The digital broadcasting age will challenge many consumers for some time to come.

As explained by Hamish, the reason for the problem is the Digital tuner. The problem however is not a limitation of Freeview system but of the recording device purchased.

The same problem would have been encountered if you tried to record analogue signal and using your normal old VCR without it's own in-build tuner. That is what allows recording independently from what is being viewed on the TV itself.

You may find that the TV you bought on the premise that it is HD ready, isn't quite as easy or ready. My JVC TV has the HDMI input buried in the last TV/Video option after, DVD, VCR, PC etc. and there is no way to change the order jump or quickly jump to HDMI. You also realise the the size of the video changes when you are viewing HD signal.

As far as I can see HD transmissions are only marginally better than what we already have, so why spend all that extra money on it.

MySky HDi is cheap at the price - you get it installed, and it just works ! The $15 per month is infinitely better value than your member got by spending $2,500 on a set up which doesn't do what he wanted !

Ditto! MySky has solved all my recording problems and it's foolproof - simply brilliant!
I have only used my DVD recorder as a player since renting MySky.
The only drawback is that recordings are not physically transportable as in a DVD disc.

I have the same Sony combination. Took a while to set up but am now recording happily. I can record one program while watching another and I can record if the TV is off, no problem.
So I don't understand the comment that "if the TV is off it wont record". Manual record or timer both work fine. Analogue recording is better than VCR but digital would be better. Disappointed about only analogue recording I did some web research and found only analogue can be recorded at present.Digital is coming. Guess I'll have to buy another recorder then. In the meantime I'm enjoying digital "live"

I also have the same TV/Recorder combination. I agree with Glenda, and have had no problem recording when TV is off.

My problem with the digital age is that if you have the Freeview built-in to your TV then you can't have full surround sound, or has someone got a work around. The only digital output for sound is stereo.

You didn't investigate the MySKY HDi very much as you get the option of either $15/month with a $99 setup fee or a one off payment of $599 with no setup fee.

John, My Sony TV has Freeview built in, I get 5.1 surround sound when it is broadcast. (only certain shows on TV3) To achieve this, you need a home theatre system that has an optical input and an optical cable that connects to the optical out on the TV. I help this helps.

I bought a Sony TV with built in Freeview. I tried to connect directly to the sky dish and nothing happened. Do I need something else? I have a three way splitter on my dish as I have 2 sky decoders on it.

Jackie, the "built in Freeview" will be for terrestrial, not satellite tv. It needs to be connected to a UHF aerial.
Personally, I recently built a dedicated home theatre PC it has a tuner card with two digital tuners, and can record multiple digital programmes simultaneously using freely available software. Not everyone's cup of tea but it's been fun for me.

I have a version of freeview (there is more than one) installed with my older (2000)Sony surround sound TV. I could record at first but now I can't. Not sure what has happened. I have only a Freeview aerial/dish. Has there been a change at the Freeview end. This is disgraceful service and to think that so many of us were sucked into this. And there is no Freeview TV programming in written form exept for TVguide.

I think Freeview HD is great, provided the program is actually broadcast in HD, though just getting proper widescreen is an advantage. The Olympic coverage was excellent, better than most HD broadcasts since, but I guess equipment will improve over time.

I was advised to buy an external decoder because it makes recording easier, and am pleased I did. The collection of remotes is getting out of hand though, and most of the family don't know which ones to use. I am looking forward to getting Myfreeview|HD sometime, for proper HD recording. I'd also like surround sound, but it doesn't sound as if much programming provides it yet.

hello i bought a jvc tv and in the freeview it says you can record ive recorded something but i dont no how to veiw it can you help ?

If you wish to record Freeview in real HD (720p or 1080i) and playback and watch your recorded files in HD even in your PC you need to get the Hyundai AH-3110 Combo HD PVR (Satellite and Terrestrial)however you need to connect the set to an external HDD upto 2000GB. UltraPower Technology in Auckland has imported limited stock to NZ market.

There are plenty of options that will do what you want, they are called PVRs. Freeviewhop has lots of them. I have the top of range TF6000PVR ES it allows me to record any two channels while whatching another one, I can even do picture in picture and watch a forth. Plus it works with all the other satellites as well, i.e. I get BBC world and Australia network from Intelsat 5 etc...

http://www.freeviewshop.co.nz/topfield-tf6000pvr-hdmi-digital-satellite-receiverpvr-p-370.html

Beware the Hyundai AH-3110; essentially a good receiver, but it has several issues with recording and playback which have not, as yet, been corrected.

@ the original John & Glenda...

Read the article, it is clearly stated:
"Because the Freeview HD tuner lives in the TV, it’s only possible to record the channel the TV is showing at the time. If the TV is off it won’t record."

So if you want to record freeview, the TV must be turned on. If it is turned off, the HDD recorder will not have an input source...
This has nothing to do with recording from the HDD recorder's internal tuner which, of course, can be done while the TV is off...

I am trying to evaluate the Zinwell Digital Terrestrial Receiver/HighDefinition Digital Television Recorder, which is set up to interact with Freeview, but the Freeview set top section of the Consumer website is too out of date (2007) to deal with receiver-recorders.
My new TV has High Definition Freeview built in, and I note that some at least are having problems with adding Hard Drive recorders because of being confined to the program being watched and needing to have the TV on during recording. But the one Freeview-interactive High Definition Hard Drive recorder I have found so far is also a set top box decoder, and the instruction booklet does not make it clear whether this Zinwell ZMT-640PVR will work OK with a TV that already has a decoder, nor whether it could be connected as well (via a suitable cable) to a small bedroom HD ready TV.

It would be nice too if there was a Freeview interactive High Definition TV Hard Drive recorder that included DVD recording also, so that within the same widget one could extract material from the Hard Drive for longer term keeping, just as one can with a dedicated HD DVD recorder (where HD stands for Hard Drive and not for High Definition!). I did not find that the Consumer report on DVD recorders really helped with such questions, because it did not state whether the recorders are in standard definition, though digital, but I guessed that they were in SD.
It does not help that HD can stand for either High Definition of Hard Drive/Disk, that 'digital' can add yet another 'D', and that there is a tendency on some packaging to give that model code details without spelling out as clearly as I would like the function(s) that the model can actually perform.
There is no recent mention of the Zinwell model above on the Blog: 'Freeview/HDD recorder nightmare', so some answers or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Margaret

Hi Maragaret,

The Zinwell ZMT-640PVR should be perfectly compatible with High Definition ready televisions as long as the TV sets are connected via HDMI cables and the HDMI connection ports. Instead of watching via the onboard tuner, you'll need to select the HDMI video options on the TV sets.

Regarding DVD recorders - yes, they record in Standard Definition. At present we don't know of any recorder available to consumers that can record in High Definition to a DVD, and suspect it may be a while before such products are available.

Provided there is no content protection (HDCP), you should be able to record High Definition content onto the hard drive of the Zinwell, but if you want to make a DVD, it can only be done via a standard definition DVD recorder.

We agree about the confusion surrounding HD, HDD etc.

Kind regards,

Hamish Wilson
Testing Manager

I am currently exploring options to purchase a means of decoding and recording satellite freeview programmes and thought that the Hyundai AH-3110 Combo HD PVR would offer a good choice. I would be interested in further information from Jon about the problems with recording and playback - I am seriously non technical so things do need to be simple.

I can confirm Jon's comments re the Hyundai AH-3110. I found it had serious problems with synchronisation between the sound and video on playbacks of recorded programmes, often a discrepancy of up to about 10 seconds. There were also problems with picture stability during live TV; and incompatibility between the receiver and the separate Hard Disk Drive, which frequently caused the receiver's timer to not record programmes at preset times. I was told by the vendor that all these problems were not faults with the Hyundai, they were due to some unexplained electrical intereference in my own home. However, I have now replaced it with a different brand (Zinwell) which shows none of these problems.

got a tv with built in digi freeview which is fine. trying to tune in freeview recorder system (like sky +) but seems like both freeview signal are battling each other. Can the tune in be done. It's for my old mum so laymans terms please....thanks

I have got the Hyundai AH-3110 and it is great. There are no problems with Audio or Video sync as surgested. HD recording are perfect quality and can be played back on the PC also.

I have also the Hyundai AH-3110 since 3months and it records and plays back HD and SD in excellent picture and sound quality without any issue. It is very good value for money.it seems like some consumers buy the problematic expensive Zinwell PVR without reading any feedback about it and place a nice feedback without testing it for a period of time. Mike, wait and see after a month if you are still happy > I even went to Mike's house and spent a considerable time there and he visted me but he could not show me on both occasions any of above mentioned issues regarding the AH-3110. He got his refund and is still complaining without any reason. It is not fair here to place a misleading feedback if you have changed your mind to purchase something else.Still the Hyundai AH-3110 remains the best HD PVR in NZ if not world wide. Cheers

For every one please read review about the Hyundai AH-3110 HD Combo PVR: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=8180

does anyone know why my new freeview box has tv3 and c4 with sound & image synchronisation problems? all the speech is out of whack with their mouths. WHY?? and what can i do to fix it?

Can someone please tell me if you can still record using a VCR recorder when you have a Freeview HD Digital Terrestrial Receiver, or do our old VCRs now become obsolete thus requiring me to purchure a new recorder compatiable with freeview

Hi Jenny We have a Sony Bravia TV with built in freeview tuner. We haven't got round to buying HDD recorder yet so continue to record using our old vcr - you just record the analogue signals for TV1, TV2 etc. Connect in the old way via RF out from TV and into the vcr. Quality not as good as the digital transmission of course but OK.

I have had a Zinwell ZMT-640PVR for about 10 months and have been pretty happy with it.

However, it has now started to pause when playing a recorded program. The picture freezes and the sound stops for 2-3 seconds and then it "jumps ahead" and restarts.

The other thing it has started doing is, when fast-forwarding when watching a recorded program, sometimes the picture is very pixelated and I can't tell when the adverts end.

There are instructions in the manual for reformatting the hard drive and I'm tempted to try that.

Anyone else have experience with this?

I am onto my 2nd Zinwell ZMT-640PVR now and am now unsure what to do.

The first one we had about 10mths and it started to pixelate. Over the next few weeks this got worse and also playing back recorded stuff, there has been an issue with playing after pausing: speech lagging behind picture.

Upon enquiring from the store I bought it from, I was put onto a place that fixes them. They didn't even look at it but gave us a new one on the spot! This surprised me. Is there a known fault with these?

We have had our new one going 4 days and guess what is happening tonight? Pikelating! What to do now?
Are these faulty?

There may be issues with the Hyundai AH 3110 and early HDMI TVs. My 4 year old JVC TV loses audio for a few seconds every few minutes and less frequently defaults to blue screen losing picture as well, forcing a re-boot of the TV to regain the programme. The people at JVC suggested the Hyundai may not be set up for early HDCP protocols.

I would like help with re-setting our HD TV as we have the freeview boxes which do not seem to work. I want to watch free to air from another TV. Can you advise a reputable technician please for the central Auckland area. Thanks.

Re: "Freeview has announced a HDD Digital TV Recorder (DTR) called Myfreeview|HD - available in stores since December 11"..... it seems to be a web page rather than a product....http://www.freeviewnz.tv/myfreeview/.

Is this selection of products what is meant by MyFreeview?......http://www.freeviewnz.tv/products/listing/all/digital_television_recorders

Thank you

I am now on my third Zinwell ZMT-640PVR. All three units have (usually about twice in the playback of a one hour programme) gone to a black screen for a couple of seconds or a frozen picture for a couple of seconds.

The technician at Next Electronics (who provided the two replacements) has suggested I ask the retailer (Dick Smith) for a refund under the Consumer Guarantees Act.

I'm going to try that and buy a Magic instead.

Mate, You need a technician with a satellite meter, could be an issue with LNB's or the cable.

It had nothing to do with the signal.

I got my refund from Dick Smith (after a bit of a struggle) and bought a Magic. Guess what? No more playback problems!