My video player has finally died and I have now got a nice new tv with a built in freesat and freeview tuner inside, so as I don't need a sky plus box, what are my option on recording tv?

a PVR.

something like this

Although that's the top notch doobery. You record channels though, not what's on the TV. The PVR has to have the appropriate recievers built into it, and that one does. It has two so you can record two channels at once.

edit: If you wnt to write to DVD after recording then there are plenty out there with DVD writers built in.

Ive had a Humax 9200T for years now and its excellent, would highly recommend it. It has a twin tuner, so you can record two things at once and also watch a different channel on your TVs freeview reciever

Humax 9150T with the latest software updates. Can be had for ~£112 (richer sounds) and does the trick perfectly. I actually have so many things recorded now that I don't have time to watch them all. 9300T if you want HDMI output.

So there is no modern day equivalent of the video player that can record what is on screen? DO they all need their own feeds?

A video player never recorded what was on screen, it recorded whatever channel it was set to. You could record BBC1 and watch BBC2. Only difference now it that you record Living +1.5 and watch British Eurosport +3.2 or something (oh, and you can often record 2 channels, not just one, and with a decoder in your TV you cold record 2 and watch another 1… Babestation?)

EDIT-the ariel used to go into VCR then to TV, probably a splitter for PVR and TV feeds, then SCART or HDMI to get from PVR to TV.
Don't get to use acronyms very often thankfully 🙂

So there is no modern day equivalent of the video player that can record what is on screen?

Eh? Do you have a slightly warped view of how a video recorder works? VCRs have always (AFAICR) had their own tuners and used their own antenna feed, then passed it through to the TV.

So there is no modern day equivalent of the video player that can record what is on screen? DO they all need their own feeds?

It's no different, VCRs had their own analog tuner just as the TV had it own analog tuner. Now you have a TV with a built in digital tuner, but you'll want a recorder with its own built in digital tuner. Apart from anything else, you need digital information to be recorded onto the hard disk. Think of the extra tuner on the TV as just being for those times when you want to watch a third programme while recording two other things (most PVRs will have two tuners, some can record two channels at once others you can only record one but watch another, or record while watching something recorded earlier, they can pretty much all pause live TV and let you watch out of sync – good way to skip advert breaks in films).

If we're talking about digital TV, then no, not really. (I'm sure you could rig it up but it's not worth it) So what you do is get a pvr, the aerial go's straight into that, that box will have an always open aerial output which will go to the telly, just like your video recorder.

The difference is that most PVR's don't record on demand like your video would, you have to set a timer. You can record something you're watching but you will generally have to set the timer to do it. All PVRS come with a dead easy to use interface for recording stuff. They'll show a menu with all channels and all programs on them and you typically just highlight what you want to record and press the red button or seomthing. And you can set up a hundred items to record. The smarter ones can even be set to record stuff it knows you like, a bit like sky plus.

We have a Phillips with a built in DVD writer. My wife logs on on Sunday night, sets up all her soaps to record through the week in a couple of minutes. I'll go on a bit later and have a quick browse for any decent films or documentaries that might be coming along and as long as they don't clash then I'll record them too. If things do clash it'll run off and try to find another version say on channel 4+1 or something and ask if I want to record that instead.

I could tape things that weren't being fed directly into my video machine by taking the feed from the tv, so to record sky, I didn't need a satellite feed going into my video player.

The difference is that most PVR's don't record on demand like your video would, you have to set a timer.

Don't they? The humax records on demand (And knows when to turn off), or off schedule?

I could tape things that weren't being fed directly into my video machine by taking the feed from the tv, so to record sky, I didn't need a satellite feed going into my video player.

What you're suggesting is the "odd" way of recording, i.e. get the TV to do the decoding and then pass in a raw video signal. You can do this on some (via scart IIRC) but it's not a standard featue IIRC, it would be model specific so you'd need to ask about each one in particular.

We have a digital TV but for those times when you might want to do an instant rewind and slow forward (for your own instant replay on sports shows – or anything with Kate Humble or Julia Bradbury) then watch it through the PVR. We have a digifusion one (the first one died, but we liked the user interface so much I found a reconditioned one for about £30 on the web) and it automatically records 30 minutes of the channel it is tuned to, so you can even record a programme that started 10 minutes ago.

I feed it through the tv with the feed then going to the video player so that I could do this, can that set up not be replicated then? So if I want to record some of the free sat only channel then I will need to get a freesat decoder box with a hard disk recorder then?

I could tape things that weren't being fed directly into my video machine by taking the feed from the tv, so to record sky, I didn't need a satellite feed going into my video player.

????????????

I feed it through the tv with the feed then going to the video player so that I could do this, can that set up not be replicated then? So if I want to record some of the free sat only channel then I will need to get a freesat decoder box with a hard disk recorder then?

A PVR will record things in exactly the same way as your Betamax. Only better. There is nothing a tape recorder can do that a PVR can't*

*Unless you want to pull the tape out or post toast into the slot.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164913

Just bought one of these.

Works well enough though I would much rather live with a VCR.

m_f – they don't generally record from an arbitrary source. Some people use VCRs like that (I think he's an example of this) – i.e. point a video source down a scart lead and it'll record it regardless of source type. Not sure how many PVRs do this. The thing is that that relies on the TV providing a vid-out of whatever is on the screen, and I'm not aware of many TVs doing that either, not that it's something I've looked for, I'm just surprised he has a TV with both sat and freeview tuners that provides a dedicated video-out.

I understand what he wants now coffeeking – I was at a loss as to why he didn't think one would work like a VCR. I assume that they all digital recorders have Freeview built in so it would just be a case of tinkering with wiring?

Don't they? The humax records on demand (And knows when to turn off), or off schedule?

But is it not exactly like setting a schedule entry?

But is it not exactly like setting a schedule entry?

Setting a schedule entry would be:
guide>find entry>"ok">"ok".

Recording on demand I just hit the little red circle and it starts recording and stops automatically after the programme ends.

Or are we on cross purposes with terminology here?

I think the only downfall is that it has to come from one of the internal tuners AFAIK, rather than from an external tuner like some VCRs did (allowing tape-to-tape copying etc), thoguh a friend of mine here says their panasonic one allows them to tape from an external tuner.

There's plenty of DVD HDD recorders out there that will pretty much do what he wants
The Pana – as mentioned – will certainly allow recording to DVD from an A/V input

Maybe I've just not been aware of that ability. I'm pretty sure ours doesn't (but I'm going to check now. 😉 )

Ours will certainly accept a feed from numerous sources including an external tuner.

One PVR that would definitely do it is the Tivo
Hard to get hold of these days though

There is nothing a tape recorder can do that a PVR can't*

At least my video DIDN'T **** CRASH EVERYDAY, NOT RECORD STUFF EVEN THOUGH I SET IT HALF AN HOUR EARLIER, AND CUT RECORDINGS OFF 2mins FROM THE END!!!!!

Seriously my Humax box is going through the **** window any day soon!