Sharp has released the DVHR350X DVD recorder with a built-in hard disk drive (RRP: $AUS1,769). What’s interesting here is that this raises the hard disk size. Previously all DVD recorders incorporating hard disks have used 80GB models, but this one goes for 120GB. That raises the recording time (in SP mode) from about 35 hours to about 50 hours.
I expect that these will just continue to grow. Currently the price of a 120GB drive to a consumer is less than 30% more than that of an 80GB drive one. A 160GB drive costs about 50% more than an 80GB. Expect more higher capacity hard drives to be appearing in DVD recorders and Personal Video Recorders.