DVD recorders - can you advise please?

[Speicher]

I have a very basic very cheap DVD player, and a Video Tape Player.

I have a few DVDs but lots and lots of Video tapes. I am thinking of buying a new DVD machine that will play and record.

The ones with a Hard Drive are much more expensive £300 to £400 than the ones that record onto a Disk, about £200, or am I looking in the wrong place?

There are ones available with a slot for Video tapes and DVDs, and it specifically says you can record Videos onto DVDs. That one was about £150. I have seen separate machines that do this, and they are about £50. But if you combine the two functions in one machine, does that mean that the quality of each is not as good as if they were separate machines?

What I usually do is get some idea of price and a good idea about what I need the machine to do, and then visit the local independent shop that sells these items and is staffed by a very helpful lady. Then if there is something wrong, or I have problems, they are prepared to help me.

They sell lots of Panasonic items, but recently on this forum people have said that Panasonic are not as good as they once were. I would welcome people's technical advice, but not too technical , about this. Thank you.

 

[Andy in Sig]

A friend of mine got a combined DVD/VHS machine which had its own hard drive as well. After doing much battle with the three foot thick instructions we managed to get tapes onto DVD but couldn't record from the telly. My advice would be that if you have any tapes which are really precious, buy them again on DVD anyway or if they are private stuff, get professionals to copy them for you. Then it's just a matter of buying a DVD machine which has a hard drive (best to have all options available). I think if you find a selection of models and google them with the word review, you should get some ideas.

 

[beanzontoast]

We bought a basic Sony DVD recorder in the sales last year as our Christmas present. Wouldn't personally go for units that combine multiple formats as there's more to go wrong. Our Sky box is the hard recorder, we have a seperate VHS recorder plus one of those switchable multi-way junction boxes so that everything can record from everything else. Took a couple of hours experimenting to set it all up this way, and when it was done I drew a diagram or two of all the cabling, together with a 'to do this, use this channel, press this button and set the junction box setting thus' guide, but it does for us.

 

[Over The Hill]

I have not managed to get a Hard Drive recorder but I would love one.

Firstly they have no moving parts so really nothing much to go wrong as it seems to be the moving bits that give up on electrical goods. I have gone through about five disc players since they came out (playing music or vid or on the computer) and I would hesetate before I got an expensive unit with one in and if I did then go for the quality make.

Until then I think it safer to just keep the units seperate. I did buy a DVD/Tape unit but the dvd bit broke so I got a £20 DVD player. I doubt you can get tape players now.

On the Hard Drive units, they seem to have say 200 hours of recording time (and are a good quality). With Video tape I lasted about 20 years on the same ten tapes totalling 30 or 40 hours of playback time so I think a hard drive should meet my need but not if you collect programmes. I guess the best way is to see how much video tape you have and aim to get the same in hard drive or if not then you need to record to DVD.

I agree wiht Andy on tapes - my saved tapes seem to be of crap quality now on my bigger TV and so a nice fresh copy would be best if you really like the programme - they are getting much cheaper too.

 

[Speicher]

Thank you all for helpful comments. I think, as Beanz does, that combining the formats, makes things complicated, and there is more to go wrong. I also think that if it comes with a three-foot thick manual, then that would not be for me.

I have a Sky Box, the basic one, and a video recorder, and a very helpful man set them up so that I can record from Sky or Terrestial tv, and watch one and record the other. While he was here I wrote it all down, and keep meaning to photograph the back so that if anything comes undone, I can put it back - in the right place.

Very soon I will be putting all my video tapes on the dining room table and sorting them. This will also mean I can calculate the hours I have recorded. Lots of Tour de France - I keep the tapes from one year to the next, then tape over them, so that I know I am using good tapes to re-record on.

My other videos are "Great Railway Journeys" lots and lots, and Michael Palin, all his journeys round the globe. And lots of Star Trek Star Trek now appears a lot on Sky so perhaps I could do a "better" copy, as Over The Hill suggests. Michael Palin's full set of DVDs can still be bought IIRC.

If you have a DVD recorder with a Hard Drive and the machine stops working, can you still retrieve your favourite recordings? What if some ******** steals it, have I lost Valverde's stage wins ever. ? Or is that an advantage of the discs, that you can keep them safe? Or are there machines which record on to Hard Drive and Disk, like a computer does, ie downloading? Bear in mind here that you are "talking" to someone who started work when a computer was the size of a house, with tapes on reels two feet in diameter, and only one computer per company.

I think I need to cogitate a bit more, and decide what I need, and then look out in the sales later in the year. Between now and then I can sort my videos and decide which ones need replacing with DVD versions - like Crimson Tide, Hunt for Red October, or anything else with Gene Hackman and/or a submarine in it.

Thank you all for your easy to follow advice and guidance.

 

[Andy in Sig]

I think the advantage of a hard drive machine (correct me if I'm wrong) is that you can record onto the hard drive and then have the option of burning onto a DVD blank for something you want to keep. I would go for either that or the ability to copy from the hard drive to a computer or USB stick and then burn a DVD.

 

[Steve Austin]

I got a Pioneer HHD recorder several years ago. Great piece of work. Recorded the whole of the tour, copied to disc no problem.
HHD recorders are much more versatile than just disc recorders. The prices are very good now, so thats what I would go for a again.

 

[Andy in Sig]

I got a Pioneer HHD recorder several years ago. Great piece of work. Recorded the whole of the tour, copied to disc no problem.
HHD recorders are much more versatile than just disc recorders. The prices are very good now, so thats what I would go for a again.

Do you mean HDD or is HHD yet another format? How are they more versatile? I ask because I've got a fifty quid player only and it is fine but may one day wish to upgrade to one with a hard disc which can also burn discs.

 

[Priscilla Parsley]

i have a hard drive and dvd recorder, i dont bother with the dvd recorder at all as the hard drive is so brilliant and simple, do your research though as some are nore compatable with freeview than others, mine can only record freeview on the channel that is being viewed, but others have a similar facility to sky plus where you peruse the channel listings and select.

 

[Steve Austin]

Well spotted Andy. I meant HDD

I suppose i need to tun the lights on so i can see

 

[Steve Austin]

Versatility. Well i can record more than the length of a disc. I can edit out all the adverts. label programmes. Compile episodes onto discs. put two films onto one disc.
Don't need to hunt for blank discs, just press record. edit camcorder recordings and edit into a decent version for keeping.
Lots of features that a basic dvd player doesn't have

 

[Andy in Sig]

Sounds like something to get then. Ta.

 

[Night Train]

Given the chance I wouldn't get another DVD recorder. My Philips does everything I expect of it but the thing that lets them down is the DVDs. A DVDr can only record so many times before it fails and there is no warning unlike with a tape. A few times I have been caught out recording something only to find that the disc failed and not only did I not record the programme but I couldn't watch anything else already recorded on the disc either.

I'd go for a hard drive next I think.

 

[Speicher]

It is beginning to look like I should save up and wait and get a hard drive one, that can also burn onto DVDs to save the really important stuff.

Some of the descriptions include the phrase "time slip" what does that mean?

My tv is not High Definition. So does the abbreviation HDD mean Hard Disk Drive? If I change my TV in 2028, (cos my last TV lasted twenty-five years) I would probably choose HD Tv then.

 

[Night Train]

I think time slip is being able to record a programme and also watch it from the begining while it is still part way through recording it.
HDD is usually the Hard Disc and it should say something about how big it is in Gb.

Also make sure whatever you get is digital ready and not end up with some old stock going cheap.