PVR vs DVD recorder

[admin_exported]

Forgive my ignorance, but what's the difference between a PVR and a DVD recorder? I know one has a DVD recorder and one doesn't, but it is fair to say that a DVD recorder does everying that a PVR does, but adds a DVD player? In other words it is a PVR and DVD player combined, bith the added advantage of being able to record onto DVD too?

Or am I missing something.

Cheers.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Tom,

A DVD recorder records onto a blank DVD whilst a PVR records onto a hard drive.

There are also HD-DVD recorders which are dvd recorders that also have a hard drive. (The HD in "HD-DVD recorder" stands for hard drive and not high definition)

DVD recorders and HD-DVD recorders also play DVD's and CD's whereas a PVR doesn't.

Hope this clears things up.

 

[fr0g]

mark 1:
Hi Tom,

A DVD recorder records onto a blank DVD whilst a PVR records onto a hard drive.

There are also HD-DVD recorders which are dvd recorders that also have a hard drive. (The HD in "HD-DVD recorder" stands for hard drive and not high definition)

DVD recorders and HD-DVD recorders also play DVD's and CD's whereas a PVR doesn't.

Hope this clears things up.

Strictly speaking, an HD-DVD recorder is a now defunct (HD-DVD) High definition recorder.

An HDD/DVD recorder would be what you mean

 

[Anonymous]

Hard Drive recorders (PVRs) are terrific. DVD recorders on their own are a basically pain. The hard drive can take any length of recording but the DVD recorder is limitd on durations unless you seriously drop the quality. The best thing to get is a PVR with Freeview Playback (which has a sort of Sky+ functionality that enables you to record from the programme guide). Try and get one that upscales to 1080p also! The downside of PVRs is that you cant share recording with others or archive precious material without outputting the recording to a DVD recorder!
There will be a Freesat PVR released in the autumn....

 

[professorhat]

Some PVRs have USB outputs to allow you to archive recordings off to a PC / Mac (e.g. the Topfield PVRs).

 

[Anonymous]

I guess when I say DVD recorder I mean something with an inbuilt hard dive like a Sony RDR-HXD970. It's got twin freeview tuners in and a hard disk. I can see that a DVD recorder without a hard disk is essentially useless, or at least a major pain to use. Since I couldn't really imagine how one would use such a thing sensibly I'm suprised they exist.

I suppose my question is that if I'm wanting to buy a PVR of some kind, do you look at the Sony RDR-HXD970 alongside the Sagem or Topfield and treat the DVD recording capability as a nice extra (for a price I'll admit, though less than the price of a decent DVD player, and more convinient to use, less remotes and input switching etc)?

Or am I comparing apples with oranges?

 

[Big Chris]

I'll be honest and say that in the 2 1/2 years since I bought my Sony RDR-HXD910 (250gb HDD & DVD recorder), I've never used the DVD recorder part for recording. I have used it once to edit down and copy the F.A cup final to DVD when the Hammers were playing, for my Wife's boss, but that's it.