Set ups

[themurdochs@btinternet.co]

Hello Great Helpers.

I have a Sky dish and a television aerial. All cables lead into my living room. Thereafter a cable runs to six other rooms in my house. In each room I can watch Sky or Freeview channels via a Freeview box placed in each room following a very recent digital switchover.

I would like to set up a DVD Player/Recorder in one of these rooms. I have:

TV with
Scart DVD Ext
Scart TV Ext
Aerial In

Freeview Box with
RF In
RF Out

DVD with
Scart Line 3/Decoder
Line 1 TV
Aerial In
Aerial Out

Is it possible to do what I want to? Can any Great Helpers instruct me?

Many thanks in anticipation of your very kind assistance.

[Mickha]

Is the DVD recorder digital? By that I mean does it have a digital freeview tuner.

[themurdochs@btinternet.co]

Hi Mikha,

I'm not sure but I took this info from the internet - I hope it helps.

Sony RDR-HX525 Multiregion Sony RDR-HX525 Multiregion

This review is from: Sony RDR-HX525 DVD Recorder with 80GB Hard Drive (Electronics)
Having used a Pace Twin Digital TV Recorder with all the Freeview channels for a couple of years now I was looking for a DVD recorder with an ILINK connection for transfering digital camcorder footage straight on to DVD.

This Sony model certainly fits the bill. But I must mention though, the initial difficulty I had with connecting the Pace. The instructions in the manual are misleading regarding the SCART connections. Only when I reversed them, that is Line 1 to the Pace and Line 3 to the TV could it see all digital and analogue channels as well as record them to the harddrive in very good quality. It is a little fussy regarding the make of DVDs, for instance it would not play back a recording made on a computer to a TDK disk that played fine on other DVD players. Another little disappointment was a lack of the slow repeat play. There is only a frame by frame mode. finally I found it strange that the built in fan would kick in every so often even when the player is switched off.

Appart from those niggles it is a good versatile machine that does everything it says . Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Report abuse | Permalink

[Mickha]

It sounds like an old DVD recorder, with an analogue tuner, you can do this 2 ways:

Try connecting a scart lead, from your freeview box to the DVD recorder, put the DVD recorder on the AV channel, then record any channel currently on the freeview box.

If you have a Freeview box, and Sky box, near to your DVD recorder you can run another scart lead, from the Sky box, to the second AV connection on your DVD recorder, you then switch to AV2 to record from the Sky box, providing there are no recording restrictions with the Sky box.

You can also use the S Video options on the front of the DVD recorder, to connect to the TV, or to the Freeview, Sky, receiver.

You can also daisy chain the coax cable, from the Freeview box, into the DVD recorder, then to the TV, then tune the DVD analogue tuner to pick up your Sky box and Freeview box.
The problem with that is quite often you get picture distortions and might need to adjust the RF out channel on your Sky box, and/or your freeview box, to get rid of this.

You have a lot of options, depending on what you want to record.

Do you just want to record programmes from the freeview receiver?

[themurdochs@btinternet.co]

Hello Mickha,

Thank you for your efforts to help but feel free to give up! I would like to be able to record from Sky and also from Freeview. I have tried to interpret your instructions. How does the following seem?

Cable coming through wall from living room carrying everything goes into Aerial In on DVD

Cable comes from DVD Aerial Out and goes into RF IN on Freeview Box

Cable comes out of RF Out on Freeview Box and into Aerial In on TV

Scart Cable goes from Line 1TV on DVD to Scart DVD Ext on TV

Scart Cable goes from Freeview Box to Scart TV Ext on TV

Scart Line 3/Decoder on DVD remains empty.

[Mickha]

Run the coax cable to your Freeview box then DVD recorder, that gives more recording options but only using the coax cable, which doesn't give the best quality.

What type of Sky receiver do you have?
Do you have HD?
Do you have Sky+ for recording?
Do you have a full subscription to Sky?

I would still use the scart leads for recording from the freeview box, connect one scart lead from the freeview box scart Ext to your DVD Scart AV1.
Connect another scart cable from DVD recorder AV2 to your TV.
Switch on your freesat box, and turn the DVD recorder to AV, next turn your TV to AV and check if you've got picture, and sound, if you have try recording then play back, just to test it.

[themurdochs@btinternet.co]

Hi Mickha,

Many thanks again for that. It will be a few days before I can try it but I will post how I get on.

In case it is relevant, the answers to your questions are:

I do not have Sky HD or Skyplus as I only have one cable running from my dish. It runs underground and I don't want to have another coming in high.

I have a full subscription to Sky.

[themurdochs@btinternet.co]

You, Mickha, are a magic man! Followed your instructions and everything is now up and running great! Would never have tried the plan you recommended. Many thanks to you and all the other guys like you who take time to guide us lesser people!

Thanks again.