8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
A perfect example of where you shouldn't save money
Date of Review: Mar 18, 2007
The Bottom Line: Committing the images to memory and retelling the viewing experience will do more justice.
Everyone likes the concept of a DVR. You can record television seamlessly, without the loss of quality associated with a VCR, and there is no rewinding. Likewise, everyone likes a good deal.
A good deal this Panasonic is not. You have to calculate the cost of the DVR, plus the cost of the DVR you will replace it with.
My cable company (Charter) offered an HD-DVR for an introductory period of six months for "free." Free is in quotes because when you are paying 1200 dollars per year to watch television and check email, it hardly seems free. Regardless, their motives were met when I fell in love with the ability to watch a program, and back up a few seconds to be sure of a word, or stop a scene that is a giveaway in a mystery etc. Or, just the option to select a series of shows and record them all. Wonderful. Then, after six months, knowing that their loyal customers had become accustomed to this experience, they want to charge $30 per month just for the box. Ouch. That DVR broke my heart. It was a relationship that improved with time, without ever having a fight. Beautiful and fast menu's, with friendly clicks and beeps. But alas, the b1tch was too rich for my blood, and she's gone now.
Living in a rural area, electronics are usually associated with a 4 hour drive after much deliberation. One evening at the local Wal*Mart, I spotted this inexpensive little lady, and my urge for a rebound was too strong. On sale for $120, I took her home with me.
That was 3 months ago. Tonight, there was a special on National Geographic that I was really looking forward to having recorded. The power button was pressed, and I rotated through the different video sources on my television. Greeted with the usual, and much degraded picture through the DVR's turner, I began watching my show. After pressing the record button 5, maybe 10 times, the little red light came to life, and the recording started.
It really is a great show, and I hope you get to watch it. All the same, anticipating my next viewing, I thought it would be nice to skip the commercials. Mistake. I pressed the pause button, and the menu system came up (when it should not) and would not go away. The DVR locked up.
I unplugged it during the commercial break, and figured I could probably merge the two chapters together with some software. The program started after the break, and I once again pressed record. It started to make some noises that sounded... unnatural. Not entirely dissimilar to a pneumatic power tool.
After a brief glance at this testament to "you get what you pay for" I snapped the remote control into 2 pieces, rotated back to my incredibly clear television picture. Oh, I'm sure snapping the remote sounds like an act of anger, frustration, or any other label a person might like to affix to it. Nope. This was a simple way to commit to never using this piece of crap again. Slow menu response, poor menu layout, and dreadful picture quality are not a good start. Lockups with a glorified VCR are unacceptable. Panasonic makes a terrific handheld DVD player. There are no parallels between those units, and this addition to a newly misshapen trash bag.
If somebody offers this unit to you for free, reject it. Even for the cost of blank DVR's, it's not worth the investment. If you have some blank DVR's already, it's not worth the electricity for use nor the loss in fuel economy experienced with the extra weight for the drive home.
