salsa-king

been on AV forum but had no replies. So thought I'll try on here.

I'm wanting a samsung DVD recorder that has HDMi connection (to go with mt samsung Tv and denon set up.

what should I be looking for in a spec and do they all have freeview built in so it will record direct from it, as the philips freeview box I have at the mo, freezes/takes time to change chanels or no picture... then it seems ok. (maybe cus it was only £30?)

Help needed as don't have a clue and Comet/Currys etc don't seem to have very many samsung dvd/r's

thanks in advance

my set up is this
Samsung LCD Tv LW32A33W - Philips DTR320 FreeView Box - Denon DHT500SD - Yamaha YST-SW225 'SubWoofer'


Phil

corradoboy

I'd skip Samsung and go for the Sony 860. DVD-R, HDD and Freeview with HDMI, upscaling and multi-region. I'm getting one if they come down a little in the sales. I also considered the Panasonic EX75/85, but have heard bad reps about build quality and reliability. I hate Sony with a passion (like Microsoft), but their products are worth considering when they make good ones.

SJ_Skyline

Phil,

Make sure you get one with a hard disc drive!!

GrahamG

I can't see the point in having a HHD with DVD player. Surely most people have Sky+....

corradoboy

I don't, and aren't going to. Might add an Astra system to get the content free, but I don't want the monthly payments NTL are out 'the door soon too. Freeview is fine for me, HDD is the most convenient way of storing recordings and DVD-R is handy for archiving. Last thing I want is a £600 a year bill and another £300 of equipment to give me 70 channels I'll hardly ever watch.

richie001

iTrader: (3)

i would wait till next year because the new dvd players and recorders with blue ray or hd dvd are released

imagine what Blu-ray can do for you

corradoboy

And there's the problem, which do you go for. Most ordinary folk are put off by the format war, so until there is a clear winner they will remain the preserve of AV enthusiasts who'll buy both. Combo players are already on the horizon, but Sony won't allow it yet due to licensing of the BluRay technology. HD-DVD is currently the favourite in Europe, but BluRay is strong in the US and Japan, and apparently the largest **** distributors have just chosen BR for their first HD releases. As **** is twice as profitable as Hollywood this could be a major turning point, like back in the VHS/Beta days when a combination of **** and rental services promoted the inferior format. I certainly won't entertain either for a while until all the glitches have been ironed out. I'd want a multi-region combination player/recorder with no content control, and until I can have that I'm sticking with SD DVD, upscaled through HDMI it still holds its own IMHO.

richie001

iTrader: (3)

the format war is a put off so waiting for the second gen blu ray or hd dvd to see which one wins is the reason why i'm waiting and the £800 price tag for the samsung for example is the other reason.

salsa-king

my thoughts exactly, hence i'm keeping with Freeview.... E4 + ITV2 are the only other channels I watch other than the std 5 we already have.

blu ray.... seen how much that is!!!!


My tv is 18months old now.. so well out of date. it has HDMi so want a recorder with that on it to get the better picture quality.
My free view box is not that goot but only cost £30. would like DVDR with built in freeview, then i know it will record when i tell it too.

will look at the sony then. as long as it goes with the Denon surround sound ok


Phil

salsa-king

still not sure what to go for in Boxing day sales.

Samsung don't get good dvdr reviews. the sony does and had built in free view.

any others?

salsa-king

off to the sony centre now. and comet/currys to see what they have in the sales

GC8

Why? Do you assume that they all live on council estates too?

scoob_babe

Sky+ - no chance. The price of the HDD DVD player would pay for itself after a year's worth of subscription.

logiclee

If you have Sky TV already then Sky+ has to be the way to go especially if you have premium channels as Sky + is no extra monthly cost.

If anyone is thinking of having SkyHD Sky have just dropped the Sky+ fee from the HD subscription but you still have to pay the extra £10 for HD.

I'm an "Early Adopter", I had the first laser discs, first DVD player, HDTV, Sky+, Sky HD etc. etc. but I'm hanging on to see which direction blu-ray and HD-DVD goes.

As for Phil's question I'd go for one of the upscaling Sony DVD/HDD recorders if Sky+ isn't an option.

Cheers
Lee

salsa-king

went into Richer Sounds yesterday and had a good chat with the sales manager (James) explained that a built in FreeView wouldn't give me 100% reliable connection, also if it went wrong the whole thing gets taken away (they don't push TVs with buit in FV for the same reason)

went for this after great lengths discusion.
LG RH200MH at Richer Sounds - HI-FI Separates, Home Cinema, Speakers, MP3 DVD Portables, Plasma LCD, etc.


just got to work out how to connect it up with the freeview box now lol

Iwan

I bought this one, along with a couple of decent quality scart leads - thanks for the link.

GC8

Phil, I like Richer Sounds, but that is absolute bollocks.

The only way that youll get a 'good' (ie digital MPEG2 signal received and recorded in its native dormat without processing) is with an integrated DVB tuner. If you use an external receiver then the image is converted to analogue and then converted to MPEG2 by the recorder. A better quality recorder will give a better quality picture but even the best will be ****e compared to a very average integrated recorder.

As an aside, the only RS store that Ive ever had a problem with was Nottingham (sorted out by Julian Richer). The problem was that the Sales manager was full of ****e and that most of what he said was nonsense: a coincidence maybe?


Simon

salsa-king

simon, i'm not sure how it all works.
can you connect a freeview box to a dvdr like what i've just bought and record freeview? as i'm now all onnected up.
the dvdr scans and save the 5 anolgue channels.
Freeview is watched through the AV2 channel on the DVDR.
i can't see how you can record :- say E4 as how do you programme the dvdr to record that channel?

if i turn off the DVDr and try to watch freeview I have no sound!! so the DVDr has to be turned on to hear sound.

i'm running the TV and the Freeview and of course the dvdr all through the Denon DHT550 so i get 5.1 surround sound (this already has a dvd player in it)

if I can't record from the philips Freeview box onto the LG dvdr theres no point spending £400+ just to watch DVd's via a HDMi connection, as the denon's picture quality is fab on the samsung Tv anyway.

Today I've spent another £20 buying a optical cable so i can filter the sound off from the LG DVDr to the Denon, yesterday i bought a hi quality hdmi cable and a coaxal cable which I'm now using to filter the sound from the freeview to the denon.

I now need them to come out and see how its set up as both Jo and i are lost having spent a second evening refitting it up to get it to work with no luck. if they can't come and sort it I'll be taking it back for my money back as its not doing what we wanted it to do when we told the guy what we wanted from the DVD recorder!!!





HELP!!!!!


Phil

GC8

You can do it, dont misunderstand me. Mainly, I was ranting about the **** poor advice given to you by the bell-end in RS (who I think Ive had a problem with myself). 'Freeview' DVB uses MPEG2 compression (similar to that used in DVDs). If you have a DVD recorder / hard disk recorder that incorproates a 'Freeview' receiver youll get far better recorded images because the digital signal isnt converted to analogue; its just written as its received. If you use a seperate DVB receiver, as you are going to, the digital signal is converted to analogue (travels down the SCART cable) and then converted from analogue back to digital and recompressed using the in-built MPEG2 encoder. No matter how good the cable and how able the encoder on the recorder, the picture will be far less impressive than even a cheapo recorder with a DVB tuner could achieve (because the 'Freeview' signal would be recorded in its native MPEG2 format)...

Simon

salsa-king

well its all boxed back up now, read reviews on the LG DVD recorder on AV forums, ppl say its a discontinud model.. this was back in august!!

anyway, I'll take it back and get a refund. Then pop to ARGOS and buy a new FreeView box with built in 80gb Hard Drive at £129 with xmas vouchers

InvisibleMan

thats an idea. We've got a freeview box without a harddrive and wanted to record tv as our vcr has packed up. Was thinking about a dvd hd recorder but maybe theres no point as we have a bad tv reception (not meant to be a freeview area so pixelates alot) so i take it recordings are going to be pixelated too.

been hmmming about sky & ntl cos as stated above, dont want to pay lots for the majority i wont watch anyway and would be annoying to have to pay for the channels i get free now

edit: and as stated by the missus, we may get more use from an xbox360

GC8

Watch out there too! They have two models, spread over three brands. the base model is branded Digihome and its available with an 80GB fixed disk and with a 160GB fixed disk (£100 & £140). Exactly the same 80GB model is available branded Goodmans (not a name Id pay for...) and sold for £140 or thereabouts and a similar 160GB version is available branded Sharp (better, at least), for £200. When I say the same I mean that, with the exception of the front panel detail, they are absolutely identical. The more expensively branded kit doesnt even use a better remote control.....

If its one of those that youre looking at then buy the Digihome branded 80GB, or even better buy the 160GB for the same price as the Goodmans-branded 80GB.

Does this make any sense?


Simon

salsa-king

we took the LG back to RS, got a full refund, explained why I'd took it back, no quibbles.

went straight to Argos, bought the SAGEM freeView box PVR6200T (£169) it has 80gb HDD on it and 7day timer. Fitted it up, dead easy. testing the record funtion as we speak ITV @9pm now. we'll watch a DVD in the mean time

looked at the others you mentioned, some were out of stock!! so went for the SEGEM as it seems to have good reviews, and John lewis sell them LOL



we'll see how we go.

Nimbus

Have you considered a twin tuner Freeview PVR? Record two things at once (and watch a third in some cases)? Copy recordings to your PC for offline watching or making into a DVD?

salsa-king

thats what we've gone for
Shop for Sagem DVR 62160SL-T Twin Tuner DVR with 160GB HDD. at Argos.co.uk



very happy with it, its bit like having Sky+ without the monthly cost +£10