With the coming of digital tuning technology there are fewer hard drive/DVD recorders being offered in the US consumer marketplace.

Digital tuning and HD technology incorporates more sophisticated copyright encoding. Such encoding may originate from movie/program producers, programming services (HBO, Showtime, etc.) cable and satellite providers (Comcast, DishTV, etc.) and even local broadcast stations.

Digital technology provides a better viewing experience but limits the ability to record.

Digital and HD transmission and tuning technology is very effective at preventing or restricting the recording of copyrighted material.

There is no requirement that copyright holders must allow recording of their product. Some copyrighted programming content allows for "fair use" i.e., one recording on hard drive recorders provided by cable and satellite services. These recorders can not produce a DVD recording.

General consumer product manufacturers are moving away from producing products where consumers will complain that they may no longer record some copyrighted material.

That is why I chose a HDTV receiver device that just ignores all that broadcast and copy protection crap.