Suggestions

RobertFoster

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could recommend a solution to the following.

My current Home Entertainment set up is an old Sony 32" widescreen, a Philips DVD/VCR combi and NTL Digital (the MMDS one, if that makes a difference).

The Philips player was bought for me for my birthday a couple of years ago. It was chosen because of the VCR, mainly to record as we don't watch tapes anymore... The trouble with the player is it can't be made region free.

I got an Archos AV420 back in September. Because of its ability to record, I decided to ditch the Philips player and get a cheap DVD player that could be made region free. Unfortunately, the current setup is pretty much the only setup that works. The AV420 is connected to the DVD/VCR in order to record from the NTL box.

The NTL box doesn't have a second scart or sockets for the red/white/yellow cables. I rang NTL as someone suggested there'd be an updated box. There is, but NTL won't replace it unless it's broken. And even if it was broken (I think the guy was afraid I'd break it on purpose ), there'd be a chance the repair guy would have the old version in his van too :rolleyes:

What would you recommend as an alternative? I was looking at DVD recorders, SVP have one for €120 which has got good reviews. Are DVD recorders any good, or are HDD recorders better? The only problem I see with them is the price Do DVD±RW degrade with use like VHS does? I don't mind ditching the record function of the AV420 for another machine, but I'd prefer to still use it for video playback, so DivX capabilities aren't required.

ffocused

I belive all Philips dvd players can be made multiregion with a simple remote hack. Have you googled it?
You should try this before buying a recorder.
recorded DVDs do not degrade over time but are damaged easier then pre recorded ones. ie scratches etc.

RobertFoster

I made a mistake, it's actually a Sony player, and it has no remote hack

Thanks for the input about the discs.