Can I connect a dvd/hard drive recorder to a CRT digital TV?

savetilibleed

We have a Sony KD28DL11 CRT digital (ie integrated freeview) TV. It was bought in 2005, as a package with a Sony VCR and Sony DVD player. The VCR has always been cr*p but the TV is great and the DVD player is OK.

Of course recording a digital program is possible as long as the TV is watching that program, meaning we can't watch one digital and record another.

The VCR and DVD player are connected to the two scarts in the back of the TV. So, we can buy a DVD/hard disc recorder (and recommendations are most welcome ) that will allow us to record one digital program whilst watching another?

Thanks

Skeksis

Hi, if you don't watch video's much anymore I would ditch the VCR and get a hard disk recorder with built-in Freeview, most have twin tuners now anyway, so you could potentially watch the Freeview on the TV and record two channels at the same time on the hard disk recorder if you so wished, you would need to get a twin aerial socket adaptor (not much from Maplin) for the aerial wall socket for the TV aerial lead and the Freeview hard disk recorder lead, so it splits the signal for each to receive. This is how I've set mine up to my 3 scart non-digital CRT, with the VCR as well, but I rarely use that and think it's busted anyway! So I can still watch the analogue TV and be able to record another 2 Freeview channels at the same time if I wanted.

Obviously it depends on your budget and recording requirements for your recorder and if you want an integrated DVD/hard disk recorder to archive your programmes, but I've had a Humax in the past without any problems and I've seen good reports about Topfield. I currently have a Wharfedale though.

Hope this helps!

scotsbob

savetilibleed wrote: »

So, we can buy a DVD/hard disc recorder (and recommendations are most welcome ) that will allow us to record one digital program whilst watching another?

Thanks

This page compares the features of each model side by side.

http://www.pvrjunction.co.uk/compare/

I have always used Inverto because I find them to be the quietest. Humax and Topfield are also highly spoken about. The Thomson is being heavily discounted in supermarkets just now but if you read these, and other, forums you will notice there seem to be problems with them

Skeksis

scotsbob wrote: »

The Thomson is being heavily discounted in supermarkets just now but if you read these, and other, forums you will notice there seem to be problems with them

Yes, I bought a 160GB one of these last year from Asda, not impressed, unbearable fan noise and freezing/crashing problems, so took it back and got a 320GB Wharfedale unit from Argos for the same price, no problems so far!

savetilibleed

Thanks folks. The link given by scotsbob is for PVR recorders only is that right? Think it would be useful to be able to record to DVD as well (for series archiving). I see when searching Humax on Amazon, at the end of the listings for Humax they start to list items such as a Sony HDD/DVD recorder, which is the sort of thing as far as I can tell. The reviewers there seem to have used them only to record direct to DVD. I'm wondering if that means they are less of a PVR and more of a DVD that has a HDD.

Mr23

Try to stay away from the Top Up TV PVRs, their software is pretty shoddy. I've heard good things about Humax.

BritRael

savetilibleed wrote: »

...at the end of the listings for Humax they start to list items such as a Sony HDD/DVD recorder, which is the sort of thing as far as I can tell. The reviewers there seem to have used them only to record direct to DVD. I'm wondering if that means they are less of a PVR and more of a DVD that has a HDD.

I've got a Sony HDD, which I would highly recommend. Mostly, I record to HDD, but a few times I've then copied to DVD RW disc. This works very well apart from one little thing; I have a load of re-writable discs that I use on the PC. So I was hoping I could use an RW to simply copy to disc, then transfer to USB HDD, so I dont have to carry a load of discs with me overseas. Unfortunately, when copying to the RW, the disc was finalised, so I cannot now re-use it
Not a big, deal. In future, I'll only use normal writeable discs. :cool:

savetilibleed

BritRael wrote: »

I've got a Sony HDD, which I would highly recommend. Mostly, I record to HDD, but a few times I've then copied to DVD RW disc. This works very well apart from one little thing; I have a load of re-writable discs that I use on the PC. So I was hoping I could use an RW to simply copy to disc, then transfer to USB HDD, so I dont have to carry a load of discs with me overseas. Unfortunately, when copying to the RW, the disc was finalised, so I cannot now re-use it
Not a big, deal. In future, I'll only use normal writeable discs. :cool:

OK thanks for that. Pity about the DVD-RW problem - rather defeats the object of RW . Presumably you were able to copy to USB HDD ok but not reuse the disc.

scotsbob

savetilibleed wrote: »

Thanks folks. The link given by scotsbob is for PVR recorders only is that right? Think it would be useful to be able to record to DVD as well (for series archiving). I see when searching Humax on Amazon, at the end of the listings for Humax they start to list items such as a Sony HDD/DVD recorder, which is the sort of thing as far as I can tell. The reviewers there seem to have used them only to record direct to DVD. I'm wondering if that means they are less of a PVR and more of a DVD that has a HDD.

Yes the link is for twin PVR recorders. I thought that was one of the options you were considering. Most of these have the ability to archive to a DVD recorder but that does involve having two pieces of eqipment (PVR and DVD recorder) which you may not want.

My satellite receiver has a usb port so I can record directly from that onto an external hard drive or a pen drive. If you have that feature it would meet your portability requirements.

savetilibleed

scotsbob wrote: »

Yes the link is for twin PVR recorders. I thought that was one of the options you were considering. Most of these have the ability to archive to a DVD recorder but that does involve having two pieces of eqipment (PVR and DVD recorder) which you may not want.

My satellite receiver has a usb port so I can record directly from that onto an external hard drive or a pen drive. If you have that feature it would meet your portability requirements.

Certainly wouldn't want two pieces of new equipment, with the present DVD player and VCR (keeping the latter for the time being) if poss. So A combination PVR/DVD recorder would seem best. Don't normally like combo units as a matter of principle (more to go wrong/quality compromise etc). I guess with a combo unit we could out the DVD player (don't know how good the player side of things would be on a DVD recorder).

It's nice to be able to record a program, and have it available recorded to DVD to watch n months/years down the line. I guess DVD as a format will be past it by then :rolleyes:

BritRael

savetilibleed wrote: »

OK thanks for that. Pity about the DVD-RW problem - rather defeats the object of RW . Presumably you were able to copy to USB HDD ok but not reuse the disc.

Yeah, no problem copying to the USB drive.

It was a surprise to me about the RW discs. I didn't realise that it was possible to finalise them otherwise I wouldn't have wasted them as a 'temporary' storage device. You learn something every day huh? :rolleyes: