Do you guys still use DVD disks, either for recording tv programmes or for playing on your telly?

 

Our faithful old Panasonic recorder is very very sick. The video tape section packed up a year ago, and now it takes much coaxing to get it to simply record a TV program onto the internal hard drive. I used to copy ones that I had recorded onto DVD disks for archiving, but I'm not sure if the Panasonic can be persuaded to do that any more.

 

I have looked a lot at what are now called PVRs. Humax seems to be the dominant brand, but not one of their models includes a DVD slot, either to play or record. Panasonic still make big expensive units with DVD facilities, but many users have reported lots of early failures with Panasonic recorders. I cannot believe that the DVD is dead or obsolete. The commercial sales of DVD movies etc seems to be good, even though streaming is becoming popular. A recent article in The Guardian includes: "Britain’s growing appetite for services such as Netflix and Amazon has helped push streaming and downloads of films and TV shows ahead of sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs for the first time" ... "Despite the digital revolution, Bayley said that it was too soon to ring the death knell of the DVD, with physical sales of music, TV shows, films and computer games still worth £2.2bn annually." Amazon, eBay etc still list hundreds of films for sale on DVD disks. How do people play them if PVR machines don't have a slot for these disks?

 

Is it time for me to chuck my DVD collection into the recycling bin???

Edited 25 June, 20179 yr by OldTrilobite

Buy a Blu-Ray player it will also play DVDs.  My Sony unit (under £100) also plays CDs.

You need something like THIS..........................

 

https://www.richersounds.com/product/dvd/panasonic/dmrex97/pana-dmrex97-blk 

Edited 25 June, 20179 yr by Macdemon

DVD is but Blueray isn't.

 

Blueray gives quite a bit better quality than HD signals or streaming on the telly. Over the air HD and streaming is all subject to compression.

Ultra BR can also do 4k but you need a special player for that.

 

A lot of people don't have access to enough bandwidth to stream HD or 4k so I think disks will still sell for quite a while yet.

Just bought a 4K blueray player (was heavily discounted when buying the TV I went for) so I hope not! 

 

The main rub for not going digital/cloud just yet is you can typically get a physical CD/DVD etc for less than a digital copy! 

 

So that's less content, no packaging/shipping/marketing/distribution costs to the publisher, yet usually its either more or the same price. 

 

No wonder piracy is still booming 

It will be dead as more content providers supply stuff over the internet. I've given up with Blu ray after having to send disks back because  the discs won't play due to the blu ray player no longer being supported (newer encryption and no new firmware) as a result I've decided to stream all my content. it is a bit annoying that digital copies do seem just as expensive as physical disks but they do have to maintain a server network to play the content.  It also means that the content is available anywhere I have an internet connection.  

 

 

 

 

Thanks for your comments. BluRay seems the way to go these days.

 

On 25/06/2017 at 21:37, Macdemon said:

You need something like THIS..........................

 

https://www.richersounds.com/product/dvd/panasonic/dmrex97/pana-dmrex97-blk 

 

This is more or less the same as the Panasonic  DMR EX99 which I have had for 7 years and which is now failing, except that my old one also has a VCR tape player/recorder and a SCART connection. I know that Richer Sounds has a good reputation, but many recent Amazon customers have reported problems soon after buying a Panasonic video recorder.

 

I may enquire about getting a Panasonic repair workshop to try to repair mine (there is one at Braintree).

Scart? That died years ago. HDMI is the way to go

21 hours ago, OldTrilobite said:

Thanks for your comments. BluRay seems the way to go these days.

 

 

This is more or less the same as the Panasonic  DMR EX99 which I have had for 7 years and which is now failing, except that my old one also has a VCR tape player/recorder and a SCART connection. I know that Richer Sounds has a good reputation, but many recent Amazon customers have reported problems soon after buying a Panasonic video recorder.

 

I may enquire about getting a Panasonic repair workshop to try to repair mine (there is one at Braintree).

 

I have had a DMR EX83 for a good number of years now........very few issues with it - has to reset occasionally, just like restarting a computer, that's all.

DVD slot and 250GB hard drive rather than 500GB and HD, but without DVD slot, at the time.

I chose the DVD PVR as i wasn't that bothered about recording in HD and it upscales to 1080p anyway. Great picture with the plasma viera.

The only thing i miss is Dolby Digital on playing back films broadcast in DD as you need to record in HD to support this.

(I see the linked one is HD and DVD and 500GB. this was either not available at the time of me purchasing mine or it was about £500).

 

Admittedly i haven't used the dvd slot at all yet so if the issues others have are with the dvd part of the machine then fair enough.

I think??? heat would probably be the most damaging effects, other than of course - kids, playing with the machines.

 

Been a pretty good recorder, and i believe i looked at the one you have now as i had recordings on tape too, but thought better of it.

 

I would recommend............

Edited 28 June, 20179 yr by Tilt

Both the PS4 and Xbox One have blu ray players built in, plus they can access some streaming services (such as Netflix/Amazon Prime) and in the case of the PS4, it's a 3d capable blu ray player. DVD's are slowly dying a death, although I can't see them being phased out completely for a while - look how long it took cassettes/VHS to be discontinued.

We do Amazon prime, although we've got a Blu-ray player I think it must be 6 months since it was used. Only keep it just incase we want to play discs when the grandkids visit, even they watch Amazon prime cartoons and kids films.

 

We actually have a bag full of DVD's to go to the charity and CD's. They all come with Amazon now and can be played also in the car via BT on your device. Yes discs are becoming obsolete in our house. Checked on ebay and the run of the mill DVD or CD are going for pence, not worth the bother of selling. Even Blu-ray discs in charity shops are selling for peanuts now, well some are.

Edited 29 June, 20179 yr by MickA

I loved DVDs when I was living alone, as I'd watch all the special features. Not enough time now and I have a s****y PC, so online buying and downloading is teh usual for me, as well as the need to save space.

5 hours ago, MickA said:

We do Amazon prime, although we've got a Blu-ray player I think it must be 6 months since it was used. Only keep it just incase we want to play discs when the grandkids visit, even they watch Amazon prime cartoons and kids films.

 

We actually have a bag full of DVD's to go to the charity and CD's. They all come with Amazon now and can be played also in the car via BT on your device. Yes discs are becoming obsolete in our house. Checked on ebay and the run of the mill DVD or CD are going for pence, not worth the bother of selling. Even Blu-ray discs in charity shops are selling for peanuts now, well some are.

 

Don't sell anything you really like, nothing on Amazon is forever. You can be watching and working you way through a series only for it to disappear at short notice.

On 27/06/2017 at 18:14, OldTrilobite said:

... but many recent Amazon customers have reported problems soon after buying a Panasonic video recorder ...

I've got a Panasonic hard drive tv recorder; it was ok (if very very slow) until we had a power spike a few months ago. Now the hdmi output is almost completely knackered. My super old Humax has soldiered on fine though, but it can't scan for additional channels (just a complete re-scan).

wonkyewok- I've still go an old Humax( 9150) ,which has had a new lease of life after a reset and HDD format. It's possibly eight years old, but now works like a two year old( as long as I keep memory use to minimum)

In Midlands ( assuming Sutton Coldfield is transmitter , channels in use are 39/40/42/43/45/46 ). To check ,https://ukfree.tv/transmitters/tv/Sutton_Coldfield

I scan individual channels by using the Installation/ manual options and entering the channel ( 39 etc) and then search. You can then delete the ones you don't want to receive( in my case things like gay rabbit etc) .And then save the ones left. Repeat for the other channel numbers( 40 /42 etc).

I've recently upgraded to a HDR 1800T ( refurb from Humax, at half list price of new item), and although it's similar in operation to 9150- it has no memory clog problems.

Spoke to an Xbox advisor re digital downloads costing more than physical 

The explanation is probably valid for all content providers 

 

We charge more for digital content for a few simple reasons 

1 because we can and those who can afford will not have to get off the couch etc etc 

 

2 we need to the stores to exist to sell console's In the first place so it's kind of an agreement not to where possible under cut physical stores thus forcing them out of business 

 

He put it across much nicer than that but that's the gist of it 

 

 

We've got a humax box with a 500GB internal hard drive. Great bit of kit, records all we want.  We bought a £25 Sony DVD player last year in the sales for our boxed set dvds. 

Our LG 55" freeview smart TV also has a number of built in options for watching past programmes.... iplayer, itv hub, more 4 etc. It will take a satellite dish / aerial connection (has both connectors) although not sure if you can have both connected as the manual is a joke. 

 

Keep your dvds is my advice. Get a cheapie new player and enjoy them. 

Look what's happened with Vinyl records. I got rid of hundreds of them....... Wish I hadn't now!!