We had many discussions in the past on building our dream recorders on paper. But that's a bit too open-ended and easy to do, so I came up with something more restrictive but also more fun!

Built your dream dvd recorder by only using parts and modules (hardware, software, firmware, manualware, customer service ware) from existing DVD recorders :-)

For example, using LG's super-multi-format burner (the actual drive), Pioneer's MN-32 recording modes, Panasonic's FR mode, Toshiba's user interface, Polaroid's copy protection, Sony's implementation of -RW(VR) mode, Samsung's shell (case, encasing, whatever they call the frame), Toshiba's user manuals, Memorex's price, Acer's warranty, Philips's live HDD buffer, etc, etc :-)

My dream recorder would contain a hardware Divx encoder, hard drive and DVD burner with a real ATSC tuner allowing me to compress 1080i and 720p real time to the DVD or HD.