Pioneer DVR-810HS DVD Recorder with TiVo Basic Service

• record dvds
• It has one hard drive 80GB capacity

I was longing after this machine for a long time and finally bought it two days ago. It was very easy to set up (although when I had a question, Pioneer customer service took forever on hold and then the person answering the phone was unhelpful), with a good Install manual (and an even easier quick-reference pamphlet), and a good User's guide. The picture is great--I'm not sure why the two people above me had troubles. I am recording in Extreme Fine and I have no complaints. I generally go by the rule that Medium quality is only for animated programs, and I use Best/Extreme Fine for everything else. DVD picture is excellent. I recorded an old videotape to the DVR hard drive and then burned it to DVD, with superb results. I set up my old TiVo in the bedroom and used wireless network adapters to link them, and now I can transfer programs from one set to the other. The DVR is able to record a new program onto the hard drive even while transferring another program from the other TiVo! And while burning a DVD, all other TiVo capabilities are available--you can watch, record a new program, etc. The burner is fairly quick (in extreme fine, it is a little faster than real time), and the interface is very easy to use. The only glitches/inconveniences I have experienced so far are: (1) programs transfer from TiVo to TiVo in slower-than-real time (ie, they take a while)--but you can watch while they transfer, if you give them a head start. (2) The Amazon description which states that you can edit a program once it is on your DVR hard drive is inaccurate--THERE IS NO EDITING FEATURE. (3) It seems impossible to transfer a program from one Tivo to the other and then burn it to DVD (the DVR says "this program is taped in an incompatible format"). (4) There is only one set of video-2 inputs on the back of the set, permitting only ONE of the following {VCR, videocamera or DVD player} to be hooked up. Another set of inputs would have been nice. (5) The 80 gig hard drive holds only about 14 hours of extreme-fine quality video--but with the capability to burn to DVD-RW that shouldn't be too confining and (6) The video inputs are composite, not component, although that is a very minor annoyance. In all, however, I am very happy with my new "toy."

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I have had this unit for a few monts in my bedroom. Medum quality records just fine and makes DVDs that dont have any pixelization (basic quality sucked). I have used el-cheapo DVD-Rs and it has worked well. The unit is no more noisy than my 80 hour seris 2 in the livingroom and the wife and I never hear the unit. On numerous occasions I have burned a DVD while recording a show and watching another and the unit performed like a champ. A note: The burned DVDs use the Tivo interface for the menu which is neat but confusing when watching the DVD we keep thinking we are in Tivo and wonder why the 30sec skip doesnt work.

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I bought this unit in August 2004, and had been using it with both TiVo Basic and TiVo Plus, until it conked out in February 2006. Eighteen months is not an acceptable product life for any video component in my book, and now I have a friend trying to hack a repair by swapping out what is apparently a dead HDD with a $40 Seagate 160GB HDD. If he succeeds, the unit will go to 160 hours of available recording time. That will make up for the downtime.

In short, however, I must warn any prospective buyers that these kind of hard disks are not really meant to run non-stop for years on end. Perhaps the best plan is periodically to have a tech friend create a mirror/backup of your season passes/preferences/etc, and to use "TiVo to Go" regularly to send your favourite recordings to your home PC. The system inside is Linux, not Windows, so that's why a techie is needed for the hack.

Finally, if you don't care to do more than use this as a modern VCR with time-shifting, stick with the free TiVo Basic. In retrospect, paying for the lifetime service doesn't make sense when not six months later the unit dies...

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I purchased this product in early February and have yet to be able to use it (it's now the beginning of April) for longer than around 10 minutes; this despite two returns to Pioneer for repair. In use the picture either freezes after a few minutes, or the unit resets itself. In addition, the picture shows high frequency flicker (I am using component video). The current thinking from Pioneer is that I need to plug the unit directly into the wall rather than into a surge protection power strip. I'll try that out.

I own a Replay TV unit and only tried this unit because it reduced the overall number of boxes in my living room (replacing the PVR, DVD and MP3 player with a single box). I hoped that Tivo would have better software than Replay TV (I had some issues with their unit as well) but it appears not. One requires a real telephone line to perform the initial setup (unlike ReplayTV) and apparently my Vonage line just won't do. I finally discovered that it is possible to use the broadband connection for the initial set up but the information was not easy to find. One Tivo tech. actually denied that it was possible and I only found the information after searching the internet.

On the plus side Pioneer support has been reasonable but I still don't have a working unit.

I regret having purchased this unit and would suggest that Pioneer should not have released something which clearly has problems operating in the real world.

I bought 510H-S (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4139_37530022,00.html) and I am very happy with it.

810H-S has TiVo, which is why you cannot edit out commercials. 510H doesn't have TiVo, and you can edit out commercials. But since I already have a TiVo, it's OK to me. I set up the recording using Tivo's Season Ticket and wish list, and check ToDo list. If there are programs worth recording in ToDo list, then I program 510H using Timer. 510H's timer is not bad. Actually, as a simple timer its user interface is quite good. But it's no TiVo. You can also program using VCR Plus, which I don't use. Comparing video quality, I think that Pioneer is slightly better than TiVo Series 2. Since 510H-S has complete editing functionality, it is more difficult to use at first time. It was one of the electronic products that forced me to read the manual and take time to get used to it. It was frustrating for a few days. But now, it's OK. I know what is going on. While I can hear hard disk noise from TiVo, I cannot hear 510H's disk noise at all. I highly recommend 510H-S. But be prepared to read the manual and to have some practice time for a few days. And it will take a week or two to get used to it.

An ideal DVR would be TiVo's user friendliness and convinience plus 510H's full editing functionality. But unless TiVo relaxes restrictions on the rules of recording to DVD, it is unlikely to come. So it is your choice: Tivo feature or full editing ?