Features & Specifications
The VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder I am testing here shipped with an internal 120Gb HDD. The device is compatible with NTSC and PAL video and support video formats including MPEG-1(VCD, DAT, MPG), MPEG-2(DVD, VOB, MPG), and MPEG-4 (AVI, ASF, MP4), DivX and XviD.

Supported audio formats include MP2, MP3, MP3 Lirik, WMA, WAV, and AAC. Supported photo formats include JPEG, BMP, and GIF. Video outputs from the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder include RCA and S-Video. The VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder measures 137x77x25mm and weighs 238g. Power consumption is under 5W.

In Use
The VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder can be connected directly to any video camera or digital camera that supports USB or RCA outputs. The device can also be connected to any video device with RAC outputs including TVs, projectors, VCRs and more. With cameras the USB connectivity allows you to offload the photos to the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder so you can save space on your memory card.

Offloading the images to the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder also allows them to be viewed on any TV or other device with RCA inputs. When connected to your Pc or Mac computer the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder is recognized as a hard drive and you can copy and write files directly to it as you would with any other hard drive.

For viewing your images on a big screen TV you simply copy them to the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder and connect it to the TV and its power adapter. Once connected to your TV you can use the included remote to begin the playback of the video files with a click.

Images viewed on my 42-inch Viewsonic LCD TV weren’t of the highest quality. The test shots were very pixilated on images of smaller sizes and were stretched to the point that they didn’t look good at all. Video files from my Sanyo Xacti HD camcorder are stored in MPEG-4 .mp4 format, but wouldn’t play back on the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder.

I had to convert the .MP4 files to AVI files with a free video convertor, which was not included with the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder, before they could be played. Once converted to AVI format the videos played without issue. Pixilation was no worse with the converted videos played through the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder than they are played via any other medium.

I connected the device to the rear of my Denon DVD player and used it to record a bit of a DVD movie that was playing. All that was needed to do this was putting the DVD in the DVD player and connecting the supplies video input and output cables from the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder to the TV and the DVD player.

Once the DVD was playing all you do is hit record and the video is automatically stored to the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder in AVI format. After you are done recording your video you can immediately play the recording back. There is a noticeable difference in the video quality between the DVD version and what the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder records.

Pixilation was noticeable as was motion blur on playback. Despite that, the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder is a great way to take DVDs you own and convert them to a digital format for use on your compatible PMP. The VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder is also a good way to make digital archives of your kids DVDs for playback on the road. The instruction manual included with the VOX TV-R HDD Media Player/Recorder is a bit scant on information on the usage and setup of the device for my tastes.