Over the last year the TiVo hype has ramped up to almost epidemic proportions. TV adverts abound, raving on about that greatness of this product and what it can do at the flick of a button. People around the world have even taken the time to create numerous hacks that add new functionality to the device. The TiVo is fast becoming an indispensable part of the American TV lifestyle, or is it? Perhaps its is more accurate a statement that the ability to record live TV programming is becoming an invaluable part of our lifestyle regardless of what device is used to achieve this.



I meet annoying people all the time who like to rave on about how cool their TiVo is, what it does and how often it does it. "I can record live TV and watch it when ever I want to" seems to have become the prevailing thought pattern of a fair chunk of North America. Modern TV is awful, so I end up asking myself why anyone would want to record 6 programs that come on at 3 different times every second weeknight? People who have no life like to record the news so they can watch it when they get home after work. TiVo has not made our lives better it has simply given sad people another reason to stay on their couches, watch TV and get fatter. I might be wrong about this, but I doubt it.



I am one of the last 358 people in the USA who does not have cable TV. My neighbors live off of food stamps and public transport and they are "lucky" enough to enjoy the Discovery Channel and Oxygen. I have not signed up for cable for 2 reasons: I totally despise the idea of paying a lot of money for my TV programming and still having to sit through 5 minutes of amazingly annoying adverts for every 12 minutes of half-baked program I am trying to watch. Secondly I really only want to watch 6 channels including Fox Sports World so I can watch Manchester United play football. The packages that offer this channel are stupidly expensive. I am a cheapskate, what can I say.



Even without cable I will admit that I was fairly interested in getting a TiVo until I found out that it requires a phone line to download programming schedules. And more importantly, once you buy the box you still have the pleasure of paying $12.95 month. It is worth noting that the nice people at TiVo do offer a one-time product lifetime fee of $299 instead of $12.95 a month which is handy if you believe that you will still be using the device in 2 years time.



Another insanely annoying thing about TiVo is all the effort the company has put into forcing pop-up adverts onto their viewers. Talk about absolute madness.


At some point I started asking looking around for other DVR solutions, and I stumbled onto a brilliant product from Panasonic. Enter the DMR-E80H DVR, a progressive-Scan DVD Video Recorder with an 80 GB hard drive. Capable of recording DVD-RAM and DVD-R discs and includes Time Slip Playback.


I bought a refurbished unit for $263 with an $82 protection plan from Buy.com, which worked out to be significantly cheaper then the price of a new unit. It can do almost everything a TiVo can do but has no monthly costs. I can record any show on any channel, set up complicated recording schedules and collect all the half-baked programming I feel that I might need to force myself to watch. What do I love the most about it? I can skip through adverts. With the flick of a button I can skip through 1 minute of a show. The fast forward function allows me to move through the program at mind blowing speeds avoiding any soppy pieces or annoying chat scenes so I can get to the really interesting parts of the shows at warp speed.



80 GB of hard drive might not sound like much but we have yet to fill it up, but I guess this all comes down to your own deletion discipline. I have had great success in recording my wife's VHS cassettes to DVD in preparation for the day I throw the faithful HVS player away. When I bought the DVR I was also in the market for a TV, so I purchased a large screen Panasonic Tau based TV and as a result the DVR's remote control also works on the TV which has proved to be very handy. The only downside I have found is that DVD-RAM is not cheap so it is worth keeping this in mind if you plan to burn your programming off the hard drive.



Product Specifications:

DVD Player

DVD Recorder - Yes
Recordable Media - DVD-RAM, DVD-R
Disc Capacity - 1
Dolby Digital Decoder - Yes
Media Supported - CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RAM
DVD Type - DVD recorder
Portable - No
Remote Control - Universal remote control
Display Included - No


Video Features
Progressive Scan - Yes
Multi-Camera Angle Select - Yes
Multi-Language Select - Yes
Video DAC - 10 Bit


Audio Features
MP3 Support - Yes
Audio DAC - 24 Bit
Digital Audio Format - Dolby Digital output, DTS digital output


Other Features
Component Video Outputs - 1 x component video output ( RCA phono x 3 )
Composite Video Outputs - 3 x composite video/audio input ( RCA phono x 3 ), 2 x composite video/audio output ( RCA phono x 3 )
Digital Optical Output - 1 x SPDIF output ( TOS Link )
S-Video Output - 3 x S-Video input ( 4 pin mini-DIN ), 2 x S-Video output ( 4 pin mini-DIN )
Connectors Other - 1 x RF input ( F connector )
Weight - 9.92 lbs
Also known as - Panasonic DMR-E80HS, Panasonic DMR E80H, Panasonic DMR, Panasonic E80H
Dimensions - 3.1 in x 16.9 in x 11.8 in (HxWxD)


Did I mention that there is no monthly fee and you can skip past the adverts? I am in love.



Remind me again why would you bother with a Tivo?