To all those with HDD recorders or know a bit about them, do they have any form of connectivity (eg. usb) with computers to allow the mpg file to be burnt to dvd?

Vinnie,
There are 2 main types of HDD recorders.

1. PVR has a digital tuner and records the digital stream, not an MPG file. These cannot record external sources, only from the inbuilt tuner. The Toppy has USB connection to a PC. Do a forum search for pages and pages on how to convert a Toppy file to DVD.

2. HDD recorder (maybe with an internal analogue tuner) can record from an external source such as a STB. These generally are in a common box with a DVD recorder, thus negating the need for PC connection for burning to DVD. If you want to take the recording to the PC for editing you can use a DVD RW to transport the recording.

Best of luck,
Dik