I have found that the function that records TV shows to DVD is pretty useless - between copy protection and the fact that the quality was far inferior to what I could find online and the fact that some widescreen programs were broadcast in standard size and thus would be copied that way. So I never used that function. I never tried copying a DVD to hard drive I think because again, the copy protection made it impossible and I had nothing else I was interested in copying.

Anyway, that's what it was like for me, for a machine I bought in maybe 2005- maybe they're better now, but right now, I find an ordinary DVR (gotten through my cable company) plus a cheap all-region DVD player, plus my computer DLs, serves my needs.