Product: Joycoder PV-330 Price: $4,990 (20GB); $5,990 (40GB) Pros: No shortage of functions Cons: Too big. Lacks memory card slots
The market for personal video recorders (PVRs) is a new one and, like any nascent technology genre, manufacturers sometimes struggle to decide which features are vital and which are not. I personally believe the personal video recorder market is still a luxury most of us can live without.
Having said that, there are a lot of good reasons to at least consider one. With a large colour display and tens of gigabytes of storage, the average PVR offers far more features than the pricey portable DVD players an increasing number of people buy for their holidays.
The voluminous storage on the Joycoder PV-330 allows you to store around 80 mpeg 4 movies at a resolution of 320x240, or more than you'd ever need on an economy class flight to the United States (though the battery will only take you as far as Tokyo).
It comes with a choice of a 20GB, 30GB or 40GB hard drive.
But the Joycoder is more than a simple storage device.
It can also be used to record television shows or copies of your movie collection.