Gadgets are meant to make things easier..

You know how you hear of some things and think - hey, that would be great, glad someone thought of that, it would make things so much easier???!!!! Well that is what I thought about DVD recorders. Until we bought two! (yes 2!!)

The first was a Phillips, and we just took it back as either we got a duff one or it just would not record everything we wanted it to. Plus it was so complicated to use! After having got used to our ageing but very easy to use (and now dead) VCR it was such a shock that you needed to use the novel length manual in order to get it to do anything!

The next one, a Liteon, has been better, but I have to say - still not as straightforward as you'd think. Plus we've found that the re-recordable DVD's have a pretty short life, only liking being wiped perhaps twice. Hmmmmm. So not exactly happy with our set up.

Until now!!!!!!

I found on the Argos website, totally by accident a HD recorder and digital tuner in one. I had been looking for digital recievers as ours was throwing a wobbly every minute or two. It's a Sagem box and is small and unimpressive-looking.

However, it is anything but, it has extensive TV listings, is easy to navigate through menus and get this.... a doddle to record with! (at last - hooray!) We have been LOVING it, it has faithfully recorder Doctor Who's, House, and all the other TV shows we have been after, never missing one - plus we can then keep it on there to watch again, wipe it off, or - because we still do have the DVD recorder we can just pop them onto DVD to keep. The best of both worlds!!!! I spent my birthday money on it - and at first I thought it was a pretty dull thing to spend it on - now I am wondering what we did without it!!!