I am using an Oopla DVR330 recorder and a thomson HDD recorder with 40Gb disk.
Personally, I must admit that the DVD-recorder is switched off most of the time. it drains about 10 watt in standby mode. I found that for ease of use, I use the HDD recorder every day (simply programmed it with the shows I like, in the way of a vcr) But HDD has the advantage that you can watch while it is recording and with the amount of space on disk, there is little need to worry that programs will be too long.
Whenever there is a program I wish to keep, I simply copy it to the DVD-recorder.
As primary recorder, the DVD isn't much good as the space is limited and you can't record for an entire week on disk.
Furthermore, has anybody the same problem I have? I can't make copis of my self-recorded DVDs with my pc. It's no problem making copies of movies I buy, but I can't duplicate my own home videos.