Any opinions on the Sharp DV-HR300?

CliffB
Ha Ha! The Silver nickname is because I am a silver surfer so don't be cheeky to your elders! Anyway no offence taken. I can only comment on the way I have set-up my Sharp to TV etc and hope it helps. I have a Sony 32" Trinitron analogue TV. This is connected via Scart to the "Line 1 (TV) socket" of the Sharp. I also have NTL cable box connected via Antenna in/out sockets.In addition I have a Videologic 5.1 DTS amplifier connected via the Digital Audio Output Coaxial socket on the Sharp.
The Sharp is tuned in to BBC1-Ch5 terrestial broadcasts and appear on the Sharp as PR1 - PR5. PR6 is tuned into Cable. Obviously I can only record from a cable program by ensuring the Sharp is set to CH6 and the cable box preset to the desired program number. I bought the Sharp to replace my VHS recorder and DVD player. It's a mega leap as far as quality is concerned. Just remember treat it more like a PC as it takes a bit longer to get going than a VHS machine. It's a great machine for converting your old VHS tapes to DVD and so much quicker than PC to send your digital camcorder recordings to DVD. At £299 for a DVD recorder with 120 Gbyte HHD you got a bargain. If I wasn't a pensioner I might be tempted to buy another just in case my existing recorder goes on the blink! Cheers

 

Silver
Thanks for the update, not a pensioner here yet, 20 years to go :-(
Hey I enjoy working anyway! I have a similar arangement except I have a plasma connected via SCART from the 350H and a separate Sony DAV-400 (800?) DVD player/surround sound system. I also have a sat box connected via SCART and RF to the 350H but have to use PR5 (tuned to the Sat box output) to record. There's no terrestrial CH5 in darkest Dorset. Whereas I'd like to set up one of the presets to be not a TV channel but a direct input (L2 in this case). I haven't tried manual tuning/selection yet but it should be possible. Recording only an analogue RF signal is quite poor bearing in mind that the sat box produces RGB from an MPEG-TS signal.
I'd defo consider another 350 based upon what I've seen so far and read but 300 quid is still 300 quid sadly. I'm hoping long term to build up a video library on a fileserver so all media audio and video) is accessible from anyway on the house LAN. I have most of it in place but need a reliable video recording system to complete it.
Amazing the AV technology we have now compared to yesteryear.

 

Hi wook,
Hey Silver and the rest of cyber-friends whats shakin
Wook, I don't know of any way of replacing the thumbnail it makes from the first frame. I've had the unit for about a year now. I do think you can set one in High-Speed dubbing but not in SP or the Fine mode. The unit does have its quirks. And the reset? I think it's there for appearance only. When ever my system does something funny, which is hardly ever, I do the complete shutdown thing. Unplug the unit wait a few seconds and power it back up. Remember though, it's just like Silver said this platform is more a like a PC and less like a vcr. If youre HHD is full or close to it you will get disc errors or some other error. The deck needs plenty of HD space to work correctly just like a computer needs disc space to operate its programs. Hope this helps.
regards, Manny

 

rwa77
Not quite sure why on the sound issue but, shouldn't you be connected to the TV via an antenna or (RF) cable? Your RF signal would carry the sound that way. My system has the Brighthouse cable going into my cable box, then from my cable box to my Sharp, and then from my Sharp to my TV set. All of this is using the RF cable. I use the cable box for switching channels and leave my Sharp set on channel 4. I only use my rca and svhs inputs and outputs to connect other decks, such as my second dvd player and my vcr for burning vhs to dvd.
regards, Manny

 

CliffB
I guess quality of picture is in the eye of the beholder. I certainly can't complain about the playback quality of TV programs I've recorded on the Sharp from BBC1 - CH5. Maybe I would be more critically and discerning if I were receiving a digital broadcast but being in a particularly good analogue reception area near Glasgow I'm happy enough. Sorry I can't offer any more help on connection of satellite equipment but I guess there may be other forum members who can comment & help.
As I have stated on this forum earlier, future developments of TV broadcast and of recording equipment will no doubt amaze (if I'm still around) Meantime I'm a happy Sharp user and for what I paid I'm very happy.

 

Hi,

I'm using my DV-HR30S for several months now. Recently (since a few days), it regularly fails to properly start up. The HDD and DVD leds just keep on blinking indefinitely.
Did anyone else have this problem? What could be the cause, and even better, the solution?

Note: after browsing through this tread today, I just upgraded my firmware to 1.20 - but after the upgrade it still happened at least once. I also upgraded the drive software to 1.43..

Any help appreciated!

D0rian

PS: this is the best forum on the Sharp DV-HR I found so far! At last! ;-)

 

Manny,

thanks for the reply. I managed to fix it eventually. here in singapore sound is broadcast in some format called 'BG'. I had to go into the setup menu options for tuning in the TV channels, and in there i was able to set the sound format.

other than that, no problems at all and a great piece of kit!

 

I bought a DV-HR300U (U.S. model) just over a year ago when amazon.com had them for incredibly low prices. I've been happy except for the channel 55-60 recording bug, and the occasional hard disk error. Having seen others on this forum get no satisfaction from Sharp's service centers about fixing the channel 55-60 bug, I decided to just ignore it. But now, just after the 1-year warrantee expired, it began having very frequent HDD errors. Re-initializing the HDD didn't help. So, since it was out of warrantee, I took the plunge and replaced the hard disk myself, and it's worked out great!

I used a Seagate 160 GB 7200 RPM IDE disk, so I also doubled the recording capacity in the process. The old disk was an off-the-shelf 3.5-inch Hitachi 82GB 7200 RPM DeskStar. This DVR uses a standard IDE interface and molex power connectors to the HDD, so no mods or adapters were needed. The only tricky part was removing the little PC (printed-circuit) board that's mounted on top of the HDD cage. The ribbon cables are much smaller and easily damaged than the beefy ribbon cables in a regular PC, so be extremely careful. After removing the screws to that PC board, the trick is that the ribbon cables are taped underneath to the disk cage, so that has to be removed carefully (so as not to tear the cables or connectors). There are two or three major connectors (other than the HDD IDE & power) that must be unplugged to be able to lift off the PC-board. DO NOT try to remove the flush-mount ribbon connectors.

Upon power-up, the first thing I did was initialize the HDD. I then had to delete several dozen garbage informational messages (they seem to be stored in an area on the HDD that doesn't get initialized). Although the timer programs were still present, they created garbled titles & times when run, so I also deleted and re-input all my timer programs. (I wish there was a way to do a true factory initialization of this unit, not just the front panel pseudo-reset button.)

-david

 

dnessl

Great news about the HDD replacement. I'm sure a lot of the members of this forum would do the same once the warrenty has expired on their respective units. Could you be a bit more specific about your statement "Although the timer programs were still present, they created garbled titles & times when run, so I also deleted and re-input all my timer programs".
The way I read your post the shows recorded on your original HDD is still available also after you installed the 160 GB Seagate. How could this be ? Sure this is a misunderstanding but some elaboration would be welcome.

 

Any existing HDD recordings were of course gone. But the unit still knew about the timer programs, i.e. the set of dates/times/channels when it is supposed to make recordings. After installing the new HDD, and the unit started making recordings to the HDD, when you then went back later to see the REC LIST, the labels for the new recordings were garbled (random characters). Just delete all the timer programs, and then and only then add them back. Any further new recordings will get the proper labels in the REC LIST.

 

Thanks alot for your information dnessl.

Cheers Stovdal

 

**THUMBNAILS**

There is a workaround, of sorts, to that annoying "thumbnail" problem that we all, understandably, moan about.

In EDIT/ERASE, select "edit"/"Playlist"/"copy specified scene"/"create". Then grab a 3-second bite that starts with your chosen thumbnail, presumably the film title. Follow that with "add scene"/"add chapter/title", select your film and "add" it.

It may not be elegant, but it certainly works well with those oldies with nice BIG titles that are on screen for a couple of seconds.

Give it a whirl.

 

hi all,

I own a Sharp DV-HR350S. When I make a recording from tv to hdd the tittle-name of the recorded program does not appear in the rec-list (it does show prog. start and end time date). Is there a setting I have to change??
Ps I am in the Netherlands and using showview and pdc to make the recording.

Thanks

 

Neph says I need to better the world by sitting in a tub of gasoline and torching myself.

 

Anyone know how to proceed a true factory initialization of HR300, not just the front panel pseudo-reset button.

I find I can't record Nicam L+R in direct record mode, i.e. it shows "stereo" instead of being able to select L, R, R+L when using Audio button during playback. Can a true factory initialization help, how?

 

My Sharp is HR300 with no letters behind it ( purchased in Singapore). Can't find any reference to this on the net.

What do the U's and H's etc represent.

 

This is not related to the more recent topics, but I once again come the fountain of knowledge. I have recorded from an external DV camera source four different programs that I need to make multiple DVD's of; each program varies from just over an hour to just over two hours. When I try to "High Speed Dub" to DVD from HDD, I get a message that there is not enough disk space. I've set record time to SP (for the ones under two hours, and longer for the one over two hrs.) but I still have to copy in real time - except for one of the programs that is about 1hr 40 min. in length which I am able to high speed. I've selected High Speed Dubbing in the Options menu but it has no affect. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!! VMG

 

I just replaced oryginal 80GB HD with brand new WD 250GB drive. After initialization everythig work fine except disk size. Unit see 160GB only. Is there any way to use full (250) capacity of my new HD?

Can I read my old unmounted drive with PC?

 

Hi Paitonii, The letters following 300 refer to the market the recorder was made for. E.G.The H model was marketed in the UK and the S model SE Asia and Australia. The main difference being the regional code. My guess is the model you have is the "S" model. Don't concern yourself too much about model number just consider the bargain recorder you've purchased
Cheers Silver64.

 

VMG, Hi Don, It's a while since you've been on. Like you I have also noticed that despite setting the recorder up for Hi-Speed dubbing it seems that if the recording is longer than say 30 minutes then dubbing at Hi-Speed is not possible. If you have set up for high speed dubbing and recorded to the HDD and you go into the "rec list" (HDD ORIGINAL)..... at the end of the Title Info a little round symbol, white in colour and resembling a stopwatch (my guess)is displayed. I have found the title can then be dubbed at high speed, otherwise its a "no go". Also I mentioned to you in an earlier post that I thought that once you had burned a dvd on the Sharp from the HDD it would then be much quicker to do multiple fast copies via a PC. I really don't think the Sharp is equipped for multiple duplicating Best regards Silver64