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Unable to record free View TV
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I have just bought a Ferguson FDT600 Top-Up TV set top box and a Packard Bell EHR2080 DVD Recorder.
The problem is I am unable to Tune the DVD Recorder to the Free View channels. Does anyone know if it is possible??? If so how
The problem is I am unable to Tune the DVD Recorder to the Free View channels. Does anyone know if it is possible??? If so how
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If the STB has an external video output (e.g. SCART or composite video) then you can connect the recorder to it that way. But you have to set the channel on the STB not the recorder.
You will probably end up daisy-chaining the STB, recorder and TV.
e.g.
STB TV out ==> Recorder ext in
Recorder TV out ==> TV
STB "TV" SCART --> TV "AV1"
STB "VCR" SCART --> DVD recorder "AV1"
Assuming the STB has two SCART sockets.
Select "AV1" on the recorder to record the output from the STB (NB it may be called AUX, A, Ext or E plus a number) Also if you have more than one SCART on the recorder it is possible only one has the input connections wired up. (Time to dig the manual out of the bin!
You can set a timer record function on the Recorder to do an unattended recording and will have to either leave the STB set to whatever channel you want to record or rely on any event timer it may have. If you are lucky it will have the facility like my Sony STB/Panasonic recorder set-up to set a record event on the STB which wakes up the recorder and automatically selects the appropriate SCART input and fires it into record.
One thing to remember however with this set-up is that you can only record the same digital channel as you are watching (very unlikely the STB has dual tuners enabling it to send different signals to each SCART socket).
You can however watch an analogue channel while recording a digital channel or watch digital and record analogue at the same time.
Dave
By the way Happy new year to you all.
John. I have a normal CRT TV with two Scart inputs, a Matsui Freeview STB with two Scart sockets marked 'TV' and 'VCR', and a Pioneer DVR 530 HDD recorder. I have the following connections:-
STB: 'TV' Socket connected to my TV with one Scart lead.
STB: 'VCR' Socket connected to my DVD recorder with another Scart lead to latter's input Scart socket (marked AV2/Line 1 on mine). Finally, I have the DVD recorder's 'TV out' connected back to my TV's second Scart input with a third Scart lead.
I can then switch my DVD recorder from its internal analogue tuner to L1 and see the STB's Freeview channels etc and of course can record whichever channel is selected and make timed off-air recordings accordingly as long as I leave the STB 'on' with the channel I want to record OR set up the STB's own inbuilt timer to change channels simultaneously with the DVD recorder's own timer - if that makes sense?
:cool:
For a VCR set up, I would agree with you but not for a DVDR set up.
Chris Simon has given the best set up advice with the TV scart of the set top box connected to the AV2 scart of the DVDR and the DVDR AV1 passing the signal to the TV AV1 scart.
Both scart sockets on the DVDR should be set to RGB.
The reason for this........to ensure that you get the best signal quality (RGB) passed to your recorder.
For a VCR, which cannot accommodate a recording in RGB, then it is fine to connect to the STB VCR (composite) scart.
Sorry to be pedantic, but when copying a video signal, it is imperative to start with the best source possible - in this particular case, an RGB signal.
Rgds,
scorp
Yes. But I found with your set up and that in the Pioneer instruction manual that I could not watch any Freeview channels when I was recording an analogue channel on my DVD recorder and so found that rather a limiting and inconvenient factor!!
With the daisy-chain approach, you'll get best possible quality and no manual switching of TV between STB, VCR, and DVD/HDD. But as you mentioned you can only get one 'pass-through' signal at a time. Solution might be another SCART to a second TV input to give you manual switching in those cases where you need to do two things at once?
With the other approach, you'd need a second SCART anyway and would always have to manually switch when you want to watch any source.
Finally, comparing and contrasting the two methods, I would rather trade off a slight degradation in quality (in my opinion not noticeable) for the ease of use of 'my' method of connection.
Yours, or Pioneer's connection method, although seeming logical when I first installed my DVD recorder, proved to be awkward to use and frankly I find the quality of picture perfectly acceptable but appreciate that this is very subjective, is it not?
The TV AV2 is only composite (and possibly SVideo) but for these odd occasions the piture will be acceptable.
You now have quality and flexibility.
Rgds,
Scorp