DVD Recorders with hard-drive

[JohnD]

I am toying with getting a DVD recorder, I like the idea of one with hard drive although they are rather expensive.

Does anyone know if the ones with hard drive have the same kind of drive as is fitted to PCs; and can I fit an ordinary one off the shelf when the old one fails or I want a bigger one? I am looking at Panasonic and at Lite-On recorders.

Alternatively, is it possible to record and playback TV progs using a PC?

 

[Igorian]

Yes. In some cases, you can also upgrade the drive to increase the record time. The ones i've seen have been quite noisy though.

 

[JohnD]

Ta.

Will it have an IDE socket?

 

[chainsaw_masochist]

Have a look at this. Bags of wisdom here, John.

 

[JohnD]

Thanks, I've had a look but not found anything about hard-drive swaps

 

[eggplant]

The only one I have had 1st hand experience with is one a friend bought from Aldi (could be netto - you know owne of those cheapo shops that sometimes have electrical goods for not so much) The drive packed up after about 5 months, he didnt want to send it back to the manufacturer so we opened the front, and there sat a maxtor IDE hard drive. Drive was replaced and off it went again (cant remember if the machine made him format the drive, I might be getting mixed up here but either way, the new drvie worked).

 

[Igorian]

Yes, that's pretty much the deal. The menu should allow you to format the drive and they are generally ide, although I imagine other formats are available.

Do a search on PVR upgrades. Try here as a start. I haven't looked extensively, but there should be some info.

 

[gcol]

I bought a Pioneer hard drive/dvd recorder around 2 years ago and I'm very pleased with it.
I hardly ever bothered recording anything onto VHS cause of the hassle involved (finding an available tape...... forwarding it to a point where I could start recording etc etc) and was a little skeptical about whether I would actually get any use out of a hard drive recorder or not. But, I'm pleased to say that, because it's so easy to use and recording is no longer a ball ache I record quite a lot of stuff. I like being able to record a movie, edit out the adverts and burn it to dvd to create a film library. The recording quality is just as good as the transmission quality too. I recommend you get one asap.

One thing I recommend you do though is ensure that your all your TV equipment is protected by a surge protector (like your pc should be). Mine wasn't and a power surge took out the audio on one of the TV output sockets and the hard drive too! You've been warned.

 

[Diyisfun]

GCOL
Is it easy editing out the adds prior to burning?

 

[Spark123]

On the panasonic one it is very easy.

 

[Diyisfun]

When you burn to disc does it take as long as the programe or does it do it fast. How long to burn a 2hr film is what I am asking>

 

[Spark123]

With the panasonic if you are burning to a DVD-R it takes as long as the program, if you burn to a DVD-RAM it is a lot faster.

 

[Diyisfun]

Thanks

 

[gcol]

GCOL
Is it easy editing out the adds prior to burning?

Yeah, it's pretty straight forward - basically you can put marker points in (manually) where the ads start and finish. Then just delete those marked sections. Suppose it might take you 10 mins to do a 2 hr movie with 6 ads and a news break.
As mentioned, I seem to remember it taking full length to burn a movie to a dvd-r. I'll have a butchers later and check.
A friend of mine bought a philips model and it came with a small infra red transmitter that will turn over your sky box if it's on the wrong channel that you want to record.

 

[Moz]

philips model and it came with a small infra red transmitter that will turn over your sky box if it's on the wrong channel that you want to record.


Amazing ,!!!!!
Im off too the trafford centre with the wife tomorrow so I will have a good look in the electrical stores,as I fancy a hd/dvd recorder
cheers for the advice