Which HDD Recorder?

I've been cruising the usual shops looking for a Hard Disk Recorder for about 12 months.
They don't seem to have come down in price unlike TV's despite the dollar rising.
Now that the analogue signal is to be switched off here soon I thought I'd go for a package and get a TV for the daughters room and HDD Recorder.
The recorder is for the lounge to accompany the Panasonic Plasma (thats now about a third of the price 3 yrs ago lol)
So given it looks like I'm up for close to $600 for the recorder only I'm not sure what brand to get.
Requirements are Twin Tuners and 500gb.

Thoughts or suggestions?

2wheelsagain wrote:I've been cruising the usual shops looking for a Hard Disk Recorder for about 12 months.
They don't seem to have come down in price unlike TV's despite the dollar rising.
Now that the analogue signal is to be switched off here soon I thought I'd go for a package and get a TV for the daughters room and HDD Recorder.
The recorder is for the lounge to accompany the Panasonic Plasma (thats now about a third of the price 3 yrs ago lol)
So given it looks like I'm up for close to $600 for the recorder only I'm not sure what brand to get.
Requirements are Twin Tuners and 500gb.

Thoughts or suggestions?

i'm in the same boat. my old HDD is analoge, so up for a new. I like the Panasonic 500gb twin tuner, its around $1000

Reardo wrote:

2wheelsagain wrote:I've been cruising the usual shops looking for a Hard Disk Recorder for about 12 months.
They don't seem to have come down in price unlike TV's despite the dollar rising.
Now that the analogue signal is to be switched off here soon I thought I'd go for a package and get a TV for the daughters room and HDD Recorder.
The recorder is for the lounge to accompany the Panasonic Plasma (thats now about a third of the price 3 yrs ago lol)
So given it looks like I'm up for close to $600 for the recorder only I'm not sure what brand to get.
Requirements are Twin Tuners and 500gb.

Thoughts or suggestions?

i'm in the same boat. my old HDD is analoge, so up for a new. I like the Panasonic 500gb twin tuner, its around $1000

And the trouble is they were that price last Feb!

if you have [or get] a playstation 3 you can also get the Play TV thingy with it and you can use it as a video recorder. if you want a bigger hard drive than the 250 you can get a 500 laptop drive for about 80 bucks and put that in. the advantage of that is that you can stream wirelessly from your PC, access the net with a somewhat crappy browser and put music and videos on it etc. the only bad bit is that you cant record 2 channels at once - you can watch one channel and record another. and it plays blue ray and 3d if you have a 3d TV

potatomasher wrote:if you have [or get] a playstation 3 you can also get the Play TV thingy with it and you can use it as a video recorder. if you want a bigger hard drive than the 250 you can get a 500 laptop drive for about 80 bucks and put that in. the advantage of that is that you can stream wirelessly from your PC, access the net with a somewhat crappy browser and put music and videos on it etc. the only bad bit is that you cant record 2 channels at once - you can watch one channel and record another. and it plays blue ray and 3d if you have a 3d TV

Already got a PS3 and a 1Tb HDD.
Looking for something a bit more polished than the PS3's clinky firmware but a good point.

I have no idea what you lot are talking about with all those letters and numbers. Thing is, i dont know if thats good OR bad.

i use the ps3 - for 120 bucks for play tv its a bargain - it is mildly clunky but once you get used to it its fine - u need the dvd remote to go with it too preferably. better than forking out a grand to record the crap on tv - thats new suspension!

Just bought a Beyonwiz DP-P2, so far I like it, my brother has a DP-P1 so I knew it was a good unit (he also has a PS3 which decodes photos much faster) I haven't networked it yet but so far very happy. It was a $399 "refurbished" unit off the web.

[quote="gus"]I have no idea what you lot are talking about with all those letters and numbers. Thing is, i dont know if thats good OR bad.
[/q

uote] I'm with you Gus.......still havin trouble trying to work out my 1982 National video recorder... .........G60

the digitals are way better and easier too - no comparison in fact.

Ok thanks to masher I did some looking.
It seems PlayTV won't record to an ext hdd so ebay suggests I can get PlayTV & a 640 - 750gb 2.5 SATA drive for $200. The setup seems to have good reviews except for only recording 1 channel. If it turns out crap I stil have a fat drive in the PS3 for storage. I'll also look at Reardo's rig too but I'm a tight arse.

Gus the higher numbers give you bigger wood!

Hmm. For me you cant go past a multi media PC. Assembled my own a few years ago (in the game) but does cost $$$ and know how to be cost effective. My Plasma's hooked up to a MMPC, surround sound and can take more HDMI / YBPR. I believe the PS3 and accessories are okay. Happy to do a MMPC spec if interested...

Re-Cycled wrote:Just bought a Beyonwiz DP-P2, so far I like it, my brother has a DP-P1 so I knew it was a good unit (he also has a PS3 which decodes photos much faster) I haven't networked it yet but so far very happy. It was a $399 "refurbished" unit off the web.

+1 to Beyonwiz. I have the DP lite, which is 500gb drive twin HD tuners. Very user friendly

Four40 wrote:

Re-Cycled wrote:Just bought a Beyonwiz DP-P2, so far I like it, my brother has a DP-P1 so I knew it was a good unit (he also has a PS3 which decodes photos much faster) I haven't networked it yet but so far very happy. It was a $399 "refurbished" unit off the web.

+1 to Beyonwiz. I have the DP lite, which is 500gb drive twin HD tuners. Very user friendly

They appear to output as 1080i or 720p? Are either of you using them on a full 1080p telly?

To the beyondwiz! Ive had one for a while its good.
I run a 550g external hdd for movies snd it plays every format ive thrown at it so far!

2wheelsagain wrote:They appear to output as 1080i or 720p? Are either of you using them on a full 1080p telly?

Yep, Samsung Series 6 32 inch. Australia only uses 1080i on the full HD channels, such as OneHD, most other channels will be 720p or lower.

Getting shows off the beyonwiz is a bit fiddly. I had a few older NFL games I wanted to chop the adverts out and burn to disc but the beyonwiz didn't want to copy them to my 32gb thumb drive even though the file size was 29gb. I should get another dual USB cable for my external HDD, should fix the issue.

As for converting the beyonwiz files, it's pretty damn easy. All you need is Add-Remove.ts program (free from the beyonwiz forums) and a video editor if you want to edit out ads or whatever.

Just thought I'd post an update on this thread.

A month or so back I got around to rigging up my PS3 as a digital recorder. It works like a charm.
$75 for a 750gb HDD (WD)
$60 for a used tuner box (unmarked) but with the Brit install disk. Got the daughters BF to source an Australian install disk that allows for regional digital over UHF (Brit disk is fine in metro VHF areas)

All up I'm very happy. Just have to get time to watch what I've recorded now

Ive got a 320gb ps3 also with play tv, works fine

My Topfield 7100 PVR just shat itself after less than two years. It starts up and locks itself in Menu mode - I took out extended warranty so back it goes. No recorder over easter though.

told ya - its a good setup and cheap too. also if you go into setup and select 'no region' or 'other' [or whatever it is] you can copy the recorded tv show into the hard drive as a hi def mpeg and it will also fast forward at 120x which isnt allowed on freeview approved products. although here it wont tune in sbs for some reason like that, but give it a go - you can always just put put it back. you can then put the mpeg on a stick and put it in your pc. if you use windows media player and have music etc on your pc you can turn on your pc and use the 'find media servers' option on the ps3, and the playstation will locate the pc thru the wireless modem and you can access pics music and movies from your pc. you have to have the 'share files' option in windows mediaplayer set to yes though

Reardo wrote:

2wheelsagain wrote:I've been cruising the usual shops looking for a Hard Disk Recorder for about 12 months.
They don't seem to have come down in price unlike TV's despite the dollar rising.
Now that the analogue signal is to be switched off here soon I thought I'd go for a package and get a TV for the daughters room and HDD Recorder.
The recorder is for the lounge to accompany the Panasonic Plasma (thats now about a third of the price 3 yrs ago lol)
So given it looks like I'm up for close to $600 for the recorder only I'm not sure what brand to get.
Requirements are Twin Tuners and 500gb.

Thoughts or suggestions?

i'm in the same boat. my old HDD is analoge, so up for a new. I like the Panasonic 500gb twin tuner, its around $1000

Well, I'm sick to death of fucking around with my old PVR & set top box. I'm going for the Panasonic 1Tb twin tuner & bluray thingy, Hopefull this week. In 5months Panasonic 500gb twin tuner updated to 1000gb. as soon as I buy it, they will bring out 2Tb Thats life

My PS3 rig works like a charm.
Will update to a dedicated pvr one day but can't complain about this. Lucky there isn't much worth recording on free to air

get a ps3 with play tv and put a big hard drive in it - way better and plays games too

potatomasher wrote:get a ps3 with play tv and put a big hard drive in it - way better and plays games too

Can i program it to tape different channels at different times?

Reardo wrote:

potatomasher wrote:get a ps3 with play tv and put a big hard drive in it - way better and plays games too

Can i program it to tape different channels at different times?

Yes but only 1 Ch at a time though. That's the only down side but for $80 for a huge hdd and whatever you pay for playtv its pretty good.