RCA DRC8030N 80GB HDD for $150 at Walmart

[MCnDaHouse]

Not sure if these are any good but for what it's worth our local Walmart (Rocky Mount, NC) has a stack of these reduced from $179.99 to $150.

My aunt needed one with HDD but I went with the Philips 3575H. They have it at Circuit City online for $289 + tax and free shipping. It does a great job recording and has a digital tuner.

I think the RCA is a standard analog tuner.

MC

[lordsmurf]

I own both the RCA and the Philips. The RCA tuner is not great, but I use a digital cable box, RCA only gets composite it. Excellent picture, Zoran chipset, intelligent recording modes settings. Philips 3575 is excellent too. Easily two of the better machines out there. I tested at least 10-15 different machines this year, and those were my top two picks.

[belder]

I think my (trusty) Pioneer 420H is gone (unless the two week unplugging trick works) but I think I'm going with the Philips 3575H since it has a digital tuner. I use Dish Network for my locals, but sometimes that storm on the horizon makes Dish go away. And so will the analog TV signals in the USA in 2009.

[tac7]

I own both the RCA and the Philips.

Do the remotes of either unit feature a zoom button? A friend of mine is considering to purchase one of these two, but she wants the ability to fill the screen when playing back widescreen commercial DVDs (she doesn't have the space to use a separate DVD player for playback). Of course, if they do have a zoom feature, she doesn't want any display left on the screen indicating that the zoom is activated, like some DVD players do. --Thanks!

[lordsmurf]

RCA 8030
zoom button
1x, 1.5x, 2x, 4x
no permanent screen bugs (disappears after a second or two)

Philips 3575
info button (shows mini-menu) go to magnifying glass icon
1x, 1.2x, 1.5x, 2x
press info to leave
no screen bugs

[tac7]

That's good news -- thanks!

[saettelf]

have had the RCA DRC8030N for a good while now. Love it. It would be difficult to do without. However, I'd like to keep my recordings available on the hard drive and I need more space. I wondered if anyone has upgraded the DVR beyond the 160GB drive. Is there a limit as long as it is EIDE?

[lordsmurf]

There's a post on this topic in this forum. I saved the info somewhere, in case I ever needed it. Not sure where it is, however, otherwise I'd quote it here for you.