Customer Reviews

Panasonic DMRE85HS Progressive-Scan DVD Player/Recorder with 120 GB Hard Drive Recording

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(21)

 

 

You should read the manual to get all the best features of this machine.
You can high speed burn a 2hr show recorded in SP mode in 20 min or less on a 4X DVD-R disc.
You have to turn this feature on before recording the show.
That is so the show is recorded onto the hard drive in a format that can be high speed burned.
You can record 29 hours of shows onto the hard drive in SP mode.
The only two recording modes that have good picture quality are XP and SP. It is recommended to record the show in SP if you want to burn to a DVD because it has a better chance of being playable on other DVD players after it is FINALIZED.
The DVDs I have made have played fine on my Playstation 2 and the DVD player on my computer.
Some great features of this machine are DIVIDE TITLE and SHORTEN
DIVIDE TITLE lets you take shows that were recorded together at the same time and divide them into individual pieces so you can burn them to separate discs.
SHORTEN allows you to cut out commercials. It is easy to use.
There is screen that the show plays on that you can fast forward, rewind and pause.
When the show goes to a commercial you press Pause and and then press Enter.
This selects the start time.
Fast forward through the commercials til right before the show is back on.
Press Pause and press Enter .
This selects the end time.
Press Enter to SHORTEN.
This cuts out the segment between the start point and the end point, removing the commercials.
Continue to do this till all the commercials are removed.

You can name each episode of a show and also name your DVDs too.
You can watch a show you have recorded while the machine records another show.
You can watch a DVD while the machine records a show.
You can watch a show from the beginning while it is being recorded.
If you don't want a show any more just delete it. This increases the memory so you can record more shows on the hard drive. Cutting commercials out also increases your recording time.
You can connect a VCR to the machine and record shows to the hard drive if the tape isn't copyright protected.
You can record shows from a DVD if the DVD isn't copyright protected

The TV guides only works if you leave the machine off for 24 hours so it can download the program guide.
This isn't a real problem if you MANUALLY PROGRAM in the shows you want to record during that time.
The machine will record these shows even when it is off.
You can only program 8 days in advance if you use the TV Guide.
Manually programming your shows works best.
I have 13 shows programmed to record on my machine.
There is no limit to how many shows you can program in manually.
Just made sure there is enough room on the hard drive to record them all.

LIMITATIONS OF THIS MACHINE:
You can only burn to DVD-R and DVD-RAM discs.
DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+RAM WILL NOT WORK.
The TV guide system will not work with TV Guide On Screen Systems broadcast by Satelite.


If you program in 2 shows where one show starts at the same time the other show ends the machine will stop recording 15 seconds before the first show ends and will start recording 15 seconds after the other show begins. This is on page 21 of the manual.
If the 2 shows come on the same channel, programming the show in manually will bypass this problem.
Here is an example:
You have 2 shows that come on channel 10 from 8PM-9PM and from 9PM-10PM.
Programming the machine to record from 8PM-10PM solves this problem.

If the shows come on different channels you can record the shows yourself by pressing record when the show starts and stop when the show ends. Then switching to the other channel and pressing record.

You can not burn a show to a disc when the machine is recording a show.
You can not edit a show when the machine is recording a show.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
If the power goes out at your home due to lighting or the machine displays a error message.
You will have to press and HOLD the POWER button on the machine itself for 10 seconds.
The machine will test itself and restart.

If you have a CABLE BOX the machine come with a IR BLASTER it plugs into the back of the machine.
The other end has a electronic eye that is placed in front of the cable boxes electronic eye.
Follow the instructions when you set up the machine and the IR BLASTER will make your cable box change to the channel you want when you use the DVD RECORDER REMOTE or when you have a show programmed to record.

If you have a TV that only has coaxial hookup in the back and no red, white and yellow plugs you will have to buy a RF Modulator to use this machine.

Even with these limitations this machine is a great buy.
I have burned 75 DVDs with this machine and haven't had any problems yet.

Although purchased elsewhere, here are my notes on the device so people can decide if it's for them. My observations should also apply to similar Panasonic Hard Disk Drive DVD Recording units.

GOOD
* Programs can be recorded to hard drive at best quality for MANY times longer than allowed by a tape-based VCR. Although promoted as being able to record for 213 hours (in EP mode), 26hr. (XP) and 52hr. (SP) modes have the most acceptable quality. Anything with lots of detail or motion recorded below SP mode has noticeable distortion (blurry, blocky images.)
* Material can be edited out of a recording (shorten) and recordings can be split into separate segments.
* Programs recorded to hard drive can be edited and transfered to DVD while maintaining original quality (using high speed mode dubbing and using 4X DVD-R media)
* TV guide listings are free (but come with a BIG tradeoff, see BAD below.) When it does work, however, selecting a program to record from the listing is very easy.
* TV listings can be sorted by type, alphabetically, genre, etc. and then chosen for recording.
* A program can be watched from the beginning while it is still being recorded (time slip), or watch previously recorded programs while the unit is recording.
* Some customization is offered in making DVD-Rs: set index points, chapters, image thumbnails, several standard menu looks (the latter is chosen when "finishing" a disc.)
* The unit can record to rewritable discs, DVR-RAM media, although they can be hard to find.

Summation: the unit has long recording times, good editing features, and the ability to transfer to DVD-R or DVD-RAM without losing quality.


BAD
* The TV guide listings are free, but implemented so it is uncertain the listings will actually feed in. Put another way, actual use of the product prevents the TV listings feature from working. Here is why: The listing is taken from the broadcast signal twice a day at unknown times (depending on your zipcode, the actual station and its feed-in time varies greatly.) The unit must be OFF and NOT RECORDING during those times. If it is, then "No Listing" will appear in the schedule for days until the programming info is collected. Using the unit makes it questionable if the listings will feed in (and again, the feed in times are unknown.)
* The TV listings information is only as accurate as the listings service (the service used is from Gemstar/TV Guide.) The unit can't follow programs which change their time or have incorrectly listed times. You will sometimes need to visit a TV station's website for the most up to date program schedule, then set a manual recording so you won't miss it.
* It's not obvious how to back out of certain situations, like totally canceling out of the direct navigator or disc setting (try the TV Guide button there.)
* Some tasks, like manually recording or modifying programming info for a scheduled recording, have lots of steps and use arbitrarily chosen buttons. As an example of the latter, the functions for buttons named "blue" and "green" are not self explanatory!
* The manual is detailed but not put together well. You must thoroughly read it several times to understand how to do things: again, lots of steps, arbitrarily chosen and named buttons.

Summation: Be prepared for the TV listings not to work at times, manually set program recordings at times, and read the manual many times (keep it handy for a month or so at the beginning.)


NOTES
* DVD-R discs must be "finished" before they can work in other players.
* It takes about 15 minutes to transfer an hour of material from the hard drive to DVD-R (using high speed mode dubbing and 4X DVD-R media)
* To use high speed mode dubbing, enable that option before recording anything.
* When making DVD-R discs, only titles (not chapters) will have thumbnails in the main menu.
* A DVD-RAM disc acts like a smaller, removable version of the built-in hard disk drive.
* Manual recordings can only be named after they have finished recording, not beforehand when setting a manual recording.


CLOSING THOUGHTS
Only buy this unit if you are prepared for the TV listings not working at times, accept that manual recordings will have to be made, and double-check a TV station's Website to be sure the listing information is correct.

If you are not OK with this, hold off purchasing this model (and similar ones) to buy future models which CAN load TV listings when the unit is on or currently recording.

I have used the previous model E80H for almost a year with no problems and bought this new model E85HS as soon as it became available. I should add, I bought both DVRs right here at Amazon.com and have not had any problems at all. I did read the manual before I unpacked the unit as I do with anything complex. This model is more intuitive than most but knowing idiosyncrasies like the reset button mentioned in an earlier review are important to know. You can also do some things the manual doesn't cover like record from a DVD to the hard-drive. Like all consumer DVRs it will not copy a copy protected DVD which is just about all US releases. However, copying a personal VHS tape is a breeze. It is easy to do edits and make a very useable menu for your DVD version.

The programming function is also simple to use. I programmed 16 different TV shows to be recorded while I was on a five week trip and it recorded them all perfectly. I highly suggest you use the SP speed so instead of 284 hours of theoretical recording time you really have about 55 to 95 hours max which is still great! I only use the fastest XP speed when it is important to see fine details (i.e. swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated video;-) or I am going to make a permanent copy of a less than 2 hour program to a DVD-R. Then by using the variable speed recording choice I end up with the best possible DVD-R copy. With Panasonics filters the finished copy can indeed look better than the original source but do not expect miracles. I often use DVD-RAM for temporary storage of programs I do not want the rest of the family to see and the high speed transfer is a great convenience. Playback is excellent even with an older TV but your TV works with progressive scan this model will display a very high quality image indeed. This new model plays a wider variety of VCDs (the E80H did reasonable well) and it you like to play music through your TV entertainment center it play CDs and CD-Rs fine.

I have found the DVD-Rs to be viewable in a wide variety on DVD players as I am the one that converts the family movies to DVD-R and distribute them all over the country. I also sell some travel movies I made on my website and have not had any returned. No coasters and between my two units I have made well over 100 DVD-Rs. I have only used name brand blank DVD-R and DVD-RAM disks, so that probably has been a factor.

Features like time-slip and one button switch to TV only makes viewing a pleasure. Yes, you can really watch a program while still recording it or watch a different program from the hard drive or DVD tray. The remote control takes a while to get used to but has it all at your fingertips.

Enjoy!

I have thought about buying a DVD recorder for sometime, but always wanted one with a hard drive. The costs were prohibitive compared to other options, however. After my VCR finally broke, I couldn't decide whether to replace it or go for the gold and buy a recorder.

I did some research, including Consumer Reports, and based upon features, capacity, and price purchased the Panasonic E85HS. Before it arrived I downloaded the manual (PDF format) and read it from front to back. When it arrived, it took only a couple of minutes to set-up and twelve hours to download the TV Guide (note: As much as I wanted to use it immediately, I follow the set-up instructions). After that, I was off to the races and every day of use makes me a greater fan of this product.

The product is easy to use, provides many features (some I will probably never use), and gives me everything I wanted in a recorder and more. I wanted VCR+, on line TV Guide, a large storage capacity, and commercial skip - it has it all. The instruction manual is well written, easy to use, and provides plenty of pictures to help you through the first few days of use. You will need to reference the manual initially to learn how to take advantage of all the options and features.

So far there hasn't been one problem, and even more important, no frustrations. If it continues to perform like it has, I will be quite satisfied and one of the happiest campers around when football season starts.

My only warning to anyone buying this product is to follow the set-up instructions. If you do, I think you will also have a winner.

I bought this unit a couple months ago. I have to say I am extremely happy with it. One thing I was concerned about was fan noise, or the vibration coming from the unit during operation. I keep my TV and DVD player in a teakwood cabinet and if any of these components is prone to vibration then it will have the whole cabinet resonating, which can be an unnerving sound if, as is the case in my apartment, my desk is right next to the unit.

This unfortunately happened with the Pioneer DVR-510-H-S DVD recorder. When I set up the Pioneer and plugged it in I immediately heard continual fan noise and, worse, a sort of low level hum like a transformer, which permeated the room. I had to take the Pioneer back, which was unfortunate because otherwise I really liked the look and operation of that unit.

So when I brought the Pioneer back, it was back to the drawing board. I knew I wanted a DVD player with hard drive recording capacity, and that led me next to the Panasonic DMRE85HS. I read the reviews and would say they were positive on whole, and with no conspicuous mention of fan noise or excessive vibration, so I took the plunge. I saw the Panasonic at CompUSA for about $600 and I also saw them online at NewEgg.com for $485. I printed out the NewEgg.com ad and brought it into my CompUSA and showed it to the manager and he knocked $100 off the CompUSA price, so I got the unit for $500 (unfortunately plus 8% sales tax--thanks City of Atlanta!) and got to walk out with it that night.

Got it home and set it up but couldn't do much with it after running through the setup menu because you need to let it sit overnight (and several days would be even better) once you plug it into your cable, to enable the TV Digest programming to download. I've seen many complaints about this in the online reviews but I have to say it seems mainly to be a problem with people's patience rather than with the unit itself. If you leave the thing alone long enough when you first buy it and set it up (say, at least for 8 and as many as 24 hours) you will be well on your way to having most of the full 7 days of TV Guide programming info downloaded, or at least that was the case with my unit (of course, I don't have a cable box--my cable goes right into the wall). At that point, further downloading will just happen at night when you are not using the unit. Since those first few days of watching the programming gradually fill in, I have had no problems with missing programming info when I needed it.

Anyway, now that it is up and running, I LOVE the thing. I am not a huge tv watcher (I can spend as much time online as on TV) and one reason I often get irritated with TV is that you have to watch what THEY want, when THEY want you to, and sit through the commercials THEY want you to see. Well with this thing, I just go on the TV guide menu for instance, especially under the "SORT" command, under which all programming is listed alphabetically, and I go to the shows I know will be on and that I want to watch, and I tell the unit to record them, and then when I get home from work at night, I don't have to sit through Larry King or Bill O'Reilly or whoever--I can watch that episode of Apprentice that I really wanted to see or last night's The Daily Show, which comes on after I'm headed to bed. The fact that I never have to get up and insert a VHS cassette--i.e., the hard drive does it all, with the remote as teh control--well that's just awesome to me.

I've already recorded some shows that I thought my father, for instance, would enjoy, then burned those shows from the hard disc to a DVD-R, then brought the DVD disc over to my parent's house one night where we all watched the shows on their Phillips DVD player--all with no problem whatsoever.

This is cool too: I bought an extra-long S-video cable to hook my computer to the unit (it has an S-video input on the front panel) and then used my tv as a monitor while I worked on my computer. While I was working on the computer with the TV as monitor, fed through the Panasonic DVR, I hit "record" and the Panasonic's hard disk then started recording the monitor as I was working. In other words, all the movements of my mouse, my opening and closing of programs etc. Not sure just how practical this capacity is, but for instance, if you needed to show someone how to do something on the computer, you could create a DVD-R instruction video of the steps you take in operating a particular piece of software or in accomplishing a particular computer task (or create a video record of having done some particular thing on the computer if needed for work, for legal purposes, etc.).

All in all, from my perspective, I highly recommend the Panasonic DMRE85HS. Are their improvements that could be made to it? Absolutely. Someone mentioned that the "commercial skip" button is pre-set at a certain interval that doesn't always match the length of the commercial break. Yes, this is an inconvenience, but overall the commercial skip button is still a breathtakingly powerful and wonderful button for someone who's been at the mercy of commercials all his life. Someone else mentioned that you have to scroll through the program listings--that you can't just jump from one channel to another when you use them--which is true and an annoyance but not enough of one for me to hate this unit. And of course, as others have said, the manual is a bit confusing at times, but mainly in terms of finding the right page for your problem--once you find the right page, the instructions I think are fairly straightforward.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

After two weeks of trying to program the VCR so that the TV Guide downloads I finally had success and am now very pleased with the way the system works. My setup was simple as I did not have a cable box but the system just never downloaded the TV Guide even though I had left it off for an extended period, including two weeks while I went on vacation. The manual leads you to believe that the programs will download in 24 hours. In actuality it takes a week to download the 8 days of programming that the system stores. After the first week, you continue to retain 8 days of programming.

I was told by the Help Desk at TV Guide that the downloads occur faster if you leave the recorder on the "download" channel when you turn it off. The download channel is a big secret and can be obtained by calling TV Guide at 1-800-386-7380. Now that the 8 days are downloaded, the system is capable of downloading the TV Guide programming irrespective of what channel I leave the DVD Recorder on when I turn it off.

I have not tried any dubbing yet so I can not comment on this feature but I am very happy with my ability to use it in lieu of the VCR.

I should add that you can not delete a program while recording another program.

Would I but it again - absolutely I love it.

I had been researching HDD/DVD recorders for several months, and finally decided on this unit for five reasons:

1) TV Guide On Screen feature.
2) Panasonic's reliability record.
3) Adequate number of good reviews.
4) Unit is physically very compact.
5) Low price for what it does.

You must read the manual. Let me repeat: You must read the manual. So that my manual wouldn't get mutilated from excessive handling, I downloaded the pdf version from Panasonic's website. Actually did this prior to receiving the unit, so I could get a head start on knowing how to use it. If you're the type of person who hates reading manuals, this unit is not for you. A lot of functions and buttons are NOT intuitive. I'm guessing that most of the trouble people have with this unit is due to impatience and failure to read the manual.

This is like FOUR devices in one:

1) Records like a VCR, but without tape or discs.
2) Plays and records DVD's.
3) TV Guide provides TiVo-like capability.
4) Editing machine.

Hooking it up is straightforward following the diagrams provided. Some people report trouble with the TV Guide feature, but both its setup and usage were great for me. I should point out that I'm a techhead, so I have an aptitude for these things. Also, I have cable but no cable box, which simplifies the arrangement. For the initial TV Guide setup, you have to answer a few easy questions, such as: What's your zip code? Do you have a cable box? Then you must turn the unit off and LEAVE IT OFF for 24 hours so it can download the TV Guide listings. A few minutes after turning it off, I noticed that the clock had set automatically, which is a good sign. Any channels that aren't downloaded automatically can be entered manually. In my case, the only channel I noticed missing is a local public access channel which I never watch anyway.

Before you do any recording, make sure you turn on high speed dubbing, so that any copying done from HDD to DVD will happen quickly.

I find the TV Guide feature to be a huge improvement over manual programming or VCR Plus. Not as sophisticated as TiVo, although some users might actually find it easier than TiVo. An obvious limitation is that the listings only go for 8 days, but if you want to record something beyond that timeframe, information can be entered manually or via VCR Plus. Remember that although its scheduling isn't as advanced as TiVo, overall this unit does much more than TiVo.

Recording shows to the HDD (hard disk) is a joy! No more time spent aggrevating over which shows are on which tapes, no more endless rewinding and forwarding, and no more concern about accidentally recording over a favorite show. I've recorded several shows, and even though I used one of the slower speeds (LP), the quality is good. Once a recording is on the HDD, commercials and other unwanted segments can be removed (this is called "shorten"), with frame-by-frame precision if desired. A "title" (recording) can be renamed, and can be divided into chapters. And impressively, chapters can be combined. So if you break a chapter into two, but then decide you divided at the wrong place, just put them back together and split again. I'm building an "online" library on the HDD, which includes newly recorded shows as well as recordings transferred from VHS and eventually camcorder. Copying from VHS to HDD is easy and gives great results. Of course, since this unit can't play VHS directly, you'll need to connect a VCR to use for copying. I plan to do all my recording onto the HDD, and only transfer to DVD if it's something I want to save permanently, view somewhere else, or give to somebody.

Pressing one button on the remote takes you into the title list, which consists of a thumbnail picture of each recording on the disk. Underneath each thumbnail is the name and date of the recording, and conveniently, a recording can be renamed. Use the arrow buttons on the remote to scroll through the thumbnails, the press the enter button to watch your selection. If you prefer, the thumbnail display can be changed to a list format.

Transferring from HDD to DVD is fast and easy! Not surprisingly, the manual suggests Panasonic blank DVD's, but those are overpriced so I took a chance with off brand "Velocity" (from Amazon). So far, three successful DVD-R burns with no coasters! Discs must be finalized to play on other units, but prior to finalization, additional titles can be added. I don't see any reason to bother with DVD-RAM discs, as they cost more and have limited compatibility with other DVD players.

Like most remote controls, this one is less than what it should be. Because of its poor layout and small buttons, some tasks that should be doable with one hand require two hands.

Despite the remote's shortcomings, this device is remarkable! After using the TV Guide and the HDD, I can't imagine buying a DVD recorder that doesn't have both of those extremely useful features. Things have improved quite a bit since I bought my first VCR, for $700, back in 1982!

To Summarize:

- Pro
o Hard Disk revolutionizes the entire TV and video experience.
o Allows the user to have an "online" library of favorite recordings.
o Good picture and sound, even at lower LP speed.
o Impressive editing capability.
o TV Guide On-Screen.
o Inexpensive for what it does.
o Compact size.

- Con
o MUST read the manual.
o Requires time and patience to master.
o Some remote buttons are small, inconveniently placed, confusingly labeled.


I recommend!

PREVIOUS REVIEW....
I would love to give this machine a high rating because I think it probably deserves it but I just can't....at least not the unit that I got. The features are fantastic, the picture quality is great and the high speed dubbing is superb. The finalized DVD-R disc even played on my other DVD player that is only supposed to be able to play the +r/+rw discs. So why the 2-star rating? Well the darn thing would freeze up EVERY SINGLE DAY and had to be reset. One day it had to be reset 3 times. When I would try to use one of the menus like the navigator menu or the programming menu it would lock up at least once a day. A couple of times I had to go through the entire "initial setup" before it would work. Once it was reset it would always work great once again but it would only last until the next day. This was EXTREMELY aggravating and shouldn't happen right out of the box. I had a similar problem with a TiVo unit that I used to have and eventually it led to a hard drive failure so I'm not waiting around for that to happen. It also didn't download any of the TV Guide On Screen service information even after 6 days but that was something I could have lived with. Like I said in the title I'm pretty sure I just got a lemon. I'm sending it back and Amazon is sending me a new unit ASAP. Hopefully I can give the next unit the 4 or 5 stars that it deserves.

UPDATED REVIEW......
In my previous review for this item I suspected that I had probably received a lemon and my suspicions were correct. I first gave it 2 stars because it wasnt working correctly and I now give it 4 stars. After notifying Amazon about my defective machine they sent me a new one 2 days later and it works GREAT!!! I absolutely love the machine and have no problems with the new replacement. The only reason that I didn't give it 5 stars is because of it's limited disc format. You're only able to record on DVD-ram or DVD-R discs. The DVD-ram discs are great for re-recording, editing and even watching a show from the beginning while its still recording but they dont play on most other machines so you can't record something for a friend on this type of disc. If you want to record something to be played on another machine you can use the DVD-R discs but the only problem with that is they can't be re-used. Once you record on them and "finalize" the disc thats it. So I wish they had made it possible to use one of the "RW" discs which are more compatible on other machines than the ram discs. Other than that my only suggestion would be to make it possible to scroll faster or skip through the channel listings instead of having to scroll one channel at a time. You cant even hold the button down for continuous scroll, you have to hit the button to go through each channel on the listing page. One feature that is nice is that you can rearrange the channel listings in any order you want so that the channels you would most often like to check are right at the top of the list.

DVD Techie, your machine is doing almost exactly what my first one was doing. I would suggest that you return it and get a new one. When you run the setup make sure that you TURN THE MACHINE OFF FOR 24 HOURS like it says in the manual. I think this is an important step even though it also says that you can use the machine during this time period. Just turn it off and leave it for 24 hours and hopefully you wont have any problems. My new one works great and I love it.

Maybe not all owners are aware - so here is a quick tid bit. I had nothing but trouble with my new E85HS DVR. Response to the remote was sporadic, frequent hangups, required many resets. Essentially, it was unusable. Then I found out about a firmware upgrade that was available from the Japanese panasonic website. You burn this to CD (from your computer) then place it in the DVR. The dVR recognizes it for what it is and begings firmware upgrade. This fixed all of the problems I was having with the unit.
By the way, US Panasonic tech help will not tell you about this firmware (this was true as of 3/2004 when I purchased my unit).

I ordered the Toshiba RD-XS32 on Sunday, Jan. 30, and it was estimated to ship in one to two weeks. As excited as I get about having new electronics as soon as possible, I kept checking every day to see if it would ship early. I'm glad I checked back.

On Wednesday, Amazon unveiled their Prime service, so I once again looked at the other DVD recorders to see if any were cheaper, knowing that I could inexpensively get it quick with a Prime membership. Lucky for me, this one went down to $400 that day. I cancelled the Toshiba and ordered this one because I trust Panasonic with video equipment more than Toshiba, it has more space, and I could get it faster.

First of all, Prime is a wonderful service. After paying the $79 annual fee, I only had to pay $3.99 to get this one here by Friday (I ordered after the one-day deadline on Wednesday). It came very promptly and there were no problems with the shipment.

Now on to the recorder. My main intent for this product was to use the hard drive for everyday recording; I wasn't too concerned about the DVD capabilities. I basically wanted a VCR replacement, meaning I didn't need a guide to depend on - I know how to set a VCR.

120 GB is plenty of space. Even in the default recording mode (SP), it holds 55 hours. When watching broadcasts, the recording time left for the media selected is clearly shown on the display. That's much better compared to the 6 hour tapes I had to juggle before.

TV Guide - I gave it about 18 hours to download and it worked. Again, I bought it to manually program times, so it won't affect me too much if it quits working.

The guide has a few quirks: The default listing didn't sort in channel order. If this happens to you, you have to follow the directions under "Customizing the channel line up" on page 23 of the manual to fix the order. Also, the guide downloads all the channels your provider has to offer, meaning if you don't subscribe to the package with everything, you may have to deal with moving channels past a bunch of channels you don't have.

Helpful Hint: To move each of the channels you don't have to the bottom, select each unwanted channel and type position 999 and hit enter instead of using the green/blue buttons. After you have done that, then sort the channels you have using the green and blue buttons.

Also, while looking at the guide, the window that shows the current broadcast is by default set to change to the channel you are pointed to in the guide (meaning if you're originally on ESPN and want to see what's coming up on ABC, it will by default show ABC in the window while you're scrolling through the ABC listings.) You have to select "Last Channel" (the name itself) and press the blue button to "lock" the display window on the current channel.

If TV Guide doesn't provide listings for a channel, it won't be included in your channel lineup. The local sports channel on my cable network doesn't have listings in the TV Guide, so I couldn't get to it by using the channel up/down buttons - I had to type the number. I just took a random network I didn't have and assigned it to that channel number, even though the listings would be wrong.

Remote - compared to what the Toshiba's looked like, this one is well-designed. However, the most-used channel-changing buttons (the number pad and channel up/down) are smaller than on an average remote. Also, I don't think there is a previous channel/flashback button.

Noise - Overall, it is quiet, but I don't know exactly how the fan runs. It usually runs for two or three minutes after the machine is turned off, but after that, the fan seems to turn on and off randomly. It may be synchronizing the clock or updating the listings at those times.

Editing - Plain and simple: Read the instruction manual before trying anything. I accidentally deleted the actual show and left the commercials that were recorded just before and after because I wrongly assumed how the shorten feature worked.

DVD-R writing - I tested it using a Philips 1-8x DVD-R. Since I didn't turn on high-speed dubbing mode in the setup menu before recording the programs I dubbed, it wouldn't dub at high speed. I dubbed in SP mode, and it played fine on the Panasonic, our Sony downstairs, and the DVD+RW burner in our Dell computer.

I don't intend to use DVD-RAM unless I get another DVD-RAM recorder, since there is more than enough space on the hard drive.

Overall, I have experienced no problems that could have been avoided by reading the manual beforehand. It can get a little tedious to get all the channels in the order you want them, but when the guide works, it is very convenient.

I highly recommend this product.

DISC COMPATIBILITY UPDATE: IT IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH LIQUIDVIDEO 2x DVD-R's from Circuit City! It will reboot the machine and do a self-check. This occured once when one disc was put in and once when I tried dubbing to another disc.