Recording OTA broadcasts

TomG2 wrote:

bananadanna wrote:
We got a Dish PalTv from Sears about three years ago when we cut the cord. It is used exclusively for OTA hdmi recording. It is now sold as a Channel Master CM7000

It does its simple job well with two tuners and has no monthly fees but it is not whiz-bang like a TIVO.

Works for us since we needed a tuner for our projector.

We might try a usb stick device to record on a laptop if we ever feel the need for tv on the road.

Thanks, looks good, except they say, "Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock."

Check Kijiji or Craigslist for used high-def FTA satellite receivers with built-in PVR capabilities. I don't know about your area but around here lots of guys bought them for other (ahem...) purposes a couple years ago and found they stopped working for them rather quickly. Since it took some effort to keep them going and they had a knack for cutting out just before a favorite game or show started they were relegated to a basement shelf to collect dust. I got a ViewSat HD box from a friend for free and use it to tune in local TV in my trailer. It looks brand new and still had the factory plastic protector sheet on the remote when I got it. Similar units can be had for $25 - $40 or so online. I don't bother recording stuff on the ViewSat but I'd just need to plug in a USB drive to do so.

Rick

One unit that has good reviews on Amazon is the TVIX PVR M-6620N. It's a bit pricey at about $390. It's also available on eBay for $290 if you want to chance ordering it from Korea.

While it certainly is not for most, the rise of ultra low cost computers makes building a PVR pretty inexpensive (in the $100 range). I've been fooling around with a Raspberry Pi (a $35 single board computer with very good graphics), but I have also been looking at the BeagleBoard, and many people have used a $40 Pogoplug which is actually a single board computer, and will run Linux (as do all of the above).
A bit dodgey to get configured, but once that is done, they will run rock solid.

TomG2 wrote:

bananadanna wrote:
We got a Dish PalTv from Sears about three years ago when we cut the cord. It is used exclusively for OTA hdmi recording. It is now sold as a Channel Master CM7000

It does its simple job well with two tuners and has no monthly fees but it is not whiz-bang like a TIVO.

Works for us since we needed a tuner for our projector.

We might try a usb stick device to record on a laptop if we ever feel the need for tv on the road.

Thanks, looks good, except they say, "Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock."

I called them. There was a model 7400 available after the 7000 but that is also no longer made. They said there will be a new model coming out. The new model sounds more like a Roku box that connects to the internet to get all the pay movie channels but supposedly connects to OTA in HD and records.

bananadanna wrote:
We got a Dish PalTv from Sears about three years ago when we cut the cord. It is used exclusively for OTA hdmi recording. It is now sold as a Channel Master CM7000

It does its simple job well with two tuners and has no monthly fees but it is not whiz-bang like a TIVO.

Works for us since we needed a tuner for our projector.

We might try a usb stick device to record on a laptop if we ever feel the need for tv on the road.

Thanks, looks good, except they say, "Currently unavailable.
We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock."

We got a Dish PalTv from Sears about three years ago when we cut the cord. It is used exclusively for OTA hdmi recording. It is now sold as a Channel Master CM7000

It does its simple job well with two tuners and has no monthly fees but it is not whiz-bang like a TIVO.

Works for us since we needed a tuner for our projector.

We might try a usb stick device to record on a laptop if we ever feel the need for tv on the road.

az99 wrote:

1492 wrote:
I use a combination of suggestions posted to record OTA TV programs. I basically split the antenna signal, one of which is connected to a recycled Channel Master DTV converter I picked up from Goodwill for $13. It has an s-video output to my old DVD recorder's input. Then output from the DVD via component to my HDTV LCD. So can still watch programs in HD, even a different channel, while recording to a standard rewritable DVD.

I also have a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR USB stick with remote, also found at Goodwill for $8, connected to my PC which will record pristine 1080p HD OTA programming. Can either transfer the HD file to a USB stick for playback on my BluRay player, or make a separate BluRay disc on a standard DVD ~ 1 hour using 1440 x 1080i HD resolution. Basically, to limit data rates to 8Mbps. The only issue is that the conversion time to a BluRay compatible DVD is about 2.5-3x real time on a quad-core PC.

Not criticizing your method but that is a lot of work to record and watch OTA HD programming on the TV. Isn't there a HD recorder that can record OTA in HD so you can watch directly back on the TV?
I was recording on the computer but that became more of a PITA to do than the quality of the shows were worth.:)

Not really if you already have a BluRay player that can either playback compatible HD video files from USB stick, or WiFi enabled to stream from a PC. Making a BlueRay disc does take time, and only for those programs worth keeping. But if you have an old PC that you are no longer using, you can convert it fairly inexpensively to a dedicated HD DVR. Must have a powerful enough processor and adequate hard drive space.

I find that most OTA programs I want to watch don't need to be recorded in HD, nor did I want to discard my DVD Recorder just because the technology changed. Use it mostly for time shifting, and for viewing a program only once. BTW, I did switch from using component to HDMI output from the DVD recorder, so the recorded 480i DVD is upscaled to 1080p on my LCD HDTV.

I tried that nextPVR program also. There was nothing on OTA TV that was worth that much effort.:)

Keep in mind that the Magnavox DVR does not do high definition. It records the digital tv signal but only in standard definition. The playback is upconverted to 1080. Also any device that records to a standard DVD does not make a high def disk. A standard DVD that plays in a DVD player is 480.

EchoStar started producing a nice stand-alone HD-TV DVR but gave up on it and sold it to Channel Master. The Channel Master CM-7000PAL seems to be a dead product now also. There may be stock available from a few sources.

I gave up the quest for a stand-alone box and set up a small PC with two HD tuners. The PC runs Windows 7 with Media Center and works very well. You do need an internet connection to receive the program guide. You can use it without the guide but it is a bit cumbersome.

There is free software available called NextPVR. I have tried it but it took a while to get it set up to use my tuners. You don't need an internet connection to get a program guide. It retrieves guide data from the information embedded in the TV signal. It works, but not well. TV stations typically send out guide data only for the next few hours so you usually will not get guide info for the next day.

Try one of these Magnavox HDD & DVD recorder there is better pricing around.