Bargain DVD Recorders

TaBunny

ukbandit wrote:

crabmagyola:

you can get one with a HDD, the bigger the better. other bits are optional, dependinghow much of a nerd/audiophile you are (e.g. DIVX, dolby etc).

Sky+ has some extra functionality that can't be replicated by recorders as far as i'm aware (series link) but other then that theya re pretty much all on a par (barring the odd really bad one!)

Tabunny - not had any experience with that store. Richer sounds have one from Cambridge Audio (good company) at £80, that you can walk in and buy.

IF you really want to know about what to get, head over to AVforums, where the real techies hide....they are more then helpful over there, theres plenty of cross posting..!

And for questions over Quidco, if you want, next time your planning on buying something, PM me and i'll talk you through your first purchase, or for a riskfree alternative, login, serch for kelkoo and click on that link before doing a search, as for your 3wisemonkeys search could have earned you 10p....:D

as far as i know (and i'll confirm when my V+ box comes) you only need to select DVD output and you can then record onto PC/DVD recorder. again, check the Virgin media part of the AVforums for more advice.

Thanks so much Bandit it's very kind of you to offer to help with quidco etc I will keep that in mind, re the AVforums (being thick here) can you post a link to them thanks.

uncle_buck_3

http://www.avforums.com/forums/index.php

TaBunny

thank you for the link I'd never heard of that site

alba37

crabmagyola wrote:

I am looking for one with a Hard Drive, but am unsure as to how it works, and how much they are, what the best thing is (80GB/160GB/more) etc. I was hoping it would work like Sky Plus somehow, but think that it would only work like this with Freeview.

Sounds like it is like sky+ going by what I've read. I am looking for 1 too, so it would be good to know more than just the cheapest DVD recorders. I would prefer to know about value for money ones!

So far I have seen good reviews about this Humax 9200, thread HERE Just not too sure I want to pay that much just now. Happy to hear anyone's advice!

dc

crabmagyola wrote:

I am looking for one with a Hard Drive, but am unsure as to how it works, and how much they are, what the best thing is (80GB/160GB/more) etc. I was hoping it would work like Sky Plus somehow, but think that it would only work like this with Freeview.

If you pick one that also records to DVD-Ram discs, mainly Japanese sourced recorders like Panasonic, then you will be able to time shift, like a hard drive recorder. Not many people know that. Admittedly with only up to around 9 gB

Also it is IMPORTANT to note that one with a Freeview tuner will be future resistant, as analogue terrestial tv starts closing down soon. Thus making the tuner side useles in a few years time depending where you live.

Also with Sky changing its Freeview channel from Free to PAY in July, so one with a card slot should be even more "future-proof" ( Sky hasnt said how it will charge in future though).
When analogue tv has closed, then there will be hundreds of channels available on "Freeview". That is why Sky is trying to persuade you to take up satellite now.
This is because Freeview is actually a make-do temporary service at present, being broadcast in the small protection frequency gaps between the huge amount of frequency bandwidth that analogue uses for just 4 and a half channels
HTHs dc.

buslouch

MSE_Martin wrote:

+/- Recordable discs. There are two types of recordable DVDs: +R and -R. There are a few technical differences between the two, but none will be obvious in the finished product, especially with recorders at this level. Some of the cheaper recorders are fussy and will only accept one type, so be sure to get the right ones, or they simply won't work.

There are actually 3 main kinds of recordable discs. The ones that are missed here are DVD-RAM.
These work in a similar way to a hard-disc, so you can write to one part of the disc while reading from another.
As a result, most recorders that support DVD-RAM allow you to pause what you're watching, then carry on watching later (timeslip), and also allow you to start watching a recording before its finished.

The disadvantage is that none of the cheap brands seem to offer DVD-RAM. The main companies that do are Panasonic, Toshiba and Samsung and the cheapest recorders seem to be around £100.