General / Off-Topic so peeeeeeeeeeved right now, what happened to the world of TV recording?

[Leper Messiah]

Since 2006 I have had DVR/DVDRW setups allowing me to record programs from Sky and backup up to DVD-Rs (and of course before that I used VCRs). I watch/rec a lot of motorsports that are not overly popular and backup films as well. I never cared a jot this was all SD, as long as I could watch it when I wanted and being on low income was a good trade off, yeah I had to wait for films to come to the normal channels, but I got them in the end.

In 2013 I had to replace my original LG device for a Panasonic one. This morning I wanted to watch a film I backed up recently and it wouldn't work, no DVD-R blank or used would work. Original DVDs do work though. "No problem" I thought...."I'll just get a replacement".....after most of the day searching and investigating I am left with a slack jawed expression on how "streaming","HD" and "on demand" along with skanky hollywood/TV execs have destroyed the ability to record and backup TV. I'm truly aghast. I can't find any new DVD recorders of any type, other than useless "freeview" recorders with no inputs for other devices (like Sky). The only ones I can find are used or refurbished with little or no warranties, again being on low income these are large expenditures I NEED to last years.

Gutted. The future can seriously suck at times.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

In my experience DVD recorders are (were) slow, clunky and fussy when it came to which disks they liked.

My advice to you would be to buy a HUMAX PVR, install custom firmware on it* and you can copy recordings to a hard drive/USB stick or over a network to a NAS or via FTP. Hard drive space is dirt cheap. To be honest I haven't kept up with the newer models so I'm not sure which ones support the custom firmware but the HDR-FOX T2 is so good it's probably worth getting a 2nd-hand or HUMAX-refurbished one for much less money than a new one.

*actually you only need to install the custom firmware if you want to transfer a HD recording, you don't need it for SD recordings as they are decrypted during the copy.

No idea if other makes of PVR offer similar functions.

 

[Leper Messiah]

In my experience DVD recorders are (were) slow, clunky and fussy when it came to which disks they liked.

My advice to you would be to buy a HUMAX PVR, install custom firmware on it* and you can copy recordings to a hard drive/USB stick or over a network to a NAS or via FTP. Hard drive space is dirt cheap. To be honest I haven't kept up with the newer models so I'm not sure which ones support the custom firmware but the HDR-FOX T2 is so good it's probably worth getting a 2nd-hand or HUMAX-refurbished one for much less money than a new one.

*actually you only need to install the custom firmware if you want to transfer a HD recording, you don't need it for SD recordings as they are decrypted during the copy.

No idea if other makes of PVR offer similar functions.

Thanks for the info, thing is I record various motorsports and take them over to my father in law and we watch them every Sunday, he doesn't have Sky so this is the only way he can watch stuff like Moto3 and 2 races, V8 Supercars. Looks like that era of my life and his has ended.

 

[CMDR MAIN SEQUENCE]

You could get a DVD writer for your PC and burn them from hard drive/USB stick.

 

[GJ51]

I just use Windows Media Center and a Silicon Dust HDHR cable card network tuner to record to local hard drive and/or NAS

Easy to record/replay TB's worth of TV recordings

May be the last reason to hang on to Win 7 boxes

 

[Leper Messiah]

You could get a DVD writer for your PC and burn them from hard drive/USB stick.

I have a DVD writer in my PC already, I don't think I can xfer recordings to USB.

I just use Windows Media Center and a Silicon Dust HDHR cable card network tuner to record to local hard drive and/or NAS

Easy to record/replay TB's worth of TV recordings

May be the last reason to hang on to Win 7 boxes

Does this work with a Sky tv box (UK)? Although my PC is nowhere near my TV/sky location. edit...jus looked and doesn't look like Sky will work. I don't watch the usual "freeview stuff", well apart from the stuff ITV 4 shows, BTCC, IOMTT, BSB/WSB/MGP highlights.

 

[metatheurgist]

What sort of input/output do you get from Sky? There are various ways to pipe a video signal through a PC and record it. That's how a lot of analog to digital conversion is done.

 

[Leper Messiah]

oh well just ordered a Panasonic DMR-EX97EB-K DVD Recorder, I can still record V8 Supercar highlights and highlights of WSB BSB IOMTT BTCC and Moto GP. Good enough I suppose, dunno what I'll do when this model is discontinued...

 

[Leper Messiah]

What sort of input/output do you get from Sky? There are various ways to pipe a video signal through a PC and record it. That's how a lot of analog to digital conversion is done.

Sadly that's all getting a bit too technical for me to wade through all the various info/opinions. I have no idea how to connect to PC, and no idea what software to use to record and no idea what software to use to record in a format a bog standard DVD player can read back.

 

[Arry]

Welcome to the world of commercial greed. Where the big corporations milk a piece of technology, for every penny they can get and then over night. They make it obsolete; thus forcing you to buy the latest, 'must have' junk; they have to offer and rebuild your collection again from scratch.

 

[moorison]

Welcome to the world of commercial greed. Where the big corporations milk a piece of technology, for every penny they can get and then over night. They make it obsolete; thus forcing you to buy the latest, 'must have' junk; they have to offer and rebuild your collection again from scratch.

There is something to be said about the convenience of contemporary media distribution methods, but it is strangely more complicated to do specific, formerly simple tasks (if they are possible at all).

 

[Arry]

There is something to be said about the convenience of contemporary media distribution methods, but it is strangely more complicated to do specific, formerly simple tasks (if they are possible at all).

I found it very frustrating when I brought my first digital T.V. I replaced the old one, but when I tried to used my video recorder to tape something to watch later; I found that could no longer do that. To do so, I would have to buy a more expensive T.V. with its own recorder, built in. To me, that is like a Concord moment and we are going backwards.

 

[moorison]

I found it very frustrating when I brought my first digital T.V. I replaced the old one, but when I tried to used my video recorder to tape something to watch later; I found that could no longer do that. To do so, I would have to buy a more expensive T.V. with its own recorder, built in. To me, that is like a Concord moment and we are going backwards.

To "compensate" for this, many (if not all) broadcasters have these on demand online services, but I know several people for which this is too complicated to use, since they are not that tech-savvy. Even some of those Smart-TVs with online capabilities, that don't need a separate PC to use these services are still too complicated, since the media sources are usually in different menus instead of contextual groups. Typical remotes don't make much sense anymore in that context.

 

[Arry]

To "compensate" for this, many (if not all) broadcasters have these on demand online services, but I know several people for which this is too complicated to use, since they are not that tech-savvy. Even some of those Smart-TVs with online capabilities, that don't need a separate PC to use these services are still too complicated, since the media sources are usually in different menus instead of contextual groups. Typical remotes don't make much sense anymore in that context.

On demand, came out about 10 years after the first digital T.V. hit the market. Sky of course; have monopolised everything. used to be, that you could watch a few live football matches, over the weekend, on the normal channels for free. Now you have to spend over £700 per year, just to switch on the tele and then, anything worth watching; is pay to view extra. There is just one, F1 race this year, shown live on normal T.V.

 

[metatheurgist]

Sadly that's all getting a bit too technical for me to wade through all the various info/opinions. I have no idea how to connect to PC, and no idea what software to use to record and no idea what software to use to record in a format a bog standard DVD player can read back.

Once you get it on your PC the options open up a bit. Most DVD players now have a USB slot that will play most of the common video formats you can put on a PC. Then you just start giving your Dad USB sticks instead of burning disks.

 

[Leper Messiah]

There is something to be said about the convenience of contemporary media distribution methods, but it is strangely more complicated to do specific, formerly simple tasks (if they are possible at all).

Those are no good for personal backups though.

To "compensate" for this, many (if not all) broadcasters have these on demand online services, but I know several people for which this is too complicated to use, since they are not that tech-savvy. Even some of those Smart-TVs with online capabilities, that don't need a separate PC to use these services are still too complicated, since the media sources are usually in different menus instead of contextual groups. Typical remotes don't make much sense anymore in that context.

for my purposes "on demand" and "box sets" are next to worthless for me. I don't watch the mainstream "popular" crap and I don't watch mainstream "popular sports". In the future I will not have much choice but to watch the "reality TV" tripe and F1 crap.

I'm very surprised the Chinese havn't dived into this market to shove the middle finger up to the yank capitalists.

 

[Leper Messiah]

Once you get it on your PC the options open up a bit. Most DVD players now have a USB slot that will play most of the common video formats you can put on a PC. Then you just start giving your Dad USB sticks instead of burning disks.

That means asking my dad in law to buy a new DVD player.

I realise it's something I'll have to get my head around, dad in law is a huge fan of Moto 3 and Moto 2 and Terrestrial TV only show extremely brief highlights of those races.

 

[moorison]

I know there are these capture boxes for those people that want to upload their video game sessions but not necessarily live stream, put in between the source and the display. But I suppose they only support unencrypted HDMI signals. You would have the option to convert the files to the DVD format (or put them on a USB-stick) if it works. Still more effort necessary than before.

 

[Leper Messiah]

I know there are these capture boxes for those people that want to upload their video game sessions but not necessarily live stream, put in between the source and the display. But I suppose they only support unencrypted HDMI signals. You would have the option to convert the files to the DVD format (or put them on a USB-stick) if it works. Still more effort necessary than before.

Yup, I've had a little look at it and staring from scratch I would have too much to learn and at 47 I just CBA'd (can't be ......(you can guess)). I'll be happy with freeview for now Sky can kiss my hairy crack when it comes to extras and Q (too expensive for me anyway).

I'll fight those capitalist smeggers in hollywood the only way I can by not giving the sods my dosh. Champagne socialists the lot of 'em.

 

[Mo Ronik]

I gave up on pay TV a long time ago. I can get around 30 channels via my power antenna and anything else like baseball games I can stream on Reddit. Reddit seems pretty good for streaming live sporting events.