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Hard Drive Feature

post #1 of 20
9/10/08 at 3:33pm
Thread Starter 
I'm considering buying a DVD recorder with a built in hard drive. I know the main benefit of the hard drive is being able to edit the recorded footage, but does the hard drive footage playback as well as footage on a disc? And does anyone have a particular player to recommend? Thanks.
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post #2 of 20
9/10/08 at 3:39pm
The HDD video plays back the same as on a disc.

Click #1 in my signature for a unti with 160GB HDD, NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuners, 36 timer rec program slots, etc.
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post #3 of 20
9/10/08 at 5:55pm
If you want a new one the Philips and Maggy are your only real choices in the US. The HDD actually has the added benefit of being able to record in a faster speed since they hold such much information and the PQ will then be better than a DVD recorded in a slower speed.
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post #4 of 20
9/10/08 at 6:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Prior View Post

I'm considering buying a DVD recorder with a built in hard drive. I know the main benefit of the hard drive is being able to edit the recorded footage, but does the hard drive footage playback as well as footage on a disc? And does anyone have a particular player to recommend? Thanks.

Another added benefit is the amount of time you can record. If you have a large screen TV, you probably want at least SP quality recordings which gives you around 2 hrs on a DVD. If you're out of town for week or so, 2 hours probably wont be enough.

Rick
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post #5 of 20
9/10/08 at 6:54pm
If you jump around a lot in a recorded program (or maybe skip ahead over commercials), the hdd will tend to be more responsive to your jumps than a disc recording. It's not a mind-blowing benefit, but certainly a nice perk if you really hammer those skip ahead/back buttons.

Also, if you find yourself in the scenario of wanting to playback something while something else is currently recording (very useful if your recording habits seem to be outstretching your available time to actually watch the stuff), the hdd is a natural performer for such tasks. If not a built-in hdd, the recorder should have dvd-ram support, if this sort of operation is important to you.
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post #6 of 20
9/10/08 at 8:50pm
It's not a very tangible benefit, but what I like most about my HDD recorder is that you just don't have to worry about discs, period. You don't have to worry if there's a disc in the machine when you want to record, you don't have to worry about how much space is available on the disc, you don't have to worry about which speed you should record at in order to leave space to fit new shows on the disc, you don't have to worry about whether you re-initialized the disc to make more space available etc. etc. etc. You just hit the button and record whenever you want to, or schedule shows for recording whenever you want to with no worries. It's great!
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post #7 of 20
9/10/08 at 9:26pm
One of the reasons I want a DVR is to be able to watch one show on tv while recording a different show on another channel. Prison Break & Heroes come on the same time!!

Will the Panasonic DVR mentioned previously be able to do this? Not sure if it matters or not, but my TV comes with an internal tuner.
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post #8 of 20
9/10/08 at 10:48pm
Borath,

Does your TV have a digital tuner? Are you watching cable or with antenna?

You can record a program with any DVD recorder and watch any program with your TV, just like you would with a VHS recorder. However you can only record and/or watch digital channels if the recorder and TV have digital tuners. ATSC tuner for OTA and QAM tuner for non-encrypted cable channels. If you are using a cable STB then you may have other options.
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post #9 of 20
9/10/08 at 11:06pm
Here's a convoluted way of looking at things. If you do not have a HDD, you won't get behind in watching all the programs you have recorded! I mainly time shift and have only 6 DVD-RAM discs. I frequently think about getting more, but then I'd probably never get caught up watching stuff. Now I'm forced to watch, or erase. Or use a DVD-R in a pinch.

But having a limited capacity is a bummer when I'm away for a week or two. So I am thinking about getting one of those Magnavox's with the 160GB HDD. Or upgrading my cable & getting a DVR.
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post #10 of 20
9/11/08 at 10:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 View Post

Borath,

Does your TV have a digital tuner? Are you watching cable or with antenna?

You can record a program with any DVD recorder and watch any program with your TV, just like you would with a VHS recorder. However you can only record and/or watch digital channels if the recorder and TV have digital tuners. ATSC tuner for OTA and QAM tuner for non-encrypted cable channels. If you are using a cable STB then you may have other options.


Hi there, I do not have cable, only regular free broadcast tv. The TV I have is the: Samsung HL61A750 Projection TV 61-inch 1080p LED Powered DLP HDTV. Looking at the specs, it has these tuners: Tuner QAM, NTSC, ATSC.

Based on the above info, will I be able to record one channel while watching another (e.g. Heroes on NBC and Prison Break on Fox) with the Panasonic DVR mentioned?
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post #11 of 20
9/11/08 at 2:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Borath View Post

Hi there, I do not have cable, only regular free broadcast tv. The TV I have is the: Samsung HL61A750 Projection TV 61-inch 1080p LED Powered DLP HDTV. Looking at the specs, it has these tuners: Tuner QAM, NTSC, ATSC.

Based on the above info, will I be able to record one channel while watching another (e.g. Heroes on NBC and Prison Break on Fox) with the Panasonic DVR mentioned?


Your TV can tune in OTA digital or analog programs with its ATSC & NTSC tuners respectively. A late model Panasonic, or any other DVD recorder with ATSC & NTSC tuners will be able to record OTA digital or analog programs. You will be able to tune in HD channels with the recorder, but it will down-convert & record the signal in standard def. This should still look pretty good because the source is HD. And it should still be widescreen.

One way is to simply split the signal coming from your antenna, one to the TV and one to the recorder. Then connect the DVD recorder to an appropriate input on your TV. And perhaps the audio to a receiver.

This may depend on the DVD recorder, but if it has an RF bypass output, you could use this to connect to the TV's coax input (instead of using a splitter). But you will still need a video connection from the recorder to the TV in order to watch the recorder.

I have cable & frequently watch one HD program on TV and record another HD program to my Panasonic DVD recorder. In this case the QAM tuners are used.
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post #12 of 20
9/11/08 at 2:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 View Post

Your TV can tune in OTA digital or analog programs with its ATSC & NTSC tuners respectively. A late model Panasonic, or any other DVD recorder with ATSC & NTSC tuners will be able to record OTA digital or analog programs. You will be able to tune in HD channels with the recorder, but it will down-convert & record the signal in standard def. This should still look pretty good because the source is HD. And it should still be widescreen.

One way is to simply split the signal coming from your antenna, one to the TV and one to the recorder. Then connect the DVD recorder to an appropriate input on your TV. And perhaps the audio to a receiver.

This may depend on the DVD recorder, but if it has an RF bypass output, you could use this to connect to the TV's coax input (instead of using a splitter). But you will still need a video connection from the recorder to the TV in order to watch the recorder.

I have cable & frequently watch one HD program on TV and record another HD program to my Panasonic DVD recorder. In this case the QAM tuners are used.


Cool, would you know what are the cables that comes with the Philips 3575/3576? Curious what additional cables I need to buy or if it'll work out of the box w/ the cables included inside. Thanks. I'm new to this stuff, so the last two paragraphs were a bit tough to follow.

Also can it do the following things:
1. Record while watching live tv
2. Record two programs while watching another recorded one
3. Record two programs while watching live tv
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post #13 of 20
9/12/08 at 4:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike99 View Post

So I am thinking about getting one of those Magnavox's with the 160GB HDD. Or upgrading my cable & getting a DVR.

Be careful on upgrading your cable. If you do, you will NEVER go back to not having a cable box that can record. It's truly a sensational thing to have.
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post #14 of 20
9/12/08 at 4:37pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Borath View Post

Cool, would you know what are the cables that comes with the Philips 3575/3576? Curious what additional cables I need to buy or if it'll work out of the box w/ the cables included inside. Thanks. I'm new to this stuff, so the last two paragraphs were a bit tough to follow.

Also can it do the following things:
1. Record while watching live tv
2. Record two programs while watching another recorded one
3. Record two programs while watching live tv

Yes, No and No. The 3575/3576/2160 have only one tuner, so they can only record one program at a time.

If you have cable or over-the-air (OTA) antenna, you can connect the 3575/3576 or the Magnavox H2160 as shown in sketch #1 here, then you can watch a channel on the TV while the DVDR is recording a different channel.

If you have satellite service (Dish or DirecTV), you'd connect as shown in sketch #2, then you could record any channel from the sat receiver/DVR, which would tie up both machines for that one recording (altho you could still watch something from the DVDR HDD or a DVD while recording). But, with the "Optional" antenna (even rabbit ears) or cable feed shown, you could also watch one channel on the TV while recording a diff. channel, same as described above for sketch #1. Still only able to record one program at a time from any source.

With any of these DVDRs, you can always watch something from the HDD or on DVD disc while recording a program on the HDD.

P.S. The cables that come with the 3575/3576/2160 are those "spaghetti-thin" cables that'll work to get you started. In that linked help file I gave above, there's some discussion on the cabling you'll prob. want eventually.
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post #15 of 20
9/13/08 at 7:09pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo View Post

Yes, No and No. The 3575/3576/2160 have only one tuner, so they can only record one program at a time.

If you have cable or over-the-air (OTA) antenna, you can connect the 3575/3576 or the Magnavox H2160 as shown in sketch #1 here, then you can watch a channel on the TV while the DVDR is recording a different channel.

If you have satellite service (Dish or DirecTV), you'd connect as shown in sketch #2, then you could record any channel from the sat receiver/DVR, which would tie up both machines for that one recording (altho you could still watch something from the DVDR HDD or a DVD while recording). But, with the "Optional" antenna (even rabbit ears) or cable feed shown, you could also watch one channel on the TV while recording a diff. channel, same as described above for sketch #1. Still only able to record one program at a time from any source.

With any of these DVDRs, you can always watch something from the HDD or on DVD disc while recording a program on the HDD.

P.S. The cables that come with the 3575/3576/2160 are those "spaghetti-thin" cables that'll work to get you started. In that linked help file I gave above, there's some discussion on the cabling you'll prob. want eventually.


Not sure if it matters or not, but I have Dish satellite where the cable for it goes to a splitter attached to the TV Ant on the back of my TV. The cable for the satellite goes in one part of the splitter and my regular OTA antenna goes into the other part of the splitter.

After I get the Phillips DVR, does it matter if I hook the cable of my satellite to the DVR or leave it as is by having the satellite cable connect to the Ant In on the back of my TV?
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post #16 of 20
9/13/08 at 7:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Borath View Post

Not sure if it matters or not, but I have Dish satellite where the cable for it goes to a splitter attached to the TV Ant on the back of my TV. The cable for the satellite goes in one part of the splitter and my regular OTA antenna goes into the other part of the splitter.

After I get the Phillips DVR, does it matter if I hook the cable of my satellite to the DVR or leave it as is by having the satellite cable connect to the Ant In on the back of my TV?

I don't have sat service so I don't quite understand how the "splitter" works in your case... I didn't think you could combine signals from diff. sources due to frequency clashes. Maybe it's a special satellite splitter.

Best I can do is point you, again, to sketch #2 here for a satellite user who also has optional antenna or cable service. See if that sketch is correct for you, where the sat cable would go only into the sat receiver with Component or HDMI out to the TV, then you could connect an OTA antenna coax directly on the Philips coax passthru and on to your TV's coax input (ANT IN?).

See the Warning on that sketch, which I added after some posters with sat service advized that there was voltage on the sat incoming cable that might harm a DVDR if connected to the DVDR directly.
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post #17 of 20
9/14/08 at 7:20pm
Another question regarding the Phillips.

I plan on plugging the DVR into a power surge protector (instead of plugging it directly into the war) which I sometimes turn off . When the DVR is turned off, does it erase all the shows I programmed into it?
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post #18 of 20
12/15/12 at 6:51am
For some reason, recently my Phillips DVR only records when the tv is on but not when the tv is off?

Anyone run into this before?
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post #19 of 20
12/15/12 at 8:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Borath View Post

For some reason, recently my Phillips DVR only records when the tv is on but not when the tv is off?

Anyone run into this before?

Possibly a HDMI "handshake" issue?
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post #20 of 20
12/16/12 at 9:19am
That might be it, I think I started switching to HDMI cable and it started happening. However, I did play around with the cables and switched it back to component cables but didn't appear to do anything.
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