The Pioneer DVR-533H DVD recorder is the best DVD recorder that we've reviewed.

The Pioneer DVR-533H DVD recorder has both style and substance.This feature laden DVD recorder (with a 80GB HDD) is as skinny as a DVD player. Don’t let the size fool you. It's a heavy little bugger and very well made.

There's no cooling fan, but even after being on for hours it doesn't get hot. Important if your cabinet is crowded with gear. Noted "better" features are: TV Guide's free electronic programming guide, a 30-second (commercial killing) skip mode, high-speed video dubbing, impressive editing options, and a FireWire input.

Another nice perk is that the Pioneer DVR-533H is also dual-layer compatible. This allows the Pioneer DVR-533H to record to DVD-R DL (dual layer) media (holds twice as much video as standard DVD discs). Unfortunately dual layer discs cost much more than standard DVDs.

On the downside: the Pioneer DVR-533H's cluttered remote will frustrate beginners. It has a non-intuitive design that forces you to search for functions althought it does have one-touch access to many functions.

Pioneer added a menu navigation buttons to the front of the unit so most functions can be accessed without the remote. There's five-way navigational keypad includes a HDD/DVD toggle control, a play/pause/stop and record/one-touch record buttons.

The 30-second-skip button allows you to press the button repeatedly and add to the skip time for up to 10 minutes. The reverse-skip offers similar functionality in different time increments, beginning with 5 seconds. Many DVD recorders won't skip at all so this commercial killer feature is a big bonus.

The Pioneer DVR-533H DVD recorder’s onscreen display is functional and easy to follow. A wizard takes you through the initial setup process. It has a home menu that provides a central place to find all of the recorder's functions.

The DVD recorder has step-by-step copying and finalization dialogs which make burning programs from the hard drive to DVD easy. The intuitive interface and easy-to-use menus allow this DVD recorder to be used to its full potential.

You dub by creating playlists and copying them from the hard drive to DVD or vice versa. The High-Speed Copy mode can dub a 2-hour SP-mode movie in 15 minutes.

The HDD and DVD have one-touch recording. XP, SP, LP, EP, SLP, and SEP (10-hour) modes offer different levels of video quality. The HDD has an XP+ mode, which gives you superfine recordings.

The DVR-533H uses TV Guide's free EPG for setting your recording schedule. TV Guide's EPG won't work with satellite setups. But it does work with cable with recording options that includes weekly recording, custom start/end recording times, different recording speeds for specific shows, and reminders for when a show is about to begin. The DVR-533H has many A/V connections. In the back of the deck there’s a progressive-scan-capable component-video output, two sets each of S-Video inputs and outputs, an optical (not coaxial) digital audio output, and the standard RF ports.

In the front of the DVD recorder you'll find a complete set of A/V inputs for a camcorder, including S-Video and FireWire inputs. There is no coaxial digital audio output.

The Pioneer DVR-531H-S is identical to the DVR-533H-S except that it lacks a FireWire port, is available exclusively from Sam's Club and Wal-Mart.

The Pioneer DVR-533H DVD Recorder is one of the best DVD recorders we've reviewed so far.