TVs, including LCD/LED, plasma, OLED, and more. Ask for buying advice, or help others, share experiences etc.
By chrisg149
#7085
I presently record TV programmes on a Panasonic hard drive with integrated DVD recorder. I archive my programmes to DVD so they can be replayed later on any DVD player/computer. My recorder is old and I still have a 3:4 ratio CRT TV that I both want to update to a larger hard drive and flat screen TV. I would also like to be able to view internet and emails on a new system. (I’ve been told “Smart” TVs can actually be restricting with the facilities?). I want to subject catalogue my DVD’s transferred to a new large Hard Drive to which I could add new recordings.

What is the best method of accomplishing this?

I’ve been told that USBs from Recorders/Flat Screens will allow storage on an external Hard Drive but they are encrypted and can only be played back through the existing kit. This would limit archiving as recordings could out live the existing playback kit!

Advice appreciated.
User avatar
By Rasmus Larsen
#7086
Yes, it is true that when using the USB recorder functionality in most Smart TV, all recordings are encrypted and will only play back on the specific TV (not even a different TV of the same brand / model).

Some external recorder boxes, such as those from Panasonic, will allow you to move recordings, but those solutions are quite expensive. Some low-cost recorders from China/Asia have no limitations either.

Reading emails and websites on a Smart TV is not a very pleasant experience in my opinion. The web browsers are slow and just imagine having to type everything with the remote. There are apps for phones/tablets, but if you are sitting with a one in your hand anyways, why not just use that one? It is a much better solution. Smart TV are mostly designed to stream video from the internet. The browser is just a side-thing. It was never intended for a TV screen controlled with a remote.