Hi, I'm Dawn and need some coaching. I wish to buy a DVD player/recorder for the main purpose of recording tv shows during the day while I'm away to play back later. I am seeking an opinion or two from someone with experience as to a economically priced and user-friendly model. Of course, that is just the first step. Once I make the purchase, I will need further coaching. Is there someonw with THAT much patience?? Thanks, Dawn
Dawn, I suggest you research "TiVo" to see if that would go with your system. It's really super. Also, as an employee of Radio Shack for a long time, I suggest you go there. They are very patient (the managers always are) and they have a wide selection of recorders with different features and price ranges. For a small fee they also have a service plan which will have your recorder fixed and returned in a jiffy should it break down for any reason. It's one of the better chain stores in the country - Pete
Hi Pete, Thanks for your sound advice. Unfortunately, I didn't get it until AFTER I bought my new Panasonic Recorder. The instructions for hooking it up look so simple, but I can't figure them out. If I share a couple lines of the directions, will you interpret them for me? Thanks, Dawn
Sure Dawn, take a snap of the rear of the unit from the direction book and give me the lines and I'll do the translating - (Or bribe some little 10 yr old kid from the street and he'll have it together in a New York minute, Lol) Pete
Pete, You are so right about bribing a 10-year old to help me! But, luckily in the absence of a child, I have you!! I'm headed for work right now, so will share the instructions with you tonight. You like a challenge, right? Dawn
Pete, I've tried to figure it out and have reached a brick wall. The Operators' Manual is on Panasonic's website. When I try to program a tv station, it won't let me because I haven't been able to master step 2....plug-in auto tuning on page 11. My model is DMR-E55. I get an error message at step 7. I have spent hours patiently trying to figure this out and the call center is saying a 55-minute wait. Help!! Dawn
Dawn, I really do love ya sweetie BUT I'm a bit over my depth, not knowing what things you have and need to hook up. Pretty much it's usually audio in then audio out - red to red yellow to yellow and ground to ground. Whatever you have s/b listed -
dawntime, I have a DVD recorder, there is really no problem to hooking one up. They all work basically the same. 1-You must run your cable to the cable input of your recorder and out to your TV cable input. Then run your programing setup on your recorder. 2-If you have a cable box, run it thru the box cable input, then to your recorder cable input, then to the TV cable input. If you do it this way you'll only use one channel on your recorder, channel 3. Because everything comes thru the box. You do it this way to be able to record scrambled channels(ie movie channels). You have to watch what you record. 3-The last way to do it is run the cable to your recorder cable input, then out to your cable box cable input and then out to your TV cable input. This allows you to record one channel while watching another, but you can't record scrambled channels. You then run your channel setup on your recorder. Option 1 and 3 will also allow you to record different channels while away, but option 2 would only allow you to record one channel while away because the channel would have to be changed on the box. Unfortunately only option 2 will let you record scrambled channels. Sooo, you'll have to make a decision there. You should also hook it up for your video and audio connections using component if your TV has a component connection. That is 3 cables for video and two for audio. If your TV doesn't have component connection use your S-video plug and your two audio(usually red and white) plugs. The last option is one yellow plug for video and then the two for audio. I hope this hasn't confused you more,LOL :>)
Big Orange, Thank you for the response. I won't have a chance to experiment until the weekend, but will do so with your tips in front of me. That was very kind of you to take the time to help me. I'll let you know how successful I am!! Dawn
