How soon can this be answered ?

System

Phew, what a response whilst I've been out. Thanks for it.

Before leaving the house, I rang Tesco and spoke to the guy on the tV section. I put to him the question I'd put to you, and his reply was "er, I dunno". I said so if I or anyone else was about to make a purchase and then asked the same question, you would say that ?, he replied, "er yeh". I bid him good morning.

I then rang my local independent store and posed the question. He told me about the DVD item with a memory and recordable feature that would record to disc.

Whilst out of town, I came across a Sony store. They had a 20" TV which included freeview. (£479) he then showed me the DVD item (£279). I feel now that I understand it all, but need to find it cheaper locally.

Donnie

I wouldn't waste money on a TV with built in Freeview if it adds considerably to the cost.
Is there a reason why you won't buy online?

Ideally, a Twin Tuner(Freeview) or one of each is what you need, as then you will be able to watch one channel whilst recording another.

But I think the recorder is the way to go.

System

I favour............a 20" flat screen with freeview.
I favour............a DVD recorder with hard drive.

This would allow me to watch any freeview channel whilst recording another on the memory of the hard drive withing the DVD box. Should I wish to keep the recorded item, it could be transferred to a dvd disc.

(Seemingly I could retain my VHS machine and connect to the DVD box, to enable me to view tape ?).

ckerrd

islandman wrote: »

I favour............a 20" flat screen with freeview.
I favour............a DVD recorder with hard drive.

This would allow me to watch any freeview channel whilst recording another on the memory of the hard drive withing the DVD box. Should I wish to keep the recorded item, it could be transferred to a dvd disc.

(Seemingly I could retain my VHS machine and connect to the DVD box, to enable me to view tape ?).

For the above to work you will need twin (or two) freeview tuners. Sorry if that is stating the obvious and you are already aware of it.

I assume the reason you would be connecting the VHS to the DVD is to make copies of one or t'other, as otherwise you only need to connect the VHS to the TV.

System

Yes, that's right.

During the day, I found a flat screen TV with not only freeview, but DVD as well. It was only 15" though, so I may search round to find something larger. Mind you, I've always held the opinion that these multi-talented items, might be more trouble than they're worth as if one item becomes faulty, you might end up losing the lot.

spaceman5

that is true, i always have seperates, as could not be without my tv for 3 weeks, while the inbuilt dvd player was being repaired, and so on.

spaceman5

as i side thought, have you thought about one of these, http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/Product_ID/2065/source/kelkoo, no experiance with humax myself, but have read people on here raving about them, this one has a twin tuner, so you can watch one channel whilst recording another, also 160gb hard drive, so saves on dvd`s, and i am pretty sure if you looked around, you could pick up a good quality 20" tv from somewhere cheap enough, so would be cheaper than the tv you came across in the sony store. /hope this helps Dave.

System

My goodness, this site is slow tonight. Just looked and ther are amost 7000 people on here, so it's not surprising.

Dave, thanks for that.

Woby_Tide

ckerrd wrote: »

Makes sense I guess, when the TV is in standby the tuner is off.

Wonder if the OP has bought the tele or not?

Most freeview enabled televisions require you to programme the Tv aswell as the VCR/DVD. If you don't programme the TV then when you switch it off the tuner switches off. If you set the TV to know you are recording then even in standby the TV knows to output the digital signal via the allocated scart socket. This normally depends on users reading the manual though to ensure you have the right scart socket, can program the tuner, and to know if what you are buying can do it ini teh first place.

Donnie

That why I think the Freeview DVD recorder is the way to go.