Pioneer V Sharp

[alpro88]

I have just purchased a Sharp Titanium 32" LCD.
i want to hook up a good DVD hard disk recorder and am stuck between the Pioneer DDDVR-433H-s and the sharp DV-300 S.

both retail around the £250 mark. both have good but different features such as Dolby Digital (sharp) Progressive scan (Pioneer).

anybody any experience of which to go for

finally what would be the best type of connector for the best picture quality.

thanks for any help here

[eddyad]

If you have Freeview, sky or cable, you may prefer the Pioneer 530 which has GuidePlus in conjunction with a downloaded EPG to activate compatible set top boxes using an IR device.
See http://www.europe.guideplus.com/

Use scart RGB or Component video which is better if your TV has component input.

[alpro88]

eddyad

thanks 4 the reply.

will look into the Pioneer.

The TV does have freeview built in.

What's the difference of using - Quote- "Use scart RGB or Component video"

Does it make much difference in quality?

lastly

if I use componant video -(thats the 3 wires right?) then do I also need a cable for sound???

Thanks

[eddyad]

Originally Posted by alpro88

eddyad

thanks 4 the reply.

will look into the Pioneer.

The TV does have freeview built in.

This means you cannot watch one Freeview channel and record another.
Depending on the TV, and if it has an analog tuner as well as digital, it may let you watch an analog channel while sending its Freeview channel to a recorder. Obviously you can watch a digital channel and record using the recorder's tuner, analog or digital - see below.

There are three possibilities to 'acquire' two Freeview tuners:

1. A DVD/HDD recorder with its own Freeview tuner - Sony or Panasonic at the moment.

2. A Pioneer 530 and a GuidePlus-compatible Freeview box - then it will work more or less like one unit - no need to set the Freeview timer.

3. A simpler recorder - like the 433 or Sharp and a Freeview box, but then you will have to deal with two timers for timed recordings.

Right now I'd probably go for (2) because I have a Pioneer 420 and the 530 has many features in common so I wouldn't have to re-learn.

What's the difference of using - Quote- "Use scart RGB or Component video"

Does it make much difference in quality?

In order of quality this is the 'informed' list, best last:
Composite, s-video, RGB, Component.
The differences between composite and the rest are marked. Differences between s-video and RGB and RGB and component less so.
But as you have an LCD TV then I would guess Component is worth using - no experience but this is 'informed opinion'.

lastly

if I use componant video -(thats the 3 wires right?) then do I also need a cable for sound???

Yes. You would normally get a Component video cable - 3 plugs each end, and a stereo audio cable - 2 plugs each end. There may be combined cables around - 5 plugs each end - I'm not sure.

Thanks

[alpro88]

eddyad.

Thanks you have been very informative.

I have done loads of research viz these connection cables and also came to the conclusion that Componant leads give the best feed.

now its just a matter of deciding from
Tech+Link WiresXS XS141 at £36
QED Qunex P-CV1 Componant at £40
Monster Standard THX Certified at £40
or the real daddy
QED MSR-CV1 Componant at £79.00!

any thoughts or are they all much the same quality (excepting the £80!!)

[eddyad]

IMHO, for TV very high quality cables are a waste because of the inherent rather average quality of TV transmission. It'll be different when HDTV arrives.
If you watch quite a lot of commercial DVDs then I'd go for mid-range stuff.

With scart, quite honestly for TV at normal viewing distance on a 32" CRT TV I see no visible difference between a Wilkinson 6.99 scart and a Profigold I saw at about 29.99.

I think I'd use standard Maplin 9.99 type cables to start with and see if you want to spend more money later. See http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?...3m12&source=15

Cartoons are the best pictures to check you quality because the edges of objects are very sharply defined and often high contrast, so you see effects like colour bleed relatively easily. But with a CRT TV the beam alignment contributes to alll sorts of problems anyway, despiite the hours I've spent on the set-upmenu .

[alpro88]

eddyad

Thanks for all that.

even more food for thought.

even more of a headache now

Thanks

[eddyad]

Originally Posted by alpro88

eddyad

Thanks for all that.

even more food for thought.

even more of a headache now

Thanks

I wouldn.t think so. You won't have any colour alignment problems with LCD; it's always perfect at native resolution, unlike CRT which depend on the electron beam alignment.
Regarding the cables, 9.99 isn't a lot to risk for the video cable - and it may be
great. If you have a sound system you may well have an audio cable lying around
If you aren't close to a Maplin or other store with a resonable cable selection then the following may help:
http://www.lektropacks.com/ - good but expensive kit
http://www.keene.co.uk/ - look mixed, never used them
http://www.astarsolutions.co.uk/ not expensive!
Unfortunately shipping usually adds a disproportionate amount for low cost items