Economical and featured-filled media streamer has a relatively rudimentary interface.

Very good playback quality. Low cost ; Broad media format support

Cursory documentation ; Immature and limited interface

If you can live with its interface limitations, Popcorn Hour delivers more media for your money than any other streamer

The $230 MC5 is the latest in Sony's DVDirect series of stand-alone video transfer devices, and for quick, easy burning of photos and video to DVD without using a PC, you can't beat it. The big news is that the MC5 is the first DVDirect model to ...

Supports HD video Very easy to use

Can't connect to a PC

Though the MC5 is easy to use, I had to search for a format function hidden in the setup menu to reuse Nero-burned +RW and -RW media. The MC5 does nothing you can't do with a PC and a DVD burner, but for videographers on the go, it's both quicker and ...

Software DVR offers streamlined, highly customizable interface.

Easy to program, Interface not busy

Some menu items are unpolished

This sleek machine offers an HDMI port, ethernet connectivity, and lots of configurable features, but it's too complex for the average user.

This low-priced recorder looks stylish and has a great remote, but it lacks a commercial-skip function and won't copy from a DVD to its hard drive.

This easy-to-use, midpriced recorder offers many features such as a TV Guide electronic program guide, a G-Link port, and an HDMI connection.

This recorder has a large hard drive, but it lacks a commercial-skip feature and its jukebox functions are limited.

The CyberHome DVR1600 is measures just over 13.7 by 9 by 1.7 inches. And at a mere $115, it won't take a chunk out of your wallet, either.

We wouldn't recommend the DVR1600 for general use, but its low cost and small size make it adequate as a second recorder for light use. Just don't expect to be able to set up recordings quickly with the awkward remote

Even though Philips is one of the companies behind the DVD+R format, the DVDR3355 can record to DVD-R/RW discs as well as to DVD+R/RW. This gesture toward detente in the DVD wars doesn't seem to have extended to the manual, however: While DVD+R ...

At $250, the DVDR3355 costs significantly less expensive than most of the recorders we tested at the same time. The CyberHome DVD1600 is cheaper, but the Philips is far easier to use; and the vendor's inclusion of VCR Plus+ codes makes this model a ...

Combining a TiVo hard-drive video recorder and a DVD recorder in one device seems logical: You record the programs to the unit's hard drive using TiVo, and then move them onto DVD if you want a copy on disc. And generally speaking, the Humax DRT-400 ...

But these shortcomings aside, the Humax was by far the easiest to use for regularly recording TV shows and occasionally saving them to DVD. The TiVo program guide is far superior to the TV Guide On Screen service (which the other hard drive recorders ...