DVD recorders/ harddrive ????

[Tom81]

Why is Philips the only company with a dvd recorder/harddrive combo on the market?
Will this model discontinue as well? Its been a few years since I've checked out models
and was shocked by this developement...why?

[redwudz]

I suspect it's because of pressure from the movie and TV companies.

[Bondiablo]

That and they haven't been very popular in the US. People here would rather pay a monthly subscription for something more idiot proof like TIVO.

[Krispy Kritter]

You can also get similar units from your TV provider. The cable companies and SAT companines (Dish and DirecTV) all have DVR's available. For those still using basic cable or antenna, there is TIVO. So as pointed out above, not much of a market here.

[Seeker47]

Why is Philips the only company with a dvd recorder/harddrive combo on the market?
Will this model discontinue as well? Its been a few years since I've checked out models
and was shocked by this developement...why?

So -- no more LG or Samsung models like this ? And Lite-On got out as well ? Polaroid had a 160G model, but even if still available you probably don't want to go there. Ditto for Insignia, which seems to be a house brand of Best Buy. I think there may still be a Panasonic model or two around . . . for whatever that may be worth.

[oldfart13]

Still some up here from Sony, Pioneer, LG to name a few. Getting harder to find them though....

[oldfart13]

Pinball Hall of Fame? Neat! I still play pinball almost every day though my selection is limited (a friend owns one of the last arcades in town). I'm wondering how many Burton Cummings nicked out of the old Winnipeg arcades over the years and moved to his home. He has said "lots" in interviews. I'm reminded of that Who song as I have played the silver ball in both Brighton and Soho in '87 when I was there to attend a convention. Good old times....

[handyguy]

Panasonic makes them. You can find dvd recorders on Ebay too.

You can also use your computer as a dvd recorder very easily. Dazzle makes a dvd recorder USB box for about $40.

[BobK]

Don't know how good they are (have to be better than the iLo's they started with a couple years ago), but Walmart online currently has RCA, Phillips and Polaroid recorders with HD:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5030815
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5693291
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5663214

[redwudz]

Ah, yes.... I had a iLO from Walmart, before I knew better. First the remote quit, then the tuner, then the burner. It's fulfilling a higher purpose in a landfill at present.

I have Pioneer 633h-s DVR that I got a couple of years ago with a 1394A input and a 160GB hard drive. I even like the EPG. It seems stupid to me that they still don't make versions like that.

[jman98]

Buy them while you can. I'm not sure that Hollywood pressure has anything to do with it, although they are an easy scapegoat. The trend in the USA has been to sell recorders without hard drives. Probably it's because the recorders without hard drives sell better (lower cost) and have fewer problems (hard drives can go bad). Plus, most consumers don't participate in forums like this and aren't really smart enough to do their own video editing. If you want to edit video anyway, you might as well just do a capture to your PC and edit it there. PCs have better software tools for this sort of thing.

I am highly skeptical of the merits of USB based capture solutions, but to be fair it's been years since I looked into them. I can say only that as of about 3 years ago all the USB based capture solutions at the time were inadequate. Whether they are better now or not, I don't know, but I do know that PCI based solutions work well and are all I have ever used.

[oldfart13]

Wal-Mart (Canada) sells Symphonic (Funai) with 80 Gig HDD for $130. Since these can't be hacked and their build quality is questionable, I'm looking right through them....