Dvd Hdd recorder recomendations

oulton

Hi All, Just cancelled sky + and would like to be able to record programmes as close as possible as before, have looked at several machines with and without tuners but I am getting bogged down can anyone recommend an overall machine that can record sky and also replace my multiregion dvd player. Thanks in advance.:)

mickoneill30

I got my folks a Philips DVDR3450H (around the €330 mark now) for Christmas. It has a 160GB HDD, DVD Recorder and can play DivX and it's region free (after a quick google on what codes to enter).
Thinking of getting one for myself after playing with theirs. The hard part about Sky is that you have to have the Sky Box on the channel you want to record at the same time as you're recording (you can't watch Sky 1 while watching Sky 2), which is a bit of a bummer.

oulton

Thanks will look in to this machine, have looked at machines with free to air twin tuners which I thought would solve the problem of recording what you watch but it seems these do not accept a sky external signal I am open to correction on this.

Gunther_Gloop

In the past Phillips' dvd players have kept the NTSC signal when playing US dvds -ie. no way to view them as PAL.

Some tellies -mainly Phillips models- can't view NTSC signals in colour.

I don't know if this player/recorder has this "problem", but it's worth bearing in mind & checking out.
I'd recommend bringing a US disc along to a shop before purchasing (also bring the multiregion hack, if straightforward)... if buying 'locally' of course.

XDA2prisoner

dont mind pal and ntsc, HDMI is the new wave if you have a HD TV make sure u get a HD DVD player , also Blu Ray DVD's are coming worth checking out

Gunther_Gloop

XDA2prisoner wrote:

dont mind pal and ntsc, HDMI is the new wave if you have a HD TV make sure u get a HD DVD player , also Blu Ray DVD's are coming worth checking out

HDMI has nothing to do with it (well, nothing in connection with what's being talked about here at least).
And he _does_ need to "mind" pal and ntsc with the Philips telly that I know he has if he goes with the Philps player/recorder mentioned (assuming it doesnt have a PAL/NTSC switch).

Lpfsox

Dunno if this is a bit OTT, but I got the LG LHRH760IA home cinema set before christmas and it has everything you seem to be looking for. The recorder has a 160GB HD, it's connectable via Scart or HDMI, it upscales to pseudo-hidef and plays all formats. I've got it connected to my Sky box and it's fine for recording onto either the hard drive or directly onto disc.

A cheaper option that I went for a while back was the Liteon 5045 with a 160GB hdd. That worked fine with the Sky box too, although I prefer the UI on the LG setup.

hawthorn

About 6 months ago I got the Pioneer 630, got it from Richer Sounds in Belfast, ahd it next day.

Marvellous machine, the next best thing to Sky+ I imagine. But no monthly payments! i find it easy to use, and at top quality it will store about 72 hours of tv. But it WILL change your viewing habits! I hardly ever look at anything "live" now.

Also you can look at a previously recorded programme while recording a current one, so you can be catching up. You can also watch a dvd while recording from tv.

I highly recommend it, 10/10

h

Native Tongue

You can use the Personal Planner and AutoView features on Sky Guide to automatically change channels as soon as a program starts. If you use this in conjunciton with the timer features on your DVD recorder you can record your favourite programs while you are not at home, regardless of what channel you're on. Of course this setup is not as ideal as Sky+, but at least you get cool features like being able to edit directly on the DVD recorder and being able to burn the recorded program to DVD.

I have a Sony RDR-HX900 DVD Recorder with 160GB HDD. I've had it quite a while now (well over a year I think) and it has been a dream to use. Would recommend it to anyone. If you're recording a program and come home 10 minutes after the program has started, you can watch the program from the start and it will record the rest of the program in the background. You can also watch a recorded program while it is recording from the TV, but unfortunately you cannot watch another channel on TV while it is recording. There are features that are similar to "pausing Live TV" on Sky+ too, and they work pretty well (though probably not as nicely as traditional Sky+!)

Ulsterman 1690

LiteOn do a nice machine that will record Audio CD's VCD's and SVCD's as well as DVD -/+R and RW

You can use the Personal Planner and AutoView features on Sky Guide to automatically change channels as soon as a program starts.

How do you stop that blasted search/scan banner from being displayed for the first 5 minutes of whatever programme youre recording

WILKEL

Native Tongue wrote:

You can use the Personal Planner and AutoView features on Sky Guide to automatically change channels as soon as a program starts. If you use this in conjunciton with the timer features on your DVD recorder you can record your favourite programs while you are not at home, regardless of what channel you're on. Of course this setup is not as ideal as Sky+, but at least you get cool features like being able to edit directly on the DVD recorder and being able to burn the recorded program to DVD.

I have a Sony RDR-HX900 DVD Recorder with 160GB HDD. I've had it quite a while now (well over a year I think) and it has been a dream to use. Would recommend it to anyone. If you're recording a program and come home 10 minutes after the program has started, you can watch the program from the start and it will record the rest of the program in the background. You can also watch a recorded program while it is recording from the TV, but unfortunately you cannot watch another channel on TV while it is recording. There are features that are similar to "pausing Live TV" on Sky+ too, and they work pretty well (though probably not as nicely as traditional Sky+!)

I have never had sky plus but I would like to be able to record of the satellite channels that i have - do you have to set timers on a dvd /hdd recorder to record programs or can you use the sky personal planner instead?
I was looking to buy a HDD recorder or a DVD recorder and came across this unit
http://www.bluedelta.co.uk/phantom_plus.htm
which claims to use the sky presonal planner to start recording or do some dvd and hhd recorders do this anyway ?

thanks in advance

dtwhite

mickoneill30 wrote:

I got my folks a Philips DVDR3450H (around the €330 mark now) for Christmas. It has a 160GB HDD, DVD Recorder and can play DivX and it's region free (after a quick google on what codes to enter).
Thinking of getting one for myself after playing with theirs. The hard part about Sky is that you have to have the Sky Box on the channel you want to record at the same time as you're recording (you can't watch Sky 1 while watching Sky 2), which is a bit of a bummer.

I am thinking of buying one of these Philips models. Do you know if it has "chase recording"? In other words, if you are recording a film, and want to start watching the film from the beginning even if the broadcast is well into the film and it is still recording, is that possible?

I know other brands of HDD Recorders have this feature, but I can't see any reference to it on the Philips website for this or similar models. It does have "pause live TV" and "instant replay", but I don't see a reference to chase recording.

Thanks, David

Wheels

WILKEL wrote:

I have never had sky plus but I would like to be able to record of the satellite channels that i have - do you have to set timers on a dvd /hdd recorder to record programs or can you use the sky personal planner instead?
I was looking to buy a HDD recorder or a DVD recorder and came across this unit
http://www.bluedelta.co.uk/phantom_plus.htm
which claims to use the sky presonal planner to start recording or do some dvd and hhd recorders do this anyway ?

thanks in advance

I have the phantom plus and it is the only thing that is in anyway like Sky+. I had Sky+ for years but it failed nearly every few months and I lost so much stuff so I got rid. Went back to regular sky and then last year got a LiteON DVD HD Recorder with 160GB. Ordered the Phanton Plus and it works fine.

It's not perfect, because you can't set it to start recording 5 mins early (it relies on the autoview switching the channel) you do tend to miss the start of shows on various channels. Especially on RTE which still finds it hard to master the EPG. My first Phantom broke down and I was without it for about two months and I recorded next to nothing because it's such a pain in the ass to manually enter everything.

In short go for it, it's not perfect but it's the best option out there.