Stereo Tuners

[the wordsmith]

Does anyone know which low cost recorders have a stero TV tuner? My Daytek apparently does not, so I bought Sears 30038 which certainly does. However the Sears (Malata R21 actual manufacturer) has a weird timer that doesn't accept midnight as an end time, so I can't use it for recording movies off of Toronto One where they often end at 12 or 12.30 at night. The local Walmart has the Liteon 5101, but that seems to get panned a lot on this board. The next choice is the Artec.

Any Artec owners out there who can answer this stereo tuner question?

[solidsnake]

are you sure your putting it at 12:00AM?
12PM is at noon. That happened to me, but it was b/c of a not so user friendly timer interface.

[broadway]

I'd just set it for 12:01am.
A disk can actually hold about 3-5 extra minutes of video.

[the wordsmith]

Thanks guys but I neglected to mention that the stupid firmware doesn't have an AM/PM indicator at the end time setting. Any number you enter between 12.00 and 12.59 is considered to be the next day at noon and not midnight. You can enter 1.00 and it treats it as 1 am automatically - go figure.

I also find the picture a little on the dark side, so I am back to looking for an alternative with a stereo tuner. I like the Easy Guider on the Liteon and Daytek products, but I cannot find out if the 5101 has stereo TV.

[solidsnake]

I'm sure all the liteons have mono tuners. I dont have one, I have a 5005, but I researched every single model before I bought it and I dont remember any one of them having a stereo tuner. You can always hook a stereo vcr through the a/v inputs though, thats what I do.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,11521868~mode=flat

^this person says its mono

[the wordsmith]

Thanks Solidsnake

Yes, I knew about this site, and also that the Liteon recorders were all mono, same as the Daytek (made by Liteon). I will try the VCR trick, but unfortunately it is a pain to have to leave my VCR turned on all night just to get the sound right. I wonder if there are any low cost cable boxes that would do the same thing (probably not worth the expense though).

The Malata is definitely going back to Sears. The 6 hr mode, whilst better than the average VCR, is not as good as on my Daytek, and the picture in all recording modes is darker than the TV and less sharp than my Daytek.
These of course are software/firware issues (possibly the chipset, but I am not that technical) which is a shame, because the mechanicals under the hood are NEC, and everything else inside looks very robust and well assembled (exept for the drive door which is welded onto the NEC slot cover with an extra inch of material to allow the drive to sit back from the opening - this makes for an extra long tray which then seems a bit flimsy) This unit will suit a less discerning buyer than myself.

Maybe I'll just get another Daytek - they have them at Costco here in Toronto for $249. Picture quality is outstanding on my P30.