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

The Panasonic PV-HS2000 unit works very well and lives up to the hype. The user interface is well thought out, and a pleasure to use. Installation is quite straightforward. Just make sure you have a local access telephone number first - not a problem in more densely populated areas. Be willing to try more than one number if several choices are available - my first choice didn't work for some reason.

Some very minor issues: 1. The unit dissipates 19 Watts when "off", so its a little wasteful of electricity.

2. When on, the unit makes a high-pitched hard-disk "whine" which may be audible if you listen to TV at low volume levels.

3. The unit takes 15 seconds to turn on.

As most people have a VCR already, then item 3 is not a problem in general, and it also makes it simple to watch one program and record another. You probably need a VCR for long term storage anyway, rather than keep favourite material on the recorder indefinately.

The unit certainly changes ones TV viewing experience - it's almost a strange feeling to "pause" live TV, but it certainly helps when my wife asks me to do the garbage in the middle of a favourite program!

I actually bought a demo model. To get out of the demo mode, I had to enter the rather obscure sequence: 7 7 7 Zones (4 key strokes on the remote). This is not in the manual!

This product is fantastic. It makes TV worth watching again.

Our daughter is the main reason I bought this unit. I have a 4 year girl that loves TV. We only allow her to watch it when we can watch it with her. Our schedules and the TV schedules are incompatible. The programs we feel are ok for her to watch are sprinkled throughout the day.

With the ShowStopper we record the shows that are appropriate for her. She sees them when we want her to. And getting her past the commercials quickly with the 30 second skip feature is important. Some commericals now are as bad as adult programs.

Picture quality. Is it perfect? No, but it's really good, generally. It's a bit pixelated at times. Just turn back the sharpness of your TV and it helps blur the pixelation. I want the content. Having a perfect picture isn't important to me. It is something you get used to very quickly. And having the show you want, when you want, helps you forgive any of these superficial flaws.

We certainly record shows for ourselves as well. The 30 hour unit capacity seems to be very adequate for us. I like the fact that you can choose how many episodes of each show to keep. We keep two episodes of the day time talk shows my wife likes. I record programs for myself that I would never bother to with a VCR and tape.

Your VCR now becomes your archive device. My mom asks us from time to time if we had a particular program on tape. I'm glad to loan it to her, but I might be giving her programs I still haven't watched. ShowStopper makes dumping a show to tape a breeze. It doesn't control the VCR, but if I'm laying off a copy of ER for her, before I go to bed, I just set the VCR to record for an hour and the tape is done for her in the morning. It even puts up a slate with the show synopsis show you can see which program you have before you watch it.

Instant access is another terrific feature of this box. You want to find a show you've recorded? Push one button and scroll thought the alphabetically sorted list and select your program. If you get interrupted while your watching it, jump out, watch the other show and when you're ready to come back, POW you're right where you left off. You're not rewinding a tape and scanning through it hoping you'll find the show you wanted. You wait 1-second to get to where you're going.

The channel guide is terrific. You can easily navigate to any show playing now or a week from now and set up a record event. Or you can just watch TV and pause it at will. Very handy feature for phone calls or bathroom breaks. I intentional pause a show and then come back to it so I can blast through the commercials.

With MyReplayTV.com I can set a show to record from the web. If I think of a program I want to record, I just jump on the web and program it. Then next time the box calls in, my program event is downloaded and added to the schedule. The web interface is very similar to the ShowStopper. So no learning curve. Brilliant!

Did I say I loved the box? I do, it gives your TV back to you.

Buy one.

DirecTV box...VCR...DVD player...TV. Too many sources, too few inputs. However, it's an incredible box. One star: if you're playing back a "stored" program and hit stop, the next time you come back to it, you're given the choice of starting where you left off, or start from the beginning. One star: no monthly fee. You pay more for the box, but the trade off is no monthly fee. One star: Zones. They search for the types of programs you want to record. The downsides: minus one star for the remote...it's a little much for the novice. Minus one star: controlling the satellite box. There's something to be said for an all-in-one box. It's more reliable than the DirecTV on-board scheduled recording program, but there's some features missing, like Favorites. Also, you have to manually de-select the channels you don't subscribe to. And with the channels labeled differently from the way the SAT box labels them, it will take some getting used to. Over all, I'd say it is a marvel of modern invention. Three levels of record quality, 30 hours of storage (at lowest level), and it can combine three remotes into one. If you're a TV-addict but can't see all the shows all the time, it's worth the money.

Your comparison of TiVo and RePlayTv misses important points:

1) With TiVo you have to pay for the program guide service, with RePlayTv you do not.

2) TiVo is limited in how long you can freeze/pause a live broadcast, with ReplayTV it is only limited by disk capacity.

I really can't understand how a "web" company would do a comparison that is just a long bunch of text. No "quick glance" feature comparison table or chart??? Who has time, or desire to read a novel to just compare two products!!!!! On top of that, you missed two of the most important comparison features, but had a whole block of text on the difference between the spacing of the buttons on the remote control!!!

I bought this unit a little more than a week ago. After comparing it with similar TIVO units, I decided to go with the Showstopper. While the unit operated perfectly well, I have to point out some problems with the picture quality. I have a 53' TV and ran a splitter in order to watch one program while recording another. I can turn both the TV and the unit to the same channel and switch back and forth and the picture deteriorates when viewing through the unit. The colors are even different (less vivid) when viewing through the unit even though the settings are the same. I have tried switching cables and even running the cable from the wall directly into the unit and the problem still persists. The problem probably is not bad enough to cause me to return the unit, but it is bothersome nonetheless.