Panasonic PV-HS2000 ReplayTV ShowStopper 30-Hour Digital Video Recorder

This is one of the best products to ever hit the market functionality wise. HOWEVER, the workmanship of this Panasonic is unbelievably bad. It will break within a year, most likely within a few months. At the time I bought this unit, about 10 of my friends did as well most all from different sources. 7 out of the 10 have broken in 4 months. (Mine hasn't yet.) The warranty is only 3 months long. Beware. Great product, but it breaks quickly from overheating. Make your own decision, but do yourself a favor and get a different brand. (Tivo, UltimateTV, or other.) I have heard of NO problems with other brands.

I bought the Panasonic PV-HS1000 about 2 weeks ago and I love it. The main difference between this and a VCR is that you can use an onscreen tv guide to choose what to record (your unit needs to connect to a phone line to download the programming info). No more selecting day, date, time etc to record something. Of course this unit also gives you the ability to pause live TV. This is accomplished by playing what you watch at a slight delay, in other words "live tv" means delayed by 2-3 seconds as the unit is recording what you are watching in case you need to pause or rewind. As for the negative, my main gripe is that you loose some resolution, I would guess about 5 percent, when your TV signal routes through the unit. Not much, but still noticeable. I have AT&T Digital cable and when changing channels I do get a delay which is also annoying. I tried splitting the cable signal, 1 to TV and 1 to showstopper, but this hasn't worked. Despite this, I say this is a great buy, no monthly charges like TiVo!

After you buy one of these, you will wonder how anybody could enjoy television without one. Showstopper will completely revolutionize the way you watch TV. It is so cool to be able to skip through commercials. I would have given this product five stars, but I have just one problem with it. The unit is somewhat sensitive to overheating, so you have to place it where it will have good air circulation. Do not attempt to place it in an enclosed stereo cabinet. When the unit overheats it will "lock-up" and then you have to turn it off and let it cool down for about a half an hour before attempting to use it again. I found this out by trial and error. My unit was locking up frequently and I was beginning to believe that I had a defective unit. I decided to remove the glass doors from my stereo cabinet so that it could get more air. I also mounted a small Radio Shack cooling fan so that it would blow across the unit to remove heat and now it works perfectly. I can understand that the manufacturer wanted to keep the unit small and streamlined in appearance, which negated the placement of an internal cooling fan. Once you find a way to keep your Showstopper cool you will have a great new toy. I can't stop raving about this to my friends. You gotta get one of these!

Buy this thing as soon as you have enough money. I can't see owning a TV without this feature.

This item works as advertised but makes me feel gypped, knowing I didnt have this in my digital toolbox years ago!

There are loads of cool features you'll find that aren't in the sales dox...and with very little new learning needed, unlike with most new electonic doodads I've bought. Best of all, the remote control didn't tick me off.

I've had no actual trouble with it, though I can think of a couple of things that would make it better (although possibly more expensive):

1) I want to configure when the daily download occurs - it's my phone line and I want it available when I say. on the positive side, the download gets interrupted if anyone calls me (circa 3am), so it wont do you any harm.

2) multiple streams - would be nice to watch live/delayed tv and have replay going on another stream all while recording another channel in the background. it may be that they are working on this, since it's such a powerful and obvious idea.

3) the myReplayTV website is too dependent on fancy html or java or fancy graphics - i'm for a simpler and FASTER layout. I find it faster to use the remote.

4) the written instructions are easy to follow and show a bunch of alternative configurations, but didnt get exotic enough for me...and that info was not available on their site (i dont use a regular tv, but instead use the s-video in on my computer monitor; also wanted the vcr to be input and output for the replayTV box, etc)

5) make the sound output for the ReplayTV box adjustable via the remote.

This toy was well worth the money spent - we take advantage of its features every single day. Some of the more useful situations include:

- Being able to pause tv when the phone rings, and then resume.

- Start watching sports an hour after they begin and breeze through commercials and intermissions.

- Easily set up programs to record shows we like that air during the day.

- A big help with housetraining our puppy as we can pause the tv and respond immediately when ever she noses around the door to go out.

Of course, any time you pause live tv or record a show, you get to skip commercials! You'll start looking for reasons to delaying watching a program. Setting up recording with the on-screen programming is simple. Plus, you can even set up recordings away from home via the web if you forget! How cool is that? The machine is intelligent enough to know show titles, so you can tell it to ignore re-runs. It's simple to review all the recorded shows on screen, instead of knowing it's somewhere on a VCR tape. All with no monthly fee!

Summary: this is the coolest and most useful recreational item we own. You won't be disappointed!