Hi, i'm currently still living in the dark ages and still using a VCR for my recording purposes. So, i'm now looking at jumping into the modern world and getting a DVD recorder with built in hard drive. I was looking at the Sony RDR-HXD890 in particular, which looks just the job...... But...... am i already too late? will i be buying equipment that could already be being phased out?

On researching buying a DVD recorder i have found out that the HD DVD format created by Toshiba has been dropped and is no longer being supported and that the competing BLUERAY format has won the battle for supremacy, much like the old VHS/Betamax battle of the early 80's.

So, the question is, should i now be waiting again for BLUERAY recorders to become available (more importantly, wait until they are more affordable than they will be at launch) or should i buy what is available now, NOW?

What do you lot think?

Steve

Hard disk recorder with a DVD writer in it IMHO.

Nice and cheap too now.

I've got one of the Sony ones (Think it's that model) and it works very nicely thank you.

Well worth spending some money on.

Are you planning on recording hi-def or just standard definition tv.

If it's the latter there's no advantage to having a Blu-ray recorder , and when they do eventually arrive they will be very pricey.

Go for something now and you'll get plenty of use out of it , and I bet you'll rarely use the DVD side anyway and do most of the recording onto the HD.

Make sure you either get one with Freeview built-in, or put the GBP40-odd aside for a micro-digibox, otherwise you'll be limited to recording what you're watching come the switchover! Hard-disk all the way for me, BTW!

Make sure you either get one with Freeview built-in, or put the GBP40-odd aside for a micro-digibox, otherwise you'll be limited to recording what you're watching come the switchover! Hard-disk all the way for me, BTW!

Makes sure it's a twin tuner or the same will apply.

Oh, and another reason to go with an HDD is the ability to time-slip and/or watch one thing while recording another!

Single digital tuner + an analogue tuner is fine if you already have a digibox or a freeview TV

I've used mine to watch one thing on freeview (via the digibox), record an analogue channel and record a digital channel so am impressed

Having a DVD-recorder unit with built-in digital tuner is a very worthwhile feature because if it doesn't have a digital tuner, it's not really easy to program / time recordings from off-the-air.

It's not worth buying a blu-ray recorder yet - not sure if you can even get one other than for a PC anyway.

It's going to be a few years before blu-ray becomes a standard to replace DVDs for home recordings. HDTV will have to become more mainstream for it to be worthwhile IMHO. Whilst it's very popular for pre-recorded films and documentaries, there isn't much of a market for it as a home-recording device if you see what I mean.

Edit: the additional feature of a HDD can be very useful. If you don't have Sky+, then a simple DVD + HDD combo device is just what you need and doesn't cost a fortune. Also gives you the ability to record onto HDD then edit and then dub back to DVD if you want to archive it.

Thanks for the feedback so far.......

The recorder i'm looking at Sony RDR-HXD890 has both the option for recording to the HDD or to a DVD and also includes a freeview tuner. From what i can see looking around places like AVForums, it seems to be quite a highly regarded piece of kit.

I currently only have a regular sky box, rather than sky+ so from whats been said above, i guess i will be able to rec from sky and watch a freeview channel via the recorders freeview tuner or vice versa (rec freeview & watch sky...) that about the gist of it?

Thanks again.

Steve