When will somebody make a Twin Freeview PVR with DVD recorder?

finallycruising

It seems to be on the wish list of a lot of people I know - something similar to the Sony RDR-HXD710 or 910 but with 2 freeview tuners and, for good measure, a card slot. This seems such an obvious device I'm surprised nobody has made one yet. Panasonic seem to have withdrawn their competitor to the Sony 710.

Does anybody have any trade contacts an know of anything on the horizon?

2 freeview tuners - to allow non-IDTV owners to watch a widescreen channel while recording another or to record more than one programme at the same time.

HDD - PVR with programme guide for general recording of TV.

DVD recorder for archiving.

Regards P

finallycruising

albertross wrote:

thought humax had one in the pipeline?? (I could be wrong). Maybe the broadcasters/copyright owners have put the block on the idea.?

I haven't seen anything from Humax. They have a twin freeview receiver PVR and a freeview receiver dvd player but I don't know of anything with a dvd recorder.

I don't know what could be 'blocked' as all the devices are available individually, it's just so messy! Indeed, the Sony RDR-HXD710 could almost suffice if used with a seperate freeview receiver for the non-IDTV.

http://www.sony.co.uk/view/ShowProduct.action?product=RDR-HXD710&site=odw_en_GB&pageType=Overview&category=DVD+Recorder
P

charlieheard

At the moment, the closest you'll get is the Topfield TF5800 PVR, which has twin-tuners allowing you to record 2 programmes at once while watching a recording made earlier (another live channel if the conditions are right). It also has a USB connection to allow you to copy recordings to your PC - you can also edit the MPEG2 file to remove ads, etc., or you can just output files to a cheap DVD recorder. With a 250Gb disk, it can store over 120 hours of programmes, so I've never felt the need to copy stuff to CD...

It's available from several online retailers (such as Empire Direct) and is also coming to House of Fraser soon.

The USP is that you can load helper apps onto the machine to add functionality or change the look & feel. So you can make it feel close to $ky+ or just tweak a few of the settings. Have a look at the independent Toppy forum for more information

finallycruising

albertross wrote:

As you say, the first manufacturer to release one, would have a killer app.. It's so obvious that they would sell like hot cakes, that the only reason I can think of why they don't is the conspiracy theory.. the copyright owners don't want to make it easy for people to make high quality DVD's recorded off-air.

The Sony 710 can do just that, it simply lacks the second receiver and top-up TV slot. Given that Sony seem to have the only combined single freeview tuner / PVR / DVD-R on the market and have media as well as hardware interests, the conspiracy theory can't really be true!

finallycruising

charlieheard wrote:

At the moment, the closest you'll get is the Topfield TF5800 PVR, which has twin-tuners allowing you to record 2 programmes at once while watching a recording made earlier (another live channel if the conditions are right). It also has a USB connection to allow you to copy recordings to your PC - you can also edit the MPEG2 file to remove ads, etc., or you can just output files to a cheap DVD recorder. With a 250Gb disk, it can store over 120 hours of programmes, so I've never felt the need to copy stuff to CD...

I've read about the Topfield and it sounds good but lacks the built in DVD-R. I read in PCW that a new Topfield is expected later this year with a wireless connection and possibly a web server. That might offer some possibilities. I currently have the original Humax PVR which I've upgraded from 40 to 160GB. We've not managed to fill it but it would be nice to not be restricted to viewing on that system.
P

amcluesent

Treat yourself to one of these and don't bother with archiving to DVD :j

fairytooth

I bought the 9200 which I am delighted with - easy interfaces, dual dvb tuner, etc. but not dvd recording ..... BUT .... it comes with USB connection to my laptop/PC and software to transfer recorded programmes (Media e-linker).

I was stuck for a while until I found VLC media player freeware from http://www.videolan.org/ but now I can transfer whatever I want to my PC. I haven't tried to burn to dvd yet but I am told it is possible.

Any help?