PROs: The 80 gig hard drive will hold up to 102 hours of programs at its slowest (i.e. lowest quality) speed, about half that at "standard" speed and quality, and 25 hours or so at its fastest/highest quality setting (near DVD quality). I'm happy with most broadcasts at standard speed. When you record to a DVD, standard speed will put two hours on a DVD, the slowest/lowest quality speed will put six hours on a DVD, and the fastest/highest quality speed will put an hour on a DVD. Recording is much like a VCR, and the unit even contains VCR+ and it can be set to record up to 32 programs up to a month in advance. You can record either to the hard drive or directly to a DVD-R or DVD-RW disk, but the principal reason for buying this machine is so that you can record to the hard drive, edit out all the commercials (a very easy task) and then burn a DVD-R or DVD-RW for more permanent storage. The manual is exhaustive (almost too long) and explains a plethora of features I'll probably never use. You can do "one touch" recording, record from a video camera through a firewire port on the front, make your own chapter marks, title videos, record either from the hard disk to a DVD or from a DVD to the hard drive (if the DVD isn't copy protected). The back has RF in and out jacks for cable, two sets of component-in jacks (and S-Video jacks), two sets of component-out jacks (and S-Video jacks), one set of composite-out jacks for progressive output of DVDs (but no composite-in jacks), and an optical digital audio out jack. One set of the component-in jacks is switched so that recordings (either to the hard drive or to DVD) are switched on and off whenever there is a signal on the line. I connect my cable TV directly to the RF input so that the internal analog tuner can record my unscrambled signals (those of channels 70 and below) and then I connect the output from my cable box to one of the sets of component-in jacks so that I can record the digital and scrambl

CONs: The interface is not as simple, elegant and powerful as a TIVO, but then most TIVOs can't record to a DVD and even TIVOs that can record to a DVD don't have the wonderful editing features this machine has. It doesn't do "wishlists", "suggestions", "season's passes" or follow your program when it is moved from one time slot to another the way TIVO does. Nor can you program it over the internet. But I also don't have to pay a monthly subscription fee. It is a different device, for different purposes. It is way better than a VCR or regular DVD player. Minor complaints, it only records to DVD-R and DVD-RW, I wish it recorded to DVD+R and DVD+RW as well (not to mention dual layer DVDs). You always want a larger hard drive (although 80 gigs seems adequate) and I wish it had the ability to record in HD. My biggest complaint is that the interface for naming DVDs or individual programs on a DVD is awkward (you have to scroll through lists of characters till you find the right ones and there are no dedicated buttons for deleting characters or adding spaces or switching from upper to lower case), and the nine choices it offers you for background menus for your DVDs are weak at best. It would also be nice if you were allowed to select the frame of video you want to use to represent a video on the main menu, rather than having the program default to the very first frame of the video. But all-in-all, these are minor problems and I'm sure successor machines will be better at all of these features.

To: radway@teleport.com (Mike Radway) From: Michael Radway Subject: Pioneer DVR-520H I purchased a Pioneer DVR-520H digital video recorder about two weeks ago at a steeply discounted price. While there are features I wish it had, and things I wish it did better, I am very happy with it. It was worth every penny. BOTTOM LINE: If all you want to do is record programs, watch them, and then delete them, buy a TIVO. If your primary goal is to archive your old video tapes, buy a machine that has both a DVD recorder and a VCR in it (this machine has no VCR in it, but you can plug a VCR into it and record off it). If you want to record things, edit them, and then preserve them on a DVD, this is the machine for you.

Similar Products Used:

Tivo Comcast DVR