Hotwired: Push record: why DVD really rules

Compared with video tapes, DVDs offer vastly improved picture and audio quality, wonderful scene-skipping convenience, have a much longer life expectancy and take up a lot less shelf space. On top of all that you can buy, for a few hundred dollars, a DVD player that also doubles as your CD player. Brilliant.

It seems there's no contest, yet most DVD owners keep their old video players as well - to record programmes from the TV or to watch home movies. Few DVD players can record - most are playback-only devices. DVD recorders are readily available but, no surprise, are still nowhere near as cheap as video recorders, starting around $600. While buying a DVD player may be as simple as picking a box you can afford, buying one that can record means more variables to consider.

The recording-format choices are DVD-R, DVD+R or DVD-RAM. Don't worry about what the - and + stand for but all three are different, supported by different manufacturers, and each requires a matched disc for recording to.

DVD-RAM is the most professional-like option, giving higher-quality recordings and the ability to re-write the disc thousands of times. However, few brands read RAM discs and they cost $20 each.

If you want to be able to repeatedly record material on the other formats, as you can conveniently with VHS tapes, you will need to buy RW (read/write) discs. These cost about double write-once discs ($6-plus) and should, in theory at least, be good for hundreds of re-recordings.

So you need to consider which format(s) you want in your new DVD recorder. While R- (the most widely used) and R+ are generally compatible amongst players, DVD-RAM isn't. Better models increasingly offer a combination of all three, but you will probably want a unit which provides RW- or RW+, or both. You'll likely also want it to play non-professional recordings like your own computer-burnt CDs and DVDs, MP3 or WAV files. Not all units can handle home-made media.

I wish I was the guy who thought to combine a DVD recorder and VCR in one box. These units mean you can watch from either the old or the new technology, but will also let you copy all your important old VHS tapes onto DVD discs with ease - no cables, no confusion. For tape archivists, or those simply reluctant to go all-out digital, these are a great option and units start around $800. Do beware of cheaper models that are DVD-player only.

The glory of digital recording gets really bright with DVD recorders which incorporate hard disk drives. This means you can instantly record, as with a PC, straight onto the high-capacity (60GB and up) HDD and later edit out the bits you don't want or simply record over it. The important stuff can be recorded to disk (4.7GB) at any time - brilliant for home-moviemakers. DVD rules.