Zaps ads pronto!
Written: Mar 27 '01
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Pros: Zaps ads fast, no monthly fees, easy recording
Cons: Ominous-sounding copy protection circuitry (no problems so far)
The Bottom Line: Get one now! This is a great gadget - you'll never go back to using a TV and VCR. It zaps those commercials as easily as could be imagined.
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| rag47's Full Review: Panasonic PV-HS1000 (20.4 GB) 20-Hours Video Recor... |
This is a review of the Panasonic PV-HS3000 which has more (60 hours) recording time, otherwise it's the same as the 1000 model hard disk recorder. Even though it's a Panasonic, the device uses the ReplayTV software system. My favorite feature is the "Quick Skip" button which jumps ahead instantly by 30 seconds. This is so great for zapping commercials! A few presses of the button and the commercials are gone. If you happen to overshoot a little, there's also an "Instant Replay" button that goes back 7 seconds. After a little while, I became a pro at using these buttons. Bing bing bing, the commercial is zapped. I love it.
There is no monthly fee required to use the PV-HS3000. It has a telephone connection which makes a five minute call in the middle of the night to download the program guide info for the coming week. The next seven days worth are always available. ReplayTV has a lot of local access numbers (see www.replaytv.com for a list), but make sure one of them is local to you before you buy this box. I had to crack the phone book to make sure.
I found setup to be quite easy. All the cords and connectors you need are included. The telephone cord is really long (like 25 feet) and they give you a Y adapter so you could share an outlet with a regular phone. I'm going to have another outlet put in by the TV, in the meantime I'm running this long cable. The instructions are clear and complete -- all your base are NOT belong to us.
Recording is a snap. You scroll around in a grid of the TV schedule. When you find something you like, press record. Press record again and it will record all instances of that show. I wound up double clicking all the shows I like and they now automatically record when they come up. You can't record two shows on at the same time on different channels, however.
One of the cool features is that you can play back while you're recording. Say you've got it set to record a show from 9 to 10. You come home at 9:15. You can start watching the show from the beginning and it keeps recording while you watch 15 minutes lagged. You gradually catch up when you zap commercials, or fall behind if you pause it to do something else. Any combination of moving forward or back is fine, it just keeps recording without a hitch.
I found the user interface to be excellent. I'm a software developer myself, and I have to say these guys deserve a tip of the old hat for doing a fine job of making it easy to use. Everything is clear and simple.
The one thing that bothered me is a page in the manual that begins: "When Macrovision or CGMS-A (Copy Generation Management System-Analog) copy protected signals are available for TV broadcasting, the show is NOT viewable, nor can it be recorded." So far, this has not been a problem. I've recorded shows off the broadcast networks and various cable channels with no problems. I haven't tried pay-per-view or premium channels (don't subscribe to them). Perhaps someday signals will be blocked like this, though I imagine it would generate a lot of flack, and I also imagine there would be some hack to get around it, but we'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. So far this "feature" has caused no problems.
The recorder has three quality modes: high quality, medium and extended. In extended you get (on the 3000 model) 60 hours, medium 30 and high 20 hours. The quality of extended has been fine with me so far and I haven't felt the need to go higher.
All in all, I am really pleased with this device. It works great and makes TV viewing much more enjoyable. The problem is, now I'm watching too much TV!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 714
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Epinions.com ID:
rag47
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Location: Issaquah, WA
Reviews written: 21
Trusted by: 12 members
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