Recording Sky Digital with DVD HDD

construct06

Could somebody please reccommend a good HDD DVD recorder.

I want the following, if this is possible>

tv tuner
guideplus (or automatic recording using sky autoview)
pause tv
automatic title labelling
anything else worthwhile/neccesary

thanx

Streete

I have a Packard Bell machine but I would not recommend it as they are no longer making them. I got it cheap so I am not complaining as it does what I need it for.

One thing I would advise is to check the noise level when making your purchasing decision. Mine has only one quite poor cooling fan for the hard drive and it can be quite annoying.

construct06

Anybody else got a decent Dvd HDD recorder, for recording Tv, not a cpompter HDD!

mcgeeney

construct06 wrote:

Could somebody please reccommend a good HDD DVD recorder.

I want the following, if this is possible>

tv tuner
guideplus (or automatic recording using sky autoview)
pause tv
automatic title labelling
anything else worthwhile/neccesary

thanx

I went for a Sony RDRHX910 and am extremely happy with it. 250GB of storage (which is loads), and it cost around €550 in January of this year from pixmania.

Wasn't the cheapest on offer, but I wanted something that'd be easily usable by the family and wouldn't need the user to have a Masters in Computer Science in order to record a programme or transfer it to DVD.

I'm using it with Sky only, so haven't used the internal analogue tv tuner - but it does have one.

It has ShowView - which I think is the same thing as Video Plus, but again, I haven't used this.

It has a synchro record feature that'll let Sky AutoView kick the recorder into action from standby at the right time. Once more this is a feature I haven't used. I tend to just set the record times manually on the recorder, and use Sky AutoView to make sure that the Sky box is on the right channel at the right time.

The box supports pausing live tv and automatic title labelling - if this is output by the channel you're recording. For some reason, it only seems to work with RTE channels. Re-naming the recordings is relatively painless though.

Other features - look for the speed of dubbing to/from a DVD. The Sony box is pretty fast dubbing to a DVD so long as the DVD can store the image at the same quality at which it was recorded. If you need to adjust the bitrate while you're dubbing, then dubbing is a "real time" activity - ie a 3 hour film will take 3 hours to dub.

Check which recordable DVD formats your box supports. The sony will take 'em all except for DVD RAM.

And check how easy it is to edit your recordings - to remove ads etc. The sony scores highly here, although there is a slight pause during playback when it hits an area where you've deleted a scene.

Finally - check the noise levels. The fan noise can prove annoying.

The internet will be best for pricing. The 250GB model I got from pixmania cost less than the nearest Sony Shop was charging for the 80GB version.

OutlawPete

Here's a great website for advice on DVD/HDD Recorders:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdrecorders

Be sure and click 'DigitalTV/DVBS/C/T' in the other options search when doing a search if you want a Freeview tuner. Allthough, not sure whats available on Freeview in Ireland at the minute .. rumour has it that RTE will be transmitting Freeview signals quite soon.

My holy grail for a DVDRecorder is one with a DVB-T tuner with CI slots as that would mean just one box below my TV

Nathan

watty

Nico22 wrote:

Allthough, not sure whats available on Freeview in Ireland at the minute .. rumour has it that RTE will be transmitting Freeview signals quite soon.

My holy grail for a DVDRecorder is one with a DVB-T tuner with CI slots as that would mean just one box below my TV

Nathan

The ReelBox has up to 4 tuners, Dual Satellite and Dual terrestrial possible. 320G HD, neotion CAM and card reader, CI slots for CAM, DVD writer (dual layer), firewire, USB 1.1, Ethernet ...


I'm afriad the DTT in Ireland is an eveil rumour. There is a DMCR trial from Three Rock and Clermont cairn with no G'tee of service an no nationwide plan. While it carries RTE, TV3 and TG4, it isn't an RTE test.

Since 1999 it was made plain RTENL WOULD NOT be rolling out DTT. "A N Other" is to buy the licence and roll out the network. Except no-one is offereing to buy.

silly1

If you have not already got one and want just about everthing (including guideplus) go for the PIONEER DVR645 H-S. It is pricey however €699 but worth it. Got one a few days ago & am very pleased. Guideplus works but you have to use a NI postal code and I have only figured out how to get BBC1,BBC2,UTV,CH4 & CH5 on the EPG so far.