HDD-DVD Recorder User Needs New Recorders - Help!

Struan

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For many years, I used various Pioneer HDD-DVD recorders for time-shifting FV and satellite (not $ky), and as necessary, editing and archiving material to DVD-R & -RW discs – the models in question were the DVR-720H, 920H & 930H (these were chosen in preference to other makes because they allowed easy (single button) chapter marking, quick/easy/accurate editing, and copying) - As these became the 'worse for wear' (corrupted HDD, DVD drives having problems writing discs etc.), I switched to the final generation Pioneer machines, although in the form of the SONY re-badged models (due to their better RC handsets), eg. 970, 995 etc. While these didn't have as good a GUI, and no single button chapter mark, they had the advantage of 'being available', as well as having a built in FV tuner.


Now, these are beginning to play-up, and my thoughts are turning to possible replacements, and having been out of the loop for a few years, it has quickly become obvious that the landscape has changed dramatically!


So, where to start? In an ideal world (which doesn’t seem to exist, as far as I can see), I need to be able to time-shift FV (built-in), and satellite (from an external receiver, by means of Scart – preferably RGB, but at the very least, S-video), quickly and easily edit recordings, prior to high-speed 'transfer' to some kind of external media. I have no interest in $ky, Blu-Ray, 4K etc.


It seems that HDD-DVD recorders are now few and far between, and quite possibly non-existent, so that seems to leave models that allow archiving to eternal HDD, but from what I've seen so far, they don't seem to have external inputs, and the external drives are limited for use on the machine that they have been registered to, so I'm not sure what you're supposed to do in the future if/when that particular recorder breaks down?


Is there anything available new, or if not, second hand, that might be of use/interest to me?
 
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Would you consider an enigma 2 box like the vu duo or zgemma s2 - both are twin tuner boxes and can be set up to look like sky. You can record on to the hard drive and then ftp to your computer to edit/burn to DVD if you wish
 
Would you consider an enigma 2 box like the vu duo or zgemma s2 - both are twin tuner boxes and can be set up to look like sky. You can record on to the hard drive and then ftp to your computer to edit/burn to DVD if you wish

Thanks for the reply

I've no idea what those are, but in an ideal world, I would rather not have the time consuming, and for my circumstances, largely impractical, hassle of involving computers etc. as I do a LOT of timeshifting and copying - just looking for simple/single box AV recorders, but I wonder if that is possible these days? However, if, as I fear, that's no longer a realistic proposition, I may have to consider other alternatives, such as the one you suggest, but only as a very last resort.
 
You can still find the Panasonic DMR-EX86 which is about your only choice left in the now dead single tuner SD recorder market. Details here.

Your only other choice is the DMR-BW740 - which is a twin HD tuner unit.
It records on Blurays but does support DVD's too. Details here.
 
The big retailers no longer seem to be selling the EX86. Is this still being produced?
 
I'm not sure that the big retailers ever had it.
Its a niche model only sold in small numbers...Single SD tuner models have been all but supplanted by twin HD tuner models... but Panasonic still have it listed. Here

Some Richer Sounds stores have some. here
 
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I know Amazon did have them (plus a lot of their market place sellers including Richer Sounds) Richer Sounds also sold them on their website but now only list them as last few in some stores.
John Lewis sold them too a few months ago online.

All the listings on Amazon now seem to have disappeared and other places like John Lewis no longer list it.
 

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