I was looking at the same problem until I bought the Panny E30 last week. The reason...Time slip... to be blunt. The Time Slip function I wanted was ideal for starting recording of programs while my wife puts the kids to bed or a film clashes with another half hour program etc...
In all other respects the Panny and Philips appear to be the same in record modes, picture quality etc apart from obviously the RW formats which is still an issue for many. But as the Panny can make DVD-R's into DVD videos this is not such a big problem.