PVR Advice Please - Recording Pay TV

[bob dylan]

Anyone use a third party device to record Pay TV, I am loathe to give Austar more money for Mystar, and have heard some bad reports.

I wantt to buy a PVR that I can use for both Free To Air and Pay TV.

 

[Fro]

i think Austar have cornered the market there bob, I use a topfield for FTA but ive not found anything that can do the pay side of things.

if you do find anything let me know, i'd love to be able to do it somehow, I used to use a DVD recorder a few years back with the austar running through it, but the discs were a pain, something similar may be possible with a DVD recorder with a HDD on board.

Most PVRs are limited in what the will allow as inputs. for obvious reasons i guess.

 

[ManlyBacker]

bob, you will find it has all gone pear-shaped. I used to be able to take a Foxtel recording and put it to a DVD recorder. I now have Austar but they are using macrovision s/w to stop transfer of anything that has been recorded. It might be possible to record to a DVD HD when something is coming through live on Austar but I haven't tried that. There are a number of devices around $100 that claim to cut out the macrovision s/w but all Austar does is put out a new version and it is probably useless.

The Mystar recording box works the same way as the Foxtel and the controller is terrific. What sucks is the HD they have put in - very cheap. FFing any recording you need to reverse the play to get the sound to sync. A High Def recording is much worse to get to work properly. I can't complain - I'm on a free 6 mth deal after buying a laptop through HN. But the HD is so iffy I probably won't sign up after it finishes.

 

[bob dylan]

Thanks MB

I have been reading over at Whirlpool that a Topfield TRF 2400 Masterpiece will do the job, but can only be played back in SD.

They also say any PVR with and A/V Input will do the job and another option is Beyonwiz DP-P2.

 

[ManlyBacker]

Cheers bob. If you get something to work let us know.

 

[codewana]

Bob, my suggestion would be to check out the whirlpool forums. Not saying that we fans aren't technical, but those guys are insane. Wouldn't surprise me if a similar question has already been posted.

 

[bob dylan]

Bob, my suggestion would be to check out the whirlpool forums. Not saying that we fans aren't technical, but those guys are insane. Wouldn't surprise me if a similar question has already been posted.

Thanks codewana.

I asked the question over there by starting a thread, many said it could be done but no one had actually done it.

I did read in a thread on the Topfield model mentioned above it could be done, but the boys at the local JB Hi Fi told me it couldn't.

 

[ManlyBacker]

bob, I spent a day researching every forum for answer a bit over 3 months ago and couldn't find a defintive answer. Srangely, I too tried JB locally and they said the same thing. Then I tried all the tech-head friends I have w/o luck. I just gave up as I wasn't keen on spending money on a maybe.

 

[bob dylan]

Ok I found another unit, TEAC HDR3500T which I have found does work according the Whirlpool forum.

http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/home%20theatre/set%20top%20box/teac-hdr3500t-500gb-dual-hd-pvr/585636

 

[Av8r]

RE: PVR Advice Please - Recording Pay TV

How'd you go with this @[bob dylan] ? It's something I've been considering of late.

 

[bob dylan]

RE: PVR Advice Please - Recording Pay TV

I havent done anything yet, over 1 year later.

Maybe I will buy the Topfield mentioned above or bite the bullett and pay Foxtel a bit more each month.

@Sumdumguy