Panasonic TV Recording Device?

cazkins

Hello,

I just have a question about recording through a TV as I’d like to get rid of my old PVR box. I have a Panasonic Viera TX-L32D28BPA and the instruction guide says it has a direct recording function but it requires “an external Hard Drive which has its own power supply and can be connected through the USB port”. It’s annoying you can’t simply plug in a regular external HD and that you need one with its own power source, but I’m not sure what one of those is… So, and I think this may sound totally stupid, could anyone point me in the direction of one of these devices..?

Thank you very much if anyone’s able to help at all!

wongataa

It is any external hard drive that you plug into a wall socket. They are readily available wherever you buy external hard drives.


Note that are limitations with recording through the TV compared to a PVR box. You will only be able to record one channel at a time and you won't be able to watch a different channel while recording. You cannot set recording timer either with your TV. You can only record what is on now.



It would make a lot more sense to keep using a PVR.

John_Gray

Have you actually tried using a standard USB-powered external hard drive?

Ages and ages ago (a few years!) these hard disk devices drew more power than a single USB 2.0 socket (occasionally two) could provide. Recent devices (I have a few 4 TB ones) work happily off a single USB 2.0 socket. But probably you should restrict yourself to capacities of 2 TB and below for 'technical reasons' which I won't confuse you with...

It's worth a try if you can borrow one.

psychic_teabag

You could try using a powered USB hub with a "regular" external HD. That should achieve the same effect.

worried_jim

If what you have now works stick with what you have. Keep life simple.

JohnB47

I have a Panasonic PVR (they call them hard disk recorder now) and I wouldn't be without it. We watch 99% of our TV as pre-recorded programs. Hardly watch any ads and that's great.

Why would you want to get rid of your PVR and have a very much restricted recording ability - e.g no way to set up timed recording?

almillar

I have a Panasonic PVR (they call them hard disk recorder now)

Both phrases still work in my book!


As above, the reason for using a powered hard drive, that's something a lot of TV manufacturers do, as some older portable hard drives use a lot of power via the USB port, so they're just protecting themselves. If you've got a reasonably modern one, you could try it. Maybe a USB stick (you can have a 128GB one for under £25, that might be more space than an old PVR!) would work.
Downsides - the TV only has 1 tuner, so you can only watch/record one thing at a time. The software mightn't be great and it might be hard to operate. The hard drive probably has to be formatted by the TV, and can't be used anywhere else (until you re-format it).
Convinced?!

RumRat

Best forget about the TV recording and use the PVR....Much better option.

cazkins

I only wanted to get rid of the PVR because it's about 10 years old now & very unreliable with recording a lot of the time, though I can forgive it for finally starting to give up the ghost because not much tech seems to last even half that long. My Seagate HD doesn't work and when I'd searched for an HD I couldn't find one that plugs into a wall socket so I wondered whether I was being stupid and missing something obvious. Thanks for the replies & advice.

dipsomaniac

lots of secondhand humax boxes on ebay circa £30

Cornucopia

cazkins wrote: »

My Seagate HD doesn't work and when I'd searched for an HD I couldn't find one that plugs into a wall socket so I wondered whether I was being stupid and missing something obvious.

I wonder if you are looking for the right thing, or perhaps listings do not clearly identify USB-powered drives and Mains-powered?

A typical mains-powered drive would be this:

https://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/data-storage/data-storage/wd-elements-external-hard-drive-2-tb-black-22087970-pdt.html

If you're not sure whether your TV's recording function is comprehensive enough, try it out with a USB stick first.