tuner in DVD recorder

[miki100]

I'm shopping for a DVD recorder and some come without a tuner (they say "use cable box" which I have)
What is the advantage/disadvantage of having a tuner in the DVD recorder ?

[Baldrick]

If you don't have a tuner in the recorder you can't record one channel and see another one at the same time.

But the tuner in the recorder must be the same as in your cable box. Like if it's a digital tuner it must be digital.

[jman98]

Special note for Americans like miki100 -
Note that while all new DVD recorders are required by law to have a digital (ATSC) tuner, there are still some older models for sale in the USA that do NOT have digital tuners. These tuners will be absolutely worthless in late Feb. 2009 when analog NTSC broadcasting stops. Unless you see a model that specifically states it has an ATSC tuner, you should assume that it does NOT have such a tuner. If it doesn't say or it just says NTSC tuner or something vague like "TV tuner" then you should assume it is NOT an ATSC tuner.

Note too that DVD recorders are getting rarer and rarer in the USA. Most manufacturers have left the market and Philips announced that they are abandoning the US market for DVD recorders next year.

[TBoneit]

Well There is a very long thread here about the Philips DVD recorder that has a hard drive in it. http://forum.videohelp.com/topic341172.html

I picked one up. It tunes the OTA digital channels and the QAM cable channels that are not encrypted. Thus I can use it to record my locals.

It will not tune any scrambled/encrypted channels.

The base advantage of recording from the HD locals rather than the SD local channels is that you are starting out with the best source for your DVD. Any DVD will be 720 by 480 at the 2 hour speed. Starting out with the HD locals gives better looking DVDs that recording from the line inputs.

I've done comparisons and they bear this result out. I fed in HD locals via the S-Video in from my HD DVR as a test and compared it to the same show captured from a HD channel and as expected the HD channel looked better.

If you want to cpature locals then the Philips or the Magnavox in the thread will give great results.

Good Luck and hope this helps.

[miki100]

Thank to all of you. Actually, I have the Panasonic DMR -ES40V
Not sure if it has a digital tuner. The manual doesn't say anything about this, but I saw on ebay, a description of the ES 40V and it said:

Built-in NTSC TV tuner for recording

so I guess it is not digital.
On the other hand I record from my cable box which is digital.

The reason I'm shopping for a another one is this :
I had a problem with my ES40V. The picture/image being displayed on my TV was vertically doubled -- so you see the same image (terrible picture, foggy) on both sides of the screen. And I couldn't do anything with it. (I needed to repair MY unit because I have 125 DVD that are not finalize.) I gave it to repair.. it needed a new chassis, which was not available anymore. Bought another on ebay just for the part, they installed the chassis and something else from that unit on my unit. It works. It records and finalize, but finalize only what I record NOW after repair. after July 2008. It doesn't finalize my 125 DVD that I recorded in the past.(2005-2008).
So I want to buy the DMR-ES46V so I can connect both DVD (mine as a player and the 46 as a recorder and copy everything)

1) There is no problem copying is there ? All my DVD are programs recorded from TV (Colbert report, Mencia, NBC sitcoms, SNL, some movies from TBS, Lifetime. I don't have any channel like HBO, Showtime etc just basic.
Out of curiosity I recorded/copy for a few seconds one such DVD to the VHS side of the Panasonic and it's OK.
So I guess copying it on another DVD will not be a problem either.

2) Does the 46 has a digital tuner ?
(not that it matter for what I want to do but curious in case my ES40V dies and I start using the 46 as my main recorder.
-----------

My TV is analog, very old but my cable box is digital (just so I have Turner Classic Movies which is not available in analog and also it was more interesting and cheaper than keeping the analog box.

[lordsmurf]

Analog tuners are not worthless, they tune analog cable just fine.

[edDV]

Thank to all of you. Actually, I have the Panasonic DMR -ES40V
Not sure if it has a digital tuner. The manual doesn't say anything about this, but I saw on ebay, a description of the ES 40V and it said:

Built-in NTSC TV tuner for recording

so I guess it is not digital.
On the other hand I record from my cable box which is digital.

The reason I'm shopping for a another one is this :
I had a problem with my ES40V. The picture/image being displayed on my TV was vertically doubled -- so you see the same image (terrible picture, foggy) on both sides of the screen. And I couldn't do anything with it. (I needed to repair MY unit because I have 125 DVD that are not finalize.) I gave it to repair.. it needed a new chassis, which was not available anymore. Bought another on ebay just for the part, they installed the chassis and something else from that unit on my unit. It works. It records and finalize, but finalize only what I record NOW after repair. after July 2008. It doesn't finalize my 125 DVD that I recorded in the past.(2005-2008).
So I want to buy the DMR-ES46V so I can connect both DVD (mine as a player and the 46 as a recorder and copy everything)

1) There is no problem copying is there ? All my DVD are programs recorded from TV (Colbert report, Mencia, NBC sitcoms, SNL, some movies from TBS, Lifetime. I don't have any channel like HBO, Showtime etc just basic.
Out of curiosity I recorded/copy for a few seconds one such DVD to the VHS side of the Panasonic and it's OK.
So I guess copying it on another DVD will not be a problem either.

2) Does the 46 has a digital tuner ?
(not that it matter for what I want to do but curious in case my ES40V dies and I start using the 46 as my main recorder.
-----------

My TV is analog, very old but my cable box is digital (just so I have Turner Classic Movies which is not available in analog and also it was more interesting and cheaper than keeping the analog box.

The USA rules allow two types of DVD Recorders manufactured after June '07

1. No tuner - That means it has analog A/V inputs only* which you connect to your cable/sat or other tuner (e.g. rca yellow-red-white + S-video). It may also include an Infra-red remote control transmitter to allow programmed channel changes with the external tuner box.

2. ATSC+NTSC tuner (plus maybe a clearQAM tuner).

NTSC tuner allows analog cable or over air analog tuning**.
ATSC tuner allows over the air digital channel tuning (from an antenna).
QAM tuner allows clear (unencrypted) digital cable channel tuning.


* some models also have DV format camcorder IEEE-1394 inputs but these generally don't work for tuner feeds.

** analog broadcasts end Feb 17, 2009 but analog cable channels will continue until at least 2012.

[miki100]

Thank you but could somebody please help me with the two questions ?
I need to make a decision soon. Thanks again.