TV with built in freeview HD recorder - do they exist?

Colin_London

My 2011 Sony Bravia has a Freeview+ recording facility built in - you just need to connect an external Hard Disk drive to the USB socket and format the drive to work exclusively with the TV. Works with an externally powered drive but the disk noise is a pain. Have not tried a large pen drive yet but now have no need as I have a Youview box.

Notmyrealname

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

This raises a good point.

Is there any TV with a built in recorder, that records anything that comes into the TV set (including Sky, Freesat and Freeview)?

Plenty. My 2 year old Panasonic does although it will only record what it receives via the Freeview and Freesat tuners, not HDMI connectors due to HDCP compliance. They have a USB socket and will record to a memory stick or external hard drive.

almillar

Moneymaker - get your ruler out. An iMac is far fatter than lots of LED TVs. I would also point out that those little USB sticks you're talking about aren't complete tuners, they require the processing power of the computer they plug into.

Moneymaker

almillar wrote: »

Moneymaker - get your ruler out. An iMac is far fatter than lots of LED TVs. I would also point out that those little USB sticks you're talking about aren't complete tuners, they require the processing power of the computer they plug into.

The iMac is thinner than a lot of TVs. It contains an "Airport" wireless tuner and a "BlueTooth" tuner, which are very similar to UHF TV tuners.

Modern tuners are tiny and an extra one would easily fit inside most TVs. In fact most TVs already have two tuners - analogue and digital.

Likewise a Hard drive or solid state equivalent (such as the chip inside a USB memory stick). There's oodles of room inside most TVs to fit a few additional components onto the PCBs.

The point is: it's a no-brainer that the technology exists to produce a twin-tuner TV with recording media. The question is: "why hasn't it been done yet?". I suspect that the stumbling blocks are the price and perceived demand.

If enough people are willing to pay, the manufacturers will make them.

[Deleted User]

Moneymaker wrote: »

If enough people are willing to pay, the manufacturers will make them.

I agree it's both perfectly feasible and inevitable.

almillar

An iMac is actually thicker than most modern TVs, but we'll not dwell on that.
I've got a TV with a FreeSat, Freeview, and analogue terrestrial tuner built in, and the TV after mine can record onto USB, so they can easily take that 'inside the box', but the same manufacturer probably makes boxes (even for Sky) that they'd like you to put under your TV instead.
I genuinely believe that there would be licencing or technical restrictions with putting content from 2 different platforms onto 1 drive too.

societys_child

There's a number of PVR ready TVs. with USB recording. Seems to be mostly budget ranges that have this option. Hannspree, Furrion, Finlux etc

Techn

i've been looking at the finlux 22" LED tv that has a PVR setting that records to a usb stick.
http://www.finluxdirect.com/led-tvs/22-inch-led-tv-hd-1080p-built-in-freeview+pvr-white-22f6020w/invt/22f6020w/

Do you think this means you can record one channel while watching another? or just record the channel you're watching?
Been trying to find out

wongataa

TVs only have one tuner so can only record whatever channel you are watching.

[Deleted User]

Techn wrote: »

Do you think this means you can record one channel while watching another? or just record the channel you're watching?
Been trying to find out

This would only be possible with two feeds into the TV from the aerial. With one tuner, this TV can only record the channel the TV is tuned to. These types of TV are really only designed for recording while you are not viewing.

There are far better options available.