I have been asked to find a DVD recorder with a Freeview tuner built in. (and an HD please). I wouldn't have thought it that hard to do, but they don't seem to exist. There doesn't seem to be much point buying a DVD recorder with analogue-only tuner. PVR doesn't really do it, because it doesn't allow removal of the recording media. We don't want a two-box solution either.

Am I asking too much? All these DVD recorders that claim to have 'everything', and yet they can't receive more than five channels, and they are in 3x3 format. Why are any DVD recorders or videos being sold in analogue-only? It doesn't make sense.

Someone once posted details of a forthcoming Sony DVD recorder with a Freeview tuner, but it doesn't seem to have appeared. Anyone know if such a machine is due on the market?

Sony RDR-HX10 (hard disc + DVD recorder) £800
Very high end device from Sony. High capacity 250Gb hard disc capacity, and a CD/DVD recorder, compatible with CD-R/DVD-R, CD-RW/+/-DVD-RW discs. Also plays back existing CD and DVD discs. Not sure if this has 1 or 2 Freeview tuners.

Dave

Thanks David (2) But as far as I can see, this machine is coming to the UK as a RDR-HX1000, and that's WITHOUT the digital tuner. What is wrong with these people?

I found out about a possible Sony RDRGXD500 for about £500, but details are tentative

http://www.avland.co.uk/sony/rdrgxd500/rdrgxd500.htm

I think we should see Freeview DVD recorders with by the end of the year (less sure about DVD/HDD combos).

Some interesting points about Freeview HDD/DVD recorders based on what I've read:

1. Freeview DVD recorders will not record in broadcast quality. This is because the DVB broadcast MPEG-2 stream is not DVD compliant, so the stream cannot simply be saved to the disc. Instead, it has to be decoded and then re-encoded in MPEG-2 to be DVD compliant.

2. Freeview HDD/DVD combos will not record in broadcast quality. Although the HDD has no DVD compliance issues, the DVD recorder does, so it's likely that the stream will be re-encoded before being recorded onto either device (standalone Freeview HDD recorders do not have this problem).

3. The first generation of Freeview DVD recorders and HDD/DVD combos may simply consist of a DVB tuner and an HDD/DVD recorder in the same box, with an analogue connection between them. If this is true, you might as well use an external tuner, as the recording quality will be the same.

Thanks meltcity. That was a great insight. I suppose a DTT to analogue recording would be OK. Do you think the resulting quality would be any worse than an analogue to analogue recording? I feel sure it would be better than a two box solution, and it would be in widescreen too. The thing is, we really want a simple one-box solution for timeshifting, that will be easy to set the timer, etc.

Panasonic told me that the reason that they are not putting a DVD/Freeview recorder on the market in 2004 is because they were waiting for the Freeview EPG to be rolled out and any problems with it resolved.
I know that at least two other manufacturers are planning to launch models towards the end of this year.

If a dual freeview tunner came out, with a nice epg, and a large hard drive, and the option to copy hours of tv to dvd within a few seconds, Sky better watch out.

I love sky plus, but its seriously limitted, and i cannot wait for bettter things to come out.

Hopefully its a sony aswell