dvd recorders

[Blue-flu Dave]

Any ideas, suggestions for dvd recorders. It's for a gift for someone who  basically recods shows like Survivor and poker shows. Sooo, not really a high end machine, but one that will replace his vcr, and still let him feel like he's got some "new" technology.

[Mark Strube]

Are you sure you'd want to go with a DVD recorder? The cheapest would be around $200, and that's if you're able to find a good deal. And then this friend would constantly have to be buying DVD's for it if he doesn't want to be using DVD-RW's on it which doesn't work with many DVD players.

I'd go with the Series 2 TiVo. At Circuit City it's $50 after rebates, has SO many more features (guide, season pass, etc), can record up to 40 hours, and is much simpler to use. Here's a link to the deal I found:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/TiVo--Series2--Digital-Video-Recorder--TCD24004A-/sem/rpsm/oid/69130/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

This would record Survivor and poker shows just fine... and then he can also skip commercials and erase it when he doesn't want it anymore. Why anyone would want a DVD recorder over a TiVo is really beyond me (why archive shows like Survivor and poker on DVD?), but perhaps I missed something.