When buying a DVD recorder you have to choose between three rewritable formats, DVD-RAM, DVD+RW and DVD-RW. DVD-RAM is the most versatile and used by the Panasonic recorders. This boasts the highest data transfer rate of just over 22Mbps and allows features such as simultaneous recording and playback and some versatile editing features. The main drawback is that few DVD players are compatible with the DVD-RAM format.

The Philips format is DVD+RW. This lacks the flexibility of DVD-RAM however it is compatible with a high number of third party players.

The other rewritable format is DVD-RW, as used by Pioneer's DVR-7000. This is very similar to DVD+RW however it offers better editing functionality. DVD-RW recordings can be made in two modes, Video Mode and VR mode. Recordings made in Video mode will be compatible with most third party players however cannot then be edited. In VR mode recordings can be edited however can only be watched on a limited number of players.

If you want to burn a disc permanently you should use a write once format. There are two kinds: DVD-R and DVD+R, the latter being exclusive to Philips and slightly more expensive. If you want to do away with discs altogether, buy a hard disc recorder. These encode video and store it on the internal hard disk. Hard disk/DVD recorder combination machines are the ideal option as you can record to the hard disk and then archive to disc if you wish.

Most DVD and hard disk recorders offer several recording modes to trade off picture quality for recording time. Many recorders boast long maximum recording times however this is usually on the lowest quality setting and may be even worse than VHS. The typical maximum recording time for a DVD disc is 120 minutes at the highest quality, however Traxdata have now introduced dual layer discs that offer twice the recording time. Over the coming months we will see new DVD recorders introduced that will support the dual layer discs and allow up to four hours of recording on a single disc in the highest quality.

Compatibility matrix (July 2004)

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