It won't be long before expressions like, "Honey, don't forget to tape American Idol for me!" and "Let's go to the videotape" fade as disc- and hard-drive-based recording triumphs over the trusty VCR. And while DVD recorders a re more complicated to set up and use than VCRs, they're getting easier — really!

DVD players are even easier to hook up because they only have to send signals without receiving any. Since every DVD recorder can also be used as a player, we'll begin with player hookup before going through the options for connecting your recorder.

Time for Some Playback
Basic setup is the same whether you're u sing a player or a recorder for watching DVDs. Begin by hooking up the audio. To enjoy Dolby Digital or DTS surround sound, you'll need to run a coaxial, optical, or HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) digital cable from the player or recorder to your A/V receiver or preamp/processor. (An HDMI cable will also carry your video signals.) If your machine also plays DVD-Audio discs or Super Audio CDs and you want to experience the high-resolution mix, you'll need to run six cables — five for the main speakers and a sixth for the subwoofer — from the player's multichannel analog output to the receiver's corresponding input. A few high-end players and receivers let you do this through a single digital connection.

Next, hook up the video using the best-q uality connection you can. The lowest-q uality video you can get from a DVD player is through the composite-video output — the familiar yellow RCA jack found in a trio with red and white analog stereo jacks. Instead, use either the S-video output, which has a four-pin connector, or the component-video output, which has three RCA connectors, usually color-coded red, green, and blue. Both will give you much better image quality than composite video, with component being an improvement over S-video.

Progressive-scan video can provide a noticeably smoother image than conventional scanning. If you have a digital TV and a progressive-scan player or recorder, you must use the player's component-video output, switched to its progressive-scan mode (see "Tech Talk," page 29, May 2005 issue). But you might be able to make an even higher-quality digital video connection. While DVI (Digital Visual Interface) is the most common digital connection, w e're starting to see models with the newe r HDMI. But you can't use a digital video output u nless your A/V receiver or TV has a corr esponding input.

To make the video connection, run the appropriate cable (or trio of cables for component video) from your player or recorder's video output to the corresponding input on your receiver. You could make this connection directly to your TV, but if you have a number of A/V sources — say, a DVD player/recorder, a cable box or satellite receiver, a VCR, and a hard-disk recorder — connecting them all through your receiver will let you easily switch between them.

From Recorder to TV
While many people route all their audio and video signals through a receiver, some still prefer to hook up their DVD recorders directly to their TVs, just like they did with their VCRs. We'll consider this most basic type of recording setup before moving on to more flexible options.

First, disconnect all the cables from your VCR since the DVD recorder is going to take its place. (You can reconnect the VCR later.) If you plan to use the recorder's tuner for switching TV channels, next connect the antenna (RF) output from your cable box or satellite-TV receiver to the recorder using a standard coaxial cable (the twist-on kind used in all TV installations). Sometimes this is the only kind of connection to the recorder a cable box or satellite receiver will let you make.

But all recent models give you the option of using either the standard RF connection or separate audio and video outputs. If yours has separate A/V outputs, use them since they'll give you better picture and sound. Depending on your equipment, you might even have a number of alternatives for these connections.

If your cable box or satellite receiver has only composite-video and stereo-audio outputs, connect these to the corresponding inputs on the DVD recorder. But more and more TV source components also have S-video and component-video outputs. As with connecting a plain DVD player, use component video if you can, S-video otherwise — most DVD recorders have a component-video output but, at best, only an S-video input. Similarly, while most DVD recorders have an optical or coaxial digital audio output, no current model has any kind of digital audio input. That means your recorder will accept only analog stereo, and you'll need to connect the receiver's stereo output to the recorder's audio input.

Even if you don't use the antenna output to connect your cable box or satellite receiver to your DVD recorder, you'll still want to make an RF connection from the source component to the TV so you can watch one live program while recording another. If you're not using a cable box or satellite receiver, you'll need to run the antenna cable directly to the DVD recorder's RF input so you can use the recorder's tuner to switch channels.

Important note While none of the current DVD recorders can record HDTV signals with full resolution, you can record HDTV to DVD at standard resolution. (Disc-based recorders that can handle high-def signals are on the horizon, but for now you need one of the few hard-disk recorders that can record high-def.)

Another important note You can't connect your VCR between a DVD recorder and your TV the way you used to connect it between your cable box and TV. If you send the signal from a DVD player through a VCR on the way to the TV, the copy protection on most commercial DVDs will make the VCR think you're trying to make an illegal copy — even if you haven't hit record! — and render the picture unwatchable. If you want to be able to record the same program on both DVD and videotape recorders, you can use an RF splitter to feed the same signal to both decks and then connect their outputs to separate A/V inputs on your A/V receiver or TV.

Are You Receiving Me?
I noted earlier that it can be more convenient to connect your DVD player to an A/V receiver rather than directly to your TV. The same applies to DVD recorders, only more so. Not only can the recorder double as your main DVD player, supplying excellent picture quality and surround sound to your home theater, but you'll be able to make recordings from all the other source components hooked up to the receiver — a cable box or satellite receiver, a VCR, a game console, whatever. The only things you won't be able to record are copy-protected discs played on another DVD player or copy-protected videocassettes played on a VCR. Again, be sure to make the best possible video and audio connections between the recorder, the other source components, and your receiver.

So Many Options
As infomercial king Ron Popeil likes to say, "But wait — there's more!" DVD recorders can offer more features than a Veg-O-Matic. My favorite is front-panel A/V inputs, w hich let you easily plug in a camcorder o r a VCR for dubbing tapes to DVD. Most recorders can also accept an IEEE 1394 (a.k.a. FireWire or i.Link) output from a digital camcorder, and this all-digital connection can yield very high-quality video and audio. Cue Ron again: "Isn't that amazing?"

More and more DVD recorders also have hard drives, which let you take advantage of all kinds of useful functions — like watching a program from the beginning while it's still being recorded, recording a program to DVD while you watch another you've previously recorded to the hard drive, setting up future recordings by making selections on an electronic program guide, and convenient video editing. Instead of a hard disk, some DVD recorders also have a built-in VCR for easy tape-to-disc dubbing. And some models even have an Ethernet connection for linking the recorder to a home network and the Internet.

Set 'Em Up, Joe
Once you've connected the DVD recorder, you need to use the remote control and onscreen menus to go through a one-time setup procedure. While this varies somewhat from model to model, most step you through a series of menus for things like onscreen language, tuner and channel setup, the shape of your TV picture (widescreen or standard), and audio setup. The menus will also provide options for controlling recording and playback ranging from simple, VCR-like timer recording to advanced functions like disc titling, playlist creation, and scene editing.

When all is said and done, installing and setting up a DVD recorder is a lot less complicated than you might think — not like, say, assembling a kids' bike or trying to figure out what to get your wife for her birthday! The first time I tried a DVD recorder, I was hooked — and I know you will be, too.

Take a look a sample setup on the next page.

Diagram by Dimitry Schidlovsky

You may have many options when you connect a DVD recorder to your system.  Here is one typical setup, where the recorder is routed through an A/V receiver.  The receiver allows you to switch between your various source components — like a cable box (shown) or a VCR — and send their signals to the DVD recorder for recording.  In this arrangement, you use the tuner in the cable box to change channels rather than the one built into the DVD recorder.