Combi recorders

[orpheum2]

I have for the past 4 years used a Toshiba combi recorder.Its ok but the VCR resoloutely refuses to work.Anyway with digital due in April i have to take steps to buy new equipment.My favoured option being a recorder with a freeview box incorporated.I was looking at the various options when to my surprise ,not to say horror ,i found that all of the combi recorders were region 2 only.does anyone know the reason for this and more importantly if there are any combi recorders with freeview which are multi region.Otherwise this means having to change to my old machine every time i want to watch an American disc.

[Merton Park]

Panasonic do a good multi region Combi with a Hard Drive as well, also Samsung have one, without the Hard Drive. I had a real bust up with Toshiba when I bought their Combi only to find that it didn't play NTSC discs and no one could give me the codes to unlock it. No matter what online ads say!

[orpheum2]

I spoke to Toshiba after i posted the thread and apparently dealers unlock the region code.I wouldnt buy a combi unless i was sure that it could be multi region.

[Edward G]

Orph,
There are many sites online that carry unlock codes. Have you taken a look at any of these?
It's usually a fairly simple sequence, done via the remote control.
I have a Sony Video/ DVD recorder combi that my wife got me a few Christmas's back.
It cannot be hacked to multi-region, so I kept my old slimline Phillips DVD player also connected to the TV so I could play US (region 1) DVD's.

I spoke to Toshiba after i posted the thread and apparently dealers unlock the region code.I wouldnt buy a combi unless i was sure that it could be multi region.

[Merton Park]

Toshiba refused point blank to give me the code for multi region as they said it was illegal! I argued for a bit of time, but the jobsworth kept up the excuses until I gave up. Several websites advertise they can unlock most DVD players but no one could unlock my Toshiba.

To compensate, I bought a cheap Sony multi region DVD player to go with it that they chipped in the store and I tested it out there on an NTSC disc which was fine. Never had this problem before as I usually stick to Panasonic, in fact I assumed, stupidly, that in this age all machines were multi regional.

Good luck.

[Nick Dando]

Panasonic units have a nasty habit of generating a U80 error which requires a power off/power on to cure. They still haven't managed to cure the problem, even after all these years. It could mean that you miss something that you wanted to record as the unit freezes.

Apart from that, for a disposable item that costs around £500 they generally do the job they were designed to do.

Nick

[MikeB]

My department sells only one combi (the Pani), and its region 2. We also sell the one which has the hard-drive (the EX99) - which at £450 is a very expensive option.

Personally, my suggestion would be to buy a video player somewhere for a tenner (you might even get one free!), and use it to transfer everything to disc, computer etc, and then sling all the tapes. This is what I did, after my wife told me the tapes were going!

Use your existing combi as a multi-region DVD, if you like. If you do want to record with the DVD, then a cheap Freeview box will make it digital, but your going to have to make sure that the digibox and the recorder are synced with time and channel info. Probably best to use it to record something that you know your going to keep.

If your really desperate, then you could get one off Ebay, although the new ones are somewhat expensive for what they are. There is a used Tosh currently going for £26 plus a tenner postage (there are six bidders), which has a Freeview tuner. In fact there is one for 99p! - Toshiba RDXV60 320GB HDD/DVD/VCR Recorder Freeview+ | eBay .

As for general recording, if you don't want to archive ('record, watch, wipe'), then buy a Humax T2 (a thread on this forum tells you all about transferring stuff over if you do). Or possibly a Panasonic with a Blu-ray (more expensive, but much easier to transfer to disc) if you want to archive a lot. Panasonic still sell the DVD HDD machines, but with only one Freeview tuner, your limiting yourself.

I personally do my utmost to stop people buying the combi's. Most of the customers who want them tend to be elderly, have loads of tapes, and don't want to change the technology, even though its basically obsolete. Since they tend to already have a VCR, buying another one makes no sense. I suggest instead that they copy over what they need to to DVD via another machine or PC (often a friendly son-in-law offers!), and continue to use the VCR until it dies. And buy a Humax (they are about the same price). This happened lots of times last year when my region switched over, and the ones I've seen since are all happy with the Humax.

As for the lack of multi-region combi's? Major retailers are not normally allowed to sell multi-region systems (various parts of the industry disapprove), although places like Richer and online retailers do. Frankly, there is not a lot of demand. Since there is not a lot of demand for combi's, and even less for multi region ones, thats why they are like hens teeth.

[julian_craster]

One problem with Panasonic is that they will not play DVDR/RW discs which have been finalised on other brand's machines !