please recommend easy to use dvd recorder

gillsmills

Please can anyone recommend an easy to use dvd recorder for a house full of oldies. I take it there is a difference between a dvd recorder and a freeview + recorder. someone said to me once a freeview+ recorder would have to be left on standby all the time. What type of discs are used to record programmes on the dvd recorder (preferably ones you could record programmes over and overagain on):o Thanks in advance for replies - sorry to be such a technophobe!

closed

pvr's/hard disk recording (ie a freeview or youview or freesat pvr) is the future (present) - do you really need them on DVD's or to archive them at all, and are you only wanting to record tv?

gillsmills

Just to record telly programmes really

gillsmills

forgot to say we dont have sky or virgin it is just freeview digital telly, not even a dish just an arial

closed

Would a freeview (£120-£150) or youview (£250) pvr meet your requirements? No dvd recording, all done to hard disk

talk talk/bt with infinity are bundling youview boxes with some of their broadband products.

https://sales.talktalk.co.uk/info/tv/youview-tv

Youview is essentially a freeview pvr with ondemand tv iplayer/4od etc integrated into the programme guide. Currently they need a wired connection to a router to use iplayer functionality

PVR's are incredibly easy to use, and would have to be left on standby if you wanted to record a programme unnattended, much like a vcr. They dont use much power on standby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM7vk3D6A_U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqsNI8T2QvY

googler

I find the user interface on the Panasonics quite intuitive, and would put them in the 'easy to use' category?

They use the reusable DVD-RAM discs

WhiteChristmas

Settop DVD recorders as a replacement for VCRs never really reached the critical mass required sales-wise to make the prices tumble or improve the robustness.

For people who want to watch programmes at a different time to broadcast and not keep them, hard disk recorders are the best solution.

If you want to record stuff and keep it for posterity, home-burned DVDs - especially those from settop boxes recorded on anything other than standard play - aren't as robust as tapes used to be; it's much easier to keep the recording in a more computer-friendly form on one or more hard drives.

googler

WhiteChristmas wrote: »

If you want to record stuff and keep it for posterity, home-burned DVDs - especially those from settop boxes recorded on anything other than standard play - aren't as robust as tapes used to be; it's much easier to keep the recording in a more computer-friendly form on one or more hard drives.

VHS is more robust than DVD-R...?

Clarify, please....

WhiteChristmas

A properly stored VHS cassette will probably be good for as long as there's kit available to play it (granted, it deteriorates every time it's played, but we're talking archiving here).

Home-burned DVDs are more variable to begin with; there are lots more low quality discs around than there ever were tapes (and more batch-to-batch variability, even with "good" makes) and the quality of the burners is more variable.

The biggest problem is the set-top boxes; fine if used at "standard" speed - make copies on your computer and chances are your data will survive forever - but record on "extended" and there are usually inherent errors which stop the computer making copies.

My experience (others may vary) is that Extended discs are pretty much unplayable and Standard discs starting to show signs of degradation after about 5 years.

I am glad that we never disposed of our old home videos immediately after converting them to DVD because we were able to re-convert after some of the discs died.

The risk used to be that a bit of tape got chewed up and had to be spliced out. With the new media, there's a need for a much more proactive back-up regime.

googler

Is any of this based on the collected experience of a number of VHS/DVD users, or is it merely your own experience with whichever blank media you chose?

I ask because it seems totally at odds with my experience of the medium, and I think I fall into the category of a 'heavy' user..... and I don't mean overwieight from too much time on the couch....

WhiteChristmas

Ha Ha!

Just my own and friends'.

I got my first DVD recorder around 2001 (when they tended to be very choosy as to which media they would work with at all) and have tried innumerable combinations of machine/media over the years. I always seem to come back to Sony, though.

So, no scientific method, but quite a lot of experience.

In contrast, data DVDs and video DVDs burned on my various computers over the years have been rather more reliable, though I would be very reluctant to rely on them for long-term back-up.