey, but nice to have once you learn how to do it.  Makes for better home movie archives w/o \\"junk\\".<br /><br />Any downsides?<br /><br />- HDTV on my 52\\" is stunning;  non HD signals vary from poor to mediocre (good enough).  This unit does not have an HD tuner and total time would be limited (even w/ 200GB HD).  This is most notable on sports event where HD is stunning.  On standard digital cable,  the results are good enough (for now).<br /><br />- Every DVD remote should have a button to instantly access the top menu.<br /><br />OVERALL:<br />This unit is great if your needs are like mine above and you are not a TIVO fanatic.  I paid $420 for this unit, which is fair value (aside from the DVD playback, the other functions will probably pay for themselves in about 8-10 mos. - faster if I end up not buying 2-3 DVD movies because I was able to find / record them using this unit).<br /><br />I expect prices may continue to drop.  If you could ever get it for about $100 less, it would be a great deal and that alone could warrant 5 starts vs. 4.  If my TV-Guide experience over the long haul is bad (i.e. incorrect timing, problem w/ updated information), then this would drop to 2-3 stars.<br /><br />Wild card: cable companies have been rumored to be working on playing back recordings from a single DVR to any TV in the house.  This would be a nice capability that would really threaten commercial-based TV and gives really lets you watch what you want, when you want, how you want.  Duplicating this yourselve would currently require a lot of know-how and $$$$.  This would give DVR rental a unique benefit...Of course, this capability would be only available to cable customers for another \\"additional fee\\"... ;-)is is kludgey, but nice to have once you learn how to do it.  Makes for better home movie archives w/o \\"junk\\".    Any downsides?    - HDTV on my 52\\" is stunning;  non HD signals vary from poor to mediocre (good enough).  This unit does not have an HD tuner and total time would be limited (even w/ 200GB HD).  This is most notable on sports event where HD is stunning.  On standard digital cable,  the results are good enough (for now).    - Every DVD remote should have a button to instantly access the top menu.    OVERALL:  This unit is great if your needs are like mine above and you are not a TIVO fanatic.  I paid $420 for this unit, which is fair value (aside from the DVD playback, the other functions will probably pay for themselves in about 8-10 mos. - faster if I end up not buying 2-3 DVD movies because I was able to find / record them using this unit).      I expect prices may continue to drop.  If you could ever get it for about $100 less, it would be a great deal and that alone could warrant 5 starts vs. 4.  If my TV-Guide experience over the long haul is bad (i.e. incorrect timing, problem w/ updated information), then this would drop to 2-3 stars.    Wild card: cable companies have been rumored to be working on playing back recordings from a single DVR to any TV in the house.  This would be a nice capability that would really threaten commercial-based TV and gives really lets you watch what you want, when you want, how you want.  Duplicating this yourselve would currently require a lot of know-how and $$$$.  This would give DVR rental a unique benefit...Of course, this capability would be only available to cable customers for another \\"additional fee\\"... ;-)