Panasonic DMR-E80H (80 GB) DVD Recorder

I bought this DVD Recorder as a replacement for my VCR. I have a 65" Widescreen TV and found it unbearable to watch an old cassette tape. I also wanted an easy way to archive content easily off of my Tivo. I debated long and hard about purchasing a recorder now with the very high price, or waiting a year for lower prices and more features. I decided to splurge and am so glad I did.

Setup
Initial setup was a piece of cake. The unit has 3 inputs and 3 outputs so there was plenty of places to hook up my devices. I am only using the L1 (Line 1) inputs to archive content from my Tivo, but this unit has another input in the back and another in the front. You can also hook up your coax cable from the wall to the unit and use it like a Tivo. It doesn't have all of the features of a Tivo, but you can set it up to record your favorite programs at specified times. I was up and recording my first program in about 15 minutes.

Use
Basic use is pretty easy to learn. The unit works just like a VCR on steroids so all the basic functions of play, record, ff, rw, etc operate as expected. This unit can record directly to the hard drive or to a DVD, but I haven't recorded directly to a DVD yet and don't plan to. You can't edit the content once it's on a DVD like you can when it is recorded to the hard drive. Editing the recorded content took some getting used to. I was able to perform frame-by-frame editing to seamlessly edit out commercials and other unwanted content. Performing some of the advanced functions wasn't easy. The manual is very poorly written and has a lot of *Notes* which need to be read to understand what the unit is capable of doing. I have written 4 DVDs so far and each one performs flawlessly in all of my DVD players. I was very impressed when I was able to choose from 9 different menu styles for navigation.

Pros
The best thing about this unit is the editing capabilities. I can't do transitions or mix sound tracks like I can in Adobe Premiere, but for a stand alone unit the editing is sufficient. I can create play lists combining scenes from several different recordings, go forward/back by 1 frame at a time, and add chapter points anywhere I want. The unit has plenty of inputs and outputs to hook up your various devices and it even outputs in Progressive Scan. For my purpose of archiving Tivo content the unit is perfect.

Cons
The most notable is the supported media. It only supports DVD-R and DVD-Ram. DVD-R media is widely compatible so that isn't a big deal, but the lack of DVD RW supports sucks. There are only a handful of DVD players and DVD writers for the computer that support the Ram format. The manual is also poorly written. There are features that are supported/unsupported based on the recording or media, and you won't know these things unless you read all of the *Notes* in the manual. The unit will only allow dubbing from DVD-Ram to the hard drive and not from DVD-R to the hard drive. This means if I wrote a cool DVD and a friend wants a copy I cannot copy it directly. If I had it on a Ram disc I could copy it back to the hard drive or play it through my DVD player and re-record it. This is pretty stupid in my view and don't know why I can't copy a DVD-R back to the hard drive.

Conclusion
I am very happy with my purchase. The unit has exceeded all of my expectations in terms of quality, features, and performance. Models in a year or two will have a lot more features for a lower cost, but I didn't want to wait. I recommend this to anyone who wants to archive content in a convenient format. If you have a HD TV this unit is a must!