Pioneer DVR-550-HX-S

Good – Great system, has lots of functions, eg, can connect with PC, USB, camera, etc. Easy to burn footage onto DVD. Hard drive stores over fifty hours of recorded footage using the high quality recording mode. Is easy to use, instruction booklet is clearly worded. Can easily edit shows saved on the hard drive. Had to have the hard drive replaced (was covered under warranty though), as the recorded tv would freeze/jump. Has been fine since then. Will not play a certain format of DVD if you are recording on the hard drive. You can install high def channels but it will not record HD channels.

Bad – This is an excellent device but the remote is so bad that it ruins the overall experience. The time skip (feature to skip adds) is done on a clunky spin wheel, (you spin it to skip ads, etc) but over time it becomes a shiny peice of plastic with no traction for your fingers so you are forever skipping to far or not far enough. I cannot recommend this product simply based on the remote. I have have owned it for 1.5 years now and wish i had bought something else. excellent features, easy to use and very good recording duration The time skip is unbeliveably clunky, is only standard definition, cannot record TV and watch a DVD at the same time.

Excellent – Excellent unit overall that I would highly recommend. Would buy another Pioneer when I upgrade, probably with two tuners and obviously a larger HDD. Good performance, looks and functionality. A computer keyboard can be plugged in to the USB slot to make it easier for title editing before burning to DVD. Have been using it for over two years and have had no problems whatsoever. Slow to boot. When programing it to record a future TV show, it will not record with sub-titles at all. )With manual recording sub-titles will display).

Good – This is a pretty good PVR (personal video recorder) with DVD support. It has one digital tuner. In hind-sight (if you can afford or justify the expense) a two-tuner unit may have been better. The on-screen TV interface is pretty good, as is the remote once you get used to the rotary button that it uses. The 160GB hard-drive seems to be an alright size although as time progresses this may not be enough. Some PVRs offer 80GB and this can quickly fill up. 160GB decent size hard-drive. Good on-screen TV interface. Start up time of 10 seconds (pretty trivial but some units have 1-2secs in comparison...handy to quickly record something right there on the screen). Chunky remote.