A decade ago, owning a DVD recorder at home was a luxury, especially a DVD recorder with a built-in large-capacity hard drive. But, have you ever wondered how helpful a HDD can be for a DVD recorder? What can you do with a DVD recorder’s hard drive and which are the best DVD recorders with a hard disk drive?
Advantages of DVD Recorders with Hard Drive
Larger Built-in Memory
People usually buy DVD recorders to back up their videos or shows onto the DVDs. But if you have a large number of videos to record, a built-in hard drive in the DVD recorder can help you to store them conveniently. By storing the content on the hard drive, you don’t need to prepare blank DVDs at hand when you want to record shows with the digital tuner, and you can convert them to DVDs later.
Recording from DVD to HDD or HDD to DVD
You are not only can record from HDD to DVD, but you can also record DVD to HDD. If you borrow a DVD and have no time to watch it before the return date, then you can save it to the HDD locally so that you can watch it later.
Flexible Video Playing Options
Another advantage of a hard drive is that you are able to play the recordings on other devices without a DVD player. For example, the HDD can be connected to a computer and you can play the videos on the screen even if your computer does not come with a CD/DVD drive.
Top 3 Picks of DVD Recorders with Hard Drive
Magnavox MDR535 500GB HDD and DVD Recorder
The Magnavox MDR535 offers great recording performance and a 500GB HDD, which offers excellent storage capacity and reliability. With a capacity of a 500GB hard drive, there is plenty of space for your recordings, and it also comes with an ATSC digital tuner that can help you to record shows when you are away from home.
According to the specs, Its 500GB hard disk drive can store recordings for up to 604 hours. And as a hard disc drive recorder and a DVD recorder combination, this product is a very useful tool to record TV programs for later viewing. Most importantly, this unit is not tied to the satellite subscription.
Magnavox MDR867H HD DVR/DVD Recorder with 1TB HDD
If you think the recorder above is not satisfying above, this more advanced Magnavox MDR867H DVD recorder will not let you down. It’s equipped with a 1TB HDD, and it can record up to 1000 hours of HD content. Besides, you can plug in an external hard drive to expand it! For people who need to record long content, it is a perfect choice.
What else can you expect from the DVD recorder except for the large-capacity hard drive? Compared to the last model, this unit has digital twin tuners, which can simultaneously record two shows at once. So you can watch another show while recording one.
On top of that, It has a built-in wireless LAN feature, which means you can access and control the DVD recorder content with your smartphone and wirelessly Stream recorded content to mobile devices.
The drawback? Well, it’s probably one of the most expensive DVD recorders even in 2021.
Panasonic DMR-E80H DVD Player/Recorder with Hard Drive
If those DVD recorders with large capacity HDD are not your type (I admit they are pricey), this Panasonic DMR-E80H is a great option for anyone who wants a more affordable model.
It does not have built-in large storage, but its 80 GB hard drive can also help you to store contents conveniently. It allows you to watch programs while recording in progress. It features progressive-scan video output so the image quality is decent.
However, it’s a pretty old model so I am afraid it is kind of hard to find a brand new unit online.
