While most people jump right at the first piece of electronics for the home which they think is cheap enough, it doesn’t mean it’s the right approach to take. Whether you’re in for a DVD recorder or think that a player-only would suffice, taking the list of the pros and cons into consideration most probably will save you more money than any promotion your favorite tech shop might ever have.

First of all, the facts. Home DVD recorders are different from DVD players in the sense that they allow for writing the disc on top of the read-only functionality. They can be used to record your favorite TV show, it’s not the most common use though; recorders can help you consolidate your existing medias. VHS tapes not only take up much space on the shelves, but their quality is inferior to that of any DVD encoding. Being analogue technology they also lose quality as you produce copies of them.

Some DVD players also have an internal HDD, a rewritable disk drive that can either act as a buffer between the disc and the signal you wish to record or as a secondary destination you can save to. Live pause or live rewind features most often take good use of the internal hard disk. Other than these features, the recorder is not unlike the DVD player.

The main selling point of the player-only variation is that it’s cheap. Comparatively, recorders pack more bang for your bucks but that doesn’t matter the least when all you need is a simple device to hook the small screen TV in the bedroom to. A cheap DVD player with all the basic features (recognition of common file formats such as DivX, XviD, MP3 and so on), HD upscaling and a proper menu structure costs something in the neighborhood of $40.

Don’t expect to be overwhelmed by features for that kind of money, but it’s a good basic point of reference. A DVD-Recorder on the other hand often goes all the way to the three figures in price tag. For around $100-$110 it’s possible to get hold of a piece that doesn’t bug you with glitches and regular breakdowns.