DVD players and Digital Video Recorders (DVD/HDD recorders) Buying Guide
If your rattly old VCR is well past its sell-by date and your VHS tapes are taking up more space than Imelda Marcos’s shoe collection, it’s time to look at a digital video recorder. The digital revolution promises better quality video recording, simpler programming and media that takes up a fraction of the shelf space – but where do you start?
If you have bought into a system like Sky+, with its built-in recording features, and don’t need a recorder with removable media then a basic DVD player is ideal. Prices start at a pocket-money £25 but best value and performance DVD players are generally the entry and mid-price level models from mainstream manufacturers at around £40-£80. For a few dollars more (from £120) you can buy a DVD player with up-scaling that converts standard DVD to High Definition quality if you have an HD-Ready TV.
But if you need a video recorder then the best replacement for your VCR is either recordable DVD or a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) recorder. For archiving really important recordings one of the recordable DVD formats makes perfect sense, while the flexibility of a HDD makes time-shifting Eastenders as easy as turning on the TV.
Player Types:
DVD formats
DVD recorders are incredibly versatile, allowing you to record TV programs, play DVD movies, run slide-shows of your digital images and archive your VHS tapes or camcorder footage to disc. They are all relatively inexpensive, starting at under £100, with best price to performance ratio at around £180-£200. However, due to manufacturers failing to agree on a standard for recordable DVD, there are three different formats to choose from: DVD-R/Rw, DVD+R/Rw and DVD-Ram.
They are all identical in performance and all record between one and six hours of content depending on the picture quality you set. DVD+R and DVD-R discs are write-once, meaning that once you have recorded a program onto them the content is there forever (handy if the kids have a habit of recording over the PGA tour), but they can be played in most DVD players.
The –Rw and +Rw discs are a little more expensive to buy and less compatible with DVD players but are re-writeable so programs can be erased or recorded over just like old VHS cassettes. DVD-Ram is ideal for editing your discs as it records content in whatever space is left on the disc rather like a hard disc in your PC, but unfortunately they play in very few DVD players.
Recordable Media:
All three formats record between 1 and 6 hours of video depending on the recording quality you set. In one hour mode you won’t be able to tell the difference between the original broadcast and the recording but quality dips as time increases. The long play 6-hour modes are about the same as 6-hour LP mode on VHS – that’s progress for you.
Recordable DVD format comparison
Format Recording Re-writes Editing Compatibility with
Time , features, DVD Players
DVD+R 1-6 hours Poor almost all (c.99%)
DVD+Rw 1-6 hours 1,000 times Good many DVD players (c.90%)
DVD-R 1-6 hours Poor almost all (c.99%)
DVD-Rw 1-6 hours 1,000 times Average most DVD players (c.95%)
DVD-Ram 1-6 hours 100,000 times Excellent few DVD players (c.25%)
For those really hungry for digital recording capacity, some flagship models can now record onto dual-layer DVDs, effectively doubling recording time, and new formats are emerging that record HDTV – Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Of course, these machines and their blank discs are very expensive – so if you want to record absolutely days and days of programmes while you are away, you are better off looking for an HDD recorder.
Formats:
Supported media:
Hard disc’s
HDD recorders use a PC hard disc as a storage device and the recording time is relative to the size of the hard disc. Even basic 40GB HDD recorders will give you 20 hours of broadcast quality recordings, or 40-hours at standard quality and 80 hours in long-play mode. While 20-hours doesn’t sound like much, the menu system of HDD recorders allows you to delete recordings at the touch of a button to free up space.
HDD recorders do not suffer the format problems of recordable DVD and start from around £150 for an entry level model from a known brand. 80GB models are a good compromise between space and cost at around £200, with big capacity 160GB, 240GB and even 320GB models setting you back around £250, £300 and £350 respectively. Before you buy a big capacity HDD recorder ask yourself do you really need a 320GB drive with 640 hours recording (53days!) in LP mode?
Memory:
If you are still undecided between a DVD or HDD recorder or how to revive you old VHS tapes, the answer is a combination model. There are plenty of DVD recorder/VCRs combination models, several HDD recorder/VCRs and most recently DVD-recorders with HDD built-in too. These double digital recorders have dedicated dubbing facilities meaning you can record everything to the HDD initially and then, at your leisure, decide which programs you want to permanently archive to DVD for future reference. Perfect.
DVD recorders and HDD recorders have a similar set of features including single or double analogue TV tuners, with Freeview, Electronic Programme Guides and simple point-and-click recording appearing on more up-market models. Other useful features to look out for include DivX compatibility for those who enjoy downloading movies, a front DV input for camcorder users and built-in card readers that allow simple slide shows of you pictures on TV.