Aldi dvd recorder. Dec 8th

The tax man

http://www.aldi.ie/special_buys/productnl_4915.html

Beware of cheap imitations. This unit is bristling with every conceivable high-tech feature you could imagine, but for a distinctly low price.

That just seems too cheap to be up to much.
Have these been sold before??
If so any reports of performance?

bk

Well on the same day, Lidl will have one with a 160GB Hard Disk and DVD burner for only €50 more, worth it in my opinion.

The tax man

That link posted for the Lidl recorder is in sterling.
It's going for €299. Still not a bad price mind.

cosgrove80

Looks decent.

I see it has a USB port at the front like the Pixmania one discussed a few threads down:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054857196

Theres no mention of DivX or Xvid support on the Aldi site but would the fact it has the USB in at the front mean you could hook an external HD to it and play from that?

cormie

I'd like to know about the quality of this too, would it be worth getting up and getting in line for or can a similar spec/priced one be got elsewhere for just the same?

Can you pause recording on this, so just say if you wanted to back up home movies to DVD, you could hook it up to the VCR, record, then pause, then FF the video to the right position and then play it and unpause the recording to continue recording at the right place?

You can't really go wrong with Aldi, I had a great experience with a faulty laptop I got from them, even without a receipt, about 6 months after I bought it, I walked in and got €1300 back in my hand within about 2 minutes!

And what about the DIVX/Xvid support? Not that this will be used but always handy to have it if needed.

Pal

DVDR
£68
Argos Newry

gazzer

that DVDR that is 68 in Argos in Newry is 149 euro in Dublin..(well it was on Sat when i checked).. i wonder if they will bring it down in price.

ublinia2

Does this write DVDR+ and DVDR- and DVDRW+ and DVDRW- formats ?

or just two of the above

MoonTV

cormie wrote:

Can you pause recording on this, so just say if you wanted to back up home movies to DVD, you could hook it up to the VCR, record, then pause, then FF the video to the right position and then play it and unpause the recording to continue recording at the right place?

i have a philips DVD recorder, records onto DVD+R, it can do that and loads more, really great machine.

just after buying two more philips dvd players and home cinema kit. really good stuff

go philips!

cormie

So would that be a common feature amongst most (including the Aldi one) dvd recorders? I got a leaflet through the door, Lidl will be having a DVD recorder for €180 on Dec 15th, not too sure what the difference between the two is. I know the Lidl one plays DiVx and Xvid anyway though!

carbsy

Picked up one of these today.Not a bad piece of kit.I'll report back when I have set it up properly.

btw, the model number is TDR 5101.

carbsy

*UPDATE*

I'm not a happy camper!

When you use the timer schedule function to record, the player needs to go into standy.Fair enough I hear you say BUT ... when it goes into standby, waiting to record, it hogs the tv so I can't watch f**k all.hmmmm

btw my setup consists of a Sky digi box connected through the recorder and then into scart on tv.

The tax man

carbsy wrote:

*UPDATE*

I'm not a happy camper!

When you use the timer schedule function to record, the player needs to go into standy.Fair enough I hear you say BUT ... when it goes into standby, waiting to record, it hogs the tv so I can't watch f**k all.hmmmm

btw my setup consists of a Sky digi box connected through the recorder and then into scart on tv.

Is sky your only channel source??
Most recorders I've ever seen and had all go into standby while the timer is waiting to come on.
Your sky box should be connected directly to your TV aswell as your recorder so you don't depend on watching everything through a vcr/dvd recorder.
Or are you one of the growing amount of people that don't have enough scart sockets on the TV?
Feeding one item through another is fine but you'll always come across the downside like you've already found.

BTW picked one up myself. Haven't taken it out of the box yet so no reports to give yet.
As for the divX question above. The manual has something about DivX(R) VOD password blah blah blah. From the DivX website and by using the password code,you can download the film that you want to watch onto your pc and burn it to the DVD+r/rw disc to watch the film on the rw recorder.
I'm sure the people that asked the question will understand what the hell all that means.

Loads left in Aldi down the road from Northside S.C.

cormie

Where is Northside SC??

So basically, it CAN play DIVX? I haven't much experience with it at all myself, I know they say things to make themselves sound all legal and stuff, but will it play and DIVX cd?

carbsy

The tax man wrote:

Is sky your only channel source??
Most recorders I've ever seen and had all go into standby while the timer is waiting to come on.
Your sky box should be connected directly to your TV aswell as your recorder so you don't depend on watching everything through a vcr/dvd recorder.
Or are you one of the growing amount of people that don't have enough scart sockets on the TV?
Feeding one item through another is fine but you'll always come across the downside like you've already found.

The second scart socket on my tv is being used to my xbox.Also my Pace digi box only has 1 o/p scart and 1 i/p scart.

Paddy20

carbsy wrote:

The second scart socket on my tv is being used to my xbox.Also my Pace digi box only has 1 o/p scart and 1 i/p scart.

A multiple scart/audio switcher box is probably what you need to make your life and 'setup' a lot easier. Have a look at the 'manual' and 'auto' scart switchers on; www.qvcuk.com/

They are priced from STG £20.

Item numbers:-
1: 420134
2: 420189
3: 553166

I have been using the oldest model i.e. 420134 for years and QVCuk are a great shopping channel to deal with

P.:cool:

The tax man

cormie wrote:

Where is Northside SC??

So basically, it CAN play DIVX? I haven't much experience with it at all myself, I know they say things to make themselves sound all legal and stuff, but will it play and DIVX cd?

Aldi is just up the road from Coolock village along the Oscar Traynor road.
Aldi itself is on Coolock drive. There's a funeral home(Jennings i think) on the corner of both roads so just look for that and you'll spot the Aldi sign.
Northside SC is up the road towards Santry.It's a northside landmark spot.Most people would know of it and you'd give directions from there.

Not the best to answer the DivX thing so I'd get someone to make sure it does before getting one.


I agree with Paddy20 get yourself a scart block.Argos cat page 837. Starting from €15.49. I've found the ones with switches work better then ones without ie manual switching.

carbsy

Thanks lads.

carbsy

hmmmm, that won't work either.The dvd recorder has a scart in and scart out.The in needs to be connected to the digi box and the out needs to be connected to the tv.So I have to daisy chain them...

norbert64

prolly a really silly question but bear with me. Seeing as how the Targa DR-5200x can read both CD-R/RW & DivX files, is it possible to combine them, ie, burn a DivX movie to CD & play it on the machine.

I don't have DVD rewriter on my laptop, so it's all I can do sadly.

carbsy

norbert64 wrote:

prolly a really silly question but bear with me. Seeing as how the Targa DR-5200x can read both CD-R/RW & DivX files, is it possible to combine them, ie, burn a DivX movie to CD & play it on the machine.

I don't have DVD rewriter on my laptop, so it's all I can do sadly.

Er... think you've taken a wrong turn at the lights and posted in the wrong thread fella.

Bah

Any way to make it region free?

norbert64

carbsy wrote:

Er... think you've taken a wrong turn at the lights and posted in the wrong thread fella.

cormie already mentioned this model here,
Targa DR-5200x

are you really suggesting I make a whole new thread here, (or in Computers) just to ask one simple question

Edit: Doesn't matter now, I found out for myself :rolleyes:

carbsy

Yeah, this thread is about the Tevion TDR 5101.

The tax man

BAH...I'm bringing mine back on monday.
Tuner giving ****e quality pics on Band1 channels.
After selecting Ireland in the tuning setup,it won't take the proper freqs for the analogue stations,it's always a slight bit off even when I fine tune.
Digital is fine through it.
Units only output via scart only.
RF is a simple cable feed in and out same as NTL stb's. Was feeding TV in the kitchen via the old vcr,this won't do it.(not a fault but no good for my setup)
Remote works when you're directly in front of the unit.
Remote sensor should have a good pickup range,manual quotes 15 degrees.
Mine is more like 1or2 at best.
I think my original question has been answered.
Think I'll spend the extra €50 and get the Philips recorder in Extravision.

@carbsy Should have that lead during the week for you.

The tax man

After reading a few reviews on avforums I don't think I'll be getting a Philips.

cormie

What about the Lidl one? Dec 15th it's on sale!

The tax man

cormie wrote:

What about the Lidl one? Dec 15th it's on sale!

Anyone know if these have been sold before. Targa dr-5200x.
If so any feedback??

norbert64

cormie wrote:

What about the Lidl one? Dec 15th it's on sale!

The tax man wrote:

Anyone know if these have been sold before. Targa dr-5200x.
If so any feedback??

what say you to this carbsy

thinking bout things again, my earlier question should have stood as I could care less what the model is. I just wanted to know about the CD & AVI thing.

norbert64

@ cormie & the tax man, don't get it guys. Purcahsed it this morning, tried it & for some strange reason I can't pick up the signal on my TV, using the regular aerial. I believe it's there under the UHF band but it just wont grab it. I know there's a scart lead & the RCA cable & I can use them quite easily but I'd still prefer to have the regular aerial setup.

MrJoeSoap

Does it play DivX files straight from DVD or will I have to continue encoding using DVD Santa? (Pain in the face, takes well over an hour and a half to do).

norbert64

MrJoeSoap wrote:

Does it play DivX files straight from DVD or will I have to continue encoding using DVD Santa? (Pain in the face, takes well over an hour and a half to do).

don't know I'm afraid, I never got past the set up stage, lol. I could have if I wanted to of course, but I've packed it all up to be returned already.

The tax man

Its probably the same setup as the Tevion recorder. It's only output is via the scart out.It's handy when the unit puts it's output through the rf out too.
Well I now have both and the Targa seems a much nicer machine to use.Build quality is fine,the Aldi one just seems and feels a bit cheap(well for €150,I know )

More and more products seem to have gone down this road to keep the costs down.
Yoink...we don't need that modulator anymore,just send it out the scart connection.

Can't wait to start messing with it and see how it handles.

OOOOOH!!!!.......and the remote control buttons glow in the dark.:D

norbert64

wtf, got a different DVD recorder & it's the xact same, no rf signal, grrr. Managed to get the scart malarkey set up though, so I'm gonna keep this one.

I guess there prolly wasn't anything wrong with the Targa DR-5200x then, lol.

HashSlinging

when you use smaller text are you talking to yourself.

The tax man

norbert64 wrote:

wtf, got a different DVD recorder & it's the xact same, no rf signal, grrr. Managed to get the scart malarkey set up though, so I'm gonna keep this one.

I guess there prolly wasn't anything wrong with the Targa DR-5200x then, lol.

There wasn't. It's the way some systems work nowadays.
I'm pleased with mine even though having that output would have come in handy.
Got the black one and it looks sweet. No silver TV's in my house.:D

cormie

Are these still available anywhere? For €185 are they worth it? Norbert, which one did you get to replace the Targa? Did you get another from Lidl or somewhere else?

norbert64

HashSlinging wrote:

when you use smaller text are you talking to yourself.

yeh, sure

HashSlinging

Cormie. you can get them in lidl wicklow. I got one today but couldnt get half of the stations in, so I returned it.

cormie

What's up with these problems? It's not for me, it's for someone who lives in Wicklow town so do you think they would have the same problem? So what do you do now Hasslinging, you went to buy a DVD recorder, it didn't work, you have €185 again, do you buy another or not bother? If you buy another, which one?

HashSlinging

norbert64 wrote:

yeh, sure

I thought you were SWWOOYYY!!!!!

norbert64

cormie wrote:

For €185 are they worth it? Norbert, which one did you get to replace the Targa? Did you get another from Lidl or somewhere else?

there's a heck of alorra features on it, which is always a good thing.

Instead of the Targa I got a single layer (DVD+R/RW) PYE PRV 665 from Powercity for €160. Nothing all that spectacular about it, apart from it reads DivX files, that's why I chose it. Tested & it plays em clearly and flawlessly on an Imation CD-RW disc. Maybe you guys might know summit I don't, but in the end I went with a single layer, as I didn't see any real benefit to having a Dual layer one.

Anywho I'm still kinda amazed about the rf thing on it mind you, the sales rep distinctly told me it should work, but that's obviously not the case, lol.

HashSlinging wrote:

I got one today but couldnt get half of the stations in, so I returned it.

easy solution. Considering it prolly only works best with scart output just hook it up to a VCR then to your TV with another scart. That way you'll have all the available channels on your VCR showing up on your recorder.

cormie

So what's the actual problem with it? You can definitely get all the stations if hooked up through VCR yeah? And norbert, if you knew the one you got in Powercity was going to have the same problem with the RF signal, would you have kept the Lidl one?

norbert64

cormie wrote:

So what's the actual problem with it? You can definitely get all the stations if hooked up through VCR yeah? And norbert, if you knew the one you got in Powercity was going to have the same problem with the RF signal, would you have kept the Lidl one?

prolly would have, but I can't say for sure whether the scart VCR thing will work, as I gave up after not being able to get the rf signal. Maybe the tax man can test the ''scart'' VCR -> DVD recorder -> TV thing.

The tax man

The best way to explain the rf thing that norbert64 didn't like is this...
Take an ordinary vcr ok,you could connect it to your TV by the RF coax leads.What it did was take in the cable feed(NTL/Chorus)and feed that feed straight back out to the TV.But before it did that it also combined the VCR output through the same output.So you now have the cable+vcr going to the TV on the same lead.All you needed to do was tune the TV to pick up the vcr end of things.(some vcrs didn't even have scart outputs)
What these recorders are doing is taking the cable feed in(purely so you can tune in channels on the recorder)BUT they only pass the incoming cable feed back out via the RF output to the TV. Theres no mixing of cable and recorder on the RF output.They now send the recorders output via the scart connection.
Scart output quality is much better then the RF output so why degrade DVD quality by passing it back to RF stuff. Thats what the makers would say. Thats also why you only had DVD players with scart outputs.
When you combine the two formats,best quality will always steer the way they design these things.

Seeing that I still need to feed another TV for normal TV and digital(all via coax cable) what I'll do is this.Cable into digi box which has two scart outputs.1 scart to(main) TV other scart to DVD recorder. DVD scart out to VCR.Now I can still get my digital on my vcr by feeding thru the recorder.I have the recorder connected to my TV via video/audio out connections.So now I have my digital and DVD recorder all coming into my vcr which does mix all it's inputs and send them all out on the RF output.
So my vcr is just a scart to RF exchange. Otherwise it would be in the bin by now.
Messy but it works....I think.
Still have to connect it all up but it can be done.

If a diagram would work better let me know and I'll draw one up.

cormie

Thanks for that, you explained it well and I'm pretty sure I caught it all:) So basically what you're saying is I'll need to buy 2 DVD recorders in Lidl for me to be able to watch TV and I have to throw my VCR in the bin? Only joking;)

So is there still the problem as HashSlinging had with not being able to get all the stations or would this solve it? Is €185 worth it do you reckon?

The tax man

cormie wrote:

So is there still the problem as HashSlinging had with not being able to get all the stations or would this solve it? Is €185 worth it do you reckon?

I've no idea whats happening there. I'd need to know what HashSlingings' source is,cable,sat,aerial. And I'd need to know how he/she tried to tune them in.

Alun

Tax Man .. .why so complicated? Just get a coax T-connector and connect that to the input of the DVD recorder. Connect the antenna input to one remaining connector and the output to the TV to the other. Solved.

I'm assuming in all this that your TV has a SCART input, of course, but unless it's really ancient it will have.

The tax man

Alun thats fine for splitting the cable signal. We are talking about getting the full output of the recorder to another TV(cable+DVD playback). The recorder doesn't send ANY DVD playback through the RF output,only from the scart ouput.
Most of us still have a VCR lying around and they're perfect for combining cable+scart feeds and feeding them out on the RF output.

Its the exact same story as trying to feed NTL's dtv around the house.
The only solution was the same,scart to VCR,VCR on av1 etc,split RF output of VCR,tune VCR in on the other TVs.

Did you read the complete thread and the isssues people had??
If you did,you missed the point.

Alun

The tax man wrote:

Alun thats fine for splitting the cable signal. We are talking about getting the full output of the recorder to another TV(cable+DVD playback). The recorder doesn't send ANY DVD playback through the RF output,only from the scart ouput.
Most of us still have a VCR lying around and they're perfect for combining cable+scart feeds and feeding them out on the RF output.

Its the exact same story as trying to feed NTL's dtv around the house.
The only solution was the same,scart to VCR,VCR on av1 etc,split RF output of VCR,tune VCR in on the other TVs.

Did you read the complete thread and the isssues people had??
If you did,you missed the point.

Well, I thought I had, but obviously missed the bit about wanting to send the output to an additional TV. Not that difficult when confronted with 3 pages of often contradictory and badly written explanations. Sorry for wasting your time

The tax man

cormie wrote:

Is €185 worth it do you reckon?

Cormie,tbh you'll be the judge of that.
Just buy it and if you don't like it bring it back and get a refund, Just tell them it's faulty.
I've yet to hear of anyone having hassle trying to return goods to either Lidl or Aldi.
I've been back to Aldi twice this week. Wasn't happy with it(see earlier post) so I got them to exchange it for another one.Then after buying the Lidl one yesterday which I prefer out of the two,I stuck the Aldi unit back in it's box walked into the shop,said it was faulty and got a full refund.;)

If you weren't happy with it,bring it back and use you're best poker face when asking for a refund.:D