Record on your tv

[Huggy71]

Does anyone know if there is a tv on the market that has an in-built hard drive so that you don't have to buy a separate Freeview/recorder box?

 

[Paul.]

Only one I know of is Loewe with it built in. Many smart TVs have the ability to record to an external drive, you can buy a 500GB external HD for about £50. Some Panasonic's and Samsung's do it, not sure about others. Just bear in mind you will have to watch what you record if you don't use an external PVR with twin tuners. Apparently the F8000 samsung LED and F8500 plasma will have twin free view tuners to allow true PVR functionality with a plug in drive.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Of no personal interest but my Pana has freeview and freesat connection so maybe I could record one and watch another? Never really though a tv/hdd was a great idea tho.

 

[Paul.]

Of no personal interest but my Pana has freeview and freesat connection so maybe I could record one and watch another? Never really though a tv/hdd was a great idea tho.

not sure about the panasonic, but definitely can't on the samsung (with freesat). You can only switch to channels on the same multiplex, so you can switch from itv to 4, but not from itv to bbc.

 

[Huggy71]

Thanks for your reply Paul. I find it weird that no major tv manufacturer has developed this!

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

According to my wife, it's quite normal for tvs to have a built in hard drive in Japan, and has been for some time, but for some reason, the Japanese manufacturers don't bother for tvs outside of their home market.

Don't take this as gospel, but she's never wrong (apparently).

 

[Dave_]

I'd hazard a guess that one of the reasons its not a feature in the UK is import duty.

PVRs attract a high rate of duty.

Sky got round this years ago with Sky+ by convincing the UK courts that PVR functionality was a subscription service and not a feature and one of the reasons they used to charge extra for it, before the costs were absorbed into the packages.

Manufacturer's of other end user PVRs (Freesat, Freeview etc) get round it by manufacturing in the far east and then doing 'final assembly' (they fit the HDDs) in eastern Europe usually.

Generic/FTA PVRs don't have HDDs fitted, and you have to supply and fit your own, or pay the reseller a premium to supply and fit for you. For the same reason

So probably why there are plenty of TVs on the market in the UK with USB that allow PVR functionality, but none with it intergrated.

 

[strapped for cash]

Of no personal interest but my Pana has freeview and freesat connection so maybe I could record one and watch another? Never really though a tv/hdd was a great idea tho.

Current Panasonics do not allow you watch one tuner (i.e. Freeview) while recording using the other (i.e. Freesat).

This year, however, Panasonic is introducing twin tuners for both Freeview and Freesat on high end models, meaning you can record from one channel while watching another.

This doesn't give you the full functionality of a dedicated PVR, though, as there's no timer record option.