Purchasing new dvd recorder vcr combo - wanting to copy pay per view

[rbusenbark]

My old dvd revorder vcr combo just went belly up.

Needing to replace with a new one, not wanting to spend a fortune on it.
We just use it to entertain ourselves a few quite hours a week we have alone while kids sleep on Weekends.
the unit will be hooked up to 46" high def lcd
will need to record from pay per view(sometimes kids interupt movie night)
need to record vhs to dvd.

i just read a post on another site about some models not letting you record cp material from pay per view.


thanks for any recomendations

newbie

[RowMan]

Although hard to find now, seek out the Sima CT-2 or CT-200. This device can be used with any dvd recorder and will remove the copy protection used on most PPV and On Demand content.

[Krispy Kritter]

No offense, but that's why it's called Pay-Per-View. You aren't meant to record it and watch it as many times as you want. Most players enforce the flags (as well as many DVR's), so you will need to do some research to find any (like the one noted above) that don't.

[orsetto]

All current recorders will shut down a recording if they sense a copy-inhibit flag in the broadcast. So far, that flag seems limited to Pay-Per-View programs, which as KrispyKritter stated are not really intended to be recorded for posterity anyway- doing so is sort of sneaky. Since a 46" LCD display tends to make all standard def look crummy anyway, you may as well just pick up a good second hand VHS deck for $20 and use that: it will ignore the flag and let you record Pay Per View to watch at a later convenient time. This is much easier than screwing around with a Sima or other clarifier needed to record onto DVD, and you can erase the VHS tape over and over instead of making permanent (and illegal) DVDs. Add a basic new DVD recorder to the mix for everything else, and you're all set.

If you MUST have a single combo deck, you will be thwarted in your attempts to record Pay Per View on both its VHS and DVD sides: current combo decks lock out the VHS right along with the DVD when they sense the flag. If you cannot schedule yourself uninterrupted time for Pay Per View, and don't mind marginal picture quality, just get an older VHS deck. If you want the full Hi Def, upgrade to the cable company Hi Def recording cable box for a couple dollars more a month. These usually will store a Pay Per View program for 12-24 hours before purging it and making you pay again.