Price Paid:  $500.00 from great lakes

Summary:
super product. highly recommended. used it heavily for 3 3/4 years (ordered it before it came out) and has worked great.

Strengths:
terrific product. theoretically optimum, since it records the zeros and ones of the mpeg2 stream. performs as you would expect: quality of tape replay is identical to original. setting the machine to tape a future program is very easy.

Weaknesses:
none of the weaknesses are significant. suggestions for future improvement: rewind and ff to a particular time point. make the machine a bit quieter during recording.

Similar Products Used:
jvc super vhs machine

Price Paid:  $999.00 from Kohler communications

Summary:
Great product, I've owned this for more than 1 1/2 years and have been very happy with it. The features of the sat reciever alone are wonderful; it allows you to integrate local stations into your sat fields rather than having to flip between satellite and local channels. The only drawback is the remote...since it is an RF remote, you cannot use an "all-in-one" remote, since the reciever/D-VCR will not accept IR remote codes. You can't beat the picture.

Strengths:
Digital recording...lossless tapes.

Weaknesses:
Inability to search with a picture showing.

Price Paid:  $418.00 from Great Lakes Audio Video

Summary:
This is a great vcr. It does almost everything a DVD recorder would do and more. I have been able to record letterboxed movies from pay-per-view in Dolby Digital and it plays back exactly as the original. Comparing this format to recordable DVD and the new hard disk recorders, this one is the one to go with. In fact I am a little surprised manufacturers haven't done a better job of marketing this product.It has several advantages over the new pvrs, replaytv and TiVo. A single tape (DF-300) holds 31.5GB or 44.4GB(DF-420) compared to 20GB for the pvr and a measely 4.7GB for a recordable DVD. The first recordable DVDs will sell for more than the price of this machine and even if it were to sell for the same price, I would pick this vcr over it; the "ONLY" advantage recordable DVD offers is random search. The newer version of this VCR will be able to record a full 1080i HDTV signal. I even think this model can record at least 480i or 720p HDTV signal because it records at a rate of 14.1Mb/S (DVD is 7Mb/S). The newer version can record as high as 28.2Mb/s and can store 3.5 hours worth of HDTV programing to a 44.4GB tape. I am quite happy with my purchase considering that i got it for the orice of a regular VCR(I bought it for $418 -$200 rebate from DISH = $218. It lists for $1000 MSRP. Manufacturers should cease making regular VHS and stick to making SVHS and these new D-VHS vcrs.

Strengths:
Ability to record bit-perfect images off satellite

Weaknesses:
remote, no viewable search modes for D-VHS recordings

Similar Products Used:
none

Summary:
What a toy!!! When my 4000 series sat receiver died I opted for this integrated unit. The menus are simple enough that even my ex would be able tape off the air or sat broadcasts. Taping of the sat onto a D-VHS is so easy and the image quality will blow you away. The only downsides are no S-Video input(s) and no Fiber (audio) out. Now that Dish offers Local affiliates on a second dish, every thing I tape/watch is VERY high quality. It's kind of pricey (it's only deeply discounted for new subscribers) but I'm worth it.

Strengths:
Digital, seamless integration with Dish Satellite programming.

Weaknesses:
Fast-forwarding in hit or miss due to no image (just a nit!)

Summary:
WOW, this thing is unbelievable. I didnt think it was possible to get a picture like this of any vcr anywhere. I swear you cant notice the difference between a recorded movie and actual t.v., you can tell just a tiny little difference in pic quality when recording dvd, but i think thats just because it doesnt have an s-video in. All i can say is buy this thing. It's just too good to be true.