HDD DVD Recorders - recommendations please ..

[Millie1]

The subject heading says it all really .

We got a Phillips DVD Recorder and from day one, it didn't perform as promised ... finally threw it out when it was no longer worth repairing.

DH swore he would never buy another DVD recorder but has changed his mind - so what should we go for. Budget is certainly not at the top end of the market - say around the £300 mark. Have Amazon vouchers so want to use those.

All recommendations appreciated.

TIA

Do you need to be able to record to DVDs? If not then maybe a HDD recorder with Freeview plus a cheap DVD player (not recorder) might be a better option?

I was looking recently, hoping to replace our
i. DVD (non recording variety)
ii. VHS
iii. dodgy Freeview box
in one fell swoop as I was so sick of all the remotes and wires.

The problem I found was that all the machines that have both DVD and HDD only had one tuner, so you can't record one digital channel and watch another, so fairly pointless.

At the moment I think you can only get twin tuners on HDD-only machines (no DVD, though you can get Freeview built in). Apparently they will be coming on to the market soon though.

So - we went for a Humax HDD with Freeview, and kept our old DVD player to play DVDs on. Got rid of VHS and Freeview box.

I thought it thorugh and realised that there is very little that we'd want to record off the telly and keep on a DVD for ever - and if you do there is a way of moving the programme onto your PC and burning it to DVD on there.

And anyway, it's BRILLIANT!! I lurve it, it's so easy to record programmes and you get them in a lovely list on the screen unlike with VHS which is all I'd ever used before, so no winding and rewinding.

And pause TV is great too.

Hi FirstatForty

Thanks for all the info. Now I'm really confused as I hadn't a clue about twin tuners etc We definitely want to record & play DVDs on it. I don't mind if we can't watch digital channels whilst recording but does that also mean we wouldn't be able to watch terrestrial channels? At present we have a cheapie panasonic dvd player which is a great machine but whilst it is turned on we can't access any tv channels. Now maybe that's got something to do with the fact that we have just basically plugged and played.

I think I need to go and do a lot more homework ... and to help my trustworthy old vhs recorder has just kicked the bucket - aaaargh!

Thanks again ... am off to investigate further.

Hi - sorry only just seen this as not been on all day. i'm not sure about receiving terrestrial channels while recording, it may depend on your telly but I just don't know enough about it I'm afraid.

I found the Which website was good, you can do a free trial to look at their info (but make sure you unsubscribe in time as they are pretty smart about slapping the charges on if you don't!)

Good luck!

Thanks FirstatForty ... only checked back in here myself now. Bit the bullet and ordered a Sony machine - it's sitting in it's packaging in the hall and we'll examine it over the weekend. hope it heavens it does what we want it to!!