I must be recalling someone else who bandied some of those terms around interchangeably. Sorry.
The DVR we have has a hard disk but the USB-out to send a file to puder for burning is disabled, and I understand that's the norm. My Radio Shack dude made it clear he would not address copying, from it, if that's disabled, tho he was quite willing to discuss CABLING needs to do it into the VCR.
Another firend does a lot of hockey copying and sez he has to do it by running the propgram in realtime from DVR thru DVD-recorder, editing out commercials by hand" as he goes. Id' think if there was a q ~S~