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[HDTV] Confused About DVD Recording

I would not buy a DVD recorder without a hard drive for
a different reason. I have a DVD recorder with a hard drive, but my main use of it is to copy my home movies from
tapes over the last 20 years onto the hard drive to be saved and catalogued for viewing on my home theater or making DVDs for family members.

With your cable card setup and Sony HDTV, you will not be
able to record encrypted channels or in HD on the DVD
recorder. Your setup would be cable coax into the DVD
recorder and cable coax out to the Sony HDTV with cable
card. You will be able to record in SD, unencrypted channels. On your Sony TV, you can watch HD and encrypted
channels with the cable card.

My DVD recorder setup is as follows:

1. Cable coax into Comcast HD box
2. RGB video out from Comcast HD box to my HDTV so I can watch HD programming and encrypted programming.
3. Cable coax out from the Comcast HD box to the DVD recorder. This allows me to watch encrypted channels or record encrypted channels to DVDs or the hard drive, but only in SD (DVD recorders are not HD).
4. DVD recorder RGB video out to my HDTV. The DVD recorder
is upconverting, but does not look any where as good as
true HD.

So the answer is you need an HD set top box, if you want to
record encrypted channels in SD and then watch upconverting content on your HDTV.

The hard drive is very handy for other uses such as copying home movies from video tape.

Thanks, Hound. You've confirmed what I thought I'd have to do.

Rob

Okay, so all of this brings me to another question----are some of the digital channels on PatMedia unencrypted, or are all of the digital channels encrypted? In other words, are there enough unencrypted digital channels to make it worthwhile to get a DVD Recorder with a QAM tuner?

Thanks again,

Rob

With my QAM tuner, I am only getting the OTA broadcast
digital channels unencrypted from Patriot Media/Comcast. Some are SD and some are HD. The seven broadcast HD channels provided by Patmedia, WCBS, WNBC, WNET, WABC, WNYW (FoxNY), NJN HD and WPIX. Everything else is analog.

Unless you get an HD DVR such as the Sony DHG HDD500 which I have, there is no reason to get a DVD recorder for digital channels. The DVD recorder only will output SD.
You will not be happy watching upconverted content from
the HD channels recorded in SD, if you are used to watching in HD.

The QAM tuner should also pick up all unencrypted analog
channels currently 2-99. But I assume eventually the analogs will disappear? But maybe not? But again upconverted analog content does not look any where as good
as HD.

Hound:

Thanks for the response. I understand the difference between analog/digital/HD channels. I'm just trying to figure out the optimum way of recording what I reasonably can for minimum cost.

Regards,

Rob

The best way for minimum cost is the Sony DHG HDD500 or
HDD250. It is a single tuner HD DVR which accepts cable
card, so you can get all the encrypted channels and will
record and play in HD. It has both HDMI and component (RGB)
video outputs. It has a QAM tuner and it has a terrestrial
OTA digital and analog tuner for use with an antenna.

You do not need a Patriot Media/Comcast set top box with
the Sony DHG HDD500. It has two coaxial inputs, one for
OTA antenna and one for cable.

Sony stopped making it, two years ago, but it is available on Ebay. The HDD500 records 60 hours of HD and
the HDD250 records 30 hours of HD. This is the next best
thing to Tivo, but there is no monthly cost like Tivo.
I have two HDD500s and I use without cable card. I have
split my cable coax from Patriot Media/Comcast with one
coax into HDD500 and the QAM Tuner reads the unencrypted
analog and digital channels for recording. The other coax
goes into my Patriot Media/Comcast HD set top box so that
I can access programming (MLB EI) that needs a set top box and cannot be accessed with a cable card.

Hound:

Thanks again for this information!

Regards,

Rob

reply to Hound7
Hound:

Okay, I checked out Ebay for the HDD250, and they seem to be running about $300-400. That will pay for 4-5 years of PatMedia's dual-tuner PVR at $6.95 per month. I figure within 4 years or so, all of this will be obsolete, anyway, so I'd prefer to rent, rather than invest in a PVR.

Thanks again for the tip, though----the Sony's are interesting.

Regards,

Rob

Rob,

I agree that is the decision to make, lay out the money
upfront or pay monthly fees. I bet the monthly fees will increase over the next four years. I have had my Sonys for two years and four years from now I assume that I will still be using them. Sometimes I record three or four shows
at once, so my Sonys are backups to my cable or satellite
DVRs. I have the Sonys set to record certain shows every
week and the software does a nice job of cataloguing the
shows by name and dates. And the hard drive is bigger than
the cable DVR. It stores many more episodes.

In your case, you are looking at only one DVR. After you
get used to using a DVR, you will probably prefer the
dual tuner feature of the Patmedia DVR. The Sony only lets
you record one show at a time.

Thanks again, Hound!

Rob

reply to robhouston
Hound:

Actually, the economics are different than I thought. When I called PatMedia today, they told me that since I'm using a CableCard, the cost per month to go to a PVR is actually $13.90-----$6.95 for the STB, and $6.95 for the PVR. This means that this option would cost about $167 per year, so the HDD250 is looking a little more attractive.

Rob

Don't forget the costs of guide data or the like. I'm thinking about getting one of those cheap HD Tivo's but they too have a monthly fee. Guide data is important. Can you get that with the Sony?

Yes, the Sony gives you the TV guide data. I like the TV
guide. You have to go through it and set up the channels
in order. e.g, 2,3,4,5, etc. May take an hour or so. But
once you do that and get used to the software, you can
click on a program in the TV guide and set it up for recording once, regularly or weekly. You can set the recording to start one minute or five minutes or 30 miunutes early or finish late, etc.

reply to robhouston
I've decided to try PatMedia's PVR. I'll be getting one on Saturday. I'm assuming that they are still installing the Motorola DCT6412. I'm also keeping my CableCard for now.

With this box, I'm also assuming that if I want a permanent recording of a show or event, I can output the PVR recording to a DVD Recorder. Should I use compenent video cables for this connection?

If I want to interface an upconverting DVD Recorder to my HDTV, how should I connect it? I believe I'll be using the HDMI port on my HDTV for the PVR.

Thanks,

Rob

Yes, you can output to the DVD recorder, but the DVD
recorder does not record in HD. So, no you will not
use component video cables. You will use either S Video
or standard composite video (yellow) plus analog audio (red
and white). If the DVD recorder has HDMI, yes use that to
your TV. My DVD recorder does not have HDMI, it has component video, so I am connected to the TV with component
video cables.

The PatMedia DVR has a big advantage over the Sony HDD250
in that it is dual tuner, so you can record two shows at
once or watch one show will recording another, or record
two shows at once while watching one. You just have to get used to the monthly fee.

Hound:

Thanks for the fast response! Yes, I understand that the DVDR doesn't record in HD.

My problem is that my TV only has one HDMI input, which will be used by the PVR. So, I might have to use component video to connect the DVDR, unless the DVDR has "HDMI pass-through".

Thanks again,

Rob

Component video to the TV from the DVDr is OK. You will
probably not notice much difference. If the upconverting
DVDr upconverts to 1080P, you would need HDMI to the TV
to get 1080P. However, in my experience, with upconverted
video, I do not think that you will notice much difference
using component. Upconversion looks no where near as good
as true HD. Your only other solution is to spend more
money and get an HDMI switch.

Hound:

Actually, my TV only displays 1080i, so the component video should be fine.

Thanks again,

Rob

A Patriot tech (actually, a subcontractor) installed the PVR yesterday, the Motorola DCT-6416. So far, so good, but the tech didn't have a user manual (anyone know where to find one online?). Most everything seems reasonably intuitive, but there are 2 things that I can't figure out how to do:

- When "channel surfing", I'd like to only surf through the channels I actually have access to. I can set up my TV to scan for active channels, but I can't figure out how to do this on the STB/PVR. Is there a way to do this?

- When the tech installed the PVR, he did something to bring up a black & white setup screen for the PVR. How do I do this?

Thanks,

Rob