What are the best options these days for recording shows from the TV?

A few weeks ago we pondered the declining popularity of the CD for storing music at home. But shelfspace devoted to the recordable DVD and the clanking behemoth of the VHS cassette is also dwindling, thanks to the magic of the personal video recorder, or PVR. “We spent 25 years getting the hang of programming VCRs,” writes Simon Butler, “and finally we’ve got something that’s easier to operate, less prone to error, and you don’t have to buy more blank media every fortnight.” We have multi-channel TV to thank; despite the fact that old-style recorders often come with 100 pre-programmable analogue channels, anyone in the UK can only ever use five of them. And, as Suman Kumar points out, “to record anything from digital TV requires another annoying scart cable.” It also depends on you remembering to leave your set-top box tuned to the right channel. Which you generally don’t.

PVRs, however, combine the set top box with the recording device, allowing you to browse an electronic programme guide (or EPG) and set up recordings at the push of a button. Over 2 million satellite viewers now use the very highly-regarded Sky+ box, while the cheekily-named V+ performs a similar function for Virgin’s UK cable subscribers – and there’s a positively crowded marketplace for Freeview PVRs: amid various models from Thomson, Topfield and Pace, it’s those from Humax which get most votes in your emails this week. “Apart from a big hard disk and decent features,” writes Ant Chapman, “there’s a big online community at hummy.org.uk which offers all kinds of hints and tips.” The storage capacity of these PVRs is crucial; once you’ve filled it up, you have to free up some space by either deleting shows you’ve recorded, or dumping them onto other media. While Sky+ and V+ do have USB ports, they can’t be connected directly to a computer for transferring video files; as subscription services, they have both decided to limit archiving to the laborious process of dubbing in real time to – you guessed it – a DVD or VHS, which does feel somewhat archaic. Freeview PVRs, however, do allow this functionality, allowing you to keep a library of old programs on an external hard disk or your computer.

You can cut out the Freeview box altogether with various computer add-ons. Products from Elgato and Miglia – such as the EyeTV and TVMini respectively – act as Freeview receivers for your Mac, with accompanying software supplying the EPG and recording facilities. Hauppauge produce similar devices – such as their WinTV – for Windows machines. “Hook up an old laptop equipped with one of these to your TV,” writes Tim Barratt, “and you’ve got something cheap, versatile – and you can play games on it, too.”