Hard drive vs dvd

[mrgooch]

For basic recording of TV programs is a hard drive overkill?

[rhegedus]

Depends how long the program is.

[redwudz]

It's not a necessity, but a hard drive in a DVD recorder makes the operation much more convenient and flexible. I have a 160Gb HD in my Pioneer 633 DVR and it allows me to record quite a few programs, then edit or burn them to DVD anytime I want and at different qualities. And if I decide I don't want the video, I can just delete it without wasting a DVD.

[stackner]

i had a dvd ONLY dvd recorder originally then i baught a dvd/hdd dvd recorder and do 99% of my recordings to the hdd then later transfere them to dvd. i just find it easier/faster to just use the hdd. also it means if you are unlucky and get a dodgy blank dvd and it stuffs up you will have a stuffed up recording but if recording to the hdd and then transfere it to dvd and you get a bad blank dvd you can just put another dvd in and tranfere it from the hdd again. i am going to take a guess many people record direct to dvd unless they want to edit or the recording is too long for a dvd before removing comercials but i just find it easy to record to the hdd first for most everything. it also means if your recorder will transfere stuff from the hdd to dvd in fast mode (not realtime) then your dvd burner drive in the recorder will have less use and i would think that means it will last longer. 8-15 minutes of burning to transfere a recoding from the hdd to dvd v's 30-120+ minutes to do the same thing in real time if recording directly to dvd. i know i take the hdd option and save the dvd burners life.

[mattso]

The beauty of a HD is that there's no fiddling around with disks etc. Just hit "Record"! This is very handy when you need to quickly get something recorded off the TV. Before, with my VCR, after scrambling frantically for a blank tape & missing the start of a show, I just used to give up. No more!

Now that I have my Pioneer 80GB unit, I honestly can't imagine life without it!

[JAB285]

My 160 GB recorder will record 72 hours at SP, 143 hours at LP and 214 hours at EP. That beats a 6 hour dvd by a whole lot. There are nothing wrong with regular recorders, but I vote for the more flexible ones with a hard drive. Especially when doing tv recordings.