Pioneer DVD recorder + HDD Bargain

OK_Sauce

Just ordered a Pioneer DVR530HS from Empire Direct for £295 (£305 delivered). This is a bit of a bargain and is the cheapest I have ever seen it...and I've been looking for ages! Average prices for this are normally around the £350 - £400 mark and on Pioneer's own website a hugely inflated £600!

greenfinger

This is a good machine, I have the previous model the 520.

theloft

I am a newbie when it comes to DVD recorders.. Understand it is best to get one with a hard drive. What about tuners ? Some one said -"Make sure you get one with dual tuners" ! Has this one got one and why do you need 2?

dc

theloft wrote:

I am a newbie when it comes to DVD recorders.. Understand it is best to get one with a hard drive. What about tuners ? Some one said -"Make sure you get one with dual tuners" ! Has this one got one and why do you need 2?

Whoops pressed the thanks button, I need glasses.

Hi, and Merry Christmas. I dont think you need a hard disc recorder unless you want to record Freeview, then it is good to have twin tuners.
I may be wrong but I think this will have an old analogue tuner if anything as the Japanese have little interest in our digital tv system as it is at the moment a little parochial.

If you just want a dvd recorder, go for a cheap one or get a recorder that records DVD_RAM discs, the latter are similar to a hard drive and allow you to timeshift too. IMHO you could do worsr than get the Panasonic DVRS10 , which is around at £119, and £129 at Currys, Dixons, having been £200+
http://www.dixons.co.uk/martprd/store/dix_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1062293019.1135360640@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccccaddgieliiigcflgceggdhhmdfhn.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=988518&category_oid=

HTHs dc:xmassign:

OK_Sauce

This has a single analogue tuner. Some of the newer models have a digital terrestrial tuner and an analogue tuner. I guess it's futureproofing. I don't need the DTT tuner as I have Sky, and in fact can't get DTT where I live. I don't know of a DVD recorder that has both a digital tuner and a hard drive yet, although I stand corrected if such a model exists. You don't need to have Freeview to have a hard drive. The good thing about this particular model is the downloadable EPG from Guideplus via Eurosport on Sky. You just highlight a programme to record and the DVD rec with record it straight to the HD (or DVD).

imsi

theloft wrote:

I am a newbie when it comes to DVD recorders.. Understand it is best to get one with a hard drive. What about tuners ? Some one said -"Make sure you get one with dual tuners" ! Has this one got one and why do you need 2?

The twin tuner is for digital reception. It means you can record one digital station and watch another. On some hard drive models even record 2 digital stations whilst watching a previous recording at the same time.

With a single digital tuner if you are recording a digital channel you can only watch another channel if it's terrestrial [BBC 1, 2, ITV, Channel 4 Channel 5] from your TV's tuner.

You can of course connect and view from another seperate digibox.

TimC

OK_Sauce wrote:

I don't know of a DVD recorder that has both a digital tuner and a hard drive yet, although I stand corrected if such a model exists.

There are currently 3 models (all single DVB tuners) available in the UK:
The Panasonic DMREH60D
and 2 Sonys:
The RDR-HXD710 and the RDR-HXD910

The panasonic has a 200GB disk for about £420 and the Sonys have 160GB for £400 or 250GB for about £600. Still too much for my pocket, I'm hoping for some more choice and competition ...

theloft

Thanks everyone for your information. So if you have SKY you do not need digital tuners, but you need 2 tuners, if you want to record one Sky programme, while watching another, is this correct. Obviously the HDD drive, saves fiddling around with DVD discs. Which machine to go for then ??

:rudolf: :xmastree: :rudolf: :santa2: :xmassmile

OK_Sauce

If you use Sky as your primary recording source no DVD HDD recorder will have a Sky tuner built in (HDD - except Sky Plus of course!). If you wish to record one Sky programme whilst watching another Sky programme you would need two Sky Boxes. However with a single analogue or digital terrestrial tuner built in to the DVD/HDD recorder, it IS possible to record SKY and watch terresrial tv and vice versa.

dc

theloft wrote:

Thanks everyone for your information. So if you have SKY you do not need digital tuners, but you need 2 tuners, if you want to record one Sky programme, while watching another, is this correct. Obviously the HDD drive, saves fiddling around with DVD discs. Which machine to go for then ??

:rudolf: :xmastree: :rudolf: :santa2: :xmassmile

Sky IS digital, so the best way of recording it is to hard disc direct so that no loss of quality occurs. To do this you will need a Sky + box from Sky which costs a leg. Unless you have Sky.

Let us know what you have and what you want to do, then our help will be more precise.

hi123

hi
i am in same boat
need to record mainly from sky and want to have the facility to watch and record different channels,any reasonable option except sky plus