Am easy one for the mother in law .... advice please!

Lighty

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hi guys

my MIL would like a DVD recorder with HDD, but she's not too tekky and needs something east to use.

I have a panny ex85 which she's ok with so something similar could be good

the main issue though is slightly odd ....

she'd like to be able to record on the hdd and then either watch in the front room or the portable in the bedroom.

can the dvd recorder be set to out put 2 signals simultaneously?
i could probably run a 10m or so cable from the source to the bedroom to do the job if possible.
any dabling in the menu to change svhs - scart / etc would probably be a nightmare!

obviously if she records to hdd then it makes it difficult.

I guess another solution is to record to dvd ram and get 2 cheaper panny recorders......

thanks

lighty
 
The latest Panasonic and other well-known brands such as Sony, Toshiba don't output the signals from the RF Out socket...I presume that was your intention.
Your best bet if the wants to playback a recording and watch it in various rooms is to get an AV Sender available from Argos and similar stores.
You connect the AV Transmitter to the scart output of the DVDR and the AV Receiver to the scart socket of the TV in the other room...some are available with additional receivers to attach to sets in other rooms.
Just make sure the TVs have a scart socket...and take the AV Senders advertised range with a pinch of salt as they calculate this in free air with no obstacles such as walls and ceilings in between.
 
cheers jaycee

i'll check them out
i'm assuming you can control the dvd recorder with its remote via the sender but i'll check it

cheers

sean
 
i'm assuming you can control the dvd recorder with its remote via the sender

The One-for-All branded model I installed for a customer last week certainly could...the transmitter plugged in to the unused VCR Out scart on his Sky box downstairs and the receiver in to the scart input on his LCD TV in the upstairs bedroom...it came with a tiny IR eye which you place in front of the IR sensor on the unit you are controlling and it worked a treat.
The customer had an already installed cable running from the RF2 output of the Sky box to the bedroom via a TV Link eye on his old analogue portable TV ...then went out and bought the Freeview equipped LCD TV not realising the analogue signal could not be tuned in to a TV with a digital-only tuner so I suggested the AV Sender and he was delighted with the results which were no different...signal-wise from the cable.
AV senders are going to fly out the doors of the high st shops after the analogue switchoff.
 
Not wanting to hijack the thread, but I also have a MIL who wants a HDD/DVD recorder. She doesn't have the requirement of dual outputs, but does have the requirement that it is easy to use.

I have a Toshiba XS32, which I like but is not the most user friendly. Looking for recommendations on user friendly models.

I expect 90% of the time she will record to the HDD, watch, then delete. Occasionally she may want to copy something to DVD to keep.

Thanks.
 
i have a panasonic and my wife finds it easy so .... i'd recommend one.

back to the dual room -

the way it looking is -
standard sky - scart - into dvd / hdd - out to tv in lounge via either hdmi or scart and also scart out to a wireless sender .... to bedroom tv

its the dual outputs from the hdd/dvd i'm concerned about .. i guess i could scart out and then split it to 2 scarts but it seems a shame not to hdmi the main tv.
i know she won't want to switch the output in the menus

hey ho

thanks

lighty
 
I would have thought most (if not all) of the range of the current branded domestic HDD/DVD recorders are aimed at 'non techie' types like MILs and bosses at work.
'Ease of use' is a major selling point these days.
 
I would have thought most (if not all) of the range of the current branded domestic HDD/DVD recorders are aimed at 'non techie' types like MILs and bosses at work.
'Ease of use' is a major selling point these days.

Thanks... yes I would hope that was the case. I'm hoping for something easier than my XS32 - which I am able to work eventually, but I didn't find very intuitive, and some of the terminology a bit odd.

Panny EX77 is my current front runner (in spite of aspect ratio issues); I think I'll read the manual and see how easy it is to understand.
 
Panny EX77 is my current front runner (in spite of aspect ratio issues); I think I'll read the manual and see how easy it is to understand.

Panasonics have a reputation in some quarters for being easier to use than it is to read and understand their manuals. :rolleyes:
 

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