More Help Needed For Digital Kit Choices

[securespark]

I was going to tack this on to the other thread, but thought I'd better keep them separate.

I have an old DVD player that is dying.

I fancy replacing it with something that does what the Thomson DTI 6021-25 does, except has a DVD built in.

I would like:

To record one thing onto HDD & watch another.
To pause & rewind live TV.
Have CI slot.
One touch record
Series record.
Have DVD built in.

As I am a complete numpty when it comes to this kind of kit, can anyone recommend anything?

BTW, I don't have or desire HD TV or a huge screen.

As an aside, would it be better to buy two separate units (ie Digi Recorder & DVD)?

 

[ColJack]

you'd think that in this day and age, they'd have a sky pc card that fits in a PCI slot in your desktop / media pc so you could have a one box solution to everything..

there's an option, if you just want the regular digital channels and not sky..
surely you can get a digital tv tuner card..

with the right software you've got and all in one box..
tv, dvd, internet, DVR, divx, mp3, photo etc etc..

 

[Alison556]

I just got a Panasonic DMR-EX768 HDD/DVD recorder. I've not got to grips with all the functions on it yet, but you can record onto the hard drive while watching a DVD. It apparently has Pause Live TV but I buggered it up when I tried it cos I hadn't read the manual! It does series record - and does it rather well! Does one touch record. Dunno what a CI slot is but I've just realised that it doesn't have an SD card slot which the other Panasonic DVD recorder I have has - not that much of a problem to me.

So far I've only been recording some programmes and not looked too much into what it does, but it does seem to do a fair bit.

My only critisism of it is the EPG (which is really clear to read and is pretty idiot proof) has this bloomin advert box at the side. Leave your postcode out of the set up and you don't get the actual adverts, but you still have a grey box at the side where the advert should be. And for some reason, it keeps jumping off my Favourites profile back to all channels. Don't know if that's a fault or not - I'm going to try and find out.

 

[securespark]

Hmm. My brain is busting out with all the choices around.

I really have decided I'd like to get a Freeview + box, with HDD & DVD Recorder & CI slot all in one.

I can find the Humax PVR 9300T which has CI slot but no DVD Recorder:

http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=HUMA-PVR9300


Or I can find a Sony HDD DVD RDRHXD890B which has DVD Recorder but seemingly no CI slot:

http://www.richersounds.com/showproduct.php?cda=showproduct&pid=SONY-RDRHXD890B


Is a machine with everything I want available??

 

[hairyben]

you'd think that in this day and age, they'd have a sky pc card that fits in a PCI slot in your desktop / media pc so you could have a one box solution to everything..

there's an option, if you just want the regular digital channels and not sky..
surely you can get a digital tv tuner card..

with the right software you've got and all in one box..
tv, dvd, internet, DVR, divx, mp3, photo etc etc..

You can get DVB-S (sat) PCI cards with CI slots but sky want nothing to do with it for fear of the inevitable hackers.

As for your suggestion, yes you could build a media PC with 2 or 3 channels, HD, unlimited PVR, DVD or evan blu ray burning, network streaming, and that seems good- except that it's a PC, so won't ever work reliably.

Securespark I've looked and your right. Maybe it has something to do with them not wanting premium channels ripped to disc easily.

 

[Steve]

As for your suggestion, yes you could build a media PC with 2 or 3 channels, HD, unlimited PVR, DVD or evan blu ray burning, network streaming, and that seems good- except that it's a PC, so won't ever work reliably.

So true

I have a pc with blu ray player in it. But the software it shipped with is sooo choosy about when it will play. It runs checks to make sure everything in the chain is compliant with some standard or other. And invariably, it finds something wrong and wont play.

I have a 1080 screen, hdmi cable, a X1950 graphics card, but it wont play.

And when I set the screen's resolution to its "apparent" native resoltion (something like 1900x1080), the image goes off the edges.

 

[hairyben]

So true

I have a pc with blu ray player in it. But the software it shipped with is sooo choosy about when it will play. It runs checks to make sure everything in the chain is compliant with some standard or other. And invariably, it finds something wrong and wont play.

I have a 1080 screen, hdmi cable, a X1950 graphics card, but it wont play.

And when I set the screen's resolution to its "apparent" native resoltion (something like 1900x1080), the image goes off the edges.

I've got a blu ray/HDDVD player in mine, twin DVI video card with a DVI-HDMI to my plasma. Mainly as a stop gap untill the premuim hifi manufacturers I'm intrested in get a blu ray transport on the market, and I'm pleasantly surprised at the virtual flawless playback. Okay it does go bananas when you eject a disc, cos obviously disc ejection is not something you could be reasonable expected to want to do, but apart from that...

I pondered building a freeview and maybe freesat PVR device- blu ray play/record etc- networked then anyone could stream video from around the flat, plus I could download straight to it, etc etc, but I can't be bothered. It'll only go wrong.