Recorders and TV Programming: which to buy?

[awriter]

I intend to purchase the new widescreen Daewoo HDTV, and would like to buy a DVD recorder that will work with it in terms of easy TV program recording. The Philips DVR80 was at the top of my list until I found out that their Guide only works up to 125 channels, which clearly would be useless with my Digital Cable box.

One of the main points of buying a DVD recorder is for me to be able to point and click to record, while avoiding having to *also* buy a Tivo or Replay. Is it asking too much to expect one of these $700 machines to make that job easy?

I've read some of the posts about the forthcoming Pioneer 002H, and the Panasonic DMR-E80 -- does anyone know if either of those will come with built-in TV Guides that will work with 500+ digital channels?

Or is there something else on the horizon that will have:

-- Progressive Scan
-- Hard Drive
-- Built-in Guide that will work with my digital cable box

Thanks for any help you folks can give me.

Lisa

[awriter]

One of the main points of buying a DVD recorder is for me to be able to point and click to record, while avoiding having to *also* buy a Tivo or Replay. Is it asking too much to expect one of these $700 machines to make that job easy?

Guess I'm getting to answer my own question. Pioneer has just announced a new generation series of DVR's for the fall that will incorporate fee-FREE Tivo. To wit, from today's news:

Pioneer’s new DVR-810H DVD recorder comes with an 80GB drive and costs $1,199, while the DVR-57H has a 120GB drive and is priced at $1,800. Both will include the TiVo basic service, which does not require a monthly fee for the DVR service but does allow consumers to upgrade to the full TiVo service so they can access a 14-day program guide among other features. The devices come with a 181-channel cable TV tuner, and consumers will be able to transfer content on VCR tapes to DVD-R or DVD-RW discs by connecting a VCR via analog inputs to the recorder.

October cannot get here soon enough!

Lisa

[oldfart13]

Do you have a link for this? Pioneer has been foot dragging for awhile. Where is the 002H I'm wondering? Tivo will do me no good in Canada. Not available here. So...does that mean they aren't marketing these boxes in my country??

[oldfart13]

Here is the link:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/1020879.htm

[urbanlegend]

I live in Canada and own a Panasonic DMR-E50 and have a Rogers Digital Cable Box with S-Video Out.

The E50 has a 125 channel tuner but does not make a difference reason being I connect the S-video out from the digital box along with audio outs to the (lets say) Line 1 input on the E50. Then if I want to record from channel 201 on the digital box:

- I would leave the digital box on channel 201.
- Put the E50 on Line 1 setting and record.

If the digital box has timer recording, set the timers and the channels in the digital box and set the timers on the dvd recorder as well but when it asks for the channel number enter Line 1.

The 125 channel capacity on the DVD recorders and VCRs are for analogue cable when connected directly from the wall to the recorder.

Hope that helps!

[awriter]

I own a Panasonic DMR-E50 and have a Rogers Digital Cable Box with S-Video Out.

If I want to record from channel 201 on the digital box:

- I leave the digital box on channel 201.
- Put the E50 on Line 1 setting and record.

Oops. I'm afraid you misunderstood my original question. Of course I can easily by-pass the VCR+ program Guide and it's 125 channel limitation by doing the program record settings manually -- but that's exactly what I don't want to do. I want to press a button, have a guide that lists the programs for all my digital channels come up for the day or week... and then simply press once for the program I want to record. Period.

In other words, I want a Tivo or Replay-like guide (preferrably with no monthly fee) built-in to the interface of a DVR. A feature that looks like Pioneer will incorporate into it's new fall line. If anyone on the board knows what DVR is currently offering this feature, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks,

Lisa

[urbanlegend]

My bad ... sorry I dont have experience on that