Recording the tour - advice for DVD HD recorder

on2wheels

I want to record the tour this year, our video is getting a bit passed it, so I was thinking of purchasing a DVD HD recorder, anyone got any experiences of these devices, all advice would be greatly appreciated as I don't know didily squit about them

Apologies in advance if I should be in the AV section, but I couldn't find it!!!

alfablue

The Topfield 5800 is the dogs whatsits! It has 2 freeview tuners so you can record two programmes at once and watch a 3rd. It has a 250GB HD which would record all the TdF programmes a few times over.

It can of course do "Timeshift" i.e. pause and rewind live broadcasts.

There is an incredible user forum - http://www.toppy.org.uk.

It is customisable, with hundreds of utilities ("TAP"s Topfield APlications) written by users and downloadable from the web.

It can be networked - I wirelessly send timers to my "Toppy" from DigiGuide on my laptop, and can transfer files to network PC's for viewing or burning on to DVD's.

It can be set up to set timers over the WWW from anywhere in the world,or by mobile phone text messages.

An amazing machine!

on2wheels

forgot to mention, would like to be able to offload to DVD disc as well

alfablue

There is no HDD/DVD machine that will come close to the performance of the Toppy. I appreciate that transfer to a PC for burning may not appeal, but once on the PC it can be burnt as is, or alternatively can be edited and saved in various formats with a variety of free software.

I also have a cheap DVD recorder (£70) so have the option to save to DVD straight from the Toppy Scart output if I wish, but generally I transfer to the PC.

Why not have a look at the Digital Spy or AVforums (DVD recorders or PVR's) forums for info on what machines people rate (and also the problems some machines come with).

nmcgann

Yes, the Toppy is the nuts. I got one in time for last year's tour and recorded the highlights off itv4 with it.

Neil

Steve Austin

I got a pioneer dvr 433h. works fine for me

can't compare it with the toppy thing though as i know nowt about that

PM me if you got any questions. happy to help

berg

get sky +

schlepcycling

I've got a Humax PVR9200T, twin freeview tuners so you can watch 1 channel whilst recording another or even record 2 channels and watch something you've previously recorded. It has a 160GB hard drive so you can record about 100 hours of TV, you can also pause live TV for up to 2 hours. It doesn't have a DVD it connects to a windows laptop download the programme you want and burn it to a dvd, all for £190 from Comet.

on2wheels

Thanks for your comments and advice, I'll have a look on 'tinternet

Does the Toppy hook up to a Apple Mac by any chance

alfablue

Yes, Toppy works with Mac, and the Toppy site has some dedicated utilities - http://www.toppy.org.uk/downloads/mac.php

No offence to the Humax owners, but Toppy is the daddy; the Humax may be slightly more user friendly but that is also associated with some limitations and glitches.

davman

Alfablue

Do you use your Toppy with a Sky box as well and record from that, or just use freeview? Just wondering as i'm curious as to how you get the freeview tuners working as well as the Sky.

I have an Liteon DVD recorder with 160Gb and, to be honest, it's a bit flaky. I shall be replacing it by the end of the year and would seriously look at the Toppy as a replacement

cheers

Simon

irb10

For DVD and HDD recording in the same box, I can recommend the Sony RDR-HXD870 which can be had for around £240 on Amazon. It's got 1xFreeview and 1xanalogue tuner, a 160Gb HDD and a multiformat DVD writer plus HDMI connector with upscaling. I must say I rarely record onto DVDs since the HDD is more convenient, but it's nice to not need a separate DVD player (one less box for the wife to complain about...), and there's always then the option of archiving stuff onto DVD.

Since TDF coverage seems to be on ITV4 make sure you get something with a Freeview tuner, or perhaps two if you don't have one integrated into you telly so you can watch and record different Freeview channels.

B1gBear

Hi Guys can you help me out ? You all seem to have some great kit out there so I hope someone can help out! I am lucky to live about 1km from the route in Medway and took a nice walk down this morning to watch the race LIVE it was fantastic, while I was out I taped (on boring old video) Eurosport the whole race from the start, all's well so far! Once I got home through the crowds and having a chat to a few other cyclists at the side of the road, I settled down to watch the GP on ITV1 thinking that I would watch the entire race from start to finish from the TAPE - still with me? This evening after the family had watched all the other cr*p on telly like Big Brother and all the rest I cracked open a cold beer and watched half an hour of the race and then it happened - suddenly I was plunged into the world of MTV !!!!!! My darling teenage daughter had switched over the Sky box after I left home to see some MUSIC??
So if any of you have recorded the race and have the facility to produce a DVD can you please let me know, I dont mind if its ITV4 or Eurosport coverage as the pictures are the same! I am of course happy to cough up some cash to cover costs etc. If you can help please let me know before I get locked up for murder!!

alfablue

Simon Hume wrote:

Alfablue

Do you use your Toppy with a Sky box as well and record from that, or just use freeview? Just wondering as i'm curious as to how you get the freeview tuners working as well as the Sky.

I have an Liteon DVD recorder with 160Gb and, to be honest, it's a bit flaky. I shall be replacing it by the end of the year and would seriously look at the Toppy as a replacement

cheers

Simon

Hi Simon

No I don't use Sky, and the Toppy can only record from its built in twin freeview tuners, though you can transfer recordings to and from the Toppy via the USB port. The Humax and the Toppy are very similar, the Toppy is more flexible because of the hundreds of TAP's (applications) that can be run on it, and it is possibly now a more stable machine as the firmware has had more development over the Humax. I also suspect that Humax doesn't do chase-play (I stand to be corrected).