We Crave: DVD Recording

Everyone wants to upgrade their AV setup, but plasmas, LCDs and projectors are still too expensive for the average consumer. DVD recorders, on the other hand, have the ability to fundamentally change the way you watch television and they're not much more than £150 now. The DVD format is a lot more flexible than the tapes of old, and most recorders can write between 1 and 6 hours of material onto one disc. The trouble starts when you start to look at the multitude of DVD formats out there, from those that can be written once to various rewritable discs that can be reused or edited as needed.

The DVD-R format is as vanilla as it gets -- write-once media that's dirt cheap (as little as 10p per disc), but fairly compatible when played back in standard DVD players. The DVD+R format is generally even more compatible, but the discs tend to be slightly more expensive. Most DVD recorders support either -R or +R, but some have dual compatibility.

Write-once media is good for programmes that you know you want to keep or don't want to edit down, but DVD-RW or DVD+RW will offer you greater flexibility. You can rewrite to these discs or edit the adverts out, making them great for everyday use.

Most players now offer flexible recording and timeslipping -- flexible recording automatically adjusts the quality level so that a programme will fit at the end of a disc, and timeslipping allows you to watch a recording while it is still being made.

The final format, DVD-RAM, was pioneered by Panasonic, but has been taken up by other manufacturers such as JVC. DVD-RAM is usually provided in a protective plastic case which stops the disc inside getting damaged. This is quite important, as dust and scratches can stop an accurate recording being made. The discs are a lot more expensive, but all Panasonic recorders let you timeslip with the format, so DVD-RAM is excellent for making precious recordings.

DVD recorders are fairly cheap and flexible, but what if you go on holiday and want to record two weeks of EastEnders? Unless you're willing to record in low quality, you'll need some bigger storage, which is where hard-drive recorders fit in. Sky+ has shown that hard drive recording is the way forward -- these devices can store hours of material and allow you to pause and rewind live TV. And if you like to archive your favourite TV and movies, you can edit the adverts out and then burn them to DVD in high quality. Our current favourite is the Toshiba RD-XS34, which has a 160GB hard drive inside as well as a DVD recorder, while Thomson's DHD4000 is an integrated Freeview recorder without DVD. -GC