Record the magic: DVD Recorders

For a long time a major disadvantage of DVD compared to VHS has been the absence of recording capabilities on most DVD players. However in recent years DVD recorders with excellent features are increasingly available and getting steadily cheaper.

DVD recorders can play your DVD’s like regular players and also come with DVD burners which allow you to record TV shows on DVD’s for later viewing. Note that there are a variety of DVD formats: DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RW etc; make sure you get a DVD recorder compatible with the most number of formats.

Some DVD recorders also come with hard drives which add greatly to their usefulness. For instance the Sony RDR-HX725 comes with a massive 160 GB hard drive which can store more than 200 hours of programming. This allows you to record long programmes at high quality without having to worry about your DVD running out. The player also lets you pause live TV which is handy if you need to take a break. Others players come with a built-in VCR which make it possible to transfer your old VHS tapes to DVD which is a great way of backing up those precious family videos.