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Came across this article yesterday as I was searching around for a spare DVD Recorder to have on hand if my current one fails anytime soon. I bought one from Walmart exactly 2 years ago this month and at that time there were several models to choose from ... after reading the article I went to Walmart to see if any were there ... only one model that I didn't like. Amazon has some for sale but not the selection I think they once had from two years back, when I was shopping around for one. I had no idea they might be on the scarce list here in the US. Just a heads up but they must still be plentiful in the rest of the world. The Case of the Disappearing DVD Recorder Why DVD Recorders are Getting So Hard to Find By Robert Silva http://hometheater.about.com/od/dvdbasics/qt/the_case_of_the_disappearing_dvd_recorder.htm Have you shopped for a DVD Recorder recently and have found slim-pickins on store shelves? It is not your imagination. While DVD recorders are thriving in other parts of the World and Blu-ray Disc recorders are all the rage in Japan, and are being introduced in several other markets, the U.S. is being left out of the video recording equation; on purpose. However, contrary to what you might think, it is not all the fault of Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and other Asian-based consumer electronics manufacturers. After all, they would love to sell as many DVD and Blu-ray Disc recorders as possible to anyone who wants to buy one. The real reason that DVD recorders are scarce in the U.S., and Blu-ray Disc recorders are non-existent, can be squarely laid at the foot of the U.S. movie studios and cable/satellite providers, which place restrictions on video recording that make the continued selling new DVD recorders, let alone providing access to standalone Blu-ray Disc recorders, in the U.S. consumer market an increasingly unprofitable venture. Copy-Protection and Recording Cable/Satellite Programming Most consumers buy a DVD recorder to record television programs for later viewing. So how are movie studios and cable/satellite program providers conspiring to limit your access to such video recording? The implementation of a copy-protection scheme that severely restricts what you can record and how you can record it. For example, HBO and some other cable and network programmers copy-protect most of their programs on a random basis. The type of copy protection that they use (referred to as "Record Once") allows an initial recording to a temporary storage device (such as to a hard drive of a DVD recorder/Hard Drive combo, a cable DVR, TIVO, but not necessarily to a permanent storage format, such as DVD). In addition, once you have made your recording to cable DVR, TIVO, or Hard Drive, you are not allowed to make a copy of the initial recording to a DVD or VHS. In other words, while you can make a recording to temporary storage format, such as DVR-type device, you cannot make a "hard copy" onto DVD to add to your permanent collection. "Record Once" means recording once on a temporary storage medium, not to a hard copy, such as DVD. As a result, consumers are finding out quickly that newer DVD recorders and DVD Recorder/VHS combo units are unable record programs from HBO or other premium channels, and definitely not Pay-Per-View or On-Demand programming ("Record Never"), due to the types of copy-protection employed to restrict recording onto DVD. This is also filtering into some of the non-premium cable channels. .... article is long so the link is above.
