BenQ JH300
$399
www.benq.com.au

Are you still recording TV to a temperamental video cassette recorder? Sure, we all watch DVDs, but prices have fallen so much for DVD recorders and blank discs that turfing the ol' video recorder is a great idea.

Better still, if you can buy a brand name unit, as opposed to the new $249 'no-name-brand I've never heard of' now on sale at Woolworths of all places (not that we've had an opportunity to test the $249 model yet), then ever better, as you know that the company selling a brand name unit at a low price (in this case, BenQ) has a solid reputation to uphold and won't squander it with goods that don't perform.

Included features are pretty standard at this lower end of the price point scale. It's got a built-in TV tuner, so it just plugs into your TV and off you go. Plug your video recorder into the BenQ, and copy those old VHS tapes to DVD. Plug in your video camera and create instant DVDs of your favourite home movies. DVD recording is really quite versatile, and with discs infinitely cheaper than VHS tapes, it begs the question as to why anyone is truly bothering to record to VHS tape anymore.

The JH-300 works with the DVD+R and +RW standards which are arguably better for video recordings than the DVD-R standard, and the DVD+R/RW discs are widely available – even in those aforementioned supermarkets! Of course you can also buy discs in bulk from computer and consumer goods superstores, and you'll likely find even better prices for blank discs at those weekend computer markets.

Also be on the lookout for those new 'white printable surface' blank DVDs. With companies like Canon selling the Pixma iP3000 colour inkjet printer at places like Officeworks for $199, with built-in double sided printing and equally as exciting, the ability to print to 'white surface' blank CDs and DVDs, your home recordings will never need to go near one of those black felt pens again, and will instead look like professional DVDs!

While the newest models of DVD recorder with hard disk drive from BenQ and others is even more desirable than a straight DVD recorder, $399 is undeniably a great price for a brand name recorder. Bye bye, VHS!

Alex Zaharov-Reutt