JVC will forever be associated with the VHS analogue video cassette format that it invented, but it realises that we consumers are demanding DVD recorders nowadays. It has, of course, sold machines that combine VHS and DVD recording (and one machine - the MX1 - with HDD thrown in too), but here we are looking at a machine that dispenses with VHS pleasantries altogether.

The DR-MH50 combines a meaty 250GB of HDD capacity with multiformat DVD recording. The absence of integrated VHS is not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you have loyalties to the S-VHS format that is not fully-supported by JVC's VHS combis. To get decent dubs, simply hook up your S-VHS deck to the MH50 via S-video and analogue audio - and you're sorted!

To make this job easier, the MH50 sports front-panel AV connections - which will also cater for composite video sources like VHS. Needless to say, analogue camcorders are another possibility. Not that digital camcorders are forgotten; there's also an i.Link input nestling here.

The rest of the front panel is quite attractive, with the usual time display and plenty of other illumination (the most obvious of which - the blue glare of the all-important disc tray - can be turned off should it prove distracting). The disc tray is joined by the bare minimum operating controls (HDD/DVD mode switches, standby and essential transport functions). All of which is in stark contrast to the remote, which is jam-packed.

Around the back are more connectors, and here the MH50 disappoints. For a start, the two Scarts fail to offer an RGB input between them (JVC, when will you learn?). In input terms, that's it; should you want to feed a non-Scart signal into the machine, you'll need an adaptor or the front-panel terminals.