Will change your view
Written: Dec 13 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Most revolutionary gizmo since TV itself.
Cons: Can't see PPV on Direct TV
|
|
|
| rsimpson's Full Review: Panasonic PV-HS1000 (20.4 GB) 20-Hours Video Recor... |
I bought the Panasonic PVHS2000 because of ReplayTV reviews and the lack of a monthly fee for the program guide associated with TiVo. My comments are about the 30 hour model used with a DirectTV dish.
Basically, I think the hard disk recorder is the beginning of something so amazing you won't quite get it at first. It's changing the way my family watches TV. We no longer settle for what's on. We usually have several recorded shows on hand at any given moment. Surfing has been replaced by watching something you actually wanted to watch, without commercials.
Set up was tricky for me because I have an older TV that couldn't handle all the inputs I needed for a RePlay/DVD/Sat/Nintendo without buy additional equipment, but that was my TVs fault. If you're an AV geek you'll have no problems. If your TV is fairly new you shouldn't have any problems.
The recorders are sold by how long they can record when in the "entended mode". This is similar to the old VCR notion of LP/SLP. In the extended play mode, which will give you the most recording time, you'll occasionally notice minor pixelating in fast motion sences. But it's very minimal and shouldn't be a problem for the typical user. The recording time drops to about half in the slower record mode. The 30 hour model for my wife and I seems like a good amount of space. We records several shows every week and still have over 15 hours left to play with. If you have a larger family or don't watch things soon after recording, requiring storage, a larger model might be better.
The channel guide is pretty good and much better than TiVo's guide in my opinion. One downside of using with DirectTV is that it can't see what is actually on the PPV channels, but their working on it. The solution is that to see what's on PPV you use your DirectTV remote.
Everyone understands that RePlay let's you pause live TV and record shows automatically. My favorite feature, however, is the Replay Themes. Basically, RePlay sorts a week worth of TV into themes--shows about football, soccer, finance, 5 star movies, documentaries, comedies, dramas, Mel Gibson, NBC dramas, and so on. So every few days I scroll through some of my favorite themes looking for shows I might want to see. When I find something, I can instantly see all the times available to record it. Most of my recording is occuring between 12 am and 5 pm--when I'm sleeping and working. You could do this with with a VCR, but it's so much easier and it let's you know about shows you're not familiar with in a context of the theme. It gets you away from watching channels and instead watching subject matter.
If you ever "hate to miss your show," buy this thing. If you've ever "wished you caught" show X, buy this thing. If you every wanted to see a show about X, and started searching the channels in desperation, buy this thing.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
rsimpson
|
|
Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.