Do any manufacturers make DVD+HDD recorders with a built-in Freeview
receiver?

Looking at Currys' and Comet's offerings, I noticed that Sony make a model
that has DVD and Freeview (but no HDD) and another model that has DVD and
HDD (but no Freeview). No other manufacturers whose products were on sale in
those shops had built-in Freeview.

A quick check on Pioneer, Sony, Panasonic and Hitachi web sites doesn't show
any DVD/HDD/Freeview recorders.

For my own use, a Freeview/HDD recorder would be fine for time-shifting, but
I'd need to be able to archive programmes onto DVD if I wanted to keep them
or loan them to anyone else.

I'm amazed at this state of affairs. I wonder why no-one's done the obvious
thing yet and produce a recorder which can record to HDD and DVD with a
built-in Freeview decoder.

I have a separate OnDigital box but it is a bit temperamental and has a
habit of locking-up sometimes so it no longer responds to signals from the
remote, and sometimes won't come out of standby to start a timed event. As
long as I leave it on one channel, it seems to work fine. But long-term it's
got problems, especially for unattended recordings when I'm not around to
turn the power off and on to reset it when it gets into a funny mood.

I don't want to have to buy another separate box (in addition to a DVD+HDD
recorder) because having the decoder separate from the recorder seems a
ludicrous state of affairs - imagine if VHS recorders didn't have a built-in
tuner! Having to program the same event on both the recorder and the
Freeview box is absurd.

I think the scarcity of integrated TVs and recorders is going to be the
biggest stumbling block to switching off analogue: many people (eg my
parents) see it as a retrograde step in going from a VHS recorder that
allows its events to be programmed by Videoplus to a set-top box that has to
be programmed by entering date, times and channel - in addition to
programming the VHS recorder by Videoplus but then remembering to correct
the VHS recorder's channel to AV2 to pick up the Freeview signal. What is
needed is the digital equivalent of the functionality of a VHS recorder,
with a built-in decoder.

Martin Underwood wrote:
Do any manufacturers make DVD+HDD recorders with a built-in Freeview
receiver?

Looking at Currys' and Comet's offerings, I noticed that Sony make a model
that has DVD and Freeview (but no HDD) and another model that has DVD and
HDD (but no Freeview). No other manufacturers whose products were on sale in
those shops had built-in Freeview.

Sony will do, maybe in September
http://www.avland.co.uk/sony/rdrhxd710/rdrhxd710.htm
Some more here http://www.avland.co.uk/dvd/dvdr.htm

Doc

I have been looking for such a device for nearly a year now, and I only
today do I get a hint that it's on its way.

It seems strange that no one has put the combination together before now.

As I see it both Sony and possibly philips are about relaese a product. I
think the problem is that digital TV is a UK only transmission standard.


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In message , Andrew Brown
writes
I have been looking for such a device for nearly a year now, and I only
today do I get a hint that it's on its way.

It seems strange that no one has put the combination together before now.

As I see it both Sony and possibly philips are about relaese a product. I
think the problem is that digital TV is a UK only transmission standard.

I believe you're wrong there.

There's a map of the countries who have adopted and implemented DVB-T
at:

http://www.dvb.org/graphics/internal...-Map_DVB-T.jpg

And that's only DVB-T (Terrestrial)

There's also other variants - DVB-S (Satellite), DVB-C (Cable) and MHP
(provides interactivity on the DVB variants).

--
Tony Morgan
http://www.camcord.info

On Thu, 07 Jul 2005 19:19:15 +0100, Simon Patten
wrote:

"Martin Underwood" wrote:
Does it have to be "wife-friendly"?

You aren't married, are you ?

;-)))

Cheers - Neil