Plain English advice on DVD recorders please?

Question

can someone recommend a good DVD recorder, preferably with hard drive and freeview inbuilt? I've read something about 'single digital tuners' which will cause a problem watching and recording. What's that all about??

Answer 1

I own a Sony RDR-HXD560 (now superseded in the Sony range).  It has an 80Gb hard drive and a built-in Freeview tuner.  Excellent sound quality, excellent picture quality and easy to use.

A single Freeview tuner means that you can only watch the channel you are recording.  However, there are currently no DVD recorders on the market with twin Freeview tuners.

But, if you have a Freeview box or a TV with built in Freeview, that isn't a problem.  My TV has Freeview built-in, so I can watch one digital channel whilst recording another.

Answer 2

Basically, the more tuners fitted, the more channels you can record and watch at the same time.  With a single tuner, you can only watch what is being recorded, like an old video recorder.  So you want at least twin tuners if possible - so you can record one channel, and watch another.  Some can even record both at the same time.

Don't have a recommendation for you, good luck!  Make sure you read all the specs and search for reviews on anything you consider.

Answer 3

Hi,

you can try to get hold of one of these.They were supposed to have all the things you want.

Humax PVR-9200T

good luck

Answer 4

One important point, they will not work with cable or satellite TV. Or they may partially work with lots of problems.

For example, the only way to record from a Comcast DVR is to parallel connect the video and audio out from the DVR to both your TV and DVD recorder. Then watch the show while recording.

Or you can connect the DVD recorder to the video and audio output from your TV, but again, you have to watch it to record it.