Looking for a DVD Recorder..

TXBobcat

Fulltime
Our entertainment system died and went to the electronic heaven in the back of the campground.

What I am looking for is a DVD Player/Recorder. We have the Directv Satellite with a DVR. I want to record some of the shows then put them on CD for future viewing.

Now I am not talking about the Pay-per-view. Just some of the series that we enjoy watching.

Do any of you use a DVD Recorder. It needs to be a pass through so when it is off I can still watch my Satellite.

BC
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Before I got my DVR, I used to record stuff on a DVD Recorder. They only record from analog inputs - the digital inputs won't let you record anything with copyright protection. Picture quality is ok if you limit recordings to 1-2 hours per disc. Anything more, or recording to CDs, is pretty low video quality. At the time, I was watching on an analog TV and it was tolerable. Probably would have looked much worse on the flat screen digital TV I now have, or on the one in the RV.

You have to either use rewritable DVD-RW discs, or if you use DVD+R or DVD-R discs, you may have to finalize them after the recording, which for me would take 5-10 minutes per disc. If you don't finalize them, they won't play on anything except the unit you recorded them on. Setting up recording times was pretty manual on my unit. It supposedly had a programming guide, but I could never get it loaded.

All that to say that I like my Direct TV Receiver with DVR a whole lot more than the DVD recorder. It's about a hundred times easier to use. If you're running out of space on the DVR, maybe you can get the new DVR from Direct TV. I think they've recently upped the storage by at least 2X.

Btw, my DVD Recorder stopped working one day. Unfinalized discs are now worthless.
 

Moose

Well-known member
Is there no USB connection for external Hard Drives on the sat reveiver?

On my system (Bell) you can plug in external Hard Drives and record and playback at your leisure. A 500 MB HD will record over 60 hours of HD and over 500 hours of SD programming. When a drive if full you can replace with new one or erase and refill it. And the external HD are cheap now.

On the DirectTV site they show the HD DVR having USB and eSata connections. The manual says the eSata is for additional hard drives.
 
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