What happened to DVD recorders???

[johnsees]

Okay, so I haven't paid any attention to the DVD recorder market in about 7 years; that's when I bought mine. I went looking online tonight for a new one, and there sure aren't many out there. Most are either pretty feature-less (no tuners, no timers) or they cost over $200.
I thought maybe, while I was asleep, the world switched over to DVRs, but there aren't that many of them either. What are people recording video on these days? And what's with the "tuner-free" recorders?
Thanks

[johns0]

Most people are using pvr devices,there are a lot more now a days than dvd recorders,tuner free recorders require a separate input device.

[jimdagys]

I don't understand why the vcr at Wal-mart, etc, contains no tuner. When the analog to digital switch was just made, all the vcrs had the new digital tuners. Now, if you want to schedule recordings on different channels, it is impossible (unless you buy an expensive analogue to digital tuner that allows you to program a schedule).
Is there any retail shop that sells vcrs with digital tuners?

[jjeff]

Is there any retail shop that sells vcrs with digital tuners?

No, in fact there are no shops that even sell new VCRs anymore, you may be able to find a few junk DVD/VCR combos but plane VCRs have not been available for several years.
AFA digital tuners in VCRs, the few VCRs that I know of that had a digital tuner were the DVHS models, not just standard VHS models. Again a few combos(VCR/DVDRs) may have been available with a digital tuner but most would not let you record digital channels to the VHS side, only DVD side.
VCRs and DVDRs are all but dead, the people that cared to record have mostly moved to pay providers DVRs, a few are using a home built HTPC, the rest just don't care
Happy new year to the tiny minority like us that truly do care and keep our old DVDRs working

[usually_quiet]

Okay, so I haven't paid any attention to the DVD recorder market in about 7 years; that's when I bought mine. I went looking online tonight for a new one, and there sure aren't many out there. Most are either pretty feature-less (no tuners, no timers) or they cost over $200.
I thought maybe, while I was asleep, the world switched over to DVRs, but there aren't that many of them either. What are people recording video on these days? And what's with the "tuner-free" recorders?
Thanks

To put things in perspective, when I bought my first DVD recorder in 2005, a Panasonic with no hard drive and just an analog tuner, it cost $200. If you want a functioning ATSC digital tuner, the Magnavox DVD recorder models with hard drives (models MDR533H/F7, MDR535H/F7, and MDR535H/F7) available at walmart.com are fairly decent and worth the $200-$300 price. I bought one of the earlier models last year with a 320GB hard drive for $200 and have not regretted it.

Analog cable is going away quickly. Digital tuners are nearly useless to those with digital cable and completely useless to those with satellite service. Tuner-less DVD recorders are used to record the output from cable boxes, satellite receivers, and DVRs, or to digitize VHS and DV tapes.

As for what people use to record video, it is generally a DVR from their paid provider or a TiVo. There are also a few DVRs available for recording from an antenna with no ability to burn optical media.

As was mentioned before, some people record TV using a computer. I'm one of them. In addition to using a DVD recorder (to record free over-the-air TV and the output from my cable box), I also use my PC with Windows Media Center and a TV tuner card to record from over-the-air sources. That works well, but HD recordings can fill up a hard drive rather quickly. I bought a Blu-Ray burner to burn my recordings to disc as .mpg files.

[vhelp]

i think that most dvr units are proprietory (DRM controled) so you only see those..ie..direct, comcast, cablevision, and so on. if you want to just record stuff to watch later, a dvr is the way to go because they are great, at least the directv ones are. they record the signal first, to the hdd. this way, you have only one final (AVC) source type, whether real-time while watching or dvr'ed to hdd for later watching, you are assured perfect quality. this is also great for capturing from since you are getting lossless content this way. <<don't misread that. but if you want record stuff to "rip" off your unit, then you have to go another route.

[handyguy]

I got a magnavox w 500 gig hd also digital & analog tuners from WM recently, just $300 with a guarantee of 3 years...

[johnsees]

Well, I found a Toshiba DR570KU on Craigslist for $25. Looks in good shape physically and the picture is killer. (And it has a tuner.) You have to have a telescope to read the front display from the couch but I think that's pretty much the norm these days.
Thanks for all the info.