DVD recorders can record and play a variety of formats.
DVD recorders with integrated hard drives provide options for storing movies, television programs and other content. Sony and Panasonic have both manufactured such recorders, with different models offering varying levels of storage capacity and features. Neither manufacturer is marketing them as of 2011.
Storage Capacity
Sony has produced DVD recorders with hard drives ranging from 120 Gigabytes (GB) (the RDR-HXD790) up to 250 GB (theRDR-HXD995), while Panasonic models have offered from 80 GB (DMR-EH75VS DVD/VCR combo) up to 400 GB (DMR-E500HS). Recording capacity can vary based on recording mode, and Panasonic estimates their 100 GB model (DMR-EH50S) at 177 hours in the EP mode, while Sony boasts a maximum of 340 hours for their 120 GB model. At the higher end, Sony promises up to 710 hours for their 250 GB recorder, nearly matching the 709 hours of Panasonic's 400 GB model.
Features
Sony's line of hard drive DVD recorders offers features not available with those from Panasonic, including a Digital Music Jukebox for storing digital audio files and a Digital Photo Album for storing, viewing and editing photos, with the option to burn those to DVD as well. However, Panasonic's recorders do offer memory card/memory stick inputs for photos, videos and other data, unlike Sony. Also, while Sony's models offer HDMI output, not every Panasonic model does (for example, the DMR-E500HS does not).
Availability
Both Sony and Panasonic list their various hard drive DVD recorders as discontinued models, meaning they must now be found on the secondary market. Plus, the majority of Sony's hard drive models (with the exception of the 160 GB RDR-HX900) are listed only on their U.K. website, where they are coded as Region 2 player/recorders, which makes them unable to play the Region 1 DVDs found in the U.S.
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