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92761

General Discussion Area / Re: I've broken my video recorder

« on: 04 November 2007, 11:10:58 »

I must say, I'm not 100% convinced by LCDs yet. I think the colours from a CRT look a bit more natural and I just find some LCDs wearing on the eyes. LCDs seem to look much worse on poor quality source material too.

Good job I've got a lovely KV32FX60  

Kevin

A lot of LCDs, particularly the BRAVIAs have a weird default setting (I suspect to make it stand out as vibrant in the showroom).  My brother uses BRAVIAs in his (jewellery) shops as under the bright lighting, the colour stays bold for his ads.  But for normal viewing, it would need taming down.


I went from a FQ series Sony CRT to a Dell 37" LCD. The Dell was, imho, the more natural colourwise (perhaps with the exception of blacks), and obviously, none of the geometry/colour bleed/alignment issues associated with the Sony CRT (or any of the FQ's other well publicised problems!).

I have replaced the Dell with a Samsung which answers all the shortcomings of the Dell (though introduces one new one (selecting source manually) which is a PITA).

92762

General Discussion Area / Re: I've broken my video recorder

« on: 02 November 2007, 22:59:34 »

Errr, VGA is RGB .  Most decent cards do HDMI direct if you have a modern telly for when you dump that Sony PoS.

If you get a Radeon card, making an VGA to SCART is easy enough, but you need a bit of software called Powerstrip to set the res to 720 x 576 on a mega low refresh.

PoS

Just because it works a lot better than you FS75

FQ75. Yes, that piece of crap that Sony UK STILL do not acknowledge a problem with. Sony France were more open and implemented a rather expensive fix.


But the fact remains, even the cheapest LCD will outperform a 6/7 year old CRT, esp a WEGA based one.  But, seeing as Sony are unable to make decent electronics to drive an LCD, places like Costco are selling the pretty reasonable 32" Panasonic Viesta for under £400...

92763

General Discussion Area / Re: I've broken my video recorder

« on: 02 November 2007, 22:55:24 »

One point is the power used by a PC

Surely a media centre would wake itself up when it's time to record and sit in standby at all other times? You can set the BIOS clock to wake up most PCs from standby with about 3 lines of code. Running a PC the whole time just in case you've set something up to record would be madness unless you can use a fanless, efficient PC (which wouldn't be fast enough) .

A PC's not really the best tool for the job IMHO. It's a shame you have to use one to get a sensible set of features. It amazes me that all of the consumer HDD PVRs available are so dumb. The hardware's there. It wouldn't have taken much to put a web interface on it and a few features like actually recording the program you wanted, not just starting recording at the time it should be on. Missing the first / last 5 minutes of the program is what used to happen when I first got access to a video in about 1978 yet I still get it today .

Kevin

Absolutely, set it for S3 standby, as mine is. Uses <3W.  Build the MCE with Core2 Duo chip, it will probably run around 50W when in use.  Only Fan in my MCE is PSU, everything else is passive cooling.

PC has extra advantages of 3rd party apps adding some useful features

92764

General Discussion Area / Re: I've broken my video recorder

« on: 01 November 2007, 21:10:19 »

Want to record two channels - thats the problem, however I still have about 20 tapes to convert to MPEG2

Get a proper recorder - most have 2 freeview tuners now.  Certain Media Centers had 6, but had to take one out as new video card needed 2 slots  

Problem with buying first to market, Pace Twin might be only a single record but it is very easy to use.

I got my Sanyo HiFi deck in for a bit (was by the PC for capturing) and that still works but the tapes are all knackered.

The super deck is on on Saturday so I'll drop it off after getting LPG.

My 1982 portable still works fine

My VCR stable is Sony SL-HF950 with no head rotation, Sanyo VTC-M40 which is 22 years old, and my 1982 VCR of the year SLF1UB portable

Pace twin is showing its age badly, and is sssllllloooooowwwwww....

Current respected ones, MCE aside, seem to be the Topfields (Linux? based)

Not that slow - but is reliable on latest update, picture is good, next would be Topfield or the ex Sony lot.

Worth looking at MCE - being a PC, lots of scope for additions, such as auto advert removal, web based access to it if you're not at home (google for mce webguide), HD support easy to add, extenders etc etc...

Are there RGB video cards or will I need Component to RGB transcoder?

Could be usefull for non broadcast stuff too

Still doesn't solve my large pile of SuperBeta tapes though (Including wedding video)

Errr, VGA is RGB .  Most decent cards do HDMI direct if you have a modern telly for when you dump that Sony PoS.

If you get a Radeon card, making an VGA to SCART is easy enough, but you need a bit of software called Powerstrip to set the res to 720 x 576 on a mega low refresh.

92765

General Discussion Area / Re: I've broken my video recorder

« on: 01 November 2007, 19:06:13 »

Want to record two channels - thats the problem, however I still have about 20 tapes to convert to MPEG2

Get a proper recorder - most have 2 freeview tuners now.  Certain Media Centers had 6, but had to take one out as new video card needed 2 slots  

Problem with buying first to market, Pace Twin might be only a single record but it is very easy to use.

I got my Sanyo HiFi deck in for a bit (was by the PC for capturing) and that still works but the tapes are all knackered.

The super deck is on on Saturday so I'll drop it off after getting LPG.

My 1982 portable still works fine

My VCR stable is Sony SL-HF950 with no head rotation, Sanyo VTC-M40 which is 22 years old, and my 1982 VCR of the year SLF1UB portable

Pace twin is showing its age badly, and is sssllllloooooowwwwww....

Current respected ones, MCE aside, seem to be the Topfields (Linux? based)

Not that slow - but is reliable on latest update, picture is good, next would be Topfield or the ex Sony lot.

Worth looking at MCE - being a PC, lots of scope for additions, such as auto advert removal, web based access to it if you're not at home (google for mce webguide), HD support easy to add, extenders etc etc...

92766

General Discussion Area / Re: I've broken my video recorder

« on: 01 November 2007, 18:18:51 »

Want to record two channels - thats the problem, however I still have about 20 tapes to convert to MPEG2

Get a proper recorder - most have 2 freeview tuners now.  Certain Media Centers had 6, but had to take one out as new video card needed 2 slots  

Problem with buying first to market, Pace Twin might be only a single record but it is very easy to use.

I got my Sanyo HiFi deck in for a bit (was by the PC for capturing) and that still works but the tapes are all knackered.

The super deck is on on Saturday so I'll drop it off after getting LPG.

My 1982 portable still works fine

My VCR stable is Sony SL-HF950 with no head rotation, Sanyo VTC-M40 which is 22 years old, and my 1982 VCR of the year SLF1UB portable

Pace twin is showing its age badly, and is sssllllloooooowwwwww....

Current respected ones, MCE aside, seem to be the Topfields (Linux? based)

92767

General Discussion Area / Re: I've broken my video recorder

« on: 31 October 2007, 20:02:09 »

Want to record two channels - thats the problem, however I still have about 20 tapes to convert to MPEG2

Get a proper recorder - most have 2 freeview tuners now.  Certain Media Centers had 6, but had to take one out as new video card needed 2 slots  

92768

General Discussion Area / Re: I've broken my video recorder

« on: 31 October 2007, 19:49:03 »

I needed to tape something so I decided to free off the mode motor on my Sony SL-HF950

Well it works now, but one of the chassis to deck wires got trapped and one was snapped.

That has been repaired but now there is no head rotation.

Any electronics gurus or VCR repair gurus available.

Can't afford another as they fetch stupid price S/H

Good. Get something from this millenium.

 

You know full well I have had a PVR for a few years now.

so give up with the vcr?

92769

General Discussion Area / Re: I've broken my video recorder

« on: 31 October 2007, 19:43:43 »

I needed to tape something so I decided to free off the mode motor on my Sony SL-HF950

Well it works now, but one of the chassis to deck wires got trapped and one was snapped.

That has been repaired but now there is no head rotation.

Any electronics gurus or VCR repair gurus available.

Can't afford another as they fetch stupid price S/H

Good. Get something from this millenium.

 

92770

General Discussion Area / Re: Bonfire night

« on: 04 November 2007, 10:51:33 »

I was supposed to be going to the little firework/bbq we have in the close last night, but instead was stuck underneath a bloody Audi playing with suspension until about 8pm in Oxford   - yet another quality design by respected german designers  

Have the same trouble with all, so called "German" appliances, had a rant about this, as the germans are so proud of their work,  

and was told that all equiptment these days have the same inners, probably all comimng from China or Japan.

The same with the cars, they may have come from a german Drawing board, but the production is all in East Europe.
It has all got to be cheap these days, and if the car goes wrong more money in the pocket for the mechanics

Everybody is  in an uproar about this way of thinking here, as more and more of the production leave Germany, or for that matter western Europe, towards the like of Poland and Rumania.
With the aim of saving cost, but at the expense of the work force.

Alas, in this case, it was the design that is suspect....   ....much like the BMW tractor engine...

92771

General Discussion Area / Re: Bonfire night

« on: 04 November 2007, 10:39:45 »

I was supposed to be going to the little firework/bbq we have in the close last night, but instead was stuck underneath a bloody Audi playing with suspension until about 8pm in Oxford   - yet another quality design by respected german designers  

92772

General Discussion Area / Re: Nag's Head on Friday

« on: 02 November 2007, 23:32:43 »

Drink coming up. Anyone got any nuts for Maria?

Does she like them salted













Or roasted  

 

Roasted will bring a tear to your eyes though...

92773

General Discussion Area / Re: Nag's Head on Friday

« on: 02 November 2007, 23:30:22 »

Drink coming up. Anyone got any nuts for Maria?

No, I'm not going to say it.....

92774

General Discussion Area / Re: Nag's Head on Friday

« on: 02 November 2007, 23:29:08 »

TB, you're nearing 20,000 posts. You planning a celebration?  

Another star perhaps, theres still a bit of room.

I don't think there's room  

Never mind have some Stella instead.

Sounds like a plan

92775

General Discussion Area / Re: Nag's Head on Friday

« on: 02 November 2007, 23:26:08 »

TB, you're nearing 20,000 posts. You planning a celebration?  

Another star perhaps, theres still a bit of room.

I don't think there's room