Are the terms DVD RECORDER.DVR,PVR,DVD RECORDER WITH HARD DRIVE interchangeable? I am old school(open reel tape recorder old) and I am looking for a machine that is as easy to use as a VCR(remember them?), with tv tuner, preferably with HDD(storage space is not too important). What IS important is that the unit uses different types of discs(+/-, r. r/w, 1/2 layerd, 1/2 sided) in some combination. Also it MUST be able to record a MACROVISION encoded disc as sent to it by my dvd player, OR my computer which can play BOTH CP and NON CP discs. The copying process should be no more difficult than useing 2 vcrs as I do often. If my DREAM machine does not exist, than I will just bag the whole idea and stay with tape! I can*t tell the difference in quality anyway! For me the basic avantage to disc is the inherint convieniance of editing before final copying to disc, nothing more. I would use 2 non hdd machines with tv tuner just as I would use 1 hdd machine. The results are the same albeit a little less convienent with the former. Why does this new technology have to be so confuseing and difficult? What happened to the days when you coul buy a product, look at it for 2 minuits, and operate it? Without haveing to spend 2 weeks reading an endless owners manual that might have been written in LATIN or GREEK? Remember them?

you wont be able to copy any CP movies to the hard drive. unless you go machine to machine with a device between them that allows you to bypass the CP.

I'm old school from when the consumer machines had 3" tape reels and the takeup reel determined the tape speed.

Even assuming that you knew how to set the clock without using the manual, and you knew how to program it to record, there are no DVD recorders that easy.

That's problematic as the present analog channels and their relatively cheap recorders are now essentially obsolete. This is like buying a Scully tape recorder making sure you get the Elcaset attachment.

The whole point of Macrovision is that you not copy. Sounds like you should bail right here.

Ah, and when it plays, does it give you an output that you could record? Probably not....

Not gonna happen.

How about the storage space of 500 discs versus 500 tapes?

It's more capable, and capable means complicated. As researchers say about the human brain, if the brain were simple enough for us to understand how it works, WE would be too simple to understand how it works!

Non carborundum illegitimi,
which is fake latin for
"don't let the bastards wear you down."

The next generation will have Internet access, and be able to burn movies you've bought off the internet. Why? So you can take the DVD with you on trips to play in the car for the kids, etc.. You won't have to wait until the movie is playing on TV to record it. Video on demand.

How do I know? If they don't, they are idiots.

Back in 1924, when electrical recording (i.e. using microphones, amps and cutter heads instead of horns and levers) was started, the Victor company decided it wasn't worth getting into because the public really didn't care about the greater fidelity. This is one of many ships that audio, then audio and video, company people have missed. If it took them YEARS to figure out that selling one tune cheap is better than having millions of tunes stolen over the internet, how long will it take them to figure out this one?



Actually, it's not on the Sony RDR-GX335 that I just finally opened up and tried out. I hit pause on a blank screen but up to a second more gets recorded. But it looks like editing can be done. And hence also I have started a thread to deal with my first problem using the thing. It's at
[Link: remotecentral.com]

I was surprised to see this thread that I started in September being #5 in the list today before I bumped it up with this post! Looks like I'm not the only one interested in this topic, which is to say, confused.

I recommended pioneer, i generally avoid sony like the plague (with the exception of my PS3). i just upgraded to the 250gig pioneer hdd dvd recorder and again can testify the pause is EXACT.

Yeah, Ernie... thanks for the post... I have a couple shoe-boxes full of Hi-8 family movies I want to slap onto a DVD --- CHEAPLY.