• But what was wrong with the VCR?
• Surely there are some negatives too?
• Types of Hard Disk Video Recorder
• A Closer Look: Personal Video Recorders (PVRs)
• A Closer Look: DVD/HDD recorders
• The Future of HDD/DVD in Australia

A Closer Look: DVD/HDD recorders

If your primary concern is keeping backups of your recordings then DVD/HDD recorders offer a far better prospect than PVRs.

Primary Features

Every DVD/HDD recorder will have the following features:

Hard Drive. This is where you'll be storing all your recordings. The key discernible difference between the hard drives in competing models will be their size. Even though these systems allow DVD backups, it's still a good idea to buy a model with a big hard disk. A 250GB model will typically offer 70 hours of recording at Standard Definition.

DVD Drive. This serves to create backup copies of footage recorded on the hard drive, and can usually be used in place of the hard disk for direct recording from the TV. It's worth investigating how fast the DVD drive is, as a faster drive will be able to transfer videos in much less time, which could be crucial when dealing with lengthy movie recordings. DVD recorders utilise a confusing range of competing disk formats, but ultimately the range of supported formats makes little difference to hard disk systems as they are not the primary recording mechanism. If you really want a complete system, look for a product that supports DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM.

Timeshift. All DVD/HDD recorders should offer the ability to 'pause' live television, but beware, as we have found some that don't. This is a huge omission so be sure to find a product that includes it. Of those that support timeshift, some are better at it than others. A basic implementation will simply allow a programme to be paused and then continued at a later time. Better implementations also allow the user to save a programme they have just watched, sometimes hours after it has finished. This is great if you forget to set the recorder going.