Digital Video Articles, Tutorials, Guides & Q & A Since 2007

Buying Guide, Devices, Disc, DVD

The Best DVD Recorders with Hard Drives

Best DVD recorders with hard drives

Last updated on January 23rd, 2024 at 02:18 am

DVD recorders with hard drives give you the best of two worlds. They allow you to record video to disc and to hard disk.

If you’re recording the odd show, then you could do with a generic DVD recorder (without a hard disk).

But if you’ve hundreds of shows to record and don’t fancy spending on discs, then a DVD recorder with a hard drive is a sensible option.

Here are some advantages of a DVD recorder with a hard drive, apart from saving the cost of disc purchase in the long run.

Save Space

If your physical storage space is already overflowing with discs and tapes, then it’s time you go the hard disk route.

You can easily make backup copies of your hard drive recordings. Apart from storing them on a portable external hard disk, you can also save them to the cloud.

You no longer have to worry about making space to store your disc recordings.

More Playback Options

With a DVD you can only play back your recordings on a DVD player or with a computer with a DVD drive.

With hard drive recordings, you can play your files on a computer, mobile device, and TV box, among others.

Most of these devices can be connected to the Internet. So, you can easily download the recordings you saved to the cloud and play them.

So, if you’re looking to play your recordings outside without DVD equipment, a DVD recorder with a hard disk would be a suitable option.

Record/Backup DVD to Hard Disk

Also, you can also easily convert your hard disk recordings to DVD if you so desire.

Say you have DVDs of home movies or training programs.

You can easily make backup copies of them to hard disk without the need to do it through a free DVD ripper program.

Record to External Hard Disk

Some hard disk DVD recorder models allow you to record to an external disk. If your recorder’s hard disk space is almost full, you can use an external hard disk to store new recordings.

Let’s look at some of the best DVD recorders with hard disk

Hard Drive DVD Recorder Drawback

As convenient as DVD recorders with hard drives are, they have a shortcoming. Fortunately, it won’t affect anyone’s purchasing decision though. However, it pays to take note of it.

Any hard disk is susceptible to malfunction. This applies to computer hard drives, too. You don’t know when they’ll die on you.

So, if you store important recordings on your DVD recorder hard drive, it would be wise to back them up regularly. You’re advised to use an external hard disk or cloud storage for this purpose.

Storing your recordings on DVDs seems much more reliable. However, they’ll sooner or later fall prey to conditions like DVD rot, among others. So, backup is key if you want to view your recordings sometime in the future.

But then with normal use, your DVD recorder hard disk should last you for years to come.

Magnavox MDR867H HD DVR/DVD Recorder

This hard drive DVD recorder comes with 1TB of storage space. So, if you’re going to record a season-long of your favorite TV program, you won’t have to worry about running out of space.

You also have the option of attaching an external hard disk, should you be short on internal hard disk space,

It has a twin tuner. This means you can record a TV show while watching another.

You can also stream recorded content to your mobile device. The built-in wireless LAN feature allows you to do it. With it, you can connect your smartphone to the DVD recorder.

Check out this Magnavox Hard Drive DVD Recorder.

Panasonic DMRE85HS Hard Drive DVD Recorder

This hard disk DVD recorder comes with 120GB of storage space.

How many hours of video recording can it store? According to the manufacturer, it can manage 213 hours of recording in EP (Extended Play) mode.

On the disc side, you can record on DVD-R and DVD-RAM.

DVD-RAM will allow you the facility of rerecording on a single disc.

There’s the Time Slip feature to take note of. It allows you to watch a recorded program from the beginning while the recording is in progress for a while. It acts much like a PVR.

Relief recording monitors available disc space while recording. Should you be running short of space, recordings will automatically be transferred to hard disk.

There’s also an 80GB hard disk version DVD recorder as shown in the video below.

Check out the Panasonic DMRE85HS DVD recorder with hard disk.

Magnavox MDR535 Hard Disk DVD Recorder

This hard disk DVD recorder comes with 500GB of internal storage space.

This would allow you to store up to 600 hours of recorded video content.

If you’re looking to record over-the-air TV programs this unit will serve you well.

With it, you can pause live TV and most importantly, record a show while watching a different show.

The video below takes an extensive look at this DVD recorder with a hard disk.

Check out the Magnovox MDR535 Hard Drive DVD Recorder.

Free Video Workshop