Which DVD recorder?

[Monsieur]

I've got a virgin+ box with rather a lot of good stuff recorded on it.
Don't want anything fancy just something cheap and reliable that can record onto a DVD straight from the virgin+ box.
Do you know of anything?

 

[Monsieur]

Still looking...just a DVD recorder that can record from my digital virgin+ box onto a DVD.
Any thoughts?

 

[Monsieur]

Do I need to look for a digital recorder or will a bog standard DVD recorder do

 

[Monsieur]

Would this one work with my virgin+ box?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000TJFTIU/ref=s9sdps_c2_img1-3095_g1-rfc_g1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0CDY1R6KRHQWY7JRYZBD&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=210507891&pf_rd_i=468294

 

[Jon]

Do I need to look for a digital recorder or will a bog standard DVD recorder do

This is what my mate does.

Records it on a Humax & then plays it thru the Humax & records it onto a HDD/DVD recorder & then burns it from that to the dvd*

Not straight thru like you want to do, but allows him to take out the ads

* This is because he uses the HDD/DVD recorder to record stuff too. How the hel lhe has time to what it all is beyond me

 

[Loiq]

We use a samsung HDD which has a DVD-R recorder in it play into the HHD side then section edit etc. and burn out to DVD where your happy with the program or series. bit fiddly and to to be honest I just rip it to PC and do a simple edit then burn it form the PC. But it's not that simple to setup and use.

Samsung offers a good piece of kit and it can be made to do as you wish. There are a few issues as lots of set top boxes now won't work due to copy protection.

There's no hard and fast rules as to which bit of kit works better than another, go to curries and fiddle with the button look at the menu if it's simple loking it...

It it makes no sense avoid it like the plague...

 

[Monsieur]

Isn't there anything simpler?
On my virgin+ box there is a record menu which allows you to record whats on the hard disc of the virgin+ box onto either video or DVD.
Isn't there something that can simply let me do that?

 

[Loiq]

if you took that out put and popped it into a DVD recorder then yes.

it might even be a cheaper DVD recoer with no HDD are only about £50 nowadays.

we've got a samsung DVD-R122 whcih was cheap as chips..

 

[Monsieur]

if you took that out put and popped it into a DVD recorder then yes.

Does the dvd recorder have to be a digital thingy then or will any recorder work?
What I'd do is record to the virgin+ box first and then record from there to the recorder.

 

[Loiq]

the digital bit might may cause other issues if you can find one which has HDMI 2 input and the Vrigin box has and HDMI 2 output then it should work.

or just use the regular phone connectors and keep the rcording you make to less than 2 hours. You'll get a higher bit rate which will help with image quality.

once you go over the 2 hour mark the DVD will bring in some additional prcessing to squash the footage onto the dis and the image qualtiy will go soft as butter in the sun...

hope that offers some help.

HDMI 1 as far as I'm aware is picture only HDMI 2 is picture and sound but cables can be polarised to stop people making really good copies of programs (something to do with IP and copyright fraud)

 

[Loiq]

disadvantages if your dropping form digital box (server) to DVD (recorder) one minute is one minute (real time) if you could move the file digitally then it'll be quicker and you may think you don't really want to keep it for ever and so leave it there for a while then dump it once your bored.

I'm sure there are places where you can just connect to content when you want it and pay a small fee, better than burning a million discs having your house full of crap you have no time to watch cos your always busy burning stuff to disc.

The above are personal views and should be taken with a pinch of salt...

 

[Monsieur]

Ummm....95% of what I've just read has gone straight over my head

What I think I'll do is buy a cheapish DVD recorder, plug it in and see what it does.
Thanks for the advice above...just wish I had a good enough brain to do it all justice

 

[Mikey]

What I think I'll do is buy a cheapish DVD recorder, plug it in and see what it does.
Thanks for the advice above...just wish I had a good enough brain to do it all justice

That's what I did and it works. But as the man says if the program is 2 hours long it will take 2 hours to transfer.

 

[grandtrousers]

You could always try http://www.archos.com

 

[Loiq]

I'd be very careful of these types of mobile DVR's they compress the material to approx 640x480 aspect ratio, clever bits of kit but... no benifit I think for the money.

 

[grandtrousers]

Mine is great - I have just had a brief look again on their website and thay say playback is "DVD quality" wahtever that means. The new 605 series can also browse wifi and is now available to use as a satnav device. Seems pretty good value for money if you want a lot of features.
Recording TV with mine is an absolute doddle. I seem to remember TUNED is an advocate of Archos products.

 

[Monsieur]

Update:
Went to comet and listened to the 'advice' from a 12 year old salesman and ended up ignoring his advice to 'buy the best you can afford' and left the store with a bog standard samsung DVD recorder for 60 quid.
Works a treat and I've now recorded 20ish hours worth

 

[Gonzo]

Shutting the stable door.........

...........after the horse has bolted, but...

My Freeview Humax box can transfer straight to laptop, if I remember correctly. I think there might even be some software that came with it to allow this. Could it be that the Virgin box could do this too? From there you could burn to DVD using the laptop drive.

Maybe as Virgin are the content and hardware provider they won't allow it to happen for copyright reasons...