I got a Panasonic DVD recorder a few years ago to replace an ailing VCR recorder. I love it. The best thing about it is that you can begin recording a show and then watch it as it records. It's like being able to pause real TV. It's also nice if you set it to record an hour show at 8:00 and then you get home at 8:15, you can go ahead and watch the show. If it's only 10 minutes into the show then most times you can "catch up" and see the whole thing by the time the "real" version is done. You can also record one thing while you are watching something else that you have already recorded.
It’s also nice because you can go to any recorded show, view it, delete it and make more room on the disk. You can also trim out sections (like commercials) to make more room.
The disadvantages aren’t bad. The recording quality (just like with a VCR) gets worse when you stretch out to a full 6 hours (max time available on a disk). The extended play quality is a bit worse on the DVD than on a VCR but it’s still not bad. I usually record with the LP mode (4 hours on a disk) and am very satisfied.
Another minor one is that there is exactly 6 hours on the disk. On a VCR tape you have an extra 9 minutes or so about the 6 hours that you can use. I used to record an extra few minutes to make sure I caught the end of the show. It’s not that big of a deal but I thought I’d mention it.
Probably the biggest disadvantage is that you can’t play a recorded disk in a regular DVD player with out formatting it onto a RW disk. Once you do that thought you can rerecord over it. I use a DVD-RAM disk for all of my recording so I can use it over and over again. There are so many different types of DVD disks (RW+, RW-, DVD-RAM, etc) that you can use but I get confused as to what to use. Also, there is no industry standard so what may work on one DVD player may not work on another.
I just use my recorder like a VCR recorder but there is a lot more that it can do. I just haven’t had the need to do more than what I’m doing. When I got mine there weren’t any other models out there so I didn’t have to do any research. I know that now there a more available but they all do pretty much the same thing.