I am planning on purchasing a drive to record DVDs. I have a few questions though. If I were to buy a settop DVD Recorder, I would get the Panasonic DMR-HS2. If I get a burner, I would most probably get the Sony DRU-500A or the Pioneer AO5 when it is released. If I get a burner, I would also get a TV Tuner card and maybe some other type of caprture card. I plan on mainly recording TV, maybe backing up some VHS tapes. I might also want to record things from my computer like videos and stuff, but that is not quite as important. Here are a few questions I have so far:

1) Quality: Will there be a quality difference when recording TV using the DMR-HS2 compared to giong through a TV Tuner card and then burning onto DVD? If so, how much?

2)Differences: What are some main differences between the two types? I know they record to different mediums. I mainly want to know in terms of features I guess yo would say.

3) Anything else I should be aware of?

4) Any new settop DVD recorders coming out anytime soon? If so which ones?

These are all the questions I can think of right now. After reading responses, I will probably have some more.