I have read all the reviews of this HDD DVD Recorder but I still am not sure if I will be able to use it with Comcast Digital Cable channels... I would greatly appreciated the advise... Thanks !~ Katherine
54174
I use this unit as a component video recorder only. The tuner is for PAL and will not decode NTSC frequencies. I set the unit to NTSC and S-video component input. You must have a cable box to receive and decode the digital signals, run the S-video/audio outputs into the EH-69 and it will accept either NTSC standard definition and high definition video signals but only records and plays back in standard definition with HD up conversion. What I like about it is that you can record on the hard drive and burn the program to DVD if you want to store it. Some programs are copy protected and can only be burned from the EH-69 to Panasonic RAM discs for playback only, they cannot be copied after RAM disc burn. The unit also needs to be programmed manually to record. It does not recognize the "guide" from cable tv. You would have to power it up, using the navigation function set the timer, date, time length of recording to record at the same time your Comcast program is playing back real time. Just like the old days of setting your VCR. Even though it sounds like a pain to go through these steps, many people have their on-demand systems full, since they don't want to delete programs they have not watched. This way you can burn to DVD a number of programs for playback at a later time. This is the specific reason I purchased this unit in the first place instead of paying $15.00 a month for the Moxi or DVR function. The only real drawback is that the DVD RAM discs are for Panasonic EH-69 playback only as well as only being able to record one program at a time.
853324
I previously owned a Toshiba DVR that would record,to the hard drive,all cables channels.That was in the analog days.The previously mentioned DVD/VCR recorder will not record anything to DVD or video tape that is on certain cable channels (Discovery,for example).It contains a QAM digital tuner. Are you saying that the Magnovox MDR515H will not record the copyguarded channels,even to it's hard drive ? I do not intend to attempt to make DVD copies,just time shift programming.I know,of course,the DVRs provided by the cable company will do this with all channels provided.
88603
No because of copyright laws and industry restrictions - this will not happen on a device that writes to portable recording media (DVD, Blu-ray, etc). The idea being - as I understand it - to restrict/reduce/eliminate anything but streaming media to consumers. Your satellite, cable, etc PVR/DVR's that have hard drives only - encrypt that data at rest on the hard drive. Your DVR/PVR HDMI output signal checks to see if the receiving device is DMCP - digital media copyright protection compliant - and these devices will not be compliant as the industry and law are currently. I would recommend AVS forums for any indepth discussion of this subject. This is very high level - and I'm not an expert. No because of copyright laws and industry restrictions - this will not happen on a device that writes to portable recording media (DVD, Blu-ray, etc). The idea being - as I understand it - to restrict/reduce/eliminate anything but streaming media to consumers. Your satellite, cable, etc PVR/DVR's that have hard drives only - encrypt that data at rest on the hard drive. Your DVR/PVR HDMI output signal checks to see if the receiving device is DMCP - digital media copyright protection compliant - and these devices will not be compliant as the industry and law are currently. I would recommend... » Read More No because of copyright laws and industry restrictions - this will not happen on a device that writes to portable recording media (DVD, Blu-ray, etc). The idea being - as I understand it - to restrict/reduce/eliminate anything but streaming media to consumers. Your satellite, cable, etc PVR/DVR's that have hard drives only - encrypt that data at rest on the hard drive. Your DVR/PVR HDMI output signal checks to see if the receiving device is DMCP - digital media copyright protection compliant - and these devices will not be compliant as the industry and law are currently. I would recommend AVS forums for any indepth discussion of this subject. This is very high level - and I'm not an expert. « Show Less
58409
This DVD recorder is for computers, not your tv. You will have trouble finding a DVD recorder for your tv. Try purchasing a DVR instead.
1230083
I have used it to record episodes of t.v. shows and a few football games to DVD. I was able to watch them later with no issues.Note: I use broadcast television. I do not have cable or satellite.
2066808
I've got the same question as Jonathan -- does this DVRRecorder pick up cable channels? will it get the 500s-700s? If so, I'm ready to buy! :-DI don't get decent reception antenna only so I have to use cable, much as I hate shelling out to Comcast every month I'm stuck with them. ;-p I've been resisting TIVO b/c I don't want to pay an additional monthly subscription fee. Why would anyone pay monthly for Tivo if you can do the same thing for free with a DVDRecorder like this one?
1976685
You probably need to check with Panasonic and or your cable/satellite provider. If this recorder is used as your primary DVR from a cable provider, some external drives will work and some will not. The external hard drive you use, with most cable/satellite providers, needs to be a eSATA drive and I'm not sure if this particular Seagate is eSATA or not. My DirecTV DVR recommends certain Western Digital external hard drives. Sorry I couldn't be more help.
1020346
Thank you for your response. So when I get my HD box from Comcast, I should get one of their HD cables also. Right? Should I also get a Comcast HD cable instead of one from some other source to hook up my upconverting DVD player? Kinda takes some of the fun out of researching the world of HD plasma tvs. :-)
696595
YES, buy it today if you're a bit computer smart. I (re)record my Dish DVR movies 'to the computer' and never, ever... go to the effort to burn DVDs from these... too much trouble. People should get into burning satelliteDVR to computer, then playback from computer to HDTV, in my opinion anyway. This inexpensive box has 'recorded' many 'premium' dishnet shows via the component cables, no copyprotection issues. Good luck. Lots of terrible reviews .. I may have been lucky but I bought mine from Frys at $200 two years ago.
2081464
That's how I do it. I don't have a cable box, either. My cable runs into the recorder and from there to the TV. I switch the channels on my TV with the recorder. My TV is always on channel 3. But I find I record lots of stuff I really don't want. I use Verbatim DVD+RW discs. They're easily erased but you only get the time on the disc back if it's the last thing on the disc. If you start erasing from the end of the disc in, you get back whatever time you've erased, as long as it's from the end in.
2066807
Thanks for your help and the link to the manual, Mark!Comcast does use a special box, but I talked to a tech today and he said the connections would be the same as for my VCR, I just swap out the VCR and connect the special box to the DVDR instead. Fingers crossed! :-D
1155565
Hi Robert! I haven't had any problems recording from my cable box. I've recorded digital stations, premium and even On-Demand with this unit. Yep, recorded 3 shows ON-Demand! The D-r400 is awesome! I'm using composite, because my cable box does not have an S-Video Connection. Picture is great and I wasn't sure it would be, although I'm not using this on an HDTV. I have read that some people have problems, depending on their cable provider. If your provider will not allow recording of these stations due to copyright, then it may not work for you. Most have not had a problem, which is why this unit has become so popular. Just make sure you hook up your unit to the cable box. The D-r400 doesn't have coaxial, so you need to use RCA audio/video cables. Follow the instructions on the manual for cable/satellite installation and you'll be fine.
1270161
I just started TV service through our local phone service (TDS-TV). The installer said the box is the same as a U-Verse box, just a different label on it. I was getting an "unable to copy" notice when trying to copy from the TDS DVR to our DVD recorder (Magnavox MDR535H) so I bought this Grex-7.4 unit. I can't get it to work. I have printed out the connection diagrams from the Dimax web site and none of them work for me. I get the DVD signal to the TV but no TV programming to it. I'm thinking that I may have gotten a bad unit, but I thought I would ask here if anyone has any tricks to getting this thing to work that I am missing. Thanks. I just started TV service through our local phone service (TDS-TV). The installer said the box is the same as a U-Verse box, just a different label on it. I was getting an "unable to copy" notice when trying to copy from the TDS DVR to our DVD recorder (Magnavox MDR535H) so I bought this Grex-7.4 unit. I can't get it to work. I have printed out the connection diagrams from the Dimax web site and none of them work for me. I get the DVD signal to the TV but no TV programming to it. I'm thinking that I may have gotten a bad unit, but I thought I would ask here if anyone has any... » Read More I just started TV service through our local phone service (TDS-TV). The installer said the box is the same as a U-Verse box, just a different label on it. I was getting an "unable to copy" notice when trying to copy from the TDS DVR to our DVD recorder (Magnavox MDR535H) so I bought this Grex-7.4 unit. I can't get it to work. I have printed out the connection diagrams from the Dimax web site and none of them work for me. I get the DVD signal to the TV but no TV programming to it. I'm thinking that I may have gotten a bad unit, but I thought I would ask here if anyone has any tricks to getting this thing to work that I am missing. Thanks. « Show Less
215929
Not designed to work with cable. This is for cord cutters who use an antenna. This DVr is a poor performer. If you do cut the cord check out the Channel Master DVR.
342401
I use my esata drive connected to my dvr from cox communications. Not all esata drives work with a scientific atlanta cable box. I suggest checking for compatibility. Once installed, works perfectly and invisibly until it crashes, which all hard drives will eventually experience, so back it up.
146585
I use Dish for my television reception with regular and HD channels. I have had no problem recordings using the dvr 620 by Toshiba (once I mastered the manual).
1420431
Your Magnavox DVR should be able to record through a connection to the Cisco DTA, but it will just record the channel the DTA is tuned in to. That is, you won't be able to set the DVR to record from various channels automatically. - I dropped my Comcast Cable TV subscription recently, when they started encrypting all channels, because I didn't want to attach an extra decoder box to every TV in the house. Now, my Magnavox DVR gets its input from a roof antenna, which works fine.