Advice needed for choosing a TV recorder

[ClarenceB]

Hi Guys,

I'm in the market for a new TV recorder and would appreciate any advice... I currently have an LG HDD & DVD recorder, but it's starting to show its age.
So I'm looking for:
- HDD recorder for recording TV programs in HiDef
- integrated DVD/BRay recorder so that I can move stuff off the HDD (or some other facility for moving stuff off the internal HDD)
- HDMI input 'cos my TV channels come from a cable TV box (my current recorder has SCART input 'cos it's only standard def)

I've seen a few TV recorders in electonics/TV shops but none meets my specs... most that I've seen don't have HDMI input (some don't even have SCART or standard def inputs!) 'cos they're all freeview based.

I'm open to any suggestions (for a stand-alone box - I don't wanna use my PC to record TV).

Thanks,

Clarence

[magnet]

I'm not sure that there is a product on the market that can actually do this. Allow me to explain why and then someone else can come along and tell me I'm wrong

You won't find a consumer 'box' to go under your TV that can record from HDMI. This is because:
a) The delicious HD signals that zip along HDMI cables are mostly protected by HDCP, so the recorder wouldn't be able to record them.
b) Manufacturers assume that consumers wanting to record HD will buy a Freeview HD PVR / Sky+ or TiVo/Virgin PVR box, so the market is small.

There are ways around this, but they don't sit under the living room TV. A wonderful product called HDFury will strip the HDCP from the signal in an HDMI lead. You can then record this HD signal, but the problem is that you're limited to two devices (AFAIK) - Hauppage HDPVR (USB) and Hauppage Colossus (PCIe).

Welcome to the wonderful world of DRM. 'tis a right pain in the ass for cappers.

<Legal disclaimer> You will, of course, use this knowledge only to record broadcasts that you own the copyright for. </Legal disclaimer>

[ClarenceB]

Hi Magnet,

Thanks for the info...

I found a recorder box on the internet (Pure Avalon 300R Connect) which has 4 HDMI inputs, but I've seen nothing about it being able to record from those inputs - just stuff about being able to switch between games consoles, etc.

What sort of set up do cappers on here use to do the recording... is it pretty much PC based?

Thanks!

Clarence

[magnet]

The HDMI inputs on that Pure box cannot be recorded. Think of it as a Freeview HD PVR with a built-in 4-way HDMI switch.

My capping is all from Freeview and is PC-based using a TBS quad DVB-T2 tuner card, MediaPortal and VideoRedo. I'm not sure what other cappers use to be honest; you'll have to ask them / hope they stop by this thread.

[ian]

I think magnet is right. Content creators (especially hollywood movie studios) don't want you to be able to make perfect digital copies of programmes or films. That's why HDMI is encrypted. To get the key to decrypt it, you need a licence from the relevant people, and if a manufacturer used their key to make a box that can record unencrypted copies, they're likely to get sued! (I don't know how the HDFury gets around this, mind you!) So I think you'll struggle to find a box which does what you want.

I cap (occasionally!) from a humax Freesat HDD recorder box, which has a network connection, so I get the recordings off the box using FTP (SD only, as the HD is encrypted). Works well for me, but I don't think it wil help you with cable.

[ClarenceB]

Thanks guys.

Unfortunately it doesn't sound good for my quest for a new recorder box! Do you know if any of the boxes that are currently on the market have SD (SCART, etc.) inputs - so that I can at least record in SD?

Clarence

[ian]

I don't know of anything that will do this. On the other hand, I haven't looked at recorder boxes since I bought mine about 5 years ago!

I suspect that you'll struggle to find something that will do this, simply because there's a lot of extra processing involved in the box digitising and encoding the analogue video signal, which isn't needed if it records from its own digital tuner. As everything is broadcast digitally now, it's not a feature that many people would want. Sorry

[magnet]

I'm afraid I echo ian's thoughts on this. I also think there is a 'class limitation' that prevents hard-drive only PVRs from recording from external devices - basically a feature limit prescribed by 'big media. Some DVD and hard-drive DVDRs do appear to have supported this. I'm not sure you can buy any new now though.