DVD Recorder from UK question

kmurph

Hi

Last night I ordered a Panasonic DVD recorder from Richer Sounds in Belfast. Got a call from them this morning telling me that the tv tuner in it won't work because it's the UK model and it only has a single band tuner.

Fair play to them for telling me so I cancelled it for the moment. He did mention that for it to work I could get an FM Modulater or something similar.

Does this all sound right and if so what exactly is a modulater and would having one allow me to use the recorder?

byte

Basically, it's a UHF-only tuner. Here in certain parts of ROI, some channels are on VHF, and we use dual band tuners. Cable is VHF in a lot of places too. He must have been referring to a VHF Modulator which basically converts VHF to UHF, though these are a bit hit and miss. Do you know what frequencies your TV stations are? Maybe all your channels are UHF.

kmurph

Ah, ok. I think our RTE channels are still on VHF down here in Wexford. I know when tuning in my parents new tv the other day it did switch frequencies for them so presumably that's it.

Thanks for the info. The only reason I went for the one in Belfast is because the same recorder here in a local shop is €450 as opposed to the €350 that Richer Sounds were charging. Then again that's a topic for another board!

John R

You should check that out, maybe give Panasonic a ring to confirm if it is UHF only. It used to be the case that TV/VCRs from UK never had VHF tuners but more equipment now comes with multiple settings to be used in many european countries, it is cheaper to make one that suits all rather than alter components for each region. This is the case on the Philips DVD Recorder I bought from Richer Sounds in Belfast.

byte

According to Panasonic.co.uk, their DVD Recorder has a frequency range of CH21-69 so it's UHF only, I'm afraid!

I have a pioneer DVD recorder bought on line in the UK and it has a vhf tuner as standard.

MrPudding

I have one of the boxes you might need. I bought it when I moved down here with my UK Spec tv. The first one I got was manual tuning and it sucked. I then changed it for one that auto tuned. It £100Irish and I only used it for a couple of months. I plugged it in again recently and it still works fine. Would you be interested?

MrP

ChipZilla

Yeah I got a Toshiba recorder from Makro in Belfast and it picks up VHF and UHF too. Anyway, what are you hooking it up to? If you're rigging it up to a sky box or the like by a scart the UHF-only tuner thing doesn't matter....