Pioneer DVR-633H-S (160 GB) DVD Recorder

I have "taped" a number of shows with the DVR-633H-S to the HD and for the most part I'm happy. But the TV Guide thing is for crap. It is suppose to pick up all the information from your cable box so that recording is simply "click on the program." But it hasn't/doesn't work that way with my cable system. (Comcast, which has TV Guide.) I'm able to change the cable box's channels with the remote from the Pioneer, but all the TV Guide info doesn't appear in the DVR-633H-S fields.

The MOST frustrating thing that I haven't been able to get a handle on is this: When recording on certain channels--Turner Classic Movies is the most problematic--the audio drops out completely for about 10 minutes!! It usually happens around an hour into a show (which really sucks) and then it mysteriously pops back on again. If I'm watching the show while taping, I can fix the problem by quickly switching to another channel and then back to TCM, but I've lost a number of opportunities to record some films because of this problem.

The good news is that when a recording to the hard drive works properly, the quality is excellent. And it's easy to clean up front and back ends of a recording when copying to DVD.

Once you get the hang of the various menus/buttons, it is quite user friendly to program. Since my goal is to replace boxes of video tapes of movies with newer off-the-air recordings, I would have to give this device high marks. If only the problem with the audio drop-outs could be fixed (and that pesky TV Guide issue), I'd sing the praises of the DVR-633H-S from on high.