Hello...I hear this is where the experts are.

I am looking to buy a new DVD/VCR combo Recorder to replace my old VCR. My main objective is to have a DVD Recorder to record college basketball games (>2 hrs) and college football games (3-4hrs). Wondering what you would suggest as the best vale to get for recording those longer time frames.

FYI, I have HD Digital Cable through Comcast with an HD TV hooked up currently via component cables with the digital audio going through my receiver. My system is setup only to record the station on the cable box (not sure how to do it otherwise).

I'm open to suggestions, such as a
* digital tuner (how then do you set it up when getting cable?)
* how to record HD stations (I know it will only be AD quality)
* what is the best DVD/VCR Recorder for the buck?
* what do people think of the Samsung DVD-VR357?

Thanks for everything!

Since it has been over 24 hours and nobody else has chimed in here, I will give you my 2 cents worth and I am being generous with that valuation. Apparently nobody here has the Samsung DVD-VR357. I have a large distaste for combo units and I don't have cable or dish. I think those two services charge way too much for what they deliver. But as long as there are a lot of people that will pay it, I guess they can make ends meet.

I do have a OTA high definition TV set so I do have some experience with it. None of my DVD recorders can tune the digital sub-channels but I think they record just like the analog channels. You just select the channel you want to record, select the recording speed and press record. Naturally you have previously inserted the blank DVD that you want to record to. I use the 2 your recording speed for all of my recording. I can see no degrading in the video quality so I feel it would be a waste to use the 1 hour recording speed. Naturally if you select a longer recording speed, your recorded quality will be poorer. In your case I guess you would have to use the 4 hour recording speed and live with the results. It might be similar to VHS 2 hour speed? I have a hard time trying to understand why someone would want to record a basketball or football game but to each his own I guess.

I think I have read posts by combo owners and if I remember right the VHS part is a player and not a recorder? I suppose that might vary from model to model? My personal preference would be to have separate units. Since the VCR section of a combo unit would only be used for converting VHS tapes to DVD, I would use the original VCR for playing my recorded tapes. If the original VCR is broken then I guess the combo unit makes sense. You won't be able to convert any purchased commercial tapes with a combo unit because they will detect the embedded Macrovision and will refuse to go into record mode. Separate units allow you to add a filter to remove Macrovision but they are probably illegal and are getting hard to find.

I would assume that if you tune in a HD station, the recorder will do the down conversion if the combo unit has a digital tuner. If it doesn't have a digital tuner then you will have to feed the analog output of your cable box to a line input on the recorder.

Well...that is enough from someone that has no idea what he is talking about. Maybe it is enough to get someone else to chime in?

Dave

Thanks for the reply Dave. If I had the space, I would get to separate units. However, due to the setup in that room...I'm stuck. Thanks again. Maybe others will chime in now.