Although similar products have been available (with much controversy) in the US for a few years, the Samsung DVD-H40A is the first Personal Video Recorder (PVR) to reach our sunny shores. A PVR is similar to a VCR except that it records to an internal hard disk instead of a VHS tape.
The DVD-H40A is a combo DVD/PVR, combining a decent DVD player with PVR capabilities. It has everything you need in a component DVD player, with Dolby Digital and DTS decoders built-in, although if anything it's a little skimpy on the audio outputs.
If you do want 5.1 surround sound then you need to couple the player with a separate 5.1 channel amplifier which is a shame, as this really could and should be the centrepiece of your Hi-Fi set-up. The DVD-H40A has composite video, S-Video, plus digital optical and coaxial outputs, as well as composite and S-Video inputs.
As a DVD player, the DVD-H40A is only passable but its PVR functions are where the player really shines. The unit has TV RF aerial input and output (with support for set-top boxes such as cable or digital TV), and is able to record TV to the hard drive. This is nothing exciting in itself, but the 40GB disk is capable of storing 13 hours of TV at Super High Quality (SHQ) or over 30 hours at Standard Quality (SQ) – significantly more than a VHS cassette tape.
The real beauty of the DVD-H40A is that it has what Samsung terms 'Time Shift' – the ability to manipulate recordings in real-time, while they're being recorded. This means that you can record a movie while watching it, press pause in the middle of a scene so you can run off and make a coffee or use the toilet, then come back and pick up where you left off. It's effectively the ability to pause television. You'll never miss another goal, hole, ace or caber toss again.
As well as pausing, you can skip backwards and forwards at up to 128x speed to replay sections while the real-time broadcast is still being recorded to the hard drive. It's amazing flexibility that works seamlessly, however it's also the seat of the controversy in the US. Time Shifting allows you to skip adverts, but the TiVo PVR sold in the States also had smarts built in that detected the onset of commercials and refused to record them. The TiVo has since changed to a subscription-based service, and with a modification to the firmware by court order the unit now detects if has been hacked to stop recording ads, and then inserts cached adverts into the recording. The final upshot for Australia is that for now you'll just have to skip those commercial annoyances at 128x, but you'll surprised at how fast ad breaks skip by at that spritely pace.
The DVD-H40A, like a VCR, can be set to record programs when you're not home, or even programmed to play back certain recordings at set times and intervals, although the application for the latter in the home eludes me.
As well as recording TV or video, you can also copy DVDs to the hard disk. Unsurprisingly this only stretches to your own discs, and not copy-protected discs that you might rent or buy, but with 40GB available you can certainly fit a lot of home movies on the drive.
As well as movie capabilities, you can also fill the disk with JPEGs and use it for a slideshow. Samsung's specs reckon you can fit up to 10,000 images on the drive, which makes for an epic slideshow that not even Richie Benaud would be capable of enduring.
Finally, the unit doubles as an MP3 jukebox capable of playing MP3s from either burnt discs or from files copied from burnt discs to the hard drive. You can store around 2,500 songs on the drive, but copying from burnt discs is a slightly ham-fisted way of transferring media (even the JPEGs have to be copied by burnt optical media) but the DVD-H40A offers a lot of functionality. As well as DVD and MP3 CDs, the player also supports VCD, SVCD, CD-R and CD-RW formats.
The detailed user interface – accessed via the remote control – lets you create folders and subfolders for your photos, music and recordings, plus you can create slideshows and musical playlists. You can also format the hard disk and perform other housekeeping tasks.
PVRs have been a long time coming, but it's definitely the way of the future and it sounds the death knell for the VCR. Even vanilla DVD players have outstripped VCRs in Christmas sales for the second year running.
As mentioned, the DVD-H40A is the first of its type in Australia and as a proof of concept it works extremely well. The inclusion of FireWire and/or USB ports would be nice, but aside from that gripe the only thing excluding the DVD-H40A from wide acceptance is the price tag. $1,495 is an awful lot to pay – even $1,000 would be stretching credibility, but you do get an MP3 component, DVD player, VCR and TV tuner in one.