BEOfreak: Excellent job! Which HDR did you use?
BEOfreak
Hi Beofreak,
I did use a HDR-1 with a 250GB drive.
I've seen the mainboard of a HDR-2 and it's practically the same. Only the upc-board is slightly different.
So building a HDR-1 or HDR-2 inside doesn't make any difference.
A HDR-1 will do the job just fine.
As you can see, I've made a small board with some led's as an alternative display.
This isn't also needed, but when you have doubts if it works, you can take a look at the backside of the Avant.
It's funny and surprising to see that when you press the record button twice, the Avant display on top will show "record".
One of the thoughts I had, was to keep both the Avant and the HDR-1 housing original. So if I want to sell the Avant, I still have the original housing of the HDR-1.
The same for the Avant. I only cut the backside lower part along a curved line, which was there already.
The HDR-1 is placed on a wooden shelf between the two brackets on each side. And only 1 screw is used to secure it and to keep it in place.
What you can't see is, that I've used some rubber/gummi parts to avoid noise/vibrations which could occur between the HDR and the chassis of the Avant.
About the cables I've used. It's the same as wih the Avant VCR. The aerial goes first to the HDR and then to the Avant. I've checked the amount of picture noise in the menu, but it is still the same with or without HDR.
The scartcable I used is the shortest (1 meter) cable from Monster, series 3 I think. It's a bit over the top to use that kind of cable, but it workes fine.
The only extra cable there is, is the powercord from the mains.
I can tell you that I'm a bit proud to have it this way. There is also a special STB bracket on the backside of the Avant which carries the Topfield 5500PVR Sat-receiver. So you can imagine that it has become an Avant with a heavy backpack.