Home audio & video forum: Poll: How do you record your favorite TV programs?

DVR through Comcast.

It gets the job done but it can run slow and the menus aren't as smooth as DVRs offered from satellite providers.

it...but if I do, I use the standalone dvd recorder.

I have 2 Panasonics. One is the DMR-EH55 (considered the best one every made) & I have a DMR-EH75V (with VCR). U cant buy them any more & if u do find one they are selling for twice as much as new. I love mine so much that I would not sell if offered 3 times as much.

An analog tuner is NTSC, not ATSC. Sorry, I must remember to proof read!

Dennis C.

Such Digital-to-anaolg converts are also on the market in the US now, but my existing VCR is due for replacement soon. I'm not going to replace my TV until it dies, so I won't mind using a converter between the antenna output of a new DVR and my old TV.

I'm looking to replace my old VCR with a DVR that has a digital tunre built in and antenna (open-air) pass-through to connect to a converter to analog for my old TV. I really want to be able to record to a HDD in the DVR and get true HD if a channel is broadcasting that. Later, if I decide I want to keep a recordidng, I want to dub it to a DVD disk. I also want to be able to connect the old VCR to an aux input on the DVR to save several old movies I've got.

Haven't found anything that's quite right yet.... I really wonder what, other than the Echo what-ya-ma-call-it, might be coming to market in the next few months.

Dennis C.

I have the same type HDD recorder as Artpoz, the Panasonic DMR-EH 55. It has outstanding feautures like, recording from a tuner, playing DIVX, some modest editing capabilites, DV- input and built in SD card reader, so you can watch your pictures on TV. Offcourse many other feautures, but they are irrelevant to our discussion at hand.

It also has another feature, that i am very interested to try: On its rear panel, it has a network cable socket ( RJ45), so you can actually connect it through a regular network cable to your PC. So you can watch whatever you recorded from VHS or SD camera cards on the units HDD, on your PC. I am not sure though if it allows you to capture it on the PC, i.e. save it on your PC.

Artpoz, have you tried this feature?

I also have a Panasonic DMR-EH55 (N. American model) and I haven't heard of an RJ-45 plug, last I checked, there weren't any.

I have 3 DVRs through Dishnetwork. One is HD and the other two are SD. I also have two DVD recorders. One is a combo unit. I also have a VCR still hooked up. I can record 9 programs at the same time. Of course, I would neer have time to watch them.

18 years in electronics and I am still being referred to as "gal"...but first you must pull us out of the kitchen, right, boy?

In reality, you are a man, I am a woman.

For god's sake, why can't you leave it like that and let us do our jobs....for the same money of course!!?

April, AD in Electronics, 1985

I do a lot of educational and fun recording for my son and I also record certain NASA shuttle flight information therefore I use a variety of units. First the units involved. Three
Toshiba units models RDSX 32,52 and 54. These have both HDD and DVD recording capabilities. One Panasonic DMR-ES30V that has DVD and VHS recording capabilities. Both the Toshiba and Panasonic models can also record on RAM disk and R/W disks so that helps in transferring data between the units. One TIVO type unit from Cox cable that has an HDD for recording only and you cannot get data from it easily. Because the Toshiba units have HDDs I can first record data to the HDD, edit out unwanted data and then record to the DVD. These units are also great for editing home movies etc. The Panasonic is one button to transfer data from VHS to DVD or the other way if needed. The TIVO type unit is great because I can record programs for my son and he choose which ones he wants to listen to. To make life easy I use the smaller Toshiba to duplicate what is being recorded on the TIVO. This allows me to use the Toshiba to edit and then record to DVD his favorite programs so that when the TIVO fills up I can delete those shows and still have them on DVD for my son to watch.

I used Instantcake on my Hughes HDVR2 to connect it to the wired LAN. Transfer programs to the PC, and process with TyTool into mpg's, then write to DVD's.

We have 4 TIVO's of various ages, one is newest type that works on std tv.

No wide screen set yet.

3 have lifetime service.

Dish HD DVR here too. Whatever kind of gadgetry I buy, and I buy a lot, I look for that which will require shortest possible learning curve (most intuitive) and least possible hassle. With the Dish DVR, when I have two programs I'd like to watch, I just push the record button on one, watch the other now, then watch the recorded program later. On perusing Dish's on-screen future listings menu, when I find something I'd like to see I just push the record button, then later sometime in the future I select it to watch at my leisure.

So far, this Dish DVR and my Amazon Kindle e-reader are the coolest of all my purchases in recent years. I might add that the two of them share that one characteristic I worship most in the world of technology, you don't need to keep an operator's manual handy or call your geek friend to help you work through an issue centered around equipment complexity. I've been buying and fighting MS PCs since there have been MS PCs and quite frankly I'm just tired. Between my iMac, my Kindle, and my Dish DVR I've finally reached a level of comfort in the world of technology.

We record everything on our DirecTv dual tuner DVR and it has been great. After years of dealing with two VCR's to record programs simultaneously, our DVR records weekly shows (two at a time if necessary) automatically. It is programmed by title, not calendar, so if a show is broadcast at a different time or day one week, the DVR gets it. Can also be set to ignore reruns. Programs or movies that we enjoy enough to keep get transferred to DVD-R on a Panasonic recorder.

I like it fine! It's Energy Star compliant (very important to me), it has a beautiful picture when just playing movies. I bought one that gave out after six months for no good reason, so I got another one, and this one has been more reliable. I'm new to this, so it's hard to know what is user error and what's the nature of digital recording. I've got mine piggybacked to my ten-year-old Panasonic VCR for videotape viewing through one of the DVD recorder's Auxiliary channels.

What I like about the Samsung is that it's very slim and elegant, and it's completely black, so it matches my VCR as well as my television. It's one of the thinnest devices with a tuner that they make. I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to use it after next February, though. I try to practice voluntary simplicity, and I don't like a house full of gadgets.

What I don't like are the copy protection, of course, and that a DVD recorders functions are more complicated. On my JVC player, for example, you turn it on, it says hello, and you don't go through a sea of menus to play your disc. But the Samsung needs to know what you want to do, and you have Disc Menu and Title Menu to choose from, you can't just push a button and instantly find the chapter menus and audio commentaries. I miss the simplicity of just having a player attached to a television. Also, the Samsung remote is a nightmare. But, my universal remote lets me access almost all of what I need in a more sane fashion.