Labs

Toshiba's hard disk/DVD combo PVR is the most stylish here. Like all the hard disk/DVD combo PVRs on test this month, the RD-97DT doesn't have dual tuners. Instead it provides one digital and one analogue tuner, and you can switch between the two. This device is designed to function more like a traditional VCR and be used alongside a TV with a built-in digital tuner.

The programme guide is badly designed, and shows either a list of channels with now and next information for each, or a list of programmes for a single channel. It's fairly sluggish to respond to button presses, and you don't get a video window of the programme you're currently watching. You can use only one tuner at a time, so recording two

The RD-97DT's timeshifting is poor compared with that of many of the other PVRs. You have to activate it before it will start buffering the broadcast. Only then can you pause the programme and rewind back to the point at which you started buffering. Once you have activated timeshifting, you can rewind to the beginning of a programme you scheduled to record, although you can't access the EPG at all while recording or timeshifting. All recordings can be made either to the 250GB hard disk or to a recordable DVD at one of five different quality settings.

DVD playback is better than that of the other players here, although only by the slightest margin. It produced a slightly crisper image on our test TV. It will upscale any video output to 1080p resolution and you can cycle through all the supported resolutions at the press of a button.

As well as recording and playing back TV and DVDs, the RD-97DT can also record video from a DV camcorder through its FireWire input, or capture video from composite or S-video sources. It can also play back DivX and MP3 files from optical discs, but there's no USB port or memory card reader. Samsung's DVD-SH855M is slightly more expensive, but its USB port and memory card reader give it the edge over the Toshiba PVR.