Looking for DVD recorder with at least 80gig hard drive.

Needs to have stereo tuner.
Upconversion through HDMI
Easy to use

Reliable
Under $500.00

Let me know.

Thank you.

Greg

The best readily available today (Wal-Mart, $298) is the Philips 3575H. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=830253)

Circuit City has

Panasonic DVD Recorder/VCR combo with DVR (DMR-EH75VS)
PAN DMREH75VS

Price was:

$519.99
You save:

-$70.00
You pay: $449.99

In store only, at least for this sale's week.
Circuit City (http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Panasonic-DVD-Recorder-VCR-combo-with-DVR-DMR-EH75VS/sem/rpsm/oid/148194/catOid/-12872/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do)

I was in the Binghamton, NY Circuit City today and saw an open box EH75 for $299.

John

I have to agree with wabjxo, I also have the Philips 3575 and think it's great so far from having run some tests on it.

I bought it online at Wal*Mart and selected to have them ship it to my local store (even when it came in, I checked the shelves and there were none there) and I picked mine up that way.

Here is the link:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5663214

I have to add, the Philips 3575H upconverts to 1080p! (Not many do that.)

Yeah, but:

Philips = reliability?

Too early to tell that yet, and if you're going on past history.... :rolleyes:

Oh, oh...musta hit a nerve?

Not really - it's just something that entered my mind as I was reading.

I know the first impulse is to recommend the Philips model right off the bat because that's the best of the new models so far.

(I actually had a Philips recorder for only one day a few years back, after which I immediately realized I wanted a hard drive model, and brought it back and got the Panny E85 instead. But I'm just going by past posts in this forum as far as the history of reliability part . For all I know, they could be made somewhere else now, though. And Walmart is easy to return it to, so it's not that big of a deal, I guess :).)

How is the IQ? and does it record smoothly from one layer to the other on DL disks?

How is the IQ? and does it record smoothly from one layer to the other on DL disks?
The analog Tuner/HDD/DVD IQ is comparable to my Pioneer 640, altho I haven't tested any long-play rec modes yet. It doesn't do DL or RAM discs, just -R/RW and +R/RW.

One advantage over my Pio 640 is the higher starting IQ of the digital tuner, which results in a higher IQ of HDD/DVD recordings (and copies) for those hi-def. (HD) channels.

ok, thanks Wab....very much appreciated..t