DVD recording

[anotheoldgit]

You can set my DVD recorder to record at the best quality i.e. 2 hours and other lengths of time, but the longer the time the poorer the quality of the picture.

If I am recording onto DVD disc then I set it for 2 hrs because this is the maximum amount of time you can get on a disk. The question I ask is, if I am recording onto my hard drive and the programme is 3 hours long do I have to set it on 3 hours and accept the poorer quality recording or can I select the best quality i.e. 2 hours and still get 3 hours recording on my hard drive?

[Ethel]

How big is your hard drive?

Your manual will tell you how many hours of recordings your hard drive can store in the different modes.

My recorder holds 40 hours in 2 hour mode.

[TeeGee]

Can you not record the programme on your hard drive as it arrives, 30mins, 5hours or whatever, and then burn one or more DVDs to accomodate the whole series, in 2hour DVD mode?

[Ethel]

Teegee - you can only burn in the mode you have recorded. So if you have recorded a three hour film in best quality, it will not fit on one standard disk.

[anotheoldgit]

Thanks for your answers.
What I want to ask is if I record a 3 hour film onto my 80gb hard drive, can I record it in best mode i.e. 120mins or will the recording stop after 120 mins before it has recorded the whole 3 hours?