CONNECTIONS How to record on hard drive from tv. Better yet how to connect LG LRH-880 80gig hard drive to HD sharp tv correctly. New at this, thankyou in advance.

First of all you need to check if your TV supports recording. Some 2010 models do and most 2011 have it implemented. Look for stickers or logos such as:

USB Recording

PVR (Personal Video Recorder)

DVR (Digital Video Recorder

The following manufacturers support it in some of their models. Typically mid-end to high-end models. Check the manufacturer web site if you are unsure.

Samsung

Sony

LG

Philips

Panasonic

Toshiba

Sharp (only Time Shift pausing)

Grundig

What you need

Many consumers have USB recording enabled TVs without actually using the function - simply because it requires an extra USB hard drive ou need the following:

1. USB Recording: A HDTV that supports recording.
2. A USB HDD: FlatpanelsHD uses a USB HDD from Transcend.
3. Digital channels: Recording is only enabled on digital channels - not analog. You can record SD, HD and 3D.

Some manufacturers recommend USB hard drives with external power supplies but we have used a Trandscend USB HDD that takes power from the USB plug on all manufacturers' TVs without any problems. Manufacturers typically allow 1:1 recording, meaning that you will see no loss in picture quality.

How to set up USB Recording

Once you have purchased a USB hard drive and connected it on the back of the TV you can move on to "pairing" the USB HDD with the TV. Here is how to set up USB recording.

Connect the USB HDD to a free USB port on the back of the TV.

The USB hard drive now needs to be formatted (all data will be deleted).

Most TVs help you to format the USB HDD automatically but on some models you need to enter the menu and select format HDD (or something similar)

If it do not detect the HD, there is no other way to back up.

DVD recorders are usually not the first selection for backup of data files. you may be better off with a 1 Tbyte external drive, which is suited for that purpose. Even though the DVD drive has the capacity, there are usually formatting issues with data files being burned to a DVD recorder.

Yes you can record any TV show HD or SD, however it depends on what connections you use and what the recorder does with the input signals. You can record HD shows but not in HD resolution if you connect using composite video (yellow RCA cable) you just get a down-converted resolution, probably 480. You must use a HDMI or a component video connection for HD BUT if the recorder cannot record HD video, it should just record it in SD resolution but it should record the input signal. DVD is not HD, you would have to go to Blu-ray for HD and there are not many Blu-ray recorders around. The hard drive has the potential to record in HD but the recorder would have to process HD signals and you would have to connect with HDMI or component video. I would say your Toshiba will record an HD show but in SD resolution. I don't think the recorder has an HDMI input or a component video input. Just composite and S-video inputs. To actually record in HD you should look at another recorder.

One of the way to connect the whole system is using only HDMI cable version 1.3a. There is audio return channel built into the cable.So you do not have to connect the optic cable.
Sky box to TV using HDMI
LG HT805 to TV using HDMI. Even the Sky box audio will come back to the LG-HT through the audio return path.

ah... your hd box isnt hooked up or turned on, or you dont have hd service, also try just letting your tv program itself for the channels one more time after verifying connections

If you own a Digital Video Recorder, such as TiVo, or a DVR from a Cable or Satellite provider, then you know you can record to the device's hard drive to view TV shows at a later time, much like the old VCR. However, saving those TV shows becomes difficult as the Hard Drive starts to fill up. The answer to saving your shows is to record them to DVD! This can be accomplished easily by hooking up a DVD Recorder to your DVR
Here's How:

1. 1)record a TV show on your DVR that you want to save to DVD!
2. 2)Turn on the DVR, DVD Recorder and the TV that the DVD Recorder is connected to. In my case, I have my Samsung DVD Recorder (no hard drive) hooked up to my TV via an RCA Audio/Video cable from the rear outputs on the DVD Recorder to the rear RCA inputs on my TV. I use a seperate DVD Player for playing DVDs, but if you use your DVD Recorder as a player as well, use the best cable connections you can to connect to the TV. See the articleTypes of A/V Cables for more info.
3. 3)Connect an S-Video or RCA video cable and composite stereo cables (red and white RCA plugs) from the DVR to the inputs on your DVD Recorder. If your TV has Component inputs, connect the Component Out from the DVD Recorder to the Component In on the TV, otherwise you can use S-Video or Composite. You will still need to use RCA audio with your video connection.
4. 4)Change the input on your DVD Recorder to match the inputs you are using. Since I'm using the rear S-Video input, I change my input to "L1", which is the input for recording using the rear S-Video input. If I was recording using the front analog cables it would be "L2", the front Firewire input, "DV". The input select can typically be changed using the DVD Recorder remote.
5. further instructions continued in my next comment post please read.

Hey matt here, From memory I think it tv- video via scart and then scart or avr to HD. Hope this helps. Matt. Please Rate me

I would use the Sky box manuals recommendations for connection as this usually gives the best performance especially if you wish to record from Sky to the DVD recorder.

Somehow, my HDD/DVD recorder recorded correctly 2 times last night, even if I did not do anything specific to fix. I will keep an eye on new occurences of this problem, but it appears at the moment that the issue disappeared by itself.