Philips HDT8520 500GB PVR Freeview HD Digital Terrestrial Recorder

The striking-looking, Pace-designed HDT8520 offers a 500GB hard drive, so you can record up to 125 hours of high-definition telly or 250 hours of standard definition broadcasts.

There's an upscaler inside that will boost standard definition content up to 1080p, while the broadcast resolution itself ranges from 720p to 1080i.

Recordings are automatically protected, making the dreaded accidental wiping of a series finale a thing of the past. Dual receivers also mean that one channel can be watched whilst another is recorded, and there is a series record function too.

The Philips HDT8520 offers 1080p upscaling of standard-definition broadcasts and an Ethernet jack for potential future access to Web services such as the BBC's iPlayer. A USB socket is also present, allowing you to play back music, photos and video via a memory stick.