Suitable Freeview box for VCR?

"Norman Wells" wrote in message
...
Zimmy wrote:

Then there's all the fun of finding which of at least 5 unlabelled
cassettes you recorded onto,
winding the tape back to try to find the beginning of the recording
(only to overshoot into ad breaks from a previous recording but keep
going back), getting halfway through a program only find another
family member started a new recording over the top because it was the
only tape they could find, not to mention those lovely noise bars due
to wrinkles on the tapes that a little skeleton said would last
forever.
How silly of me, why would anyone want to give all that up?

No reason at all, since they're all very minor niggles, most of which
could be avoided with a felt tip pen, a carefully chosen threat to
wellbeing, or a removed tab.

No, it's the other things you wouldn't want to give up, like being able to
take the original recorded medium out of the machine, and give it to
someone else or play it somewhere more convenient.

Or being able to store the original recording virtually forever without
fear of losing everything through something serendipitous like a hard disk
crash or machine replacement.

Or being able to play your existing comprehensive set of films, Red Dwarfs
etc on other tapes that you've so lovingly collected over the years.

Or not having to concern yourself with archiving to Region 8 double layer
sandwich +R-RW-XD green wave DVDs or some other impenetrable medium that
you can't make work, just to achieve the same benefits that tapes give you
for free.

Or the fact that my 3 year old can change video cassettes by herself,
selecting by the picture on the case and not needing to be able read menus
and program lists.

All good points, and probably why I still have a VCR underneath my PVR and
DVD. :-)

Z

"Zimmy" wrote in message ...

Then there's all the fun of finding which of at least 5 unlabelled
cassettes you recorded onto,
winding the tape back to try to find the beginning of the recording (only
to overshoot into ad breaks from a previous recording but keep going
back),
getting halfway through a program only find another family member started
a new recording over the top because it was the only tape they could find,
not to mention those lovely noise bars due to wrinkles on the tapes that a
little skeleton said would last forever.

Send them back for a replacement - they have a 'lifetime' guarantee - or is
that the lifetime of the medium?

--
Max Demian

Jim wrote:

Hardly any modern boxes have modulators.


The TVONICS range seems to be an exception.

"Jim" wrote in message
net...
Jim wrote:

Hardly any modern boxes have modulators.


The TVONICS range seems to be an exception.

Yup, I thought I'd found a suitable receiver for them in the MDR-250
receiver. It seems as though there's no option to disable the interactive
stuff on that box though.

On Thu, 7 May 2009 02:58:30 -0700 (PDT), 2Bdecided
wrote:

On 7 May, 10:32, "Womble" wrote:
Can anyone recommend a current Freeview receiver that can be used with a VCR
to do timed recordings (sadly a PVR is not an option for my elderly
relative)?

Requirements are

1) timer events
2) ability to disable interactive red dot/MHEG on screen messages

Ideally,the following would also be nice

3) ability to disable checking for new channels
4) an RF modulator

The Tvonics MDR-250 seems ok on 1,3,4 but sadly not 2, so all the recordings
would have the red dot rubbish on them. *It's to receive from Stockland Hill
with the new 8k transmissions, so older boxes from ebay may not be
suitable - although I am considering the old silver Netgem iplayer, which
should work ok.

Any recommendations on what to go for (or avoid!) are welcomed. *Many
thanks.

Fred

Are you aware of the one VCR (Daewoo DVRT43), and several DVD
recorders, with Freeview built-in? That would solve a few problems.

There are also some Freeview boxes that will control some external
recorders via SCART, meaning you only have to set one timer. Not sure
of the details - someone here has one.

I have a Philips VR550 VCR. This has a recording mode called RECORD
LINK. When set to this mode (via the Menu) it will come out of standby
and start recording the signal on AV2 when there is a signal on AV2.

So with a Freeview STB connected via Scart to AV2 on the VCR,
set the timers on the STB for the programmes you want to record,
switch the STB to standby,
set the VCR to Record Link mode
switch the VCR to standby.

And then remember to switch the VCR out of standby before you do
anything more with the STB otherwise as soon as you take the STB out of
standby the VCR will wake up and start recording!

Manual at:
http://www.p4c.philips.com/files/v/v...07_dfu_eng.pdf

Although it refers to "Automatic controlled recording from a
satellite receiver (RECORD LINK)" it is not limited to satellite
receivers.

Zimmy wrote:


Or the fact that my 3 year old can change video cassettes by herself,
selecting by the picture on the case and not needing to be able read
menus and program lists.

She's already over qualified for a job at ITV3.


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

On Fri, 08 May 2009 21:31:03 +0100, Mark Carver wrote:

She's already over qualified for a job at ITV3.

If that is the case, then I hate to think how low the qualifications
for a job at ITV-2 must be.

On 8 May, 22:40, J G Miller wrote:
On Fri, 08 May 2009 21:31:03 +0100, Mark Carver wrote:

* * She's already over qualified for a job at ITV3.

If that is the case, then I hate to think how low the qualifications
for a job at ITV-2 must be.

Insert "Emmerdale" tape. Press "Play".

Repeat every three hours.

--
WH

"Norman Wells" wrote in message
...
Zimmy wrote:

Then there's all the fun of finding which of at least 5 unlabelled
cassettes you recorded onto,
winding the tape back to try to find the beginning of the recording
(only to overshoot into ad breaks from a previous recording but keep
going back), getting halfway through a program only find another
family member started a new recording over the top because it was the
only tape they could find, not to mention those lovely noise bars due
to wrinkles on the tapes that a little skeleton said would last
forever.
How silly of me, why would anyone want to give all that up?

No reason at all, since they're all very minor niggles, most of which
could be avoided with a felt tip pen, a carefully chosen threat to
wellbeing, or a removed tab.

No, it's the other things you wouldn't want to give up, like being able to
take the original recorded medium out of the machine, and give it to
someone else or play it somewhere more convenient.

Or being able to store the original recording virtually forever without
fear of losing everything through something serendipitous like a hard disk
crash or machine replacement.

Or being able to play your existing comprehensive set of films, Red Dwarfs
etc on other tapes that you've so lovingly collected over the years.

Or not having to concern yourself with archiving to Region 8 double layer
sandwich +R-RW-XD green wave DVDs or some other impenetrable medium that
you can't make work, just to achieve the same benefits that tapes give you
for free.




4GBs of SD flash memory now under a tenner, in my view an ideal replacement
for transferable videotape, yet no PVR manufacturers (or many other
equipment suppliers come to that) would appear to be aware of its existence.

It certainly can't be very much to do with costs, as my Chinese made £30.00
DVD player is capable of playing DIVX recordings from SD cards (or memory
sticks) at much better quality than VHS tape... from the point of view of
longevity I've been using and reusing flash memory for a number of years now
and haven't yet experienced a single catastrophic card failure, even with
quite old cards, I've asked several other people I know who also use SD
cards as a substitute for tape and it seems their experiences would bear
that out.

Ivan wrote:


4GBs of SD flash memory now under a tenner, in my view an ideal
replacement for transferable videotape, yet no PVR manufacturers (or
many other equipment suppliers come to that) would appear to be aware of
its existence.

I might be very wrong, but isn't there an access time problem with memory of
that size ? Fine for playing a file from the start, but jumping around, and
randomly accessing the content might be too sluggish for a PVR ?



--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk