Blu ray or HDD?

joe2cool

Hi just bought a new JVC LCD tv & want to upgrade my dvd player to 'HDMI HDD DVD recorder with hard drive. I still want to play dvd - RW discs etc on my old dvd player in the bedroom now & just wondered if any one could recommend any particular player. I have been considering Sony ?

Also is HDD becoming slowly obsolete with BLU ray now on the market ?
A little confused as to go for one or the other, but realise I wouldn't be able to play recordings from Blu ray on my old dvd player.
Really would appreciate any help

Thx

JennyW_2

joe2cool wrote: »

Hi just bought a new JVC LCD tv & want to upgrade my dvd player to 'HDMI HDD DVD recorder with hard drive. I still want to play dvd - RW discs etc on my old dvd player in the bedroom now & just wondered if any one could recommend any particular player. I have been considering Sony ?

Also is HDD becoming slowly obsolete with BLU ray now on the market ?
A little confused as to go for one or the other, but realise I wouldn't be able to play recordings from Blu ray on my old dvd player.
Really would appreciate any help

Thx

we've just gone through the same thing as you. Purchased a new Samsung LCD TV and therefore bought the samsung HDMI HDD DVD recorder. To be honest with the HDMI upgrading the picture quality, we weren't that fussed about Blu ray. Oh, and make sure you get the gold plated cable on the HDMI - much better.

To cut a long story short, the Samsung DVD turned out to be a bad buy (returned 2 faulty ones), so after loads of recommendations, we purchased the Sony one - the picture quality is fab even playback from the HDD.

We've got the RDRHXD870B-CEK

Oliver27

JennyW wrote: »

. Oh, and make sure you get the gold plated cable on the HDMI - much better.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :eek:

HDMI is a digital format and those gold plated rip off cables
make absolutely no difference at all to the picture

with digital formats you ether get a picture or you don't
there is no middle ground, it makes me sick to see people
in the likes of Dixons/Currys/Comet being sold £30-£50
cables when the supplied cable in box or a £5 cable
will give exactly the same picture quality.

superscaper

joe2cool wrote: »

Also is HDD becoming slowly obsolete with BLU ray now on the market ?

No, they serve two different purposes. Basically one is on board memory and one is a removable disc. No doubt future Blu Ray players will also have hard discs built in as well. They're not really competing technologies, if anything they can be complimentary.

Psychofly

Oliver27 wrote: »

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :eek:

HDMI is a digital format and those gold plated rip off cables
make absolutely no difference at all to the picture

with digital formats you ether get a picture or you don't
there is no middle ground, it makes me sick to see people
in the likes of Dixons/Currys/Comet being sold £30-£50
cables when the supplied cable in box or a £5 cable
will give exactly the same picture quality.

Not true. There is a genuine difference in picture quality from different quality cables. There's LESS of a difference when it's a digital signal but it's still noticeable. That being said though I personally use the cheap !!! cables because I don't think the difference is worth the extra money but there is definitely a difference.

joe2cool

JennyW wrote: »

we've just gone through the same thing as you. Purchased a new Samsung LCD TV and therefore bought the samsung HDMI HDD DVD recorder. To be honest with the HDMI upgrading the picture quality, we weren't that fussed about Blu ray. Oh, and make sure you get the gold plated cable on the HDMI - much better.

To cut a long story short, the Samsung DVD turned out to be a bad buy (returned 2 faulty ones), so after loads of recommendations, we purchased the Sony one - the picture quality is fab even playback from the HDD.

We've got the RDRHXD870B-CEK

Hi well I've just sent back a toshiba been looking at sony rdr-hx870 160gb for £249.99 £30 off Argos website
Thx for your comments so I wouldn't be wasting my money if I go for HDD rather than Blu ray? You can't have both machines connected can you?
Thx

joe2cool

Hi again with the hard drives can you store films etc on it for as long as you want ?

Also JennyW was set up for your sony dvd straight forward?

Thx

JennyW_2

joe2cool wrote: »

Hi again with the hard drives can you store films etc on it for as long as you want ?

Also JennyW was set up for your sony dvd straight forward?

Thx

Hi Joe, Yes it's easy peasy - even for a girl like me . The manual is quite extensive, but then again, it's capable of lots of things.

Yes, we record films and leave them on the hard drive. You have functions to rename, edit, library etc and it's really easy to navigate around. It will start up with the auto set-up, so just make sure you choose the digital setup and I love recording using the EPG - makes life so easy. You wouldn't be wasting your money and you really do get what you pay for. As much as I like Samsung products, the HDD DVD recorder we purchased just wasn't very good, or else we were really unlucky because we have the home cinema DVD and it's great.

Re the HDMI cable, we opted for the more expensive HDMI cable because when you spend hundreds of pounds on TV's, DVD recorders, you want the best quality. We certainly notice the difference.

Is Blu-Ray just about picture quality? If that's the only reason, then I personally wouldn't bother, especially at the price of the Blu-Ray DVDs.

Not sure what you mean about having both machines connected?

Amazon are selling them for £202 with free delivery if any use: If you scroll down, you'll be able to read about the features and some reviews

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-RDR-HXD870-Recorder-160GB-Freeview/dp/B000OQ7878/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211880518&sr=1-1

superscaper

JennyW wrote: »

Re the HDMI cable, we opted for the more expensive HDMI cable because when you spend hundreds of pounds on TV's, DVD recorders, you want the best quality. We certainly notice the difference.

When you say you notice the difference is that because you saw it in comparison to using other cabling? As far as I know every test conducted shows no perceivable difference with more expensive HDMI cable. Personally I think having gold plating is better just to reduce interference and get the cleanest signal but beyond that it really is snake oil for the more expensive cables.

Edit: although gold plating should cost you an extra quid or so, anything more just for that is significantly ripping you off.

JennyW_2

JennyW wrote: »

Amazon are selling them for £202 with free delivery if any use: If you scroll down, you'll be able to read about the features and some reviews

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-RDR-HXD870-Recorder-160GB-Freeview/dp/B000OQ7878/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211880518&sr=1-1

Just noticed that for £212, you can get the Sony DVD and a gold-plated HDMI cable, not bad

JennyW_2

superscaper wrote: »

When you say you notice the difference is that because you saw it in comparison to using other cabling? As far as I know every test conducted shows no perceivable difference with more expensive HDMI cable. Personally I think having gold plating is better just to reduce interference and get the cleanest signal but beyond that it really is snake oil for the more expensive cables.

Well I'm not normally a sucker for gimmicky things and to me, a cable is a cable, but when we were choosing our TV, DVD etc in the shop, we got them to do a comparison and we could see the difference, but hey, it's just our own experience, plus we got the cable for a reduced price coz we were spending a bit of money with them.

For our other TV and DVD at home, we use a regular cable. We have the gold plated one on our new TV.