DVD HDD Recorder V's TV Card

aaf

I'm looking to get a replacement for the aul VCR. Sick of tapes all over the place. Now, I was going to get a DVD Hard Disk recorder with writing capabilities but having read a few threads here, would I be better off putting a TV Card into my PC and recording from there? I currently have NTL Digital and will be getting NTL broadband into the house soon. As part of that installation, am I right in thinking that the NTL engineers will put an NTL box in beside my PC? Therefore, I should be able to use that to record from the TV, yes? How then, will I be able to watch the recordings on my TV downstairs (PC is upstairs) without burning onto DVD-+R? I already have a wireless network in place.

jor el

As part of that installation, am I right in thinking that the NTL engineers will put an NTL box in beside my PC?

They'll put a cable modem beside your PC, this will not let you watch TV though.

If you want to record onto the PC from NTL Digital, you'll need to move your digital TV box up beside the PC, or run a cable from that box to the input on the TV card in the PC. You can then record whatever channel is selected on the NTL box. This isn't a great solution though as you must manually select the channel on the NTL box, the PC won't be able to select channels for you.

Anything you record on the PC you could then display on your TV if your PC has a TV out on the graphic card (normally an S-Video connector). This would require running a very long cable from your PC to the TV downstairs. I'm not sure what kind of quality, if any, you'd get from this. Or you could burn to DVD and watch them that way.

All in all, I reckon you're best off going with a DVD-HD recorder to replace your VCR with. It'll be the better solution all round. I still don't think this will be able to select the channel for you but it would be a nicer solution.

I already have a wireless network in place.

Won't help I'm afraid, descent quality video data rates far exceed the capability of 802.11g. The only hope would be to send compressed (xvid or divx) video over the link, but this would require a decompresser (another PC) at the receiver end.

Check out the new Argos catalogue, I think I saw a DVD-HD recorder in the Phillips section for around €400.


Nice idea putting the link in your sig, worked for me anyway

aaf

Cheers for that. Looks like I'll go for a DVD HD recorder so. I've heard good things about the Pioneer DVR-530H and the Panasonic DMREH50. Would I be better off buying one in the US when I go to NYC in Dec and mailing it back? I could mark it as worth about $100 so I don't have to pay customs.

jor el wrote:

Nice idea putting the link in your sig, worked for me anyway

Yeah, I think it's a good idea if you want to advertise your own threads!

jor el

It would probably be cheaper to buy in the states, but I'm not sure how it would work out PAL/NTSC wise. Make sure it can accept PAL and NTSC video in. If it's NTSC only then everything would end up in black and white.

It would also most likely be region 1, so you'd want to make sure you can change the region easily or you won't be able to play European DVDs on it. That won't make a difference to recording though.

Stoner

I'm no expert on this but I have been looking into it a bit, I've been posting for advice here, sometimes its great sometimes its thin.
Anyway jor el seems to know allot about this. But here goes.
I have a DVD recorder with a removable hard drive. It also has a stereo TV tuner and can record live TV ( having a little trouble getting it to work but I will) anyway, my NTL dig box is plugged into it and as jor said it will not change the stations for me it connects to the recorder via a scart lead, however NTL will provide a coax output that has the normal 15 stations on it , you can plug this into the recorder so you could use it on the normal basic package and it will change these stations for you, but you'd have to change station on the digi box yourself.
I've looked into the Pinnacle show centre, it has wireless and wired 10/100 connection.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=151664

Also the Kiss DP1500s
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=118024

has similar features plus a DVD player. In these cases if you hard wired the connections you can put a TV card into your PC and record all the stuff on to the PC and watch it on your TV , you'd need a gismo for the NTL remote.
Thing is both of these options require a server software to run on your PC. I have not seen them in action , and like jor said, I'm not sure about the wireless connection being capable, although I'm sure the Divx file would work as the player (not sure about the show centre) would decompress the info at the other end.
Also look at http://www.buffalo-technology.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=96&categoryid=18

and the review at
http://www.tomsnetworking.com/Reviews-198-ProdID-LINKTHEATER-1.php

At the moment I download some stuff and save it to the removable hd on my recorder. I am strongly thinking of cabling a decent connection from my PC to one of the options I have named above.
But I need some help on the PVR 1001XS before I fully recommend it, seems you need to be German to get info. E bay saved me a few quid but in the long run I prop should have bought it from Pixmania

FrankGrimes

aaf - Are you familiar with Windows Media Center? It could be ideal for you if you want to stretch the budget a bit.

With the launch of the Xbox 360, which will act as a Media Center Extender, you could use a wireless network to beam your media around the house while also getting the many benefits of WMC – more advance recording, music streaming, ability to schedule recordings over the web….the list of features seems endless…I’m looking forward to getting setup in the coming weeks.


http://www.thegreenbutton.com is the main forum on Media Center for anyone that wants a look

aaf

FrankGrimes wrote:

aaf - Are you familiar with Windows Media Center? It could be ideal for you if you want to stretch the budget a bit.

With the launch of the Xbox 360, which will act as a Media Center Extender, you could use a wireless network to beam your media around the house while also getting the many benefits of WMC – more advance recording, music streaming, ability to schedule recordings over the web….the list of features seems endless…I’m looking forward to getting setup in the coming weeks.


http://www.thegreenbutton.com is the main forum on Media Center for anyone that wants a look

Don't want to go down that road at the minute. Think I'm just gonna go with a DVD HD recorder, preferably one that has the ability to schedule recordings over the nweb - very handy. I think Kiss have one such product but haven't really looked at the Pioneer DVR-530H and the Panasonic DMREH50 too closely yet so maybe they'll have that functionality. \fingers crossed

Stoner

Just to throw aniter option at you, I have a Archos AV440 it is a portable HD recorder and you can pick shows from a Yahoo TV recording scheduler and it will record them,

Tom Dunne

Just to throw in my own experience with recording TV onto the PC - don't do it unless you are very, very dedicated.

I have the whole PC setup with TV card and Media Portal software (freeware version of Microsoft's Media Center, btw).

To cut a long story short, it takes time to get things set up, figure out what encoders/decoders to use on the PC. If you are willing to put in the time and deal with the frustrations, then it can be worth it. But just be prepared to put up with a lot of heartache in the beginning.

I have it working, completely remote controlled (all three of them ), connected to my projector. However, I am on the verge of going out and buying a DVD recorder.