Freeview recorders

You’ve not mentioned tuning it. That’s normally a good place to start.

it already looks to be tuned in from previous owner, but just no pic.  if it finds the channels, isnt it tuned in?

cheers

it already looks to be tuned in from previous owner,

Where did the previous owner live? There isn’t just one massive transmitting tower in the middle of the country…

good point.  thatll be my next step then, seeing if i can find out how to re-tune it.

cheers

@sadexpunk I feel a little responsible for your problems! Hopefully you’re making progress with it, but based on the photo from earlier, I’d agree with the diagnosis that it looks like it needs retuning to the area where you now have it.
Try this if you’ve not worked it out yet…
1) Press the Function Menu button on the remote
2) Choose ‘Setup’
3) Choose ‘Tuning’
4) Choose ‘Channel List’
5) It then looks like the red button sets it running with picking up the local channels available.
That’ll probably take several minutes, after which I think it automatically goes through a series of options like “Sorting by best signal” or “Sorting by regional channels” or similar, and after that it should settle down to display what it’s found.

There may be other ways of getting to the same place – i.e. other menu routes. Ours periodically announces that it’s being fed with “New channels found – do you want to retune?” and we either ignore it or let it do so, depending on whether we’ve got 10 mins to spare.

Once you’ve got it going, one thing worth noting is that the red/green/yellow/blue buttons do different things in different parts of the menu, but usually the red one is the most probable option – it starts & stops the recording of a prog that’s being broadcast right now, for instance. Or it sets the timer to record one once you’ve found it in the list of channels/programmes that are to be broadcast tomorrow (or to cancel a planned recording if you’ve set by accident)

Good luck

@thelawman thanks mate, and noooooo, youre in no way responsible for me being incompetent with tech 😀

ill try that tomorrow when i go back round to her flat again.

thanks 🙂

@thelawman thanks for the advice, it worked, but….. i didnt actually need to do it, for some reason it did it all itself, which is sort of what i was hoping for yesterday 😀

i went to ma’s flat, armed with your instructions, plus the knowledge that i needed to change the time, switched on, and what do you know…… ‘new channels found, do you want to retune?’  errrr…… yes please.

let it do its thing and all the channels are now there, plus its changed the time automatically.  now why couldnt it have done this yesterday?? 😀

she cant get the internet/apps on it cos it needs a wifi adaptor, but shes not bothered about that cos theyre on the tv anyway, so ive shown her how to keep switching between the two for whatever she needs.

thanks for your help and advice chaps.  a happy mum is a happy life, or something like that….

cheers

Excellent news, all sorted by the sound of it.

Yrs, it’s just a Freeview player/recorder. If mum wants various other services like Disney, Netflix, Prime, whatever, she’ll need the telly’s on board apps, or plug in a Firestick dongle or similar to get them.

Marvellous

If mum wants various other services like Disney, Netflix, Prime, whatever, she’ll need the telly’s on board apps, or plug in a Firestick dongle or similar to get them.

yeah, shes got the apps and wifi on her tv anyway, so wouldnt gain anything from a firestick.  so its either switch back to the tv for them, or get a wifi adapter for the recorder, but my advice to her is just to leave it as is, no need for the extra cost of an adapter if the apps are just a button press away.

thanks

WTF, is that what they go for 2nd hand? I’ve got a Humax freesat, Panasonic like the one here and an old Sony, was just going to chuck em. eBay it is then

https://tda.panasonic-europe-service.com/docs/2z662189e8z1z36c0cz656ez706466z24z62f17ff3fb42c615113c66ae34afb04a71d9a162/tsn2/data/ALL/DMRHW220EB/OI/890954/vqt4e91.pdf

sounds like it need a tune, yup

update time.

mums now decided that she’d also like a dedicated dvd player rather than cobble some dvd adaptor to her macbook.  she never really got on with the tuner/recorder that she bought (more her fault than the player), she doesnt have much space on her unit, so ive advised that she just gets what she needs all in a oner.  she’d like a simple to use/understand twin tuner recorder with inbuilt dvd player.

any suggestions please?

thank you

I can’t help with a current unit but about 10 years ago I had a Panasonic DVD recorder with twin tuners. It was easy to use and set up but failed in its warranty period. The replacement also failed after a further couple of years. Both times seemed to be issues with the hard drive interface with the DVD read/writing section. So based on an old model I would be wary of Panasonic.

I strongly suspect you will be much better getting whatever the best Freeview recorder is (or stick with current) and then adding a separate Bluray/DVD player. A perfectly good disc player will be no more than £80 at a guess. A combined unit would probably be more than the two units separately and the recorder could be a complete dog, as a lot of them are.

problem is, she doesnt really have room for 2 units.  the current recorder sits in the space underneath her tv with no room either side.

cheers

Now I’ve read back I see the current Freeview recorder is a Panasonic. One reason I wasn’t recommending an all in one was that Panasonic seem to be the only people who make them anymore, and my experience with a Panasonic recorder is that the interface and usability was shocking.

If you really want an all-in-one I think your only option is this;

https://www.richersounds.com/panasonic-dmrex97-black/ (£319)

or for a tenner more one that also plays Blurays; https://www.richersounds.com/panasonic-dmrpwt550eb-black/

I still think your better option is separate units for a better recorder experience (and cheaper overall). eg. these (which are both physically small units so might be an option?);

Recorder; https://www.richersounds.com/manhattan-t4r-500gb/ (£169)

Bluray player; https://www.richersounds.com/panasonic-dmpbdt180-black/ (£89) – or Panasonic DMP-BD84EB-K on Amazon at £75 looks a good option (and possibly even smaller).

The Manhatten PVR is only 280 mm wide and a Sony DVD player 230mm, so might they fit side by side ?

thanks, ill have a measure for her.  wasnt sure that blurays play dvd’s so had a google and it would appear some dont?

All Bluray players will play DVD’s. They won’t play HD-DVDs which were the losing format in the HD format wars (Bluray vs HD-DVD). That might be what is causing confusion but you’re not going to come across a HD DVD nowadays.

I would say you are safer buying a Blueray player as the older generation, in my experience, just see any physical media as “a disc”, so if you have something that can play any “discs” you are less likely to get phone calls about their disc player not liking the disc they are feeding it.