Sky Recordings to DVD

[philmatch]

I can already see that transferring recordings from my Sky+ to a DVD Recorder is possible. Now i wonder if anyone can give me some advice on a good model of DVD Recorder to buy

I Would like

1. To not necessarily have to watch and record in real time
2. Perhaps edit the program before transferring to DVD
3 Get as much bang for my buck as possible, without spending silly amounts

Thanks for any advice you can give

[Scubbie]

Any descent DVD recorder will perform the task.

Sky STBs don't have the software to allow you to edit a program before recording it to DVD. You will either need to purchase something else to allow you to do this yourself or edit it on the fly with the DVD recorder. Mine, for example, will allow me to press 'Pause' so I can trim the adverts out if I wish.

I don't know if there are any available, but see if you can find one that can record onto Dual Layer (DL) discs. Standard DVDs will record for a max of 2 hours at standard speed. Whilst you can record 4 hours films by changing the compression ratios, the quality drops.

DL discs will allow considerably longer footage to be recorded.

[Isitme]

Your best bet is a HDD DVD recorder. This will allow you to record to the HDD, name edit etc, then transfer to DVD if you wish. You will have to transfer to the HDD in real time, but burning on to a DVD is much quicker. When I want to transfer anything, I set up a bunch using the Copy feature and do it overnight.

Most of the recorders available now have built in freeview, which if you are going to use it with a Sky box, is a bit of a waste of money. Search around and see what is available. The Panasonics look very good, but most reviewers comment on its 'advertising' feature. You will not get much for under £200 but this one from Tesco looks quite good. Buy Toshiba RD100 Digital DVD Recorder with 320Gb HDD at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for DVD recorders with hard disk drive.

[fuzzy logic]

A cheap option, if you've already got a DVD player, might be to get a media player which can record an analogue source to a USB hard drive, then do the editing and burn it to a DVD on your PC. I recently bought a new, but obsolescent one for £20 which should be able to do that after upgrading to its final firmware, although it has various limitations, such as it can only record in standard definition and doesn't have a HDMI connection, doesn't support MKV, and doesn't provide access to the recorded content over the LAN.