With its £350 price tag, the RD-85DT is the UK's cheapest DVD recorder to bring us the benefits of both hard drive (a generous 160GB in this case) and digital-terrestrial TV (DTT) tuner. Not so long ago, the same sum would have bought you a very basic DVD-only recorder with analogue tuner.

Other 85DT advantages include multiformat support (albeit only DVD-RW, DVD-RAM and - single-layer - DVD-R) and JPEG/ MP3 playback. But at this juncture I had better make it perfectly clear how Toshiba has managed to make the £350 price point. For a start, both analogue TV tuner and i.Link input (for digital camcorder dubbing) have been sacrifi ced. And if you're after a machine with HDMI output, you'll have to look elsewhere!

Budgets may be tight, but thankfully the appearance hasn't been compromised. This is a distinctive and smart-looking machine distinguished by little fascia clutter. If only the same were true of the remote handset, which crams in a gaggle of buttons.

As with previous budget HDD/DVD Toshibas like the RD-XS24, you get a component-video output capable of working in progressive or interlaced mode. There are also RGB Scart and S-video outputs. Ridiculously, though, there's no RGB Scart input for cable/Sky boxes.

In other words, Toshiba is banking on potential purchasers remaining loyal to DTT - and even then only Freeview; like all other digitally-tunered HDD/DVD recorders to date, TopUpTV is not catered for. Playing a DVD while the HDD records is allowed, in common with competing products. You can also play any HDD recording currently in progress ('timeshift') or, for that matter, any others currently lurking on the drive. It's also possible to timeshift without having to make a permanent recording. Under these circumstances, the HDD is simply used as a 'buffer' - thankfully, the contents of the buffer can be 'saved' should you decide to keep the show.