[simons576]

Hi,

i'm looking to buy a freeview twin tuner recorder with HD capability, HDMI & scart inputs. i've looked at Topfield PVR's and Sony DVD Recorders but frankly i'm getting confused.

it's for older family and so needs to be simple to use

Should i be going for the Sony RDR-HXD870 or something else?

i'm lost help!!!!

[LV426]

You mention the Topfield PVR and a Sony HDD-DVD recorder. These are very different devices. It seems you first need to choose which functionality you want. That will discount one or the other.

A PVR (eg Topfield, Humax, various others) is a recording device with a Hard Drive. By definition, though, that's all they do. They don't play DVDs (nor record them). PVRs can be had with two tuners, meaning you can record two different programmes at once (or record 1 watch another - or with some models, record two and watch a third from what may be a limited selection).

DVD recorders (with or without a Hard Drive; the Sony you mention has one) do not come with two tuners and are therefore limited to reception of one programme at a time.

PVRs and DVD-HDD recorders also typicaly differ in that PVRs don't re-encode video; they simply record, unprocessed, the stream as received onto the Hard Drive. So replay image quality is identical to that received. Whereas DVD recorders always re-encode, which will have a (possibly insignificant) effect on recorded image quality.

So, the first question is - is it a PVR or a DVD recorder with Hard Drive you want to buy?

[simons576]

Thanks Nigel,

Apologies, it's a PVR i want. should i go topfield, HUmax (or it too noisy?).
thanks
S

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by simons576

Thanks Nigel,

Apologies, it's a PVR i want. should i go topfield, HUmax (or it too noisy?).
thanks
S

This might help

Topfield 5800 And The Humax 9200t - Hummy.org.uk Forums

Much of the info on the Hummy 9200 remains valod for the newer 9150 and 9300 models