DVD recorders

[SAS]

I'm tempted to buy a DVD recorder and chuck out the old VCR.

Is there anything I should be aware of? Or will any old cheap one be ok to just record some stuff off the telly?

 

[inactionman]

There's lots of nice cheap ones on the market, however you may be better off building a mythtv box instead (http://www.mythtv.org/). That way you get a pvr as well, and can offload to DVD if you put a cheap burner in there. It may work out cheaper in the long run, particularly if you have spare computer components, it will certainly have more features. The only difficult thing may be keeping the thing quiet!

I don't bother myself, as I have this great tv library, called p2p!

 

[SheepCow]

My mum recently got one, the only thing I know about it is it uses DVD-RAM when it's not saving to its hard drive. Oh and apparently it only lets you save things once.

Something like once you've copied from the hard drive to a DVD it won't let you do it again. Sadly I have no idea what make/model she's got at the moment.

 

[Yaka]

might be better off looking at or even building your own pvr box.

but if you are dead set on dvd recorder then pop into you local richer sounds shop and ask em if they have any ex demo dvd recorders chances are they will do at cheap price as well. just dont glare at owt that you might like they have a nasty habit of talking you into buying more stuff

 

[DaGaffer]

Richer Sounds have a nice Cambridge Audio (DVD-RW) one for 139.99 at the mo, and a Panny one (DVD-R and DVD-RAM) for 149.99. Amazon have a Lite-On one (which has had very good reviews) for about 90 quid - and its multi-region.

You're probly talking 280+ for a PVR/DVD machine.

Probably the most important thing to look out for is the ease of recording, ideally an EPG of some sort. I've got Sky+, a Panasonic DVD recorder and I've got a Freeview card with a PVR in my Shuttle (Nebula TV). Sky+ rocks and is a piece of piss to use, the Panasonic is a fiddly pain in the arse and is really like an old school VCR in terms of set-up (only somehow more complicated) and the Nebula is OK, but if you want to do other things while recording (it has an easy to use 7 day EPG) you notice performance issues (mine's in a AMD 64 3200+ 1GB RAM and an x800 pro, and I wouldn't game and record at the same time).

 

[Rubber Bullets]

I currently have a normal Sky box, a Panasonic VCR (crap) and a DVD player that is on it's last legs.

I am considering going to just Sky+ and a DVD recorder.

De Gaffer, will your DVD 'back up' old VHS videos? Mostly old films and such that were bought before DVD came along.

Also is it possible to move stuff recorded onto the Sky+ HHD onto DVD if you decide to keep it long term?

Thanks

RB

 

[Trem]

The vids will still have Macrovision protection on them RB, easiest way around it is to buy a modded scart lead that blocks the macro signal to the recorder, they are about £30 I think.

I had a Panasonic DMR E30 recorder and it was absolutely shocking to use. I now have an LG dvd-r/vcr combo and it is miles ahead of the Panasonic, it also erases a shitload quicker on the dvd-rw discs.

Cambridge Audio are a decent make but I haven't had any experience of them.

 

[DaGaffer]

I currently have a normal Sky box, a Panasonic VCR (crap) and a DVD player that is on it's last legs.

I am considering going to just Sky+ and a DVD recorder.

De Gaffer, will your DVD 'back up' old VHS videos? Mostly old films and such that were bought before DVD came along.

Also is it possible to move stuff recorded onto the Sky+ HHD onto DVD if you decide to keep it long term?

Thanks

RB

Yes it will, but it's a bit of a nightmare and takes ages. I wouldn't recommend the Panasonic for that. TBH I found backing up DVDs of VHS movies was such a pain in the arse, and DVDs so cheap now, that I went out and bought anything I'd want to watch again and shoved my old VHS tapes in the attic.

Oh, and yes you can archive Sky+ recordings to DVD, but annoyingly you have to do it in real time. I think some of the HD/DVD recorder combos do it faster.

 

[Rubber Bullets]

Thanks Trem and Gaffer,

Did the Pana make it difficult because of the macrovision?

RB

 

[Trem]

Macro is there whatever recorder you get RB. Isn't just on the Pana. Every recorder has to have the chip in it that stops piracy. There was one player that didn't have the chip and that was very hard to get, it was a P&B iirc. I got one and played any dvds on that into the Pana and it recorded them no probs, but yes it was a ball ache.

A combi(dvd recorder/vhs recorder) is the way to go and like I said if you wanna copy stuff then get a modded scart lead or one of these -

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?criteria=QS45Y&doy=21m12&source=15

 

[dysfunction]

This looks pretty good...

http://www.kiss-technology.com/?p=vr558en&v=users

 

[DaGaffer]

This looks pretty good...

http://www.kiss-technology.com/?p=vr558en&v=users

It looks great, but check on the AVForums or Digital Spy forums; I looked at KiSS boxes a few months ago and was put off by all the tales of woe about dodgy reliability and lousy support. Caveat emptor.