Page 1 of Technical questions regarding DVD Recorders.

Hello everyone.

Just got membership to this wonderful forum.

I am planning to buy various video equipment for creating my own digital library of TV programs. I need your help as this is expensive hardware and I am a newbie in the field. Thanks all for your guidance. Here goes.

My basic motives are as below :

1) Perform scheduled recording of TV programs (from my cable TV and also from my satellite dish receiver) in high resolution on hard drive for later editing and saving to DVD.
2) Playback the DVDs on my large TV screen with resolution equal to that of the recording source.
3) Be able to play WMV / Mpeg video files on my TV which I have recorded off the internet through my computer`s DVD-RW drive.

The 1st option is to buy a DVD Recorder.

a) There are ones with or without a hard drive. Although I would not buy one without a hard drive but I have an inkling that there may be methods
by which one can connect a plain DVD Recorder to some other hard drive (either an external HDD directly through USB or the HDD of a PC through appropriate connectors). If there is any such method, it would save me a lot of money.

b) There are ones with and without a digital tuner. Would I have any advantage of a digital tuner? In my case, I live in a 3rd world asian country and my local cable provider has a physical coaxial cable running up to my house. I can't tell if the channels (which he may be receiving through pirated cards) are analogue or digital. Also, when I receive freeview channels from my dish receiver, are these digital or analogue? Some people also mention that for recording to DVD through a DVD recorder, there is not noticeable difference in picture quality between digital and analgue channels. Also, is there any other advantage than picture clarity?

c) What is an EPG? Can one customize the Electronic Program Guide according to one`s own country / city and its cable broadcasts?

c) I have seen DVD Players with tags that they can playback WMA and MP3 audio. Are there any set top DVD equipment (players and recorders) that can playback WMV and Mpeg video also?

d) Can these devices record from more than one channel at the same time, either directly or through scheduled recording? For example, if one has two favourite programs at same timings on different channels, will I be able to have my device record both?

The 2nd Option is to buy a TV Tuner Card.
(and use my PC to record TV programs on its hard drive and later burn to DVD through its DVD-RW drive).

a) Will its recording format be same as that of DVD Recorders? So that they can be played back on DVD Players to be viewed on my TV.

b) Will its picture quality during playback of DVDs on TV (and recording resolution) rival that of the high quality `HQ` setting of DVD Recorders?

c) Will I be able to perform scheduled recordings through some software etc.? Or will it only perform direct recording?

d) Will it be able to perform scheduled / direct recording from more than one channel simultaneously?

Thanks a lot everyone for reading and I would appreciate help and advice on completing my above project.


Best regards,
Amer

OMG! Here goes (deep breath...)

1) Perform scheduled recording of TV programs (from my cable TV and also from my satellite dish receiver) in high resolution on hard drive for later editing and saving to DVD.

"High Resolution"? So long as you don`t mean High Defintion, you are okay. This is not currently possible on standard equipment. But so long as you stick with 1hr or 2hr quality, it will look as good as the original broadcast.

2) Playback the DVDs on my large TV screen with resolution equal to that of the recording source.

See above

3) Be able to play WMV / Mpeg video files on my TV which I have recorded off the internet through my computer`s DVD-RW drive.

You will need to study a Recorder`s spec as they vary. Some will handle MPEG and AVI. Not sure about WMV though.

The 1st option is to buy a DVD Recorder.

a) There are ones with or without a hard drive. Although I would not buy one without a hard drive but I have an inkling that there may be methods
by which one can connect a plain DVD Recorder to some other hard drive (either an external HDD directly through USB or the HDD of a PC through appropriate connectors). If there is any such method, it would save me a lot of money.

This is not a practical option as the firmware/software of a machine will not allow it to read a hard drive that has been strung up to it.

b) There are ones with and without a digital tuner. Would I have any advantage of a digital tuner? In my case, I live in a 3rd world asian country and my local cable provider has a physical coaxial cable running up to my house. I can't tell if the channels (which he may be receiving through pirated cards) are analogue or digital. Also, when I receive freeview channels from my dish receiver, are these digital or analogue? Some people also mention that for recording to DVD through a DVD recorder, there is not noticeable difference in picture quality between digital and analgue channels. Also, is there any other advantage than picture clarity?

A lot of questions in one number here. A digital tuner will only tune into the digtal channels transmitted to the country that it was designed for use within. So if you buy a british DVD recorder with a Freeview tuner, don`t expect it to work in India. I don`t think it will.

You mention cable and satellite, but not an aerial. A digital tuner will only find channels from an RF aerial input.

We have no way of knowing whether your cable and satellite signals are digital or analogue. You should be able to find out locally though, surely?

c) What is an EPG? Can one customize the Electronic Program Guide according to one`s own country / city and its cable broadcasts?

An electronic programme guide will only work if the tuner successfuly tunes into those channels that it was designed to do so. It cannot be customised for other areas of the world.

c) I have seen DVD Players with tags that they can playback WMA and MP3 audio. Are there any set top DVD equipment (players and recorders) that can playback WMV and Mpeg video also?

See 1 above.

d) Can these devices record from more than one channel at the same time, either directly or through scheduled recording? For example, if one has two favourite programs at same timings on different channels, will I be able to have my device record both?

No, not unless they are described as "TWIN TUNER". And that only applies if you have successfully tuned the tuner in and have channels on it (It won`t work from external sources through S-Video, composite, component or SCART inputs). Most DVD recorders are single tuner, so they can only record one thing at a time.

The 2nd Option is to buy a TV Tuner Card.
(and use my PC to record TV programs on its hard drive and later burn to DVD through its DVD-RW drive).

a) Will its recording format be same as that of DVD Recorders? So that they can be played back on DVD Players to be viewed on my TV.

The recording format is most likely to be DVD-Video, which is more compatible than the discs produced on most DVD Recorders.

b) Will its picture quality during playback of DVDs on TV (and recording resolution) rival that of the high quality `HQ` setting of DVD Recorders?

Yes.

c) Will I be able to perform scheduled recordings through some software etc.? Or will it only perform direct recording?

You can if your signal produces an EPG. (Digital) I expect software has the ability to set a timer and select a channel without an EPG, though this is not my strong point.

d) Will it be able to perform scheduled / direct recording from more than one channel simultaneously?

Probably - check the spec of the software before you buy it. And bear in mind the spec of your PC.

Hope that helps!

This item was edited on Wednesday, 15th August 2007, 19:12

To much to read.........
Just buy a Panasonic or Pioneer DVD recorder/HDD (at least 250gb) with built in freeview and then put it under your TV read the manual wire it up record in SP mode and then your done. :)

Mr Dwyer

This item was edited on Sunday, 19th August 2007, 13:56

Hi Sue.

Just wanted to thank you very much for taking out time to read my outrageously long query :-)

I really appreciate your reply as you are the only one who has responded with detail.

Thanks and best regards.

Amer

Well, I know I was unable to answer everything, but like I said, hopefully it helped. :)