anyone know of a good basic OTA DVR

tivo stopped making roamio OTA (lots of issues), but the base $199 roamio can still do OTA

i've been researching roamio and am very wary of its build quality and lifespan (no at all like early on tivos). plus people are being led in circles between cableCARD hookup from cable company and tivo service rep hassles.

cord cutting is gaining new devices to bring in OTA with web streaming. maybe in a year or two some robust options will come out

then we can cancel cox cable TV -- of course, we'll likey then see our cox broadband double in price :(

wa8yxm wrote:
Oh, I caught an add for that Over the air unit, It is called an AIR BOX

AirBox is a subscription service available in limited markets. It is broadcast on some subchannels of ION TV.

AirBox coming soon

Set-top box at Radio Shack

We've been generally satisfied with our Channel Master DVR. There's a couple of repeat-recording issues that I've worked around but otherwise it has been a solid unit. We added a 1TB HGST external drive for additional storage.

There are cheaper alternatives out there including using Windows media, but I very much dislike windows, and counting in the cost of a pc, the "free" of windows becomes expensive.

Your mileage and experience will differ from mine. Good luck on your search!

Assuming that this set up is in your house and not an RV. The cable companies are making it very difficult to record without their own recording cable box. I have an older DVR DVD recorder but our cable company dropped the ability in the cable box to turn on channels on and off on a schedule eliminating the usability of the recorder and its timer. Most cable companies want you to go through their tuner now or nothing and are setting the systems to have to do that.

not to bore w/ regional cox policy and dated series 2 tivo, but there are quite many of us in this boat, from looking into various help forums.

i have found that cox cable here is using the motorolla cisco dta 250 hd 'minibox' for those of us who've hung on to analog cable to the end (1/1/16, here). it has an IR 3.5mm input, and my toshiba rs-tx20 has an IR out.

all forms of communication w/ cox and tivo fail at getting the needed 5 digit IR code that would let us run tivo software guided setup to allow tivo to change the tuner of the dta to execute scheduled recordings.

many of us have tried, and using a beilen IR cable from amazon, some have had success.

cox only wants to give a cablecard w/ tuner adapter, but this tivo unit has no such slot. so they say the'll supply their dvr box instead.

we do a lot of time-shifting w/dvr. i want to tell cox where to go, but ota recording, even w/ roamio, is hit and miss...

and so it goes.

A older thread but I just recieved two Homeworx HW-150PVR converter boxes and they are great. They pick up over 60 channels here and the quality is much better than trying to record cable with a VCR. (1080p vs yuck)

One downside pointed out to me was that it is 120v only, no 12v conversion. I'm use to having the inverter on 24/7 but it may be a issue for some.

My inverters are never off, always on
and I love my HomeWorx PVR

i looked at some videos on homeworx, and their menus are so similar to the rca dta880 that i think rca bought the older pvr.

i was still looking for dvr options and stumbled on the rca in a walmart.