Recording to VCR/DVD

Got my Sky+ box installed Tuesday. Very pleased with it so far.
Recording to its HD is every bit as convenient as I'd hoped. Cost me
£129 (£99 + £30) one-off, plus £17/month for a '2-mix' subscription.

But at this rate (until we actually start *watching* a lot more!) it
won't be long before I fill its 80 GB ("capacity for personal use").
So I still need to copy from HD. (Until I get a DVD recorder, that
will for the moment be to my VCR.) I have successfully copied one
recorded program, but have a few queries please:

1) Starting a copy seems very unreliable. Usually I have to repeat the
cycle several times before it will start. Here's an example I just got
started, after 6 repetitions of the instructions:
- The entries in my planner looked like this

Royle Family VIEWED
Frasier COPY
Frasier COPY
Rockford RECORDED
Frasier COPY
Frasier COPY
Rockford 9.30
etc
- So I had 4 entries in my planner with COPY selected against them
- I selected the first COPY entry and pressed Select
- Got the message "You are about to ... Ensure VCR set to record, then
press Select."

All fine so far. (Apart from the inconsistency with the user guide
page 37 which says "Press PLAY...", not Select. Doing so at this stage
does nothing.)

- Press Select. The programs briefly flash up and disappear! Returning
to the Planner, with the top entry now selected, not the original.

- After trial and error, I hit on simply *repeating* this process. So
as the top entry is not a COPY type, I had to first arrow down to the
first COPY and go through the loop again.

- Still failed, 6-8 times.

I *think* that the time before I got it to work I had tried selecting
the *2nd* of my 4 COPY entries. Although whether that was the reason
for its eventual success I'm not yet sure. Maybe after more trials.

Anyone have similar behaviour or any suggestions please?

2) Once I've glanced even briefly at a recording, it changes from
RECORDED to VIEWED. Is it not possible to change that back to
RECORDED? Seems unhelpful this way IMO. When I browse through scores
of entries I will want to know those which I haven't watched in full.
And I won't necessarily want to delete an entry immediately I've done
so. So it seems to me there needs to be something like a 'FULLY
VIEWED' category that you can set manually.

3) Am I right that, even if the program is only say 30 mins long, the
VCR will continue copying until it reaches the end (3 or 4 hours)?
IOW, the VCR doesn't stop automatically after the 30 mins? If so.what
is it copying during this time?

4) While it's copying, I take it there's no way I can watch anything
else, either live or from HD?

Any help/advice greatly appreciated please.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

Terry Pinnell wrote:
Got my Sky+ box installed Tuesday. Very pleased with it so far.
Recording to its HD is every bit as convenient as I'd hoped. Cost me
£129 (£99 + £30) one-off, plus £17/month for a '2-mix' subscription.

But at this rate (until we actually start *watching* a lot more!) it
won't be long before I fill its 80 GB ("capacity for personal use").
So I still need to copy from HD. (Until I get a DVD recorder, that
will for the moment be to my VCR.)

What makes you think you'll watch enough to clear the
recorded back-log you (apparently) want to create?

BugBear

"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
...
Got my Sky+ box installed Tuesday. Very pleased with it so far.
Recording to its HD is every bit as convenient as I'd hoped. Cost me
£129 (£99 + £30) one-off, plus £17/month for a '2-mix' subscription.

But at this rate (until we actually start *watching* a lot more!) it
won't be long before I fill its 80 GB ("capacity for personal use").
So I still need to copy from HD. (Until I get a DVD recorder, that
will for the moment be to my VCR.) I have successfully copied one
recorded program, but have a few queries please:

1) Starting a copy seems very unreliable. Usually I have to repeat the
cycle several times before it will start. Here's an example I just got
started, after 6 repetitions of the instructions:
- The entries in my planner looked like this

Royle Family VIEWED
Frasier COPY
Frasier COPY
Rockford RECORDED
Frasier COPY
Frasier COPY
Rockford 9.30
etc
- So I had 4 entries in my planner with COPY selected against them
- I selected the first COPY entry and pressed Select
- Got the message "You are about to ... Ensure VCR set to record, then
press Select."

All fine so far. (Apart from the inconsistency with the user guide
page 37 which says "Press PLAY...", not Select. Doing so at this stage
does nothing.)

- Press Select. The programs briefly flash up and disappear! Returning
to the Planner, with the top entry now selected, not the original.

- After trial and error, I hit on simply *repeating* this process. So
as the top entry is not a COPY type, I had to first arrow down to the
first COPY and go through the loop again.

- Still failed, 6-8 times.

I *think* that the time before I got it to work I had tried selecting
the *2nd* of my 4 COPY entries. Although whether that was the reason
for its eventual success I'm not yet sure. Maybe after more trials.

Anyone have similar behaviour or any suggestions please?


Don't use the COPY facility. Instead, just play the recording as you would
do and set your VCR to record.

2) Once I've glanced even briefly at a recording, it changes from
RECORDED to VIEWED. Is it not possible to change that back to
RECORDED? Seems unhelpful this way IMO. When I browse through scores
of entries I will want to know those which I haven't watched in full.
And I won't necessarily want to delete an entry immediately I've done
so. So it seems to me there needs to be something like a 'FULLY
VIEWED' category that you can set manually.


You can not reset the entry back to VIEWED. You can find out how much you
have watched by hitting the SELECT button on the recording. This should give
you the amound viewed so far. You can then change it back to zero (but it
won't change the status), or choose a custom time.

3) Am I right that, even if the program is only say 30 mins long, the
VCR will continue copying until it reaches the end (3 or 4 hours)?
IOW, the VCR doesn't stop automatically after the 30 mins? If so.what
is it copying during this time?


Some VCRs have the facility to use a preset record time. Try pressing record
a few times to see if it incriments the recording by 30min of each oress of
the record button.
If the VCR doesn't stop after the programme has fininshed, it just records
the channel the sky box is tuned to before the playback.

4) While it's copying, I take it there's no way I can watch anything
else, either live or from HD?

Any help/advice greatly appreciated please.


There isn't a way to watch anything else from the Sky box, although the box
can record two other programmes at the same time as playing back.
--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
...

- Press Select. The programs briefly flash up and disappear! Returning
to the Planner, with the top entry now selected, not the original.


this is common, I think it classifies as a bug, but its always been like
this AFAIK, if you press the select function for more than the briefest
period of time, it interprets it as two selects which means you have
cancelled it....Doh!
Try it with a very quick press and it will work.

--
Tumbleweed

email replies not necessary but to contact use;
tumbleweednews at hotmail dot com

"Tumbleweed" wrote:


"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
.. .

- Press Select. The programs briefly flash up and disappear! Returning
to the Planner, with the top entry now selected, not the original.


this is common, I think it classifies as a bug, but its always been like
this AFAIK, if you press the select function for more than the briefest
period of time, it interprets it as two selects which means you have
cancelled it....Doh!
Try it with a very quick press and it will work.

Thanks, that explains that puzzle. I'll try the fastest click I can
manage.

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

"ABC" wrote:


"Terry Pinnell" wrote in message
.. .
Got my Sky+ box installed Tuesday. Very pleased with it so far.
Recording to its HD is every bit as convenient as I'd hoped. Cost me
£129 (£99 + £30) one-off, plus £17/month for a '2-mix' subscription.

But at this rate (until we actually start *watching* a lot more!) it
won't be long before I fill its 80 GB ("capacity for personal use").
So I still need to copy from HD. (Until I get a DVD recorder, that
will for the moment be to my VCR.) I have successfully copied one
recorded program, but have a few queries please:

1) Starting a copy seems very unreliable. Usually I have to repeat the
cycle several times before it will start. Here's an example I just got
started, after 6 repetitions of the instructions:
- The entries in my planner looked like this

Royle Family VIEWED
Frasier COPY
Frasier COPY
Rockford RECORDED
Frasier COPY
Frasier COPY
Rockford 9.30
etc
- So I had 4 entries in my planner with COPY selected against them
- I selected the first COPY entry and pressed Select
- Got the message "You are about to ... Ensure VCR set to record, then
press Select."

All fine so far. (Apart from the inconsistency with the user guide
page 37 which says "Press PLAY...", not Select. Doing so at this stage
does nothing.)

- Press Select. The programs briefly flash up and disappear! Returning
to the Planner, with the top entry now selected, not the original.

- After trial and error, I hit on simply *repeating* this process. So
as the top entry is not a COPY type, I had to first arrow down to the
first COPY and go through the loop again.

- Still failed, 6-8 times.

I *think* that the time before I got it to work I had tried selecting
the *2nd* of my 4 COPY entries. Although whether that was the reason
for its eventual success I'm not yet sure. Maybe after more trials.

Anyone have similar behaviour or any suggestions please?


Don't use the COPY facility. Instead, just play the recording as you would
do and set your VCR to record.

Thanks, but that doesn't help with multiple copies. Seems to make more
sense to copy 4-6 half hour episodes at once, setting it up directly
before a period of no TV use.

BTW, while it is doing a copy, will it still record a preset
programme?

2) Once I've glanced even briefly at a recording, it changes from
RECORDED to VIEWED. Is it not possible to change that back to
RECORDED? Seems unhelpful this way IMO. When I browse through scores
of entries I will want to know those which I haven't watched in full.
And I won't necessarily want to delete an entry immediately I've done
so. So it seems to me there needs to be something like a 'FULLY
VIEWED' category that you can set manually.


You can not reset the entry back to VIEWED. You can find out how much you
have watched by hitting the SELECT button on the recording. This should give
you the amound viewed so far. You can then change it back to zero (but it
won't change the status), or choose a custom time.

Yes, thanks, I'd seen that feature. It's very handy, but doesn't
address the issue of seeing at a glance what I've already watched in
full. But it's no big deal. Now that I've satisfied my initial
curiosity, I've already stopped checking recordings, so most will
retain their VIEWED status. The main exception seems to be with old
series, like Frasier. I saw many of these live, many more from
repeats, more from my old VHS recordings. With my Sky+, I'm now also
series-link recording them from at least two channels. It's not always
clear from the brief description whether the recording will be a new,
unseen episode. But a few seconds of viewing will usually clinch it.
(Watched a couple from HD last night, and duly zapped them.)

3) Am I right that, even if the program is only say 30 mins long, the
VCR will continue copying until it reaches the end (3 or 4 hours)?
IOW, the VCR doesn't stop automatically after the 30 mins? If so.what
is it copying during this time?


Some VCRs have the facility to use a preset record time. Try pressing record
a few times to see if it incriments the recording by 30min of each oress of
the record button.
If the VCR doesn't stop after the programme has fininshed, it just records
the channel the sky box is tuned to before the playback.

My Philips DVD757VR combo has no facility like that. I guess I'd
assumed the Sky+ box would be clever enough to send it appropriate
start/stop signals.

4) While it's copying, I take it there's no way I can watch anything
else, either live or from HD?

Any help/advice greatly appreciated please.


There isn't a way to watch anything else from the Sky box, although the box
can record two other programmes at the same time as playing back.

OK, thanks, understood.

One final query. Is it possible to replace the HD in this new Pace
Sky+ box with a larger one, if/when I need to?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK