If I take the drive out of a DTR160 will it go into a PVR80 without hassle? I suspect the answer is no, but might as well ask.

I'd like to preserve the recordings too, so they go across with the drive. I can foresee issues with the older device not understanding the newer disk format, maybe firmware issues, etc.

Depends - if these are both Digihome branded, you should be ok, and they will both be IDE drives. Recordings are stored on a separate partition, and use the same format throughout Vestel's SD PVR series. One thing which won't transfer is the timers as these are stored in nvram on the PVR80, but stored on the HDD on the DTR160 (if it is a T825 model). But the recording library should be fine.

Ohhh! Excellent news

Sorry for the belated reply.

I'm thinking of giving my mum my old PVR80 now I've moved over to Sky. Her DTR160 has the habit of recording things over and over again, and the ITV+1 problem that records the timeshift of things right after it recorded the other one. I've mentioned that before on these forums, and it seems there's no cure.

But putting her drive in my box would preserve her library and remove those issues. Of course it introduces other issues, such as losing timers when turned off, and not having enough memory to remember all the channels when it is retuned. But I think that's less hassle than having annoying double/triple recordings.