Additional storage would be handy, but I wouldn't pay any fee's for it. I would either look for a HDMI compatible DVD recorder, or build one myself.
Ummm... where to begin.
- HDCP encryption issue has to be resolved when content is encrypted
- Find me a DVD recorder that can handle either (A) On the Fly MPEG-2/MPEG-4 encoding at with a 1.65 Gbits/second input data rate
- Data rate for 1080i for max OTA bit rate is > a Dual Layer disc per hour. What are you going to do when whatever you're recording spans discs?
- Data rate exceeds the spec for a 1x ROM device by a factor of 2.
Kudos if you can build one.