If your old vcr has only one scart socket, one way of setting things up would be.....
Connect the tv scart of the Humax to Scart 1 on your tv
Connect the output scart of the Alba to Scart 2 on your tv
Connect the scart from your vcr to the vcr scart of the Humax
Connect the Composite and RCA audio ouputs (or S-video if the 9200 has that facility) to the inputs on the front of the Alba.
If you have twin scarts on the vcr the above might still be the best way of routing everything - but someone else may know better.....
If you still want to route analogue to your tv, you should make sure the 9200 is the first device in the chain (RF>9200>Alba>VCR>tv) or leave the vcr out of the RF loop if it is only there for archiving.
Will this DVD recorder be OK to put my digital camcorder tapes onto DVD if I use the av inputs and a lead as I now do to put my recordings onto VHS?
No problem - Composite?RCA and S-Video connections on the front of the Alba.
My concern is: I have two scarts at the back of my TV, and they are both (I'm pretty sure) inputs. Presumably, if I connected this DVD recorder into AV2 (where I have my current cheapo player) it will play DVDs on my TV; but how do I get it to output the TV back on to the DVD recorder for recording?
Is it an IDTV then (that is a TV with a built in Freeview receiver?). If it isn't then don't expecrt the TV to be able to output it's received signal for recording. The DVD recorder itself contains a tuner and it is THAT that it will record from (this is what lets it get on with recording something in the corner while you use the tuner in the TV to watch something else!). In fact even if the TV is an IDTV and can output a Freeview signal to be recorded it's a bad idea cos you have to watch the channel that's being recorded anyway. If you want to record Freeview and even if your telly is an IDTV and could output it's Freeview tuner output you probably would want to get a second £30 Freeview receiver box from Argos anyway fo the DVD to record while you continue to watch something else on the telly.
I have a normal telly with a separate Freeview box. I'm not really bothered about watching one programme and recording another: I just really wanted to make good quality recordings from my Freeview box.
Could I not connect the Freeview's VCR scart to the DVD recorder (like I do to my current VCR)...at the moment, my Freeview and VCR go through AV1. In effect, I'd just be replacing the VCR. Then presumably, I could view the DVD recorder through AV1 as well (as I do with my current VCR) and AV2 would not even be needed?
Have I got this right?
Or is there no alternative to buying a second Freeview box?
Well your connections should be Freeview box into RGB supporting SCART on DVDR then RGB supporting SCART out of DVDR into telly (usually "AV1" is at least guaranteed to support RGB) This sets up an all RGB chain (VCR scarts are usually best avoided because they only support lower spec Svideo/Composite). With the FV->DVDR->TV chain you normally would leave the DVDR either in standby or "tuned" to AVn where AVn is the input that the FV is connected to. When you want to record FV you just record from that AVn "channel".
I imagine you will begin to find it a pain having only one FV adapter so it might be worth splashing £30 on another from Argos so that you can run that straight into the tellies other SCART input and would then be able to watch any other FV channel while the first box and the DVDR got on with recording something.
"(VCR scarts are usually best avoided because they only support lower spec Svideo/Composite)"
When I used the term "VCR scart" I just meant the scart output on the Freeview box which is labelled "VCR"...low quality or not, this is my only option to output from the freeview box!
Thanks again.
I've reserved an alba from Argos (before they go, what a bargain), and I am now confident I can use it for my needs.
I like the idea of a second freeview, but wouldn't that meaning splitting your ariel? Wouldn't that goose the quality a bit -- my reception is only 99% as it is!
Yup two freeview boxes usually involve an aerial split (though some boxes "loop through" the aerial signal). But even if you have to split it's generally OK (a £1.50 "Y splitter" from B&Q will generally do the trick). If a "passive" split does degrade the signal quality too much then for about a £10 from Argos you can get a splitter/amplifier instead.
Thanks Cliff, and this is my last one (I swear!)...
I don't fancy splitting the signal, but looping sounds okay...I take you mean go from the aerial out on my current box to the aerial in on my second...if only "some" can do this, is there a way of finding out? I currently have a pacific (can't see a model number, but it's a cheapo £30 job from ASDA) and have an eye on the £30 Sagem from Argos.
I picked up an Alba from Argos on Saturday. For a budget deck it is very good, I only have one showstopper and a couple of niggles: The niggles are that I get low sound output through the scart to my TV when playing a dvd, much quieter than if I hook up a standalone dvd player. Any ideas or should I just live with this? My second niggle is that the user interface is a bit clunky, there seems a lack of consitancy with the menus which means I'm constantly checking the screen to see which button I should use to exit a menu. I will live with this! My showstopper is that the alba seems to hog my TV! When it is on or in standby it keeps the TV switched to its scart AV channel. I did some investigation with a volt meter and it seems to constantly supply 6V on pin 8. Is my deck faulty? Usually when you put a unit into standby it drops pin 8 low, so that you can resume watching the TV normally. Does anyone else have this issue?
Well for a FV box to "loop through" it's going to have to have two RF aerial connections (probably labelled "in" and "out"). So if a box only has one I think you can be pretty sure it won't loop-thru but if there are two it's pretty much a given that it will.
By the way after lightning blew up one of my Freeview adapters I bought that £30 sagem one at Argos a couple of weeks ago. As far as I can remember it DOES have aerial loop thru but I already had a splitter/amplifier that it's connected to so just have the signal aerial feed going to it.
By the way, in the same way that a passive Y splitter may degrade the signal so, I think, may a simple loop thru as it's really just doing a Y split inside the box so the "out" from a loop-thru box may be a slightly degraded signal.
I was very impressed by the £30 Sagem though I don't like the fact that the entry level model doesn't allow the channel list to be reorganised or to have the pointless TUTV entries weeded out. Into a 4:3 telly it seems to get the aspect ratio wrong on some channels no matter what I set the output to but I think it'd be fine into a 16:9 telly. As we just use it in the bathroom to watch telly while you're on the loo slightly "squishy" 16:9 pictures don't matter for the short time it's being used though
As far as sound goes, I can't recommend enough going from your DVD player's red and white sockets into your stereo amplifier, and hence through your stereo speakers...you can do this through an all-in-one stereo if it has an auxiliary red and white jobby at the back.
If you have neither of these, consider upgrading your sound system...for buttons, you can enjoy films and TV with blinding sound. I got a pair of 120w speakers from Lidl for £60 -- my current amp is a Yamaha that does everything but make a cup of tea, £75 off ebay as new. But you can prob pick up a good second hand one for £30. Then music, DVD, telly, Ipod, the WORKS has funky sound!
As for the TV hogging, I had to laugh cause my standalone DVD player is probably the crappest in the world: often you'll put a DVD in, the DVD screen will come on while it recognises the DVD, then it will switch back to TV once it's found it and started, leaving you fumbling for the TV remote to flick the telly back to AV2...
My showstopper is that the alba seems to hog my TV! When it is on or in standby it keeps the TV switched to its scart AV channel. I did some investigation with a volt meter and it seems to constantly supply 6V on pin 8. Is my deck faulty? Usually when you put a unit into standby it drops pin 8 low, so that you can resume watching the TV normally. Does anyone else have this issue?
I am guessing that this might be related to the issue I have with the machine not passing any signal through the scarts when it goes into standby. If I run stb > Alba > tv I have to keep the Alba powered up to view anything. Fortunately I am running a Humax pvr as well and putting it all through a scart selector, so only the vcr scart of my other stb is connected to the Alba for live recordings if the Humax is otherwise engaged - but the Alba is certainly limited in this respect.
On the sound issue I have no problems - live and recorded sound is at equal level from the Alba's scart or RCA outputs, so you may have a faulty unit as far as that is concerned. Maybe take it back to Argos for a a swap?
Well I took back the alba to Argos and swapped it for another one, but it had the same problem. So I got my money back and bought a cyberhome 1600 from asda. It's slightly more expensive at £85, but IMHO seems better designed and suits me better. I guess you have to weigh up the pros and cons:
Alba - Nice looking, RGB on scart in, component out skts, loads of free cables. But no DV-in socket, issues around scart connections and no website.
Cyberhome - Easy to use, configurable, OTA firmware updates possible, small footprint, DV-in socket. But tiny remote and only SVideo on scart in.
...indeed, Mart, you did not have a faulty machine: it's a design fault (and a pisser of a one). The Alba, even on standby keeps a hold of the screen (blackness), so it doesn't automatically go back to your digi box. You have to switch back to AV1 on your TV remote; or leave the DVD recorder on, and watch freeview on AV2 (which is where my recorder's out scart goes).
What's so irritating is, this wouldn't be a problem (I don't think) if could you switch the thing off completely. My old supermarket-brand player had an on-off button on the fromt of the machine: all this technological advance, and something so simple would make this otherwise great machine perfect.
General review: once past the nightmare of "channel swapping", it's a doddle to use; impressive performance; has everything I want.
The intructions say it won't play DVDs previously recorded on a PC. They must be mental, cause everyone I tried worked a-okay. Unless they meant DVD roms: well, duh!
Morning all. Picked one up yesterday, my first experience of DVDR. I find it performs well across the board based on use to date. It is, though, quite noisy, especially when compared to my DVD player. Is this a normal feature of DVDRs or do I have a Duffer ?
Yep, the second poster on page 1 of this thread already told us about Argos...I saw the advert on the telly.
I went for it knowing the offer ended Nov 2; but I wouldn't panic if you missed out...these things will only get cheaper.
There might not be a better deal before Christmas though: the half price DVD RWs and the £5 voucher clinched it for me though.
What do you mean by noisy, Bon? I've not noticed anything out of the ordinary, but I'm used to crap players. Do you mean when the DVD is playing? Because I have my stereo speakers blasting the sound, so I probably wouldn't notice anyway.
Yeah sorry. I hadnt gone through all of the thread. My appols!
Do you know if you can have only one pack of the DVD+RWs at half price or as many as you want? AT the half proces rate are they cheaper then just getting generic ones of the internet or from DABS?
Seen it advertised even chaepaer at ARGOS - £79 i think but only for a few more days......
EDIT: Ends today!
It may have been extended?? -the ad in the weekend papers said the £79.99 price at Argos ended on 24th December.
I guess we'll find out tomorrow...........
I dunno, Eric...but it aint no rip off, considering the general mainstream price of DVD-Rs -- way it all up. Remember, buying off t'internet means postage prices (can bump it it up a bit)...if you're thinking of doing business, try adding a ton to your argos online basket...if it works out cheaper than your avergae binshop, ie. they're all half price, let me know... I like doing a bit of business me...
The only problem I have had so far is that it did not recognise the +RW disc it was supplied with! I used a Sony one instead which was fine, and the supplied one worked in my computer, so I won't worry too much about that.
.
I had the same problem with the supplied dvd.
It failed to format on the Alba.
When I looked at it on my pc, it had an existing filestructure
and titled 'Sonata'.
Copied another dvd to it, this played on a dvd player; but the Alba still wouldn't recognise it.
No problems with Philips or Maxell dvds.
For once a manual which is well written and easy to follow.
I had the same problem with the supplied dvd.
It failed to format on the Alba.
When I looked at it on my pc, it had an existing filestructure
and titled 'Sonata'.
Copied another dvd to it, this played on a dvd player; but the Alba still wouldn't recognise it.
No problems with Philips or Maxell dvds.
For once a manual which is well written and easy to follow.
My disk did format fine on the alba: and mine was also called Sonata on the PC (I noticed when I decided to back up the wedding DVD I did from video tape as an mpeg)...but then all the DVDs I've done on the alba are called Sonata.
My theory is, rather than having had an "existing file structure", the alba started to format it, then hit upon some sort of error as it did so. Probably because it's a very cheap disk.
Comments
Connect the tv scart of the Humax to Scart 1 on your tv
Connect the output scart of the Alba to Scart 2 on your tv
Connect the scart from your vcr to the vcr scart of the Humax
Connect the Composite and RCA audio ouputs (or S-video if the 9200 has that facility) to the inputs on the front of the Alba.
If you have twin scarts on the vcr the above might still be the best way of routing everything - but someone else may know better.....
If you still want to route analogue to your tv, you should make sure the 9200 is the first device in the chain (RF>9200>Alba>VCR>tv) or leave the vcr out of the RF loop if it is only there for archiving.
No problem - Composite?RCA and S-Video connections on the front of the Alba.
Cliff
I have a normal telly with a separate Freeview box. I'm not really bothered about watching one programme and recording another: I just really wanted to make good quality recordings from my Freeview box.
Could I not connect the Freeview's VCR scart to the DVD recorder (like I do to my current VCR)...at the moment, my Freeview and VCR go through AV1. In effect, I'd just be replacing the VCR. Then presumably, I could view the DVD recorder through AV1 as well (as I do with my current VCR) and AV2 would not even be needed?
Have I got this right?
Or is there no alternative to buying a second Freeview box?
I imagine you will begin to find it a pain having only one FV adapter so it might be worth splashing £30 on another from Argos so that you can run that straight into the tellies other SCART input and would then be able to watch any other FV channel while the first box and the DVDR got on with recording something.
Cliff
"(VCR scarts are usually best avoided because they only support lower spec Svideo/Composite)"
When I used the term "VCR scart" I just meant the scart output on the Freeview box which is labelled "VCR"...low quality or not, this is my only option to output from the freeview box!
Thanks again.
I've reserved an alba from Argos (before they go, what a bargain), and I am now confident I can use it for my needs.
I like the idea of a second freeview, but wouldn't that meaning splitting your ariel? Wouldn't that goose the quality a bit -- my reception is only 99% as it is!
Cliff
I don't fancy splitting the signal, but looping sounds okay...I take you mean go from the aerial out on my current box to the aerial in on my second...if only "some" can do this, is there a way of finding out? I currently have a pacific (can't see a model number, but it's a cheapo £30 job from ASDA) and have an eye on the £30 Sagem from Argos.
By the way after lightning blew up one of my Freeview adapters I bought that £30 sagem one at Argos a couple of weeks ago. As far as I can remember it DOES have aerial loop thru but I already had a splitter/amplifier that it's connected to so just have the signal aerial feed going to it.
By the way, in the same way that a passive Y splitter may degrade the signal so, I think, may a simple loop thru as it's really just doing a Y split inside the box so the "out" from a loop-thru box may be a slightly degraded signal.
I was very impressed by the £30 Sagem though I don't like the fact that the entry level model doesn't allow the channel list to be reorganised or to have the pointless TUTV entries weeded out. Into a 4:3 telly it seems to get the aspect ratio wrong on some channels no matter what I set the output to but I think it'd be fine into a 16:9 telly. As we just use it in the bathroom to watch telly while you're on the loo slightly "squishy" 16:9 pictures don't matter for the short time it's being used though
Cliff
As far as sound goes, I can't recommend enough going from your DVD player's red and white sockets into your stereo amplifier, and hence through your stereo speakers...you can do this through an all-in-one stereo if it has an auxiliary red and white jobby at the back.
If you have neither of these, consider upgrading your sound system...for buttons, you can enjoy films and TV with blinding sound. I got a pair of 120w speakers from Lidl for £60 -- my current amp is a Yamaha that does everything but make a cup of tea, £75 off ebay as new. But you can prob pick up a good second hand one for £30. Then music, DVD, telly, Ipod, the WORKS has funky sound!
As for the TV hogging, I had to laugh cause my standalone DVD player is probably the crappest in the world: often you'll put a DVD in, the DVD screen will come on while it recognises the DVD, then it will switch back to TV once it's found it and started, leaving you fumbling for the TV remote to flick the telly back to AV2...
...what doesn't kill you just makes you stronger!
I've just remembered a friend has a freeview she can't use because she lives in the middle of nowhere...I might try that as a second.
I am guessing that this might be related to the issue I have with the machine not passing any signal through the scarts when it goes into standby. If I run stb > Alba > tv I have to keep the Alba powered up to view anything. Fortunately I am running a Humax pvr as well and putting it all through a scart selector, so only the vcr scart of my other stb is connected to the Alba for live recordings if the Humax is otherwise engaged - but the Alba is certainly limited in this respect.
On the sound issue I have no problems - live and recorded sound is at equal level from the Alba's scart or RCA outputs, so you may have a faulty unit as far as that is concerned. Maybe take it back to Argos for a a swap?
Alba - Nice looking, RGB on scart in, component out skts, loads of free cables. But no DV-in socket, issues around scart connections and no website.
Cyberhome - Easy to use, configurable, OTA firmware updates possible, small footprint, DV-in socket. But tiny remote and only SVideo on scart in.
...indeed, Mart, you did not have a faulty machine: it's a design fault (and a pisser of a one). The Alba, even on standby keeps a hold of the screen (blackness), so it doesn't automatically go back to your digi box. You have to switch back to AV1 on your TV remote; or leave the DVD recorder on, and watch freeview on AV2 (which is where my recorder's out scart goes).
What's so irritating is, this wouldn't be a problem (I don't think) if could you switch the thing off completely. My old supermarket-brand player had an on-off button on the fromt of the machine: all this technological advance, and something so simple would make this otherwise great machine perfect.
General review: once past the nightmare of "channel swapping", it's a doddle to use; impressive performance; has everything I want.
The intructions say it won't play DVDs previously recorded on a PC. They must be mental, cause everyone I tried worked a-okay. Unless they meant DVD roms: well, duh!
dw
EDIT: Ends today!
I went for it knowing the offer ended Nov 2; but I wouldn't panic if you missed out...these things will only get cheaper.
There might not be a better deal before Christmas though: the half price DVD RWs and the £5 voucher clinched it for me though.
What do you mean by noisy, Bon? I've not noticed anything out of the ordinary, but I'm used to crap players. Do you mean when the DVD is playing? Because I have my stereo speakers blasting the sound, so I probably wouldn't notice anyway.
Do you know if you can have only one pack of the DVD+RWs at half price or as many as you want? AT the half proces rate are they cheaper then just getting generic ones of the internet or from DABS?
It may have been extended?? -the ad in the weekend papers said the £79.99 price at Argos ended on 24th December.
I guess we'll find out tomorrow...........
I had the same problem with the supplied dvd.
It failed to format on the Alba.
When I looked at it on my pc, it had an existing filestructure
and titled 'Sonata'.
Copied another dvd to it, this played on a dvd player; but the Alba still wouldn't recognise it.
No problems with Philips or Maxell dvds.
For once a manual which is well written and easy to follow.
My disk did format fine on the alba: and mine was also called Sonata on the PC (I noticed when I decided to back up the wedding DVD I did from video tape as an mpeg)...but then all the DVDs I've done on the alba are called Sonata.
My theory is, rather than having had an "existing file structure", the alba started to format it, then hit upon some sort of error as it did so. Probably because it's a very cheap disk.