Panasonic PV-HS1000 ShowStopper Digital Video Recorder

Other products by Panasonic

Product Details

Product Manual [2.54mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 17 x 3.1 inches ; 12.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 20 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004TKHY
• Item model number: PV-HS1000
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Review
Panasonic's PV-HS1000 ShowStopper allows you to store up to 20 hours of TV programming while eliminating the need for videotapes. The PV-HS1000 incorporates Replay's TV server technology and free onscreen program guide. The ShowStopper offers an assortment of special features, including an advanced programmable remote control with a Replay Zones button that makes it very easy to find the shows you want to record.

For those unfamiliar with the concept of television servers, the ShowStopper records programs digitally and stores the information on a hard disk drive, so you can watch them at your convenience.

Panasonic offers four choices for recording quality, enabling you to manage storage space more efficiently. The lowest setting, extended, rivals VHS in terms of picture resolution, while freeing up the full 20 hours of hard disk space.

One of the coolest features on the ShowStopper is the ability to pause a live broadcast and resume watching it if you're interrupted. When you utilize this feature the hard drive acts as a buffer by storing the show in memory so you can pick up the program where you left off. A return to live button on the remote allows you to skip forward to real time, which is great if you're watching a sporting event and you wish to catch up to the live action.

There's also an instant replay button on the remote that allows you to review portions of a show or sporting event in seven- second increments, so you're not limited to reviewing only a brief segment. We loved Replay's QuickSkip feature, which allows you to instantly jump ahead 30 seconds, so you can skip through TV commercials on prerecorded programs.

Replay's onscreen guide, which is downloaded nightly while you're asleep, appears with a blue background and white characters that are very readable. We also like the Replay Zones, which make it very easy to find programs that suit your tastes by searching according to genre. Replay separates programming into a wide variety of categories, from action and romance movies to cooking and home improvement shows. Replay also offers a Search Zone that allows you to input keywords and search terms, such as "Mr. Smith," using the remote control and an onscreen keypad.

If you wish to save a particular prerecorded show, you can record it onto a VCR using the back-panel outputs. We were impressed by Panasonic's inclusion of two sets of audio-video inputs and outputs, as well an S-Video input and output. This enables users to hook up a DSS or other direct-broadcast satellite receiver to the ShowStopper, along with a VCR as an output device.

One neat feature we really like is the ability to place the ShowStopper in quiet mode simply by turning it off. This keeps the server from automatically recording shows to the hard drive, conserves power, and keeps the hard disc from spinning, thereby keeping the recorder cool and noise free. If you happen to be recording a show when you turn the PV-HS1000 off, it will continue to record, then shut down once the show is finished and stored in the hard drive.

Connecting the ShowStopper to our home theater system took less than 15 minutes. Panasonic thoughtfully provides a poster-size chart to guide users through setup without opening the manual. If you have an open phone jack, we recommend using it. Otherwise, you can use the supplied splitter to connect the recorder to an existing line. (You do not need a dedicated phone line, since Replay's programming updates take place in the early morning hours, for only a few minutes each night.)

Dialing into Replay to download the free programming guide was much easier than we expected; one major advantage to Replay is that it doesn't charge any monthly service fee for downloading the program guide.

We like the fact that Replay's service is nonintrusive. After all, the whole concept of personal TV servers is intended to liberate viewers so they can watch the programs they prefer, whenever they feel like it. Panasonic's PV-HS1000 ShowStopper is designed to make it as easy as possible for customers to find the programs they like and to record them for future enjoyment.

Pros:

• 20-hour hard drive capacity
• Easy to navigate onscreen guide
• Intuitive remote control
• Free programming guide

Cons:

• No internal fan to cool unit

Amazon.com Product Description
Ever consider how great it would be to control live TV? Well, now you can, with the Panasonic ShowStopper hard disk recorder. You can record up to 20 hours of programming on the PV-HS1000's high-capacity hard disk drive using either the VCR-style manual record feature or easy one-touch recording. Pad each show's beginning and/or end record time with a few extra minutes using the show extender setting. And access ReplayTV listings to create your own theme channels. Once you experience TV on your terms with the ShowStopper hard disk recorder, you'll never go back to ordinary TV viewing.

Use the ShowStopper's included universal remote control to pause and rewind live television. QuickSkip gives you the opportunity to skip ahead 30 seconds in a recorded show. Plus, during either a live broadcast or a recorded show you can use the instant-replay feature to jump back seven seconds and watch those once-in-a-lifetime moments over and over again. The slow motion/single frame advance features give you amazing control over specific scenes: watch live television or recorded shows in slow motion, or skip forward a single frame at a time. Quickly return to the live TV broadcast by simply pressing the fast-forward, QuickSkip, or return-to-live keys.

The PV-HS1000 gives you up to 20 hours in extended record mode, and MPEG2 compression technology makes it possible to record programs with exceptionally high quality. Multiple record modes (extended, medium, high) give you the option to maximize disk space or maximize picture quality. VCR-style manual recording allows you to program your ShowStopper hard disk recorder in a more traditional fashion. Record any channel for any length of time all the way out to the year 2100.

The ShowStopper hard disk recorder can display the shows currently available on your TV system, thanks to convenient onscreen listings from ReplayTV. It's simple to record any of the listed shows: just aim the universal remote control, scroll down the list to the program(s) you want to save, and hit the record button. Hit it twice, and your show will be recorded every time it's on. No need to input start times, end times, or even the channel. To confirm your choices, just consult the onscreen channel guide. A single red dot will appear next to a show being recorded once, while two dots indicate that the show will be recorded every time it's on (limit of seven episodes on hard disk drive).

Don't miss the pregame interviews or overtime in your favorite sports event anymore. You can easily use the show extender feature to "pad" extra record time in one-minute increments, up to four hours before and/or after a particular show.

Every night while you sleep, the ShowStopper updates seven days' worth of program listings from the ReplayTV service. You can access these easy-to-read listings right on your TV screen. Replay Zones guide you through many types of programming: select from sitcoms, news, movies, and many other Replay Zones of your choice. Best of all, this whole channel guide costs you nothing--the ReplayTV service comes free with the ShowStopper.

Create your own personalized theme channels based on your favorite themes or specific shows. To access them, use the universal remote control to select the "keyword" that recalls your personal theme. The ReplayTV service will scan seven days worth of listings to find programming that meets your search criteria. For example, you can create theme channels for "food" or "baseball," or even some for your favorite TV show or actor.

The new ShowStopper on-creen displays look and work better than ever. New marquee-scrolling displays in the channel guide and large, easy-to-read pop-up menus make text easy to read. Plus, with new translucent channel guides, you'll see why the ShowStopper hard disk recorder is clearly the system for you.

The ShowStopper hard disk recorder is compatible with alsomost any type of TV delivery service available today--cable, direct satellite systems, or even a standard antenna. Connection to a phone line is required, and telephone charges may apply in certain select areas.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Tool for Competent Television Watching, July 4, 2001

By A Customer

I was paying $... a month for my cable connection, but I never knew when things were on and I had an appalling habit of flipping endlessly around the channels. Every time I happened upon the shows I liked, nauseating waves of commercials would intrude. I had Bravo which showed great films, but the commercials ruined them. Now, with Showstopper, I can watch TV competently. I turn on the TV and can immediately get to a nice list of shows that I've preselected, including the late night comedy things that came on after I fell asleep. I can select from the list, even pause partway through, watch something else, then come back to the very point where I left off. With one button, I can leap over the commercials. What a relief this thing is! I love it! If I miss a what it was that made the audience suddenly laugh, I can hit the replay button and get it, even when I'm watching a show live. If someone needs to talk to me, even in the middle of a live show, I can pause, talk and go right back. We used to say, save you're comments till the commercial, now we can talk whenever we want and then go back to the show. You can control your own time, which is a really enjoyable power that TV normally deprives you of. This is a great improvement over making VCR recordings: you don't have to find a tape to put in, you don't have to worry that you run out of tape (though you might run out of space on the hard drive, you have much more room), all your recorded shows appear on a nice list displayed on screen so you can scroll and click your choices, programming is easy and intuitive, it finds all the shows in the schedule for you. The downloaded schedule comes in every night ("while you sleep" they say, not accounting for nightowls and insomniacs!) and lets you search more than a week ahead. It has a function that lets you search the schedule for all shows in particular categories (e.g., classic comedy movies, letterboxed movies, shows about animals) and you can use the cursor to spell out categories that you want to find (e.g., everything with Claude Rains). It comes with a 15-minute instruction video featuring the most normal man in the man in the world sitting in the most normal living room in the world with the most normal wife in the world calling to him from off-camera--I found rather touching that Panasonic put so much thought into trying to create a feeling of peace and reassurance and quite funny that they choose exactly this guy to create that feeling. At the same time, I learned a lot. My TV competence level has skyrocketed with Showstopper. This is probably the coolest electronic device I've ever bought. Am I sorry I didn't pay another $... and gotten the one with more memory? Maybe. I figured these things will get cheaper and with more and more memory. The more expensive one will seem small by future standards, so why not save $...? But if this one isn't available, go for the better one. I do think this is better than Tivo, because of the monthly fee. I haven't compared all the features of the two machines, but mine has just great features and has been a great pleasure to use.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You control what's on when? Second only to the power of god., December 31, 2000

By	Jeb B (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

I wanted a TiVO, but santa brought me one of these instead. After setting it up and using the showstopper, I'm very happy without the TiVO. The menus are easier to use, themes make finding interesting shows a snap, the medium and high record quality is excellent (on my 53" TV, even), and you don't have subscription fees to worry about.

Perhaps the best feature is to "pause" your viewing of live tv for 15-20 minutes, then as you watch a ball game (or show, movie, etc.), you just fast forward through the commercials! That's like cheating!

Also, for the electronically inclined, the unit's storage can be upgraded substantially, at the cost of your warranty.

All in all, a great product, I'm very glad to have it!

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Replay Vs. Tivo, October 29, 2001

By	Scott A. Zacherau (Fairfax, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After using both products I have to call the Replay the winner. Both products are great but I feel the Replay wins overall. First the Replay's manual is much better then the Tivo's. It is easy to follow and the large pictures include many different setup options to choose from. The record options in the OS are perfect. Add the fact that Tivo charges a monthly fee and it is no contest. Finally I had to call Panasonic due to a very old Cable Box. They answered the phone with a human in less then two minutes (I called three times over two days to test) and knew exactly how to control the old cable hardware. Both Replay and Tivo are good but if you are on the fence I would suggest the Replay.