Save Me From My Wife's Frustrations..

[DruiD]

My wife loves reality TV and for her birthday I would love to replace the blown up old VCR in the bedroom with a DVD HDD Recorder in the Home theater room and she can burn off disks of stuff she wants to re-watch on the other TV\DVD setup in the bedroom or family\lounge room.

My Home Theater setup basically goes

Hitachi Plasma connected via HDMI to the a HDMI output on a Pioneer ASX-2X2AV Reciever\Amp.

1. Foxtel Digital (Not IQ) is connected to the Pioneer AMP via a scart (foxtel end) to Componet input on the Amp (lets call it Amp input #1) Also via the Foxtel Optical Audio lead for 5.1 - mapped the Amps 1st Optical Audio input to Amp Input #1 (Video..)
   
2. My Teac HD-STB (DV-B800) is connected from DVI (Teac End) to HDMI input on the Amp. (Amp Input #2) and again Optical Audio (5.1) from STB is tied in and mapped to Amp Input #2.
   
3. My Pioneer DVD player is connected via Component to Component cable to the Amp (Amp Input #3) and again Optical Audio (5.1) from DVD Player is tied in and mapped to Amp Input #3.
   
4. My Gaming PC (different room - cables through the walls etc) is hooked up via DVI to the remaining HDMI input on the AMP (AMP input #4) and as previous inputs, the sound as well.
   

My drama is I want something that the australia market doesnt have without getting a media PC. I want to be able to record Hi-def FTA, yet give my wife the ability to easily burn a disk and relocate to the other room \ for later viewing at a frends etc (forget downloading to PC from a Twin Tuner HD PVR ..etc)

Therefore my "Gap-Fill" theory is this

1) Get a HDD DVD Recorder that can allow a COMPONENT INPUT AND OUTPUT and therefore I could connect Foxtel to the DVD recorder via the existing foxtel scart --> component cable. I could then take another component ---> component cable and run that from the COMPONENT OUTPUT to the AMP INPUT # 1, which is already setup as using COMPONENT and therfore it shouldnt change the Foxtel PQ I am already used to seeing - yet have the ability to record Foxtel.

If someone knows of a good COMPONENT IN\OUT DVD-HDD Recorder avaiable (I cant find one..) I also pose this question. I am running the standard foxtel scart to component (for video) and technically the Recorder should record the Video. As I am running 5.1 from Foxtel optical output direct to the AMP - will the regular AV Audio still get sent along the scart --> component and thus get recorded via the DVD-HDD Recorder - or will I simply only have the Audio thats selected on Foxtel ..eg 5.1 or stereo, not both (for example, if i was wastching and manually recording at the same time, I would be watching it and hearing 5.1, but on the DVD-R it would record in A\V.)

If its only going to be AV or 5.1 etc, I guess therefore to be able to do this I would need a DVD-HDD Recorder that either has both Component INPUT and OUTPUT along with Optical 5.1 Audio INPUT and OUTPUT - to basically complelty pass-thru Foxtel video and Audio on its way to AMP INPUT #1 - OR find one that will allow input via component and optical 5.1 - and mergers them into a single audio\video output via HDMI, remove my PC HDMI INPUT from the amp (Input #4) and connect the DVD-Recorder (and thus foxtel as well) via HDMI (amp input #4). I would hate to do away with my nice 150cm computer monitor, but a possible benifit is that it watch and records in 5.1 audio whereas above, i was watching in 5.1 (via direct amp optical 5.1) but recording in AV due to scart A\V etc.

2) I want to be able to record HD FTA - but i guess I cant do that just yet. I will need a DVD-Recorder that I can either connect my existing HD Teac STB - and the DVD-HDD Recorder can downscale it (remembering I have already used 1 input for foxtel) or get one comes with an inbuilt SD Digital Tuner and thus will only need the inputs for Foxtel (section 1 above). I would love to replace the Teac STB with a Teac Hdstb/pvr - HDRM7250 which i drooled over in JB Hifi today and forget about burning disks, but unfortunately - i need the "VCR" functionality. Any thoughts or ways around my problem? I could have my thinking totally stuffed up, but I dont want to loose any PQ from any source, simply because of introducting a Standard Def. Recorder, be it recording SD FTA for later watching on other TV's is fine - but I want to keep the HD FTA PQ (love all these abbreviations..)

I also dont want loose PQ on Foxtel because i am forced to "pass it through" via S-Video or shudder "AV" on the DVD-Recorder. Sure it might have a HDMI output but what use is that when the input is already reduced considerably. Once such unit I also saw today was a Panasonic DVD-HDD Recorder DMR-EX75 (ticket price approx $790) it had 4 inputs

AV1 - Scart (scart socket, not sure what it supports, RGB or modified Component or simply S-Vid\AV Audio)

AV2 - Scart but says EX\Decoder underneath socket (again scart socket, not sure what it supports).

AV3 - guessing front AV \ Svideo

AV4 - Rear AV\Svideo

Although I dont like the appearance of the Pana unit above, my Section 1 theory with slight modifcation (foxtel Scart to scart on HDD\DVD-R, Scart to component or HDMI (Video+Audio) output from HDD\DVD-R to AMP) I guess might work - but again, the biggest drawback would be wether the audio would be sent along the scart cable (to record on HDD\DVD-R) AT THE SAME TIME as sending via the 5.1 optical audio direct to the AMP input# 1.

CRAZY STUFF. If any of you can make sense of that and can help me out .. please do!!

PS Wife's Birthday - Sunday 22nd April. Put the pressure on haven't I.

---=== EDIT ===--

Just found these threads after reading forums \ searching for hours.

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=42367

and Woot! I think this answers part of my question..

http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=43157

Seems Foxtel has Two scarts, with a wierd output matrix, but i might get away with recording in composite via the Scart Input on the Pana EX75, and continuing to send the component \ optical audio straight to Pioneer AMP.

Anyone want to confirm that?