Ok, well, almost everything

Pioneer DVD/HDD recorder DVR530H, from $899, www.pioneeraus.com.au

DVD recording killed the VHS video star, but it looks as though standalone DVD recorders are about to go the way of the do-do, far more quickly than VHS recorders bit the proverbial dust.

Actually that’s not quite right because audio cassettes are still around to this day, despite CDs, and there are still plenty of VHS recorders sold on the market. But if DVD is good, then HDD, or hard disk drive, is even better, and that’s the direction we’re all heading. This is clearly evidenced by the hard disk based (and now solid state based, thanks to flash memory) portable mp3 player, be it the Apple iPod, the Creative Zen, iRiver H10 or any other portable player you can name. Even the JVC Everio range of video cameras has gone hard disk, with no more fiddly tapes or mini-DVD discs, so why not your video recorder?

Well, that’s exactly what they’ve been doing for quite some time now. Some of you reading this very article will already have a DVD/HDD recorder at home. But the major difference right now is the price. Brand name DVD recorders with a built-in hard drive have crashed to below $1000.

Indeed, so popular are DVD/HDD recorders in Japan, they can’t sell standalone DVD recorders there anymore. And who could blame them? Once you’ve used a DVD/HDD recorder to record straight to the hard disk, you’ll never bother with looking for a blank tape or blank DVD ever again. Just press record, and whammo, it’s recording. If you really want to save a copy onto a blank DVD, no worries – just transfer it to DVD later when you’re ready. Most units even offer high-speed recording to DVD, so a DVD copy can be made in just a few minutes, instead of in real time.

Now that the trend is firmly for DVD/HDD recorders to be the VHS of the early 21st Century, it’s nice to see them getting ever more features, slowly encroaching on the powerful abilities of the standard PC.

At under the $1000 price point, this trend is best seen in Pioneer’s newest DVD/HDD recorders. Not only is sub $1000 an affordable price, but it can handle a range of digital media including audio, photos and naturally, video. There are actually two models, the DVR530H, with an 80Gb hard drive and the DVR630H with a 160Gb hard drive which retails for $1099. Just a tad over $1000, and who knows, in stores the price is probably already better than these RRPs we’ve just listed.

Another bonus of these just-released units (and indeed in the just-released units of a number of competitors) is that the DVD recorder is now dual-layer compatible. This means you can record 4 hours of video at DVD quality onto one dual-layer DVD disc, and, on Pioneer’s DVD/HDD recorders, an incredible 24 hours of video on the same disc at a lower video quality. You would probably never want to record at a low video quality, but you can do it if you want! A whole day’s worth of recording on a single piece of plastic. Amazing what compression lets us do these days.

Ok, ok, so we know the Pioneer can record TV, and we hinted at features like music and photos. So, on with the details!

Thanks to PictBridge compatibility, a PictBridge enabled printer can be connected to the unit and digital photos stored on the hard drive can be printed out without the need of a computer. That’s pretty cool… PC-free photo printouts... from your DVD/HDD recorder! You can also plug your digital camera into the same socket and transfer all of the photos onto the hard disk. This really is simple, folks – you don’t need to be a computer expert (or even that proficient in computers) to now get your photos off the damn camera and onto a hard disk where you can hook up a printer and print them out, or at the very least watch them as slideshows on your TV.

Pop in your favourite music CDs, and they’ll transfer across onto the hard drive as you listen to them.

Plug in a standard USB keyboard, and you can rename photos, and give names to the music tracks by simply typing them out. Of course you can use the remote control to do this, with an SMS style input system using the keys on the remote… but hey, if you’ve got a USB keyboard (and they’re available for $20 if you haven’t got a spare one) you can just type as normal. Once again, even if you’re not a computer expert, this really is easy stuff that even Grandma could do. Ok so you might want to show her once, but it’s definitely not hard. Indeed it’s very easy.

Pioneer also use advanced MPEG-2 compression technology to squeeze more hours of video – at a higher quality – than competitors, even those with larger hard drive sizes.

All in all, this new DVD/HDD recorder adds some very handy digital media features, with the ability to store music and photos on the hard drive, as well as your TV recordings, and do simple things such as print photos out, make a DVD slideshow of your favourite photos, and even plug in a regular keyboard to make renaming files a cinch.

If you’re a real computer expert and love doing all of these things on a PC, keep on doing them there. But for those who just want to perform simple tasks like photo sharing and printing, recording TV and movies and building a music jukebox… with the simplicity of a remote control and without paying the price of a Windows Media Center 2005 Edition computer… or you just want to upgrade your ageing VHS recorder… we like the new Pioneer DVR series of DVD/HDD recorders and happily recommend one to you.

ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT

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