It’s not all rosy, though. The Panasonic DMR-XW380 is very much designed around being a DVD recorder, and so features like pausing and rewinding live TV, while present, aren’t as slickly integrated as they would be on a pure hard drive recorder, and switching between operations seems a little slow at times, too. Click the Pause button on the remote, for example, and the screen will blank out for a second or two, before the paused picture returns.

Versatile, but the interface and DLNA features need refinement

And, compared to some of the other products out there, the interface doesn’t really take advantage of the quality possible using HDMI; the main menu’s gained some animated thumbnails of the recordings you’ve made, but compared to products like the iCan EasyHD receiver, the overall interface is pedestrian, and lacking in slickness.

Verdict

Certainly pricier than a run-of-the-mill DVR, you do, however, get a DVD recorder and DLNA streaming of recorded TV for your money. For some, though, that won’t compensate for the interface quirks. ®

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