TiVo replaced my video 2 years ago.
www.tivo.com. Unfortunately Thompson pulled out of the UK market so there will be no new TiVo hardware in the UK. (TiVo is like SkyPlus but a tonne better with better electronic programme guide and also it does predictive recording - recording things it *thinks* you might like, based on things you have previously asked it to record.)
However, there is a thriving community of hackers, and with their help, and a network card, I can now programme my TV recorder from any internet connection, and manage recordings!

I recently discovered I can extract video from it to my PC which I can put onto DVD, hence the question. Thanks for the info.