DVD Recorder - PAL Tuner ?

[joidevie]

Please forgive my ignorance, but I have seen a good deal for a DVD recorder in the UK but I want to use it here in France...

The technical specs read as :

Television system

Tuner System

PAL-l

Channel Coverage

PAL-l, 1.75ohm UHF Ch21-68

video

Video System

PAL colour signal, 625 lines, 50 fields / NTSC colour signal 525 lines, 60 fields

Recording System

Dolby Digital 2ch, Linear PCM 2ch (XP mode)

The unit is a Panasonic :

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/dvd-recorders/dmre65ebs/index.htm

Will this be any good to use here with a French PAL/SECAM Television set ?

Thanks..

[Martin963]

Almost undoubtedly no good.   I have a Panasonic machine in the UK which neither tunes system L (which is what they use in France instead of system I for terrestrial analogue) and can't make head or tail of SECAM - just shows it as black and white with red and green wavy lines!   Otherwise it's very good.

If you MUST buy in the UK then get a Philips;  these seem to accept SECAM and even convert it to PAL so that a UK TV set can display SECAM signals in colour even though it's PAL.  Although - beware - Philips DVD recorders don't have RF modulators for the output (at least the 610 and 3305 don't),  you are confined to Scart/composite/S-video.

But honestly,  you'll find a good deal in France as well if you look around the supermarkets and then you KNOW it works on the French system.   And when it goes wrong you won't have to lug it back to the UK.

[Juswundrin]

Hi

Could I ask the question the other way around?

We're thinking of getting a cheap Umax Yamada DVD recorder (French); would this work OK with our British (well, Toshiba, but you know what I mean ) TV set?

Thanks

[joidevie]

Thanks for the quick reply.. Shame as the Panasonic reviewed well for spec & quality, and at £250 OFF, seemed a snip !

I've been doing the rounds in the supermarkets and cannot really decide whether to buy a dirt cheap recorder ( usually a 'promo' or 'chinese unbranded' ) for a hundred Euros or so ( and then wait a couple of years before possibly getting something a bit more sophisticated ) or get something 'decent' now.. My main purpose is mainly to watch a few quality programs recorded on satelite from the UK and be able to wathch them at a sensible time of day... I find the 1hr time shift enough of a problem to get too tired to watch say a good Channel 4 movie which starts at UK time 9pm ! I'm not too fussy about brands, but want something dependable.. And I've got to kit out a whole place here ( cookers, washers etc ) so a 'posh' recorder feels a little OTT..

Has anyone got anything in mind that they're happy with ?

Thanks...

[joidevie]

[quote]HiCould I ask the question the other way around?We're thinking of getting a cheap Umax Yamada DVD recorder (French); would this work OK with our British (well, Toshiba, but you know what I mean ) TV...[/quote]

I think you can buy Yamada in the UK, so it may be worth doing a search on compatability..

As far as I can imagine, it's far more likely that a SECAM ( French system ) unit will have the additional PAL facility, or am I being totall naieve here ?

[Martin963]

Just to confirm, I've double checked the Panasonic DVD recorder with a French sourced (ie SECAM) TV and if you feed the Panasonic a SECAM signal it gets completely mashed so that even the SECAM TV won't display it properly. Presumably this Panasonic you're looking at (if it's got £250 off the price) has a hard disk as well..?? (another thing to go wrong if you're in France and bought it in the UK).   BUT PLEASE SEE MY FINAL PARA.

It's really difficult to know what to recommend - things move so fast. DVD recorders in general seem to sometimes have a reliablility issue - like most "burners". Personally I'd go cheap but not too cheap. But I would try and buy in France if you can.

As to the other query, certainly a DVD recorder sourced in France will "understand" SECAM and system L,  and I would be amazed if it wasn't PAL compatible too. However, before you bring it back to the UK, and assuming you want to record off analogue off air (ie conventional TV) you need to check that it correctly tunes system I. Being French it will "do" system L, and probably systems B and G (in use in most of the rest of Europe). System I (UK) is very similar to B & G but the sound won't work unless system I is specified. Either refer to the instructions or - better - look at the on-screen menus (probably under set-up) and check which systems appear.

For example - going back to my Panasonic (DMR-E55) you don't have the option to change TV systems, you can only change the colour system from PAL to NTSC, which refers to playback. Which is why it won't work in France to record off-air.

What I realise that I should have said (and is prompted by your second post) is that if all you want to do is watch PAL originated recordings off satellite then the Panasonic would be fine if you link it to the French TV via SCART. The problem only arises if you want to record French TV off air via an aerial (which is what I assumed you wanted to do) and if you try to link the Panasonic to the TV using an aerial fly lead.  If you have a digital satellite box and you hook that up to the DVD recorder with a Scart lead and then the recorder to the TV with a scart lead you should be OK. Sorry if that's what you meant at the start.

[joidevie]

.. Thanks. Great reply.

I've ( for my sins ) just bought a RICOH Secam / Pal / NTSC recorder off the internet ( a 'brand' at least ) for a mere €99 - originally €250.. Seems it's DVR+ and DVR- too..

For £65 it's worth the gamble to me..

Who knows, but even if it lasts a couple of years I'll be reasonably happy..

[Anton Redman]

Any DVD or VHS recorder purchased in France should I believe be receive both SECAM and PAL. However you need to check if PAL is simply PAL B/G or also inlcudes PAL I. Last time I checked a selection of TVs

[Robbie34]

[quote]HiCould I ask the question the other way around?We're thinking of getting a cheap Umax Yamada DVD recorder (French); would this work OK with our British (well, Toshiba, but you know what I mean ) TV...[/quote]

Any DVD player or DVD recorder will play perfectly with any television provided it is fed via a scart or phono input.  Indeed, this is really the only way to proceed if you want quality recordings and playback.

[Martin963]

Robbie - you raise an interesting point here with regard to the original question and recording (ie UK sourced DVD connected to a French TV,  and using the French TV as the "tuner" for recording off air analogue terrestrial).  I can't actually check this as I'm in the UK at present and can therefore only get SECAM signals off satellite.

I assume that your method WOULD work via SCART for DVD recording IF the TV outputted RGB when tuned into a SECAM off-air signal.  But do they actually do this?   I ask because it requires a certain amount of sophistication to derive RGB signals from analogue signal sources; (it's very easy for digital material).   Certainly virtually no analogue satellite receiver or VCR does this - they all o/p composite video,  with SECAM still as SECAM and PAL still as PAL.   I can't see how your method would work for DVD recording using phonos as these are (unless you have the RGB separate plugs as o/p's on your TV) composite video,  and a Panasonic UK sourced DVD would still be stumped by the SECAM coming off the TV when you tried to record French TV.   In addition you would be confined to recording whatever the TV was tuned to - you couldn't watch one channel and record another.

I'm not trying to nit-pick here;  I honestly hadn't thought of this method of using the TV as a tuner.   And as I say I can't put it to the test here in the UK as I don't have a French UHF signal at my disposal.

Anyway,  if the original poster isn't bothered about recording French TV it's all a bit academic anyway as they'll be recording direct from satellite!