Recording NTL Digital

watty

sashin wrote:

Hi there watty, i just want to know what HDD recorder i should buy to record NTL digital cable. I know very little about HDD recorders and i know that there are recorders out in the market that record one channel and the user could view another simultaneously OR even record, pause and rewind live TV....like the Sky + box
Do you know of HDD recorders that will do this with NTL digital cable?

Thanks
sashin

One with analogue RGB, composite and S-Video in. TV tuner optional. HDD and DVD.

Only direct Digtal reception decoder/receivers with HDD built in(Satellite, Terrestrial or Telewest cable) recorders with two tuners can allow watching one channel while recording another, NTL/UPC don't supply one yet. Many are avaiable for DTT and Satellite, though only Sky+ and SkyHD for the Sky pay channels (free channels can use any satellite model).

You would have to have two NTL Digital boxes, one for the HDD/DVD PVR and one for the TV set, or else just have the same channel on both using one box. The direct digital PVRs are of course perfect quality as they record the live signal exactly. Analogue input models including Tivo have various quality settings, the highest is always poorer than direct Digital, but better than VHS. (Not much different to true S-VHS though).

sashin

Does this mean that if i decide to stick with one NTL digital box that i have(instead of the 2 digital boxes as you had mentioned), i will have to record what i watch? If so, what HDD/DVD recorders would be compatible with the NTL digital box?

Thanks in advance.
sashin

watty

Yes. You record what you watch unless you get a 2nd NTL box.
I don't know. Most of them probably as you will only be recording the RGB SCART.

bk

However you can watch a different channel from the 17 analogue channels, while you record a digital channel.

oneway

NTL are bringing out a Sky+ PVR soon according to their technical support yesterday. I was calling them to ask how to record from NTL digital cable using my Philips PVR (DVD-rw & HDD). Unfortunately I've got the old silver 4cm-high NTL Pace box with one Scart socket and no combination of their ‘Y’ splitter cable will work. The choices are to ‘buy’ one of the newer 2cm high black digital boxes with two Scart sockets (one to the TV, one to the PVR) for E50 or wait for their, as yet unpriced, new Sky+-type PVR with in-built HDD and digital tuner.

lensman

oneway wrote:

NTL are bringing out a Sky+ PVR soon according to their technical support yesterday. I was calling them to ask how to record from NTL digital cable using my Philips PVR (DVD-rw & HDD). Unfortunately I've got the old silver 4cm-high NTL Pace box with one Scart socket and no combination of their ‘Y’ splitter cable will work. The choices are to ‘buy’ one of the newer 2cm high black digital boxes with two Scart sockets (one to the TV, one to the PVR) for E50 or wait for their, as yet unpriced, new Sky+-type PVR with in-built HDD and digital tuner.

they told me that last year !!!!!!!!!!!!:(

mambo

sashin wrote:

What HDD/DVD recorders would be compatible with the NTL digital box?

One thing to bear in mind is that to set some programs to record in advance you would have either:

a) set the timer on the HDD recorder *and* the timer on the NTL digital box (if it has one) to change to the appropriate channel at the given time

OR

b) set the HDD recorder timer only, if it's a HDD recorder that can send infra-red (IR) signals (the same ones the NTL digital remote control will send) to tell the NTL digital box to change channel to the one you want to record from (the device that sends this signal is often called an "IR blaster" or "IR emitter" apparently)

ohanloj3

Does anyone get annoyed with Ntl DVR for me its always missing the first few minutes of a show or the last few!_its very, very annoying!!

Alun

ohanloj3 wrote: »

Does anyone get annoyed with Ntl DVR for me its always missing the first few minutes of a show or the last few!_its very, very annoying!!

Don't blame the DVR, blame the TV stations who haven't got the faintest idea what a schedule is, and start programs early just because they feel like it. You can program in a fixed extra start and end time in the DVR settings to compensate for this stupidity.

coylemj

Any station doing news or live sport is liable to run late after this type of programme so where there's a choice like with the BBC I'd go for channels with none of this type of programme, that's why I'm recording the 'Life' nature program off BBC4. It's even worse where there's a regional insert for local news which is the case with BBC and UTV so if there's some big news story in 'the province' it can cause subsequent programmes to be delayed.

However UPC isn't always the innocent party here, a couple of Saturdays ago I was trying to programme the unit to record a Saturday afternoon movie on RTE1 but when I hit the red button the machine crashed and rebooted, it turned out that the clock on the unit was saying 23:10 - about 8 hours fast - so the EPG was saying the programme was in the future but the unit was reckoning that it had already happened, luckily someone in UPC noticed and it was corrected soon after.

Heathen

ohanloj3 wrote: »

Does anyone get annoyed with Ntl DVR for me its always missing the first few minutes of a show or the last few!_its very, very annoying!!

sorry to dig up an old thread but in answer to this question.. YES!

I getting pretty pi55ed off at this stage because out of the last 4 top gears in the new season i have only seen the end of ONE!! and thats only because it missed the recording of the start of it.. i have not yet seen one full episode of top gear.. its the same for my girlfriend recording her shows.. every now and again it misses the start or end of her shows...

can the the time be manually adjusted to run like 3 mins before the start and 3 mins after?? to allow for minor delays in starting of early starts??

i hope this can be done..

cheers
H

mambo

I set my UPC Digital+ DVR to start recording 1 min before the schedule start time, and 5 minutes after the scheduled end time. It's in the DVR settings. Works fine so far, haven't missed anything.

A downside is if you are recording two shows, one from 9pm to 10pm, another on a different channel from 10pm to 11pm, then with the extra minutes the two recordings overlap, which the DVR can't handle (unless you have it in standby mode, in which case is CAN record two shows simultaneously). But so many shows are repeated that you often can record the repeat instead to get around this.

Alun

Heathen wrote: »

can the the time be manually adjusted to run like 3 mins before the start and 3 mins after?? to allow for minor delays in starting of early starts??

Yes, just download the manual from the UPC website (http://www.upc.ie/customersupport/manuals/) and it'll tell you how, otherwise it's pretty easy to find in the settings menu.

And as others have said this has absolutely nothing at all to do with UPC or the DVR and everything to do with sloppy scheduling by the BBC (and pretty much every other broadcaster too).

mambo

Anyone know any "trick" for fast-forwarding to the end of a recording on the UPC Digital+ box?

The fastest fast-forward speed is rather slow and it takes ages to get to the end of, say, a movie (for example, to check you have the full movie recorded, in cases where it started a few minutes late).

Heathen

Thanks so much guys!! you have made my Monday a little brighter.. my Girlfriend will be happy too..

Cheers
H

mambo

mambo wrote: »

Anyone know any "trick" for fast-forwarding to the end of a recording on the UPC Digital+ box?

The fastest fast-forward speed is rather slow and it takes ages to get to the end of, say, a movie (for example, to check you have the full movie recorded, in cases where it started a few minutes late).

Another gripe...

With my UPC Digital+ box, I can selected a program from the EPG/Guide (which only goes 7 days ahead) to record, or I can manually enter a day/time/channel. But when manually entering a recording, I can only choose between "Monday", "Tuesday", etc. not specify a particular date (e.g. Sat 31st July).

To record something on Sat 31st, I have to set it to record EVERY Saturday, but that means it will also record this Saturday which I don't want, and I will have to remember to delete the "every Saturday" setting once the program I want is recorded.

Arghhh. Why won't it let me specify a particular date?? Does no-one at UPC take more than a week's holidays at a time? Annoying!

Ranicand

mambo wrote: »

Another gripe...

With my UPC Digital+ box, I can selected a program from the EPG/Guide (which only goes 7 days ahead) to record, or I can manually enter a day/time/channel. But when manually entering a recording, I can only choose between "Monday", "Tuesday", etc. not specify a particular date (e.g. Sat 31st July).

To record something on Sat 31st, I have to set it to record EVERY Saturday, but that means it will also record this Saturday which I don't want, and I will have to remember to delete the "every Saturday" setting once the program I want is recorded.

Arghhh. Why won't it let me specify a particular date?? Does no-one at UPC take more than a week's holidays at a time? Annoying!

That is what series link is for.

mambo

Ranicand wrote: »

That is what series link is for.

Series link doesn't work for one-off programmes, or a series that is starting more than a week from now.

Ranicand

mambo wrote: »

Series link doesn't work for one-off programmes, or a series that is starting more than a week from now.

I am all for choice and UPC suits me but if it does not suit you why not consider getting Sky?
http://www.sky.com/portal/site/ireland?CMP=KNC-ROISearch
0818 719 852

mambo

Ranicand wrote: »

I am all for choice and UPC suits me but if it does not suit you why not consider getting Sky?
http://www.sky.com/portal/site/ireland?CMP=KNC-ROISearch
0818 719 852

I live in an apartment, so until the block gets the "Sky in your apartment" service, I don't have that choice.