numanoid Posted August 12, 2007 Posted August 12, 2007 (edited) Two weeks after I get the Tedelex and OO has reduced the price by $30 to $269.95 http://www.oo.com.au/DVD_Recorder_with_250...ard_D_P5113.cfm Hi Mark...I'm a newbie to this site and found so much info and interesting comments from fellow posters, I could sit in front of my comp for days reading all the forums I find relevant to me if only I have the time, duh! In fact only few hours ago I was contemplating of purchasing the Teledex DVD 250G HDDRecorder from oo.com.au site and happened to stumbled upon this fantastic forum when googling (originally I was researching on the Palsonic DVD 160G HDDRecorder but found numerous shortcomings with it from comments on this site)...anyway, here's my questions to you, Mark if I may or to any other owners of the abovementioned Teledex item:- 1. Is there any critical shortcomings about this Teledex one, now that you have owned it for a few weeks...so far...from your previous comments you seemed pretty happy with it. 2. Yeah I noticed a fan is not attached to the rear vent grill - do you find overheating a problem so far? I wonder if overheating may be a fire-risk/safety issue as I noticed 'established brands' like PANASONIC, LG, SONY, PIONEER, etc .retailed by your local MYER, DJ or HARVEY NORMAN, etc. always have a fan attached. Funny that the oo.com.au website mentions the $30 off but when I clicked to buy, my shopping basket still shows $299 to be paid!!?? Any idea. Mark, how to get that $30 discount for a skintflint like me ?? ...thank you in advance, people Edited August 12, 2007 by numanoid
mddawson Posted August 12, 2007 Author Posted August 12, 2007 Hi Mark...I'm a newbie to this site and found so much info and interesting comments from fellow posters, I could sit in front of my comp for days reading all the forums I find relevant to me if only I have the time, duh! In fact only few hours ago I was contemplating of purchasing the Teledex DVD 250G HDDRecorder from oo.com.au site and happened to stumbled upon this fantastic forum when googling (originally I was researching on the Palsonic DVD 160G HDDRecorder but found numerous shortcomings with it from comments on this site)...anyway, here's my questions to you, Mark if I may or to any other owners of the abovementioned Teledex item:- 1. Is there any critical shortcomings about this Teledex one, now that you have owned it for a few weeks...so far...from your previous comments you seemed pretty happy with it. 2. Yeah I noticed a fan is not attached to the rear vent grill - do you find overheating a problem so far? I wonder if overheating may be a fire-risk/safety issue as I noticed 'established brands' like PANASONIC, LG, SONY, PIONEER, etc .retailed by your local MYER, DJ or HARVEY NORMAN, etc. always have a fan attached. Funny that the oo.com.au website mentions the $30 off but when I clicked to buy, my shopping basket still shows $299 to be paid!!?? Any idea. Mark, how to get that $30 discount for a skintflint like me ?? ...thank you in advance, people Firstly I believe the brandname products would be better quality & offer more features than the Tedelex/MTV/Sansui/Telefunken clone but there is yet for the ideal recorder to be made as each one seems to lack that ultimate combination of features. I was specifically after a recorder with a large HDD & component input to use with Foxtel. Component input seems to be lacking from most of the brandname products (My ideal recorder would be a 250gb Pioneer if it had a digital tuner & component video input). Except for one occasion I have only timeshifted programs with the Tedelex as all the programs I was archiving stopped around the same time as I got it. The one thing I recorded was copying an old VHS tape. I used the front composite input but found it added some video noise. My old MTV TS2080 did a better job so I will use this in the future. The rear YUV inputs do not seem to suffer from this problem as pass through picture quality of Foxtel is excellent. The only noticeable difference is the audio is slightly quieter. The unit is quiet but it does sound like the HDD is always running. It does not seem to run hot either. The menus it plays back on home recorded DVDs look great on it but on other machines they look a little boring. Even though the menus fuction well I decided to finalize all discs on my old MTV for a slightly better appearance (I can select the menu image for each recording). This unit can transcode eg turn a 3hr SP recording on the HDD into a LP recording to fit onto a DVD. However it does this by playing back the original recording so transfer would take 3hrs. If recorded at the appropriate time/quality onto the HDD it only takes a fraction of the time to transfer the recording. It does not allow recording of the timeshift but does allow chaseplay. It will continue to play DVDs when a timer record starts. The text on the remote and the on screen displays could be bigger. Timer record uses start time then recording length eg Start 19.30 record for 1 hr. You cannot name the timer recordings so all will appear with the input name on the HDD. These can be renamed. I have still to determine if the Tedelex will record +DL discs as it has a different loader to the others.
numanoid Posted August 13, 2007 Posted August 13, 2007 (edited) Component input seems to be lacking from most of the brandname products .......I have still to determine if the Tedelex will record +DL discs as it has a different loader to the others. Hi, Mark...thanks for your prompt response. Yeah, you are right that it is hard to find component input in those brandname products. I find also we dont often find 5.1 channel audio output from those brandname as well...wonder why is this the case? I was going to buy the HITACHI 250G DVD recorder which I thought looks good & classy and was going cheaply at JB Hifi & Bing Lee ...but alas, no 5.1 output.... I'm not sure if I'm interested in DL disc recording as I found those DL discs cost a lot more. Well, I'm going to give myself another couple of weeks to survey around for other DVD recorders before deciding on the TELEDEX one. My criteria is pretty simplistic as I'm not as much a techie as most of you guys here (like reading from some post where diodes, tray-mechanism, LSI, etc were mentioned....wow) By the way I'm actually looking for a HDD DVD recorder that has 5.1 audio output & with 'better-than-composite' inputs & measures 'not-too-thick' as there isnt much room left in my AV cabinet...you see I'm intending to stack this recorder unit between my Grundig DVD player (purely for playing) & my Hiteker DVD player (purely for source output.... you see this ancient Hiteker is my first DVD player but is still precious as it has no macrovision protection on-board..yay!)...and me being a bit of a music nut, I do lots of music-videoclips recording & compiling for my own library collection - even to the extent of seeking out rare promo-versions of DVDs from Ebay cuz most promo-versions do not incorporate the copy-protection code found in their commercial-release versions. Edited August 13, 2007 by numanoid
Rx4 Posted August 17, 2007 Posted August 17, 2007 I have managed to find myself one of the MTV mdr250 units and I must say they are pretty impressive. However, as it seems with a few other owners of the unit, I am getting audio crackling/distortion with it. I am finding that most of the time when I switch the unit on the units audio is distorted/crackling. It will normally require me to switch the unit off and on about 4-5x before the audio is clear. I have checked all my cabling and it is definitely a fault of the unit, it seems to only distort the audio on the right hand audio chanel though which is odd. Does anyone have any suggestions as to resolving this issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Cameron
mddawson Posted August 17, 2007 Author Posted August 17, 2007 I have managed to find myself one of the MTV mdr250 units and I must say they are pretty impressive. However, as it seems with a few other owners of the unit, I amgetting audio crackling/distortion with it. I am finding that most of the time when I switch the unit on the units audio is distorted/crackling. It will normally require me to switch the unit off and on about 4-5x before the audio is clear. I have checked all my cabling and it is definitely a fault of the unit, it seems to only distort the audio on the right hand audio chanel though which is odd. Does anyone have any suggestions as to resolving this issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Cameron How are you using it when it occurs ie: internal tuner or external source? I have yet to have this problem but then I have only used it with Foxtel as the input and a VCR once - I haven't even tuned it the internal tuner.
Rx4 Posted August 17, 2007 Posted August 17, 2007 How are you using it when it occurs ie: internal tuner or external source? I have yet to have this problem but then I have only used it with Foxtel as the input and a VCR once - I haven't even tuned it the internal tuner. I have a set top box connected to the mdr250 and that is then plugged into the television. I don't think the input is responsible for the noise distortion however next time I switch the mdr250 I will try playing a dvd from it straight away and see what happens.
mddawson Posted August 17, 2007 Author Posted August 17, 2007 (edited) I have a set top box connected to the mdr250 and that is then plugged into the television. I don't think the input is responsible for the noisedistortion however next time I switch the mdr250 I will try playing a dvd from it straight away and see what happens. Others who have experienced this said that it stopped when they increased the inputs volume. Assuming you can do this with your STB, try setting its volume to maximum. I currently have both Foxtel and DVD recorder set to max volume. I am also using a reasonable quality cable from Jaycar. It would also be interesting to see if its on the MTVs output or input. To test this record to DVD when the audio is distorted then check this DVD on another player and listen if the distortion is audible. If it is then the MTVs inputs are to blame. Edited August 17, 2007 by mddawson
Not Logical Posted August 25, 2007 Posted August 25, 2007 Has anyone bought the new Coles MTV model MTV250H and if so how is it?
mddawson Posted August 27, 2007 Author Posted August 27, 2007 (edited) I finally got a +DL disc and the Tedelex recognised it after approx 20 seconds showing 7.9GB of space (the way the software calculates the remaining space is the cause of this - the disc is still empty) I have yet to burn anything to the disc. Edited August 28, 2007 by mddawson
mddawson Posted September 15, 2007 Author Posted September 15, 2007 (edited) In my opinion one of the failings of this recorder is the bland menus it creates on DVDs. They look fine played back on it but very uninspiring on other DVD players. I therefore decided to resurrect my TS2080 for editing menus & finalizing DVDs burnt on the MDR250. 1) Transfer your HDD recordings to DVD in the MDR250. 2) Rename your recordings and the disc name in the MDR250. 3) When the disc is filled, remove it and place in the TS2080. 4) When it loads the dodgy menu will display, push the right arrow button. 5) Select play. 6) Once playing tab down to change menu picture then select an appropriate image. 7) Once it has saved the image you should now have the TS2080 menu with the added bonus of no restriction of the menu title lengths. 8) Edit the rest of the menu and finalize as normal in the TS2080. A word of caution, don't use the MDR250 remote while finalizing as the TS2080 responds to some buttons. Edited September 15, 2007 by mddawson
Rajah Posted September 16, 2007 Posted September 16, 2007 Has anyone tried replacing the Seagate ST3250820ACE HD with another HD? I’ve just replaced mine with a new Seagate ST3250620A (16MB Buffer). (I wasn’t able to buy an ST3250820A, 8MB buffer) But when it’s turned on it just displays “Hello” for 30 secs and MTV on screen very briefly then returns to Standby mode. Does the new Seagate ST3250620A need partitioning, formatting or other to prepare it before it’s recognised by the system? Any suggestions at all welcomed.
faux pas Posted September 18, 2007 Posted September 18, 2007 I just got a new one of these off ebay cheap and it works so much better, quicker, slicker than the TS2080. There is only one thing the TS2080 did better than the MDR250, and that's play divx. divx on the mdr is stuttery and looks slow mo like low frame rate. The same divx discs in the TS look supersmooth, just like foxtel or a dvd... Am I the only one experiencing this? Is there a fix?
taylordiving Posted October 18, 2007 Posted October 18, 2007 HELP! I just made a major mistake that I hope is fixable. I accidently deleted a "title" (file) off my MDR250 and I must get it back. What can I do?????????
mddawson Posted October 18, 2007 Author Posted October 18, 2007 HELP! I just made a major mistake that I hope is fixable. I accidently deleted a "title" (file) off my MDR250 and I must get it back. What can I do????????? If you mean you erased it from the HDD then its gone. Any chance it will be replayed?
shr3d Posted October 18, 2007 Posted October 18, 2007 Others who have experienced this said that it stopped when they increased the inputs volume. Assuming you can do this with your STB, try setting its volume to maximum. I currently have both Foxtel and DVD recorder set to max volume. I am also using a reasonable quality cable from Jaycar.It would also be interesting to see if its on the MTVs output or input. To test this record to DVD when the audio is distorted then check this DVD on another player and listen if the distortion is audible. If it is then the MTVs inputs are to blame. Hi folks - what a saviour this site is! I too had this sound issue. I have a MDR250H (I paid $350 but still think its a bargain) with Foxtel attached via component then HDMI into the back of the LG LCD. Wow - how good is that HDMI. I connect this way to avoid having to have the amp on just to watch the news etc. Anyway to stop the scratchy sound i had to pull out the Foxtel cable a few times to get back to normal levels. I never had a chance to try bumping up the Foxtel level to near max. as suggested. After runnning the unit for about 3 weeks and enjoying the ease of use and understanding the quirks, the unit made a clunking noise and hung. I power resetted and now it wont turn on or off and the (once) very cool blue logo that turns red when recording is now sort of red and sort of blue with nothing else on the display. I've tried power resets to no avail. My question is: Have you folks tried returning these direct to the Coles you purchased from? I ask this as the box had one of those "DONT RETURN THIS TO YOUR STORE CALL XXX" type things. I've lost the insert so dont know the number to call. So if you have it please let me know. Or should I just front up to the store and say "This dont work , want new one". I like the unit so refund isn't an issue - just hope the bugger hangs together for at least a couple of years thanks Wayne
techo Posted October 18, 2007 Posted October 18, 2007 Or should I just front up to the store and say "This dont work , want new one". I know of people who have done just that, no problems, if the store has any in stock. Other wise they'll give a refund, you might need a receipt though. If you are so inclined you could try and fix it yourself. Firstly make sure there is no disk in the loader, if there was try to recycle again. If unsuccessful unplug unit from power and take cover off. Remove lithium battery and wait 20 to 30 min to drain cmos, replace battery and try unit. If unsuccessful remove 4 pin molex power cables and 40 pin IDE cables to both HDD and loader, boot with those disconnected.
shr3d Posted October 18, 2007 Posted October 18, 2007 (edited) If you are so inclined you could try and fix it yourself. Firstly make sure there is no disk in the loader, if there was try to recycle again. If unsuccessful unplug unit from power and take cover off. Remove lithium battery and wait 20 to 30 min to drain cmos, replace battery and try unit. If unsuccessful remove 4 pin molex power cables and 40 pin IDE cables to both HDD and loader, boot with those disconnected. Thanks Techo - That's uncanny as I would like to try to get it working without of course voiding any warranty issues - how did you know what I was thinking? Thanks for the ideas I shall give them a go. I've a horrible feeling that there was a DVD in the drive "Catch a Fire" I think. Why is it important to remove the disk - to stop it booting from the DVD drive? thanks again UPDATE: The lithium battery is stuck in very well vertically with some sort of clear goop, silicon maybe and feels really well stuck in. btw the data cable for the loader and hdd are glued on the board side! When I took the cover off, i noticed that 2 little silver squarish caps appear to have leaked a brown substance onto the board. These silver things are tiny - maybe 5mm long by 2 mm wide. Both seem to have leaked , or it may be my ignorance. If I can find a place to host the pictures I shall so you can see what I mean http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb216/s...lly_scan085.jpg http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb216/s...lly_scan087.jpg http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb216/s...lly_scan079.jpg http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb216/s...lly_scan078.jpg Latest update: I rang Coles and they will replace or refund. I also rang Yale Prima customer service and asked if they had had many returns. Not surprisingly the sub-continent guy told me they had had a few inquiries on how to dub etc but no actual returns that he knew of. After explaining the symptoms he gave me a service number then told me that within 2 working days I will get a call from a LOCAL authorized repairer who will investigate. He also said it sounds as if something has gone wrong in the power supply (i dont think so) but I was very impressed that 1) I can return it no worries 2) the service centre was very effective and has people who can speak good English and 3) I wont have to travel across Sydney to get it repaired. Edited October 19, 2007 by shr3d
Guest thermionic Posted October 19, 2007 Posted October 19, 2007 When I took the cover off, i noticed that 2 little silver squarish caps appear to have leaked a brown substance onto the board. These silver things are tiny - maybe 5mm long by 2 mm wide. Both seem to have leaked , or it may be my ignorance. If I can find a place to host the pictures I shall so you can see what I mean The silver things are crystal oscillators. I can only guess that the cause of the brown ooze leaking out is over heating. Is the unit in a very well ventilated area ? The video processor gets extremely hot, in fact too hot. Also I see that the manufacture has not addressed a safety issue with the fuse on the main PSU board being uninsulated . See my earlier post on the matter: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?s=&...st&p=630341 An update to that post. Consumer Affairs Victoria did ring me back several weeks later, only to inform me that it was not their area of responsibility. However the bloke did concur with me that it was a cause for concern and I should inform the Chief Electrical Inspector. I am still waiting on a reply. Nothing like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted when it comes to government bureaucracy.
shr3d Posted October 19, 2007 Posted October 19, 2007 The silver things are crystal oscillators. I can only guess that the cause of the brown ooze leaking out is over heating.Is the unit in a very well ventilated area ? The video processor gets extremely hot, in fact too hot. Also I see that the manufacture has not addressed a safety issue with the fuse on the main PSU board being uninsulated . See my earlier post on the matter: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?s=&...st&p=630341 An update to that post. Consumer Affairs Victoria did ring me back several weeks later, only to inform me that it was not their area of responsibility. However the bloke did concur with me that it was a cause for concern and I should inform the Chief Electrical Inspector. I am still waiting on a reply. Nothing like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted when it comes to government bureaucracy. Thanks thermionic, What does a crystal oscillator do? The unit is on a shelf on a low entertainment unit. There is nothing else on the shelf and it has a good 300mm clearance to the rear with no doors or covers. Perhaps it does need a fan? Do you agree that it seems the oscillators have leaked? Because I have Foxtel going thru the unit it is on a fair bit ie 6-7 hours a day. Good luck with Consumer Affairs - its people like you that can can be bothered to make sure things are safe for others. I did read your other post.
Guest thermionic Posted October 19, 2007 Posted October 19, 2007 What does a crystal oscillator do? Basically it's a device that produces a timing pulse at a set frequency for the video processor.If you want to know more about it, read the Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator. As far as if they have leaked on not, I was only guessing as I've never seen that happen before.
techo Posted October 19, 2007 Posted October 19, 2007 As far as if they have leaked on not, I was only guessing as I've never seen that happen before. The pictures shows adhesive over the crystals, it is being used to attenuate potential audible harmonics emanated from components within the box. It is not uncommon in like circuits these days; however it looks crude IMO. There is nothing inside the crystals to leak and they never get hot.
shr3d Posted October 20, 2007 Posted October 20, 2007 The pictures shows adhesive over the crystals, it is being used to attenuate potential audible harmonics emanated from components within the box. It is not uncommon in like circuits these days; however it looks crude IMO. There is nothing inside the crystals to leak and they never get hot. OK so it is not evidence of anything untoward, common practice as you say. SO this is not the cause of failure in your opinion. Do you have any suggestions as to how to extricate the lithium battery from its gooey abode? Thanks again for the information guys.
techo Posted October 20, 2007 Posted October 20, 2007 OK so it is not evidence of anything untoward, common practice as you say. SO this is not the cause of failure in your opinion. Do you have any suggestions as to how to extricate the lithium battery from its gooey abode? Not common but not unusual. The procedure I stated is typical of a complete reset of common logic boards. To remove the lithium battery you need to carefully pick the dried silicon from the base and desolder it. In my MDR250 I have removed all glue from the PCB and cables because I wanted to understand it. The procedure might still work without removing the battery and removing the clue from the cable end at the PCB by removing all the cables at the devices. I am a little perplexed as to why you are asking this since you state you have been given instructions on how to follow through with a warranty claim.
shr3d Posted October 20, 2007 Posted October 20, 2007 I am a little perplexed as to why you are asking this since you state you have been given instructions on how to follow through with a warranty claim. I suppose I would rather understand the system so if/when they come thru with a fix (as I cannot get another one) I know if I'm being hoodwinked. And if all else fails I can repair it myself (with your generous and knowledgeable help ;-)
jhai Posted November 2, 2007 Posted November 2, 2007 Recently got a Sansui "SAN0218-250 DVD Recorder" ("clearance" from K-Mart). As it only has an analogue tuner, I was wanting to run my "Ausid" HD STB into the Sansui using component. The recorder showed "No Signal" & I did finally find & select "Component" in the setup , & thought I had hit on the problem. (This selects "component" as the output from the Sansui so all now good as to in component to the TV). Still "No Signal" when Ausid HD STB by component into Sansui, so I then thought that there was an actual problem with the Sansui. Note, OK using either composite or S-Video. Ran Ausid STB by same component cable direct to TV, to make sure no problem with STB (or cable), & all good. Tried DVD Player by component into Sansui. That is OK. So the Sansui does not like (?) the Ausid HD STB, or vice versa. BTW, have spent a lot of time trying to sort this out before coming to this point, & naturally, have double (tripple) checked all connections as correct. Yes, I can connect & use S-Video, but I am surprised as to the problem, as I would have expected the Sansui to just "see" the component from the STB as as normal component input, as it apparently does when I checked with the DVD player as above. So -----, are there any known issues of a digital STB, (I guess, Ausid in particular) by component, into a DVD Recorder (Sansui in particular) being a problem? Looking back, far T.M.I. (too much information), but anyhow!! Thanks, John .
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