DVD recorders with Hard disk

Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

Technologist said:
The Philips machines are not the best, be warned.
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From reading the long running thread on DVD HD recorders it seemed to me that Philips and Sony were the clear favourites. Basically you're saying that it's Sony or bust. Surely a few other manufacturers can screw a bunch of components together into a reliable machine ?

Besides, after my Sony CD player packed it in I'm beginning to feel that it mostly comes down to pot luck!
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

The SONY HX710 would, from this thread, seem to be the best bang for buck, especially when bought from PIXMANIA. However .. after Googling for other reviews, I cam across some adverse feedback for Pixmania service, consistent with some of what has been posted on AAM.

On the way home today I called into Power City and they have a Philips unit with 160 Gb hard disk for less then €450.

Anyone here have a view of how good or bad or so-so it is ? Of course I didn't take note of the model number - that would have been too logical :eek:.
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

I'm biased against the Philips as the one I have has been disappointing both in design and in reliability. It's useable, but every so often, a recording is unplayable or it just freezes & I have to yank the plug.

Another gripe was that when I fed it RGB from a NTL box, the picture had a blue tint.

The 'Intelligent Chaptering' on the Sony looks interesting as it might be an aid to skipping advertisements. The machine has good connectivity options.
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

I have bought a fair few items off Pixmania and have never had any problems.

Hello to anyone out there still working!!
(I am feeling sorry for myself because I am on duty till tomorrow morning!!!)
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

On the verge of ordering the Sony RDR HX710 from pixmania, just wondering how the dvd recorder actually gets the signal from NTL? (who we get our tv from)
Does the pipe go into the back of the DVD recorder and then onwards to the tv screen via a scart or is it more complicated than that? The dvd player I have at the moment takes the signal from the video which has the pipe going into it...
Sorry if this is a stupid question but dont want to order without covering every eventuality..
Beckster
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

you won't have any problems it's up to you which way you connect - you can pipe straight into the Sony and out to TV or if you are keeping the vhs player put tv signal into vhs, out of vhs into sony, out of sony into tv - might degrade the signal though - I use a booster.
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

I see today that Sony Centres have started stocking the HX710 - at Eur649!! 220 euro more than Pixmania!
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

Dixons/curry's are selling an LG RH7500 for €320. It seems to have most thing you could want.

It's currently out of stock but should be available again within a week or so.

Any comments or advice would be welcome!

Many thanks



[broken link removed]
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

Saw the LG in Dixons as well, looks good for the money. Plenty of comments on audioforums.com. Only major complaint I can see is that the unit has to be on "standby" to be able to record a with the timer. Doesn't sound like a big problem to me.

Argos also have a 80Gb Liteon for €305 (Catalog doesn't say the model).
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

POBHD28 said:
The Philips was a lemon. It behaved quite well for the first year or so and then it started acting up in a big way. It's as if it knew it was out of warranty. It started to freeze regularly, stopped recognizing some discs that it used to play (these were not scratched or dirty), wouldn't record properly, and even when it did record, sometimes the finalized discs wouldn't play on other machines.

I tried firmware updates, various brands of disc, a lens cleaner - everything. I googled the model number and found a huge amount of people who had similar troubles. the consensus was that it wasn't worth the effort or expense of trying to get it fixed. Going by that experience, I'd have serious reservations about buying another Philips appliance.
Click to expand...

Agree about the problem with Philips, bought a DVDR880 a few years ago for close to 500 euro and same problems for the last while in terms of not recognising disks etc...Cleaning doesn't do anything. The repair price quoted on the iternet is about 150 sterling, with Philips DVD Recorders going for €150 in Xtravison when you include the €50 vouchers they give, doesn't seem much point. It's surprising that Philips would let this crap go on widescale with their recorders:(
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

Hi,

check out www.pixmania.com for DVD recorders - I was comparing prices of a Sony model with 160mb internal hard disk - 650 euro in a main street shop and 450 on the website.

I've bought from them previously and so far so good.

DVD players/recorders have only recently the facility to drive a surround sound system and in true Sony fashion you cannot use a new DVD player/recorder with a built in amp to drive existing speakers/base bin i.e. you have to buy the lot .... hhhmmm I wonder what the reasoning for that oversight is???
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

I think I need to get one soon, regardless of the cost, or else get a life.

Tonight there are 4 programmes that I want to see, 2 of which overlap which also overlap with a 5th programme that herself will want to watch or tape.

And there is still stuff on tape from earlier in the week that I haven't seen yet.

Not to mention all the movies and repeats over Christmas tapes and not watched.

A life ?
Where would I get one of those then ;) ?
Do Pixmania sell them ?
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

TarfHead said:
I think I need to get one soon, regardless of the cost, or else get a life.

Tonight there are 4 programmes that I want to see, 2 of which overlap which also overlap with a 5th programme that herself will want to watch or tape.

And there is still stuff on tape from earlier in the week that I haven't seen yet.

Not to mention all the movies and repeats over Christmas tapes and not watched.

A life ?
Where would I get one of those then ;) ?
Do Pixmania sell them ?
Click to expand...

If you can forego the hard disk requirement, Philips DVD recorder is only €200 and is a Home Cinema Choice magazine best buy. Why buy a supermarket or imported brand if you can get a very good recorder which is also a very good player for two ton?

I am going to wait until the hard disk / DVD recorders from Philips come down a bit.

I also see in Dixons that Samsung have a DVD recorder that plays DIVX movies for €220. No hard disk of course at that price.
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

Sony HX710 arrived from Pixmania on Friday!!!!
So far so good.... its impressive, easy enough to use.
One small niggle, previous DVD player had a subwoofer/amplifier (+ surround sound system) combined which was connected to the DVD player via six wires (all corresponding to a speaker). The sony dvd recorder doesn't have an equivalent place for all these wires, and the subwoofer doesnt have a scart or a fancy digital cable (maybe its called optic cable??) to connect to the new dvd recorder. Does anyone know if one can get a "thingie" that I could plug the six audio cables into and convert them to two audio wires instead. Not sure if I am explaining this properly!
OR am I going to have to buy a new surround sound system that will have the fancy cable??
Thanks
Beckster
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

The 710 does not have an amp or decoder.

Does the old system have a digital input? If so, connect the 710 to that.

Since anything you record off TV does not have full sorround, you'll get the same result (for TV recordings) if you connect the 710's analogue audio-out to the auxiliary input of your old system, assuming it has one.
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

I'm trying to decide between Sky+ and a DVD recorder with HD.
My main priorities are...
Do DVD recorders allow you to watch one channel while recording another?
Do DVD recorders allow you automatically record every episode in a series?
 
Joe Nonety said:
I'm trying to decide between Sky+ and a DVD recorder with HD.
My main priorities are...
1. Do DVD recorders allow you to watch one channel while recording another?
2. Do DVD recorders allow you automatically record every episode in a series?
Click to expand...
1. Not unless they have two tuners, which is not common.
However, if you have NTL Digital (unlikely as you are presumably a Sky customer) you can record an NTL Digital channel while watching an analogue NTL channel on your TV.

2. DVD recorders - even those with hard disk drives - tend not to have TIVO type services like the Sky+ box. In the States, your cable provider can rent you a DVR which will record episodes and in some cases can be set up to automatically record based on your preferences a la TIVO.

Still, you can set it up to record at the same time every week if that is any use?

The problem with Sky or NTL Digital is that the recorder typically does not have access to the Electronic Programme Guide.

Annoyingly, , the free EPG which is broadcast in the UK on UTV and Eurosport, is not carried in Ireland, so even though many DVD recorders including Philips ones support this, it won't work in Ireland.

I suggest if you have Sky Digital and can afford it, go for the Sky+ box.
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

Questions:-
Do DVD recorders on the market here have analogue or /and digital tuners?
Will future digital only transmission cause a problem for current DVD recorders?
Is there a problem recording from satellite freeview channels?
Will most/all DVD recorders copy VHS and Sony Hi-8 tapes to DVD?

Would appreciate answers to above.
 
Re: DVD recorderes with Hard disk

Grumpy said:
Do DVD recorders on the market here have analogue or /and digital tuners?
Click to expand...
In the Republic of Ireland - analogue only. DTT has not even entered pilot & there's no guarantee that the same system as the UK will be used.

Will future digital only transmission cause a problem for current DVD recorders?
Click to expand...
Yes in the sense that you'd have to use an external DTT decoder box and feed it into the recorder via an analoge input. The recordings would not be pure digital and it would be fiddly or impossible to change channels on the decoder according to a timer. But , the Republic has not started DTT transmissions and it's too early to know if UK decoders would work here.

Is there a problem recording from satellite freeview channels?
Click to expand...
No, but see above.

Will most/all DVD recorders copy VHS and Sony Hi-8 tapes to DVD?
Click to expand...
Yes with the right connectors, but not copy-protected (Macro$ision) commercial VHS tapes.
 
LG have a good value DIVX compatible DVD hard disk recorder on [broken link removed] this week for €366. It has DV-In but unfortunately no DV-Out.
 
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