Electronics giant Pace Microtechnology is celebrating soaring sales of its pioneering new-age video recorder.

The Saltaire-based company's Twin Digital product went on sale only six weeks ago but has already proved a smash hit on the high street.

The £350 machine does not use video tapes or disks but instead records programmes on to a build-in hard drive.

It combines recording functions with two Freeview receivers which pick up 30 subscription-free digital channels without a satellite dish. The double receiver means viewers can watch one digital channel while recording another.

Pace is reeling from the success of the box, which was developed by an in-house team at Saltaire.

A spokesman said: "We are trying to keep up with demand for the Twin Digital."

Sales of the product received a further boost with a promotion by high street giant Argos which saw the price slashed to £280.

Pace has not yet released sales figures, but bosses hope the success of the Twin Digital will impact on the company's annual results, due out in July. The firm has seen its turnover fall by more than 60 per cent since 2001 and in January reported a pre-tax loss of £15.9 million. Five profit warnings have been issued in the last two years.

But the launch of Freeview, the successor to the failed ITV Digital, has rejuvenated the market for digital set-top boxes. Basic models are now as low as £70 in some shops.

Pace's spokesman said: "The market is extremely buoyant at the moment. Britain has the world's biggest take-up for digital TV."

Meanwhile, engineers this week downloaded the first software updates to Twin Digital boxes already in circulation.

The new functionality means owners can receive digital Teletext and interactive services from the BBC.

Twin Digital units are able to receive new software transmitted invisibly alongside normal digital TV pictures.