KDL 40CX523 - HDD Recording

[a_squared10]

Hi all

I've recently bought the above TV, and to supplement it, I bought a 500GB hitachi external hard drive to both record off the TV and load movies onto from my laptop, as I'm in the process of digitising all my old vcr tapes to clear out the clutter.

I was assured by those seemingly knowledgable' people in the store where I bought both TV and hard drive that I could actually do this with the hard drive.  owever to my great annoyance this afternoon, having registered the drive with the TV as an HDD recorder, I can now not find, access or save anything at all to/from said hard drive when it's plugged into my laptop!! it recognises what it is, but clicking on the icon simply brings up the properties window for the device!!  Help please!!

[hb9any]

Once it has been formatted by the Bravia TV, the USB HDD cannot be used with a PC unless it is reformatted by the PC, which would erase the recorded data.

Since the store people gave you incorrect information, I should think that they would accept the return of the drive if you don't want to keep it.

Good luck, Bruce.

[a_squared10]

Hi Thanks for the advice.

The hard drive is to be returned to my local Tesco's tomorrow, and money will be retreived......

I'm totally frustrated that something that seems so blindingly bloody obvious has been so frustratingly ignored by Sony - perhaps for good reason, perhaps just stupidity.  All I want to do is salvage my old videotapes and store them electronically without the need to create loads more dvd's, then watch them on my TV - is this too much to ask?  The Americans put man on the moon over 40 years ago in a spacecraft that had less computing power than the average modern watch, so why are we still messing around like this today?

Speaking to the workers in the shop it seemed that the Sony Bravia was the answer to this, but alas not it would appear.

I have been in to my local Sony shop tonight to talk it over with them and they came up with a new product, the HD-PG5U which as yet doesn't seem to have been released and not even any pricing information seems to be available.  On reading the tech specs however it seems that this is STILL not the answer I'm looking for as the blurb doesn't say it will do both record and store my old digitised movies....

Surely I'm not the only one in this position?  Or am I just whining unneccessarily?

Message was edited by: -Soup-

[-Soup-]

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[Catmambo]

Hi

I'm not sure the Sony store have fully understood what you are after. So I'll break it down a little from what you have explained,

From your explanation of digitising your old VCR tapes, this is not something that BRAVIA's can do. This requires substantial processor and encoding power which is a task best suited for a PC. The TV recording functionality is simply designed to record a freeview signal which is already compressed and digitised when received, so its just dumping it onto USB or HDD - a pretty simple task.

You are looking to turn an analogue signal into a compressed digital signal for which you really need a PC and maybe even a capture card depending on the spec of your PC. More details here on the kind of software you might need..

http://vhs-to-dvd-converters-review.toptenreviews.com/

Make sure you capture to a format that isn't proprietary and will be supported on the TV.

Once captured then you could then store them on a Hard Disc which could be attached to the TV, but this would need to be a separate drive to the one you might use to record Freeview onto..

Hope this helps

Thanks

[ssss25]

Unfortunately you are not the only one.

Fortunately your problem is easily solved:

• if you are going to convert your tapes into avi format on your computer and then store it on external harddrive in order to play them on sony tv it is not necessary to register your harddrive with tv when connecting to it. As long as its in compatible format such as avi you should be ok, if not you can alwasy get vga & audio cable and play it from your computer, this is particulary useful when playing mkv format files for best quality picture, to get maximum from full hd tv.
  
• if on the other hand you would like to record a tv program in order to play it later then you would need to register your harddrive with tv, this will erase all data on your hdd and will format it to be only compatible with sony bravia, so if you decided to transfer recorded media to your pc this will be impossible, you will of course be able to de-register your hdd but this is turn will erase all media you stored on it.
  

Hope this helps

[65hx923_cust11]

Hi there, you seem to have several issues here. Firstly digitising you old tapes, secondly recording from TV and thirdly playing digital films.

To digitise your old tapes you will need a VCR to play your tapes and the output of this VCR should be connected to a device which is able to record this signal not the TV. You will need to find a dedicated device for this or a computer with the adequate software. If using a computer then you will also need the adequate cable to connect the VCR to the computer. There must be some units with VCR and digital recording capabilities but this might be overkill because once you have done all your tapes it will be of not use. However if you find one at the right price then might be the easiest solution. For the computer you are able to find free and commercial software for this.

Recording from your TV; you need to register the HDD as you did and it has to be exclusively for that use. You will be able to access the disk if you use a computer running Linux but not with a Mac or a computer running windows. However you will not be able to play media files from this disk using you TV. Your TV will only play the recorded TV programs from any registered HDD. The TV will only record the signal of the tuner and the recording will be encrypted so that no other TV or computer will be able to play it.

Playing films or media files from a HDD. The HDD cannot be registered with the TV. The file system must be FAT which has a limitation in the size of the file it can store, 2GB. I do not know if this particular TV supports exFAT which does not have this restriction. You also need to check that the media format that you use is supported by your TV, ie. mp4, avi, etc. Another solution is to install software, in a computer, which is able to stream the films from your computer or a media player. There are quite a few media players. The streaming solution only works if your TV supports networking, DNLA. A good free streaming software can be found here http://www.serviio.org/. There are also HDD which can stand alone and have streaming programs included. Check for NAS, Network Attached Storage.

You are not alone in this sort of problems. All of this is more difficult because of copyrights. Sony and most manufacturers will make this restriction to reduce the possibilities of people trying to play illegal material from the internet or what have you.

Please note that if you use any free software from the internet there is always a risk that it will not work or you may download a malware from a page claiming to be something else. Usually these programs are to use at your own risk. A good up-to-date antivirus will help to keep you computer clean

[a_squared10]

Sorry, but I think you've misunderstood what I am saying.

As afr as digitising my old VCR tapes, I'm well aware that a Sony Bravia cannot do this.  That information was simply provided to put things in context.

the real problem I have is that there does not currently seem to be one single device that is capable of BOTH storing my media - Music, Pictures and movies, AS WELL AS providing the capability to record from the TV.

IE - ONE black box providing BOTH functions....

[chocohohoholic]

Hey,

I completely understand your problem. Yesterday I bought an HDD with the exact same idea and I can't describe my disappointment when it turned out it works either with the tv or with the laptop...

Very frustrating indeed.

[rooobb]

The answers, in my opinion, is that unfortunately you have to spend additional money. Using an HDD recorder you can both record live programs on the internal HDD, as well as converting the signal coming from a scart from your old VHS player and, in the latest model, play additional video from an external HDD/SD/USB/DVD/BD.

I own an RDR HXD870 5 years old that can do this (except accessing external HDD/USB video files), but newer ones (not Sony) can.

TV set are not meant to have all these features, in particular, due to copyright protection, they make recording unexportable (so they require a special formatting of the device). I think is the same reason why Sony dismissed the dvd/bd recorder market, at least in Europe.