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On air Digital Video Recorder

A

alchazz

Jan 1, 1970
0
I live within a few miles of dozens of TV broadcasting stations. I have
no need for cable. I get my TV broadcasts for free.

I have been using my VCR to record late night shows or to record shows
that are conflicting with other shows that I watch.

Now that we will be switching to HDTV next year, I have gotten the
converter box for my analog TV. It works just fine. But it is very
inconvenient to record using this box and I can only access one program
at a time.

I've been looking for a DVR that can function exactly as my VCR. There
are plenty out there that use DVDs for recording. But that is a waste of
money and creates landfill as I only need to look at the program once.

I know there are plenty of gizmos to attach to PCs that will take on-air
broadcasts and record them to a HD. But then you need to dedicate a PC
for that purpose along with the large power drain it imposes.

Any reason, other than economics, that a HD driven substitute for a VCR
is not available? At least not to my knowledge.

Any held would be appreciated.

al
 
M

Martin Brown

Jan 1, 1970
0
I live within a few miles of dozens of TV broadcasting stations. I have
no need for cable. I get my TV broadcasts for free.

I have been using my VCR to record late night shows or to record shows
that are conflicting with other shows that I watch.

Now that we will be switching to HDTV next year, I have gotten the
converter box for my analog TV. It works just fine. But it is very
inconvenient to record using this box and I can only access one program
at a time.

I've been looking for a DVR that can function exactly as my VCR. There
are plenty out there that use DVDs for recording. But that is a waste of
money and creates landfill as I only need to look at the program once.

I know there are plenty of gizmos to attach to PCs that will take on-air
broadcasts and record them to a HD. But then you need to dedicate a PC
for that purpose along with the large power drain it imposes.

Any reason, other than economics, that a HD driven substitute for a VCR
is not available? At least not to my knowledge.

You can also use RAM disk or DVD-RW disks as scratchpads.

Google is your friend...
http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/dct6412.asp

HDTV capable as well (which is still rare) ordinary DTV disk based
systems are already on supermarket shelves in the UK.

Regards,
Martin Brown
 
A

Adrian C

Jan 1, 1970
0
alchazz said:
I live within a few miles of dozens of TV broadcasting stations. I have
no need for cable. I get my TV broadcasts for free.

I have been using my VCR to record late night shows or to record shows
that are conflicting with other shows that I watch.

Now that we will be switching to HDTV next year, I have gotten the
converter box for my analog TV. It works just fine. But it is very
inconvenient to record using this box and I can only access one program
at a time.

You need TiVo.
 
Any reason, other than economics, that a HD driven substitute for a VCR
is not available? At least not to my knowledge.

Any held would be appreciated.

al

Look into old D-VHS units. Quite impressive.
 
J

JeffM

Jan 1, 1970
0
alchazz said:
I've been looking for a DVR that can function exactly as my VCR.

Since you are posting to a *design* group,
I assume you can assemble stuff yourself.
Buy an ATSC tuner card (PCI/PCIe), then
http://www.google.com/search?q=MythTV+Mythbuntu&num=100

Next time you have a question about off-the-shelf consumer gear,
take it to the rec.* hierarchy where it belongs.
If it about video gear, find a group with *video* in its name.
http://groups.google.com/search?q=ingroup:video+ingroup:rec&qt_s=Search+Groups&num=100
 
D

David L. Jones

Jan 1, 1970
0
alchazz said:
I live within a few miles of dozens of TV broadcasting stations. I have
no need for cable. I get my TV broadcasts for free.

I have been using my VCR to record late night shows or to record shows
that are conflicting with other shows that I watch.

Now that we will be switching to HDTV next year, I have gotten the
converter box for my analog TV. It works just fine. But it is very
inconvenient to record using this box and I can only access one program
at a time.

I've been looking for a DVR that can function exactly as my VCR. There
are plenty out there that use DVDs for recording. But that is a waste of
money and creates landfill as I only need to look at the program once.

I know there are plenty of gizmos to attach to PCs that will take on-air
broadcasts and record them to a HD. But then you need to dedicate a PC
for that purpose along with the large power drain it imposes.

Any reason, other than economics, that a HD driven substitute for a VCR
is not available? At least not to my knowledge.

Any held would be appreciated.

What you want is a PVR (Personal Video Rrecorder), in Australia here the
shops are full of them, they are massively popular.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_video_recorder

Available in SD and HD versions, it's basically what you call a "converter
box" but it has a hard drive to record the programs. The more expensive ones
have dual tuners so you can record two shows at once while also playing one
back something else. If you use it as your HD veiwing box then you can do
cool stuff like pause live TV.

Dave.
 
J

Jim Yanik

Jan 1, 1970
0
That's a cable DVR. The OP appears to want one with OTR capability.


The UK and Australia (according to Mr. Jones) may have these things on
the store shelves, but here in the USA, they appear to have
mysteriously disappeared.

My brother was looking at upgrading from a nice Sony analog DVR, what
with the impending cutover. He told me that he had seen a digital
model with the equivalent features about a year ago. But he waited for
better prices, more features. But now, the digital models have
disappeared and used models are getting scarce. That's based upon his
research.

I may end up building him a MythTV box, but that's about all that's
left.

WalMart sells a DVR receiver-DVD burner that has a 160G hard drive.
You'll need an antenna,preferably amplified.
 
A

alchazz

Jan 1, 1970
0
Since you are posting to a *design* group, I assume you can assemble
stuff yourself. Buy an ATSC tuner card (PCI/PCIe), then
http://www.google.com/search?q=MythTV+Mythbuntu&num=100

Next time you have a question about off-the-shelf consumer gear, take it
to the rec.* hierarchy where it belongs. If it about video gear, find a
group with *video* in its name.
http://groups.google.com/search?q=ingroup:video+ingroup:rec&qt_s=Search
+Groups&num=100

I built a MythTV box using MythBuntu. I've gone bonkers trying to get it
to work. So I'm looking for something off the shelf. I check with a local
supplier of HDTV equipment and he told me such an item is not available
as far as he knows and that if I fo find one, let him know.

Al
 
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