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Looks alright that tbh mate; should I assume that most DVDR's that have SCART input and HDMI output can output the SCART to HDMI as well?

Ive never taken much notice of DVDR's/Freeview boxes or SCART-HDMI and upscaling systems before you see, just watched genuine 720p via the meida centre in the past.

Samsung LE40B650 + 3 Year Warranty 40
Our price: £799.01
Matt with regard to your comment regarding this television why not go into the shop to try it out, I took a usb stick with a film on it into the shop and played it. regarding the speed of the internet widgets and network, I am typing this using the above television. The problem with most reviews is it depends on how good your internet connection really is! I have my television connected via the ethernet direct to my router without any lag.
it is also one of the highest rated lcds for its blacks.
you could also look at the samsung LED versions such as their ultra thin model.
6000, 7000 and 8000 LED HDTV's Samsung

Im not debating the TV itself mate, just it does not suit my requirements (I need ultra-thin and IPS as it will be mounted). Any internet element is irrelevant to me anyway, because id never use it. I barely use my media centre nowadays as it is, never mind anything else. Can't recall making proper use of it for a few years now!

The Samsung LED backlit TV's did interest me, until I red the reviews of the LED backlighting functions; whilst I love the idea of the blacks being near-true (hence my hidden desire for plasma) thanks to the individual LED dimming, as well as the energy efficiency of the sets, there is too many issues reported, and the biggest downfall for me is viewing angles. Im also a bit warey of taking on "new" technology, that in the past, has been ridiculed for its flaws (I seem to recall the first LED tv that Sammy launched a couple of years back hd a terrible reception).

Id love to get my hands on a Samsung 850PAVV for the setup I envisage, with surely by now, comparable results to the KURO, but I have a pretty good feeling it will be well out of my budget (im looking at around £1200 tops). I was originally thinking about a 50", but as with everything I buy, I wont just buy the first thing that comes along, ill make sure its the best that I can get for the money through long hard research and actually playing about with them first, so if it came between a high-end 46" and a mid-range 50", id be sure to take the 46".

Tbh its something I have been considering since about Christmas, I have seen a fair few sets in action, and scoured the net for both critic and user reviews and opinion, and feel the 2 sets I am looking at are the ones for me. Im not the biggest fan of Samsung in general (whilst they make some excellent components and actual panels, testiment to this being the fact that so many other OEM's use them, theyve never seemed to grasp the concept of making a good end product, at least not until recently), but none of their current line-up interests me, except for sets that are somewhat out of budget.

So im going to have to stick to the idea of running everything through HDMI; which isnt all that bad anyway, as I am considering a single HDMI cable to run everything, instead of multiple wires coming out; I just need to work out a way how to do it first lol. Theres no problem with not having/using SCART on the TV, so long as I can get my SCART devices to feed via HDMI.

It's a shame SED died a death, otherwise we might have been seeing them on the market now; though I have a distinct feeling we will see them sometime in the future, when the manufacturers see sales of new televisions dropping off again. Another reason why I don't want to blow 2k on a TV, because your guaranteed that 2010 will see the next big advancement (well as the manufacturers like to call it - spin really) in TV's.

you don`t want a plasma mate, the heat off them is terrible, especially in the summer.

Compare a Pioneer KURO with any LCD you like, and then tell me that lol. Besides which, heat isnt as much of an issue on modern sets as it used to be, much like grey toned balcks isnt as much of an issue on modern LCD's as it used to be.

Think im going to opt for a DVD recorder, though I will continue to use my Technics for DVD's, the opportunity to archive stuff off the TopUp TV box and SuperVHS recorder onto DVD is appealing to me.

Was looking at the new Panasonic DMR-EZ28, but to be honest, the DMR-EZ27 is pretty much the same unit, but with a 25% saving - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-DMR-EZ27-Recorder-Up-Conversion-Freeview/dp/B000QDIRV0

Anyone suggest any other decent DVD recorders that support HDMI output and SCART input from personal experience of using them. I think the one Waddi showed me before is available in Tesco, which is handy, for around the same price as the Panny, so am considering that, but the Panny has a couple of features that interest me.

My DVD recorder is a pain in the bum, takes ages to recognise disk and longer to format the ones that need formatting. Doesn't like some disks (eg Mr Data r/w), I wish I had gone for a HD recorder.

Admittedly its a few years old now so they may be better, but I would never get another.

But I won't be primarily using it for DVD recording, I have a PVR

It is going to cost almost the same price as a DVD Recorder to get a SCART to HDMI convertor, so I will get far more value from this. It also means I wont be solely reliant on my SuperVHS VCR for archiving, as I will be able to use DVDR's (which are far cheaper than SuperVHS video tapes).

The modern Panasonics can come out of standby and be recording within a matter of seconds, and they are much improved from the previous generation of DVD recorders. Thats not to say they are perfect of course, but a lot of it comes down to the quality of media being used, and Pannys supposedly have better compatability than most.

One other bonus is when the TUTV+ box is recording 2 programmes at once, and there is a third on, the integrated Freeview may come in handy, so I can record onto a DVD-RW. That is of course, until TopUp get around to implementing Mux recording instead of channel recording anyway (they will be forced to if they lose any more capacity - so my fingers are crossed lol!!).

Cheers for that reply Matt, partially restores my faith in them - I was just so disappointed with mine - menus were a bloomin nuisance as well.

As you say - they are a lot better now, and in your situation make the obvious solution.

I think the worst thing is that you can't trust it to record properly, some media don't work properly and some media do change, I bought Mr Data because they had worked prviously, but they must have changed them because 10 discs on the run from two different packs didn't record properly. This is ok if you are copying a VHS because you can just do it again, but when you use it to record part 1 of 22 part programme, it is easy to break windows!

I know full well what you mean mate, its quite often the same with burning on laptop's, some drives prefer certain brands of media, even when it comes to CDR's they can be picky - I remember when I had my first CDRW drive about 10 years ago (when the disks were gold, and then emerald was the new big thing lol) I never had any trouble at all. I must asdmit, that was a Pleccy, but in fact, when I bought a LiteOn 48x drive in about 2002ish, when the new "ultra" speed generation were coming onto shelves, again, I don't recall ever having any problems burning disks no matter what speed.

It leads me to only two conclusions, either the media quality has severely declined to a point where 50% of it is utter crud, or the drives themselves/software is getting worse and worse as time goes on. I always burn CDR's at 12x nowadays, to help prevent any errors such is the high rate nowadays.

I must admit PVR's are the way forward, although other than Sky+ (which must be accepted as the benchmark for reliability), there isnt really a PVR on the market without problems!!

As much as I enjoy it now, and support them, the TUTV+ box was dreadful until last year, how they never got a class action case bought against them for the units not being "fit for purpose", ill never know. Fortunately, it has been significantly improved since the release of v3.31 back in October and v3.59 in April, and we are currently testing v4.06 which should resolve all outstanding problems, and be launched in the next 4 - 6 months! It took Sky 3 years or so to perfect Sky+ though, so if we are using that as the benchmark... lol!

The problems you mention with DVD recorders, is one of a few reasons I have never had any interest in buying one. That coupled with the Sky+, the worry of scratched DVD's and the fact I would never use one for playing DVD's, just killed off the idea for me personally. My auntie bought a DVD recorder a few years ago, and asked me to set it up, so I did. Seemed to work okay, but it started screwing disks and a few days later she asked me to come and have a look. Counld'nt fathom it out, so she took it back and still uses VHS to this day. The problem is she records stuff for my uncle, who is a maintenance engineer on a ship in the North Sea, going between rigs, 1 month on and 1 month off, so the plan was to buy a portable DVD player and use DVDR's, which would be much better (smaller) than VHS and the video player and TV (that he has to share of course). It does make you wonder wherre DVDR technology went wrong!


I know the feeling mate, when I first tried to move over from Sky+ to TUTV+, the damn thing would just randomly "miss" recordings for no reason at all... I was fuious with it, and went back to using Sky+ for the remaining months until they fixed the damn problems!! Fortunately, I did'nt have to pay for the box, otherwise it would have been sent back to them. Supposed to be getting a new dev box this week, not sure what the hardware changes will be at this point though, im hoping it may have HDMI or be able to use the USB socket for transferring media, but thats wishful thinking, it will probably just look different or have an extra button for something stupid lol. In fact, im guessing it may well just carry the new logo haha!

Got this sorted, bought a Toshiba DVD recorder with built in Freeview etc, but most importantly, SCART, Component, S-Video and Composite in, and HDMI out, with a 1080p upscaler. Works a treat... well sort of.

I now have a problem with the SCART coming out of the DVD (via HDMI) recorder in CVBS, it does not seem to want to entertain the idea of RGB at all. So of course, it is leading to slight fuzziness and a generally more noisy picture than RGB.

Its deffo not the SCART cables as I have tried 5 lol, currently have a £24 Thor RGB SCART cable connecting it. Tried a TUTV+ box, Sky+ box, and two normal Sky boxes, all set to RGB, and same old story. Changed every setting I can find in the DVD and TV menu's 100 times over. Tried forcing the RGB by sending it via a multi-SCART changer, again no joy.

So I got fed up, and changed over to S-Video, just to get clear pictures. Crystal clear on S-Video, no problem at all; the think that is annoying me though, is the S-Video and audio-in ports are located on the front of the DVD recorder, which is handy for use with cameras etc, but no so good for a permenant solution having 3 wires running out of it (ie. ugly).

So going to telephone Toshiba on Tuesday and see what hey have to say on the matter, hopefully the unit is just faulty and ill have to go and get a replacement.

The TV itself is a bit of a bitch with it really built for HD sources, ive been using the DVD recorder to upscale to 1080p and its actually working a bit better than the TV in a lot of respects. Finally getting there with the calibration of the TV, just taking a long time. Watched "Tiesto In Concert II" on DVD before, upscaled to 1080p, and it made a very noticeable difference, and only suffering the very very slightest of noise, which was cleaned up by the TV's DNR once activated.

Watched Terminator II in 1080p and a few BBC docs in 720p, of course direct through the VGA rather than via the DVD and its performing well.

Hope I can get this bloody RGB SCART problem sorted! Anyone else run a similar setup (ie. RGB SCART - DVDR - HDMI) and had any problems like this?

Cheers for the advice guys, twas much appreciated!

Bought one of those at Christmas, had it a couple of weeks, thought it was me being a dipstick, Wouldn't do what it said on the tin. Took it back to comet to swop for another, girl told me they had no more and wasn't getting anymore. she wouldn't say it but gave me the impression they got to many back, got money back got a Panasonic, more money but made up with it.