Lobster wrote:
Sorry. a bit (a lot!) OT but I'd value the group's opinions on this...

My VCR is definitely on its last legs, and needs replacing very soon.
We already have a DVD playback machine; the need here is for something
to enable us to time-shift TV (ie record programmes and watch them at a
snip

Finally, I wonder whether it's too early to be buying an HD machine, are
they likely to improve massively in price and quality over the next 1-2
years, as we've seen with DVDs? Therefore maybe a cheapo stopgap VCR
would be best? Or a DVD-R (but you've still got the DVDs to find and lose!)

HD capacities are likely to rise - probably around doubling in that time,
which will double recording time.
A non-trivial fraction of hard disks will fail every year.
This means you lose all recordings.
It's nice to be able to back up on to DVD in some way, if you can.