Can you watch one tv channel while recording another?

 

Depends on how many tuners it has. A single tuner will not allow this (since it's using the tuner for the recording). You need at least a twin tuner model. Not sure if anyone is producing PVRs with more than two. With mine (twine freeview tuners) I can record two seperate programs and watch a previsouly recorded program at the same time. Also, depending on which Multiplex the recorded shows are on, I can sometimes watch a 3rd live channel when 2 recordings are being made.

Edit : sorry, just notice you are talking about HDD with DVD recorder. Not sure about those, but my comments on the number of tuners it has should still be valid.

 

Do they do pass through to the TV so if your TV has a tuner you can be watching something else?

 

im just looking at all this and theres dvr's and pvr's and im not fully clear on the differences yet and which option to go for.
Yes it seems you can go as far as recording 2 programs and watch a previous recorded program from the hdd but i was wondering if you could do something as simple as recording one program and still be able to channel hop like you could way back with the vcr.

 

Irispective of the number of tuners on the DVR/PVR, you should still be able to use your TV tuner for watching what ever channel you like, whether there's a recording or not.

I our house, we use the PVR all the time and never watch with the inbuilt tuner on the TV. This is because the PVR is freeview (and we don't have a digital tuner on the TV) and we can get the full program guide, pause TV etc much easier through the PVR.

You can get
DVRs - Records onto DVD only - a bit like an old VHS for the digital age - still need to fiddle with disks, find space to record stuff etc)
PVR - HDD recorders which record everything onto in internal HDD. No messing with disks or finding space to record stuff
Combo DVR/HDD - You can record onto the HDD, but also copy stuff to DVD for things you want to keep.

Some have analog tuners, some have digital. Some have single tuners, some have digital. I would not think anyone would concider an analouge tuner nowdays with DSO in progress.

 

looks like most come with analogue and digital. So perhaps you can say record a digital freeview channel while watching an analogue channel?

If the hdd dvd recorder say, has freeview & the tv has freeview, can you set the hdd freeview on one channel to record and be able to use the freeview on the tv to view another channel?
edit: - so this works then?

 

Yes, it should be fine used like that. It's just like the old VCR days. The tuner in the VCR is for recording and the one in the TV is for watching

 

Aldi had a DVD recorder with twin digital tuners before Xmas. But after reading the appalling reviews I decided against it

There are no 'decent' DVD recorders with twin digital decoders.

Decent = Panasonic, Sony, Humax, etc.

The Humax 9200 as reviewed on the Gadget Show allows recording one channel while watching another, but does not have DVD capability.

 

The Humax (and the Topfield which I have) do have a USB port, so you can copy the recorded files of the box on on to your PC for either viewing or burning onto DVD with the right software. I was concidering buying a HDD/DVR combo when I was first looking, but there's not that much I do archive and the twin freeview tuners is much more of a plus.

 

Mine does-I record either on Sky or terrestrial and watch another channel as long as I am not recording a Sky channel and want to watch another sky programme.

Les