Which DVD recorder?

[Hightower]

Title says it all!

I know nothing about them and my Video has just crashed and died. I was thinking of the cheaper end of the market (£120 mark)

Got some advice?

[Hightower]

Is there no one out there with a DVD recorder?

[Richard B]

I've just been browsing these in Sainsbury's - they aren't expensive are they? I'm not convinced though, I think I'll save up for a hard disk recorder! Alternatively, isn't there a device that lets you stream from a digital source to your PC's hard disk drive?

[Alex Brown]

If you want to stream from source to computer, get something like the WinTV PVR - I have had one now for a few years and it's great. What I tend to do is get the stuff recorded on Sky+ and if it's worth keeping, I encode it onto the pc and archive onto dvd using nero..... the burning to dvd bit takes a night time to complete if it's a full disk.
My parents are currently looking at a freeview hard disk recorder rather than replace the video recorder - it'll be easier for them to whistle through the menu with remote than look for an episode of something on a single video amongst many others which aren't labelled

-Alex

[codprawn]

My brother uses the following

Capture card hauppage pvr 150 or 250

Beyond TV software

Channel switcher for the cable or sky box - usb-uirt

Records progs as an mpeg4 then you can burt to DVD if you so wish.

System really works well - BTV schedules the progs you want and then changed the channels on the box automatically.

[Hightower]

Still really doesn't help me!

I just want honest opinions from people that already run a DVD recorder. Sales people are just full of crap.

My brother in-law bought one a year ago (Phillips) and said that it was impossibly difficult to use, by the time you'd got the thing recording you'd missed 10 mins of the program.

[Jonny Fuller]

I have a Phillips and it's fine. had a nobby bodgit goodmans thing before (2 in fact) and they were shite. Both went wrong, and got ditched (back to supplier)

Only trouble with DVD recorders, seems to be the compatibility of the recorded medium with other players, that side of it is all rather hit n miss.

They generally play back ok on PCs.

[Polwart]

Hightower,

My father-in-law (who is about as non technologically competent as possible) has a DVD recorder. He is on his third one (an LG one) having been through two extreemly cheap ones that went back to the shop as they tended to record "jumpy" pictures. I have seen the product of the LG one and the quality was fine on my PC/DVD player and in our home DVD player.

As for ease of use if my father in law can use it - anyone can. I think he struggled a bit with one of the really cheap (obscure brand) ones from Asda. The LG came from somewhere like comet/currys and he is very happy with it.

I am personally more inclined towards a HDD recorder as our VHS has died and we want a twin tuner freeview enabled system (thats a point worth considering if you are going for DVD recorded - do you want to be able to record two digital channels at once?) Humax do one for about £200 which is looking attractive. It has a USB output so we can copy anything we want to preseve onto PC and in theory burn to DVD from there.

Hope that helps,

NEIL

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by Polwart

...they tended to record "jumpy" pictures.

Funnily enough I had the same problem with a DVD camcorder (Sony!) which went back to supplier as well...

[Hightower]

Thanks Neil, a great help. Thanks!

Just something to replace the Video recorder is all we need. I was looking a cheaper LG, Panasonic and Hitatchi (same make as TV).

I read or saw something on TV (gadget show) about LG manufacturing LCD TV's to loads of other companies.