I just bought one on your good word. I've been in the market for a while and my wife and I are expecting our first child (read: no more scheduled TV time) so this seemed like the right time to pull the trigger.

Sure hope I like it as much as you do!

How close can you get when editing out the commercials? Can you cut out everything down to a single frame? Or if it just 30 second intervals, so you might cut out part of the show or have to leave some commercials in? Know what I mean?

And your right about TiVo. Bah.

Well there is a skip forward and skip back button on the remote that is set to 30 seconds but you can adjust the amount of time that it skips.

You can also split a recording by going to the start of a commercial pausing it and splitting the file then joining them again. But on a show with three commercial breaks that is six cuts. I am probably just skip recorded shows and not splice it manually.

Is there ability to retreve the video data via firewire, LAN or USB. Something like that? Or is it exclusive to the device?

That'd be sweet if it could.

Well you can burn a DVD+RW and then rip it and convert it into MPEG using something like FFMpeg http://ffmpeg.sourceforge.net/index.php

that is what I did on my last DVD-Recorder and encoded some shows for my PSP.

You are nuts. I got a LIFETIME subscription to Tivo for $250. You paid $200 for that thing. With tivo, you get two full weeks of TV schedule with incredible recording options like Season Pass, Wishlist, etc. I can pause live TV, fast forward through commercials, etc. Plus I can record two things at once, all while I am watching something i recorded. And now they make tivo's with build-in DVD recorders. That would have been the way to go.

We It has a "Season Pass" feature, it can skip commercials and it can skip live TV and it can watch something else while you are recording. I just don't like Tivo's willingness to change user rules and that they charge monthly fees.

I got this unit about two weeks ago. I got a floor model at bestbuy for $236 and I ended up having to buy the remote for $65.00. Later on I found out that costco had it for $199.99! so best buy did a price match for me. so far, I'm very happy with the unit. I used it to record non-HD shows from a satellite system and watch them on the go. but, with satellite the TV guide doesn't work, which is not a problem for me. No problems to report at this point; records well, burns to DVD well (and fast!). Heard horror stories about it in other sites, mostly complaints about the manual. I've been able to figure its function without a problem. I also recommend this unit to anyone who doesn't want to go the Tivo route.

I bought one in October of 2005 and for some reason for the past couple of days, it won't stay on. I can turn it on but after about 2 minutes, the picture freezes and it shuts itself off. I tried resetting to factory settings twice to no avail. I am wondering if maybe I have to upgrade the software or is the machine a dud. I would like to try everything possible before dealing with Philips as I have had bad experiences with company support. Any suggestions appreciated. I also live in Canada if it makes a difference.

I'd like to know if you are still happy with your recorder. For me it has been a frustrating unit. It is a great machine when it works but it is prone to freezing, not recording programs when it should and losing the entire downloaded TV Guide. Phillips is useless as they refuse to respond to any correspondence I have sent asking when they plan to issue a fix for all these problems.