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DVD recorder / hard drives

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amazer kombi pilot

3,187 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#398565
Heres a thread that will annoy all people who only think about VW's.

With my soon to be new found wealth from a 40hr/week job I want to get rid of the 2 old dvd players (neither plays all dvd's) and video from the lounge and replace them with some 21st century electronics. The missus wnats a bed room suite but I think tv/electronic stuff is far more important.

I had a look in Bing Lee today and was well out of my league.
This is all I want/need I think.
A dvd player that wont have a fit over the slightest imperfection on a disk.
Something that will play all/most dvd's.
Something I can record my episodes of the Bill onto when I am at the club sinking schooners.
Something I can record directly to dvd on from my digital camera (which has firewire).
and a recliner to watch it from...
and dolby home theatre...

The one I saw with the most bells seemed to be a Sony for a bit over $1000 but there are some for about $500 that may do me. The sony is all forms of dvd +R -R dual layer... what the hell is all that crap? The hard drive had something like 300 hours capacity. Not sure what formats the the cheaper one used, it only had 80GB HD but I think that will be ample, I think they said that was about 120 hours? Some had card readers as well but I dont think that will be needed... although... maybe a camera later...

Is there a site that compares these things like a link someone posted about the cameras?
I know choice magazine did a comparison but I doubt the validity of their knowledge since one of the 5 things they tested was standby current draw. Who cares!
Chris.... kombi pilot, oval dreamer... finisher #26971 2005 city to surf

vanderaj Administrator a suffusion of yellow

3,130 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#398842
I have a TiVo. It's the best. It has no DVD player, but it has a 250 GB hard drive and a network card. I tell it the *name* of programs I want, and it goes and gets them whenever they're on, on whatever channel it might be on. No more missed programs due to Channel 9 rescheduling things stupidly. It also gets things it thinks I might be interested in when it has spare cycles. There is a small but active Tivo community in Australia - as Tivo is not officially sold here. You can buy ready to go units from a place in Adelaide, but you need to "download" the oztivo ISO needed (it's only 20 MB) so that the place in Adelaide can make it go.

Another alternative to Tivo I've been considering if my Tivo ever died (no!) is to buy a MythTV capable PC and bits and make up one. It'll cost about the same, but I'll need to buy the XMLTV program guide data from someone. The cool thing is that a MythTV ISO can transcode from the digital / analog programs it records into other formats, and also allows you to recode DVDs whilst doing other stuff. Such a MythTV PC would cost a bit more than a Tivo, but less than the top of the line Sony HD / DVD unit you're looking at, but also be far, far more functional - it can stream MP3's for example from other hosts on your network.

I bought a cheap ass $99 Sony DVD after I bought the Tivo. All regions and is very resilient at playing damaged and odd disks. My brother put in a VCD and I was surprised it played it.

Andrew

vanderaj Administrator a suffusion of yellow

3,130 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#398846
Tivo:

http://minnie.tuhs.org/twiki/bin/view

MythTV:

http://www.mythtv.org/

If you want to go down the Tivo path but do it yourself, you can buy a Tivo S1 unit from the US for about $99 USD. Make sure you get the IR blaster and IR handset. Junk the HD they supply and buy a modern (=big) drive. $150 will get you a 250 GB drive now. That's enough for about 250 hours of best quality (=broadcast) to about 500 hours of medium quality (think waaaay better than VCD). I only use Best.

Andrew

Canni. Wolfsburg Wizard

471 posts · joined Sep 2003 ·

#399019
thanks andrew..I always wondered how you got a tivo down here...
Heidi - 1960 White Beetle
'65 Kiwi Ghia

matara Custom Title Time!

1,342 posts · joined Aug 2002 ·

#399032
Chris

I just bought a Wintal DVD X-20 to transfer all our kids videos onto DVD. Cost $230 off ebay, and its worth every cent. records like a vcr from the TV with a timer. No more bulky VHS.

Cheers

Steve