FOR STARTERS: I'm no technophile, and I'm definitely no home cinema addict. I watch the TV a bit, the wife watches it, and the kids watch DVD films. You won't find me rearranging furniture to optimise the viewing experience. Please tailor answers to suit!

Our DVD player's up the spout. We need a new one. Do we go for a basic player so that we can see our films again, or go for one of these new fangled (!) DVD-R formats? And if so – any ideas for which are good and easy to use?

Bear in mind we have a V+ box so we can 'record' stuff anyway, just no real means of archiving it if we wanted to once the box is full (which most times we wouldn't). But that's a good point, can you record V+'ed programs onto DVD-R or is there some jiggerypokery that means you can only do it live?

I would've thought you could record from a V+ or Sky+ box. Just use a suitable cable to connect one to t'other, press record on one box and play on the other. It would have to be done in real time though, not like copying computer files from one drive to another

if I was buying a new DVD recorder I'd make sure it was 5.1 surround sound capable and possibly even blu-ray but i'd need to wait for the prices to come down on those

Some DVD recorders have the abilty to record onto removable discs, live TV content from their built in tuner. The ones i've seen are only single tuner, so once you start recording, you can't watch a different broadcast channel – you'll need another source. You can also get a unit that has a hard drive as well.

BTW, BlueRay is the newfangled media, not DVD (which is now old hat).

An hometheatre PC will offer total flexibility, but with that box comes complexity and higher cost.

Actually, video on disc is becoming old hat. The future is for downloads/streaming over the internet – video on demand.

So a PVR for timeshifting live TV is still a must and ideally one with network streaming capability, so if you want to offload and archive any content on it's hard drive elsehwere, you can copy the files off to a storage device which can stream to any one of your media streamers located around the house (or beyond). An internet and local media streamer such as this.

Blimey spongebob, give the poor guy a break, he just wants a DVD recorder. 😉

DVD's are robust and portable, kids can use them nice and easy. They still have a very long life yet I reckon.

To the OP, you should be able to connect a Scart cable from your V+ box to a DVD recorder which will do you nicely. As for which DVD recorder/player you get, no idea. As far as I'm aware very few people actually make devices that just record/play DVD's. What you might end up having to get unless someone else can direct you elsewhere, is a PVR with a built in DVD player/recorder, and I'm afraid they can get quite expensive. Our Panasonic was about £250 but it is a fantastic box.

I'm with spongebob. My little lad uses DVDs as skates. They've got a life expectancy of weeks in our house!

john_drummer – Member
I would've thought you could record from a V+ or Sky+ box. Just use a suitable cable to connect one to t'other, press record on one box and play on the other. It would have to be done in real time though, not like copying computer files from one drive to another

+1. We have Sky+ and a DVD recorder. Been thinking about using the DVD as an archive for ages but never got around to trying it. Let us know if you do it and it works

Just don't get a Toshiba (with the emphasis on Tosh).

We got my dad one so he could record stuff and it has to be the most counter-intuitive electronic device i have ever come across.
My brother-in-law and I are quite good at working out how things work, but this thing stumps us every time and then when we do get it set to record, it never records what it should or it cuts bits off.

I have a Samsung combined VCR and DVD recorder. Very smart looking, cost about £220 2 years ago from Argos. It has a built in Freeview tuner too, but we don't get Freeview yet.

Unfortunate;y whether it is engineered to break down, whether it is the DVD-RWs that have a finite life or whether it is too many sticky fingered toddlers playing with it, it is starting to be a pain. Using it is pretty easy but then you watch the recorded program and find it skips/stalls half way through. It also takes ages just to open the drawer.

In summary? If I were to replace it I'd get a cheap and cheerful DVD player that the kids can wreck and if there was something worth watching again and again I'd buy it…

…or I'd get a PS3 😀