New dvd recorder

[Lucid]

It doesn't matter what connections are on the TV. For that matter, there doesn't even have to be a TV in the same room; a DVD recorder makes its TV recordings from whichever tuner it has fitted i.e. Freeview or Freesat, but it could just as easily be a cable tuner for Virgin if someone were to design it. The point is that a DVD recorder operates independently of any TV to which it may be attached. One may well use the TV to view the EPG for programming, but that's just a point of convenience to make the act of programming easier in itself.

Those older analogue DVD recorders from roughly a decade ago did have external inputs. I have a Philips DVDR520H which has a (now defunct) analogue-only TV tuner but also AV inputs in the form of composite, S-video and SCART RGB, so it could record from an external source. However, there aren't many (if any?) modern TVs that now have an analogue AV output that replicates what is seen on the TV screen as a source for an external recorder. Nor am I convinced that those few remaining DVD/Blu-ray recorders still in the market have the sort of analogue inputs necessary to make use of a TV as a source if one existed. In sort then, the idea of a TV as a source for making recordings on to a modern DVD recorder is a dead duck. Don't waste your time.

 

[JohnD]

The relevance of the TV is that with the (ordinary, as used with a PC) external hard drive or memory stick plugged into the USB sockets, the TVs have their own programme guide and can be set to record whatever programme I set. In that way the devices need no timing or tuning functionality. The TV also reads and plays them back.

I was thinking there would be an external DVD drive I could use in the same way.

External DVD drives are now two a penny, so why not?

 

[Lucid]

I was thinking there would be an external DVD drive I could use in the same way.

External DVD drives are now two a penny, so why not?

Simple answer is that external PC DVD drives don't work the same way as memory sticks and hard disc drives.

 

[winston1]

However, there aren't many (if any?) modern TVs that now have an analogue AV output that replicates what is seen on the TV screen as a source for an external recorder.

Having read that I checked a TV that I bought only last week, a Blaupunkt bought in Tesco. Lo and behold it has analogue AV out on its scart socket. I imagine that as most TV's still have one scart (or mini scart) that most will also have AV out on said scart.

 

[Sam Gangee]

Manufacturers are desperate to cut costs to the bone. That's why modern TV reliability is so poor. It's unlikely that any TV with a new design PCB will include any feature that's no longer perceived as necessary unless it's a software-only feature with zero manufacturing cost penalty.

 

[winston1]

If you think modern TVs are unreliable you obviously were not around in the 60's. In those days the TV repairman was called out around every 3 months. One of the reasons renting was so popular.

 

[Sam Gangee]

I was repairing TVs in the 60s at age 15. The majority of faults were "worn out" valves (including the CRT), with a few under-rated resistors for good measure. Nothing difficult. Electrolytic failure was surprisingly rare, in my experience; probably because voltages were high but ripple currents were low.

Nowadays, repairs are almost impossible without expensive equipment but the reliability is still not good, with a typical lifetime of 3-5 years. At least in the 60s you could always do a repair. Sets rarely got discarded just because of a fault. (Of course they all got discarded when more channels appeared but that was more like our recent analogue to digital changeover.)

 

[DaveHerns]

Reminds me of Radio Rentals .... Wonder how many times over my father paid for his TV sets?

 

[Sam Gangee]

As I recall, all servicing was free by rental companies. So, to pay for the repair technicians, I reckon it would be a factor of ten, at least. But people preferred rental because many couldn't afford to buy a TV outright and, if they simply bought on Hire Purchase (the "never never"), they wouldn't have the security of free repairs and a loan set.

However, the rental businesses faded when the market became swamped with second-hand sets. Not helped by the change in society whereby both partners went out to work and could then afford to buy expensive items. And the general fall in price of new TV sets.