Do I really need a hard drive??

[bdomz]

I'm looking to purchase my first stand-alone DVD recorder and I'm torn between the Pioneer DVR-531H-S or the DVR-220-S.

I don't really know if I need the unit with the hard drive since I already have a DVR from Time Warner. My goal is to just burn TV shows to DVD so I can watch them on my laptop. I don't care at all about video editing or commericals, I can just fast forward through those. What I'm looking for is the quickest and easiest way to record shows and get them on discs. I don't want to have to babysit this thing constantly to make sure it's recording all the shows I want. Plus I'll be doing this everyday and want it to be as hassle free as possible.

Would the unit with the hard drive make my life alot easier? or is it simple enough just to use the DVR-220-S and record off of the cable companies DVR? Also I have roomates who watch TV alot, would that interefere with my recordings? Sorry for the noob questions, I haven't even recorded TV off a VCR in like 10 years.

Money isn't a huge concern but I don't wanna drop $350 on the 531H unless I'm really gonna use it. I guess I could always use the 531 as a second DVR in another room using analog cable, I only have digital cable in my living room.

thanks in advance for your advice!

[BobK]

Since you have a DVR the answer would probably be no. There are several reasons people want a hard drive. I wanted one so when I'm out of town for 2-3 weeks I can record a few TV shows without having to use 3 different VCRs to get them all. If you're around to put a new disk in the recorder when the old one is full then you don't need a hard drive for that.

And even if you're not around, you can still record to the DVR, then play that to the DVD recorder and record to the disk. Actually, you already have a hard drive- that's what the DVR records to. The only gain in having another hard drive in the recorder is that you could record from the hard drive to disk much faster than playing it back in real time.

If you have roomates that watch TV a lot then a HD would be even less useful. If you're recording off a cable box (or the DVR that also serves as the cable box) then you'd have to watch the same channel that you're recording. The DVR will let you watch a different channel while it records. Then you just have to play the DVR to the recorder when nobody else is using the TV to watch something else.

So unless you have some other reason for wanting a hard drive, I'd say save the money.

[lordsmurf]

Doesn't sound like it. I don't need a hard drive either, so I have non-HDD units.

[bdomz]

thanks for the advice!

I went ahead and got the DVR-220 at Walmart. So far so good, I can see that I probably wont need a hard drive since setting this thing to record is pretty easy. I still have to mess around with it more but I think this unit will work out really well.