help to find a dvd hd freeview recorder

F

frostyface

Guest
Does anyone know about a product that has all the following features:

  1. DVD/HDD (min 80GB)
  2. UK Freeview tuner (preferably twin) with pause function and EPG ideally
  3. USB port for back-up
  4. i-link (DV in) for camcorder
  5. RGB scart in x2 ideally
  6. Div x compatible
  7. HDMI out for HDTV
  8. optical audio out
  9. ideally 720 and 1080i upscaling
Couldn't find anything in previous threads.

Considered Panasonic , Ellion, Kiss & sony products but none seem to do all.

Any advice really appreciated.
 
You won't find one with DVD, Freeview twin tuner and USB port i'm afraid.

Choice is either Freeview twin tuner and USB port or a DVD recorder single tuner and no USB port.

Hope that helps a bit.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I will keep searching for a compromise. What model is recommended to give me most of what I need?

Any suggestions/prices welcome.
 
I've gone down the two machine approach.

1) Panasonic DVD-Recorder with HDD, my machine doesn't have a Freeview tuner but I spent a while before purchasing it, working out how to get the recordings onto my PC without re-encoding them. This can be done easily via DVD-RAM discs. Not sure about the current prices but I know they have come down alot.

2) Topfield TF5800PVR which has twin freeview tuners and a USB port. About £220 for the 160GB model or £240 for the 250GB available in Black and Silver. Great for recording channels as broadcast but the quality on some is very poor, but that is them pushing for too many channels IMO. Overall this is a great machine which can be tweaked by different TAPs people have written. Different EPG's, multimedia (photos, mp3) programs etc.

As far as I am aware all DVD-Recorders with Freeview tuners re-encode the freeview streams to make things easy. This is mainly due to the many different resloutions used on channels.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks for this suggestion.

I am considering the Panasonic DMR-EX 75 - this seems to put ticks against most of my requirements with exception of only having 1 tuner and no USB (although has SD card slot). I have seen varying info on whether it can play Divx files - It seems it can in some reviews but there seems to be an issue with the UK model.

Thanks for your replies hal loe.
 
Knock off:

Twin Tuner
USB Port (but the next model will have this, I think)
DV in (but the next model will have this)
HDMI (but the next model will have this)
Up scaling

From your list and the Pioneer 540 is a fantastic machine giving: HDr, DVDr, Freeview and DivX/Xvid.
 

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