Can anyone recommend a TV recorder that will work with HDTV over-the-air programming? We recently bought an HDTV, and all except one of the local stations switched to HD in February. We cancelled our cable TV subscription, because it was $60 a month and we can use that money for other things.
We currently have a VCR which will only record the one station that hasn’t switched, since there’s no way to set it to record 6-1, 4-2 etc. Our DVD player is only a player.
Once in a while we want to be able to record one show while watching another, or record a show when we are out to watch later, just like back in the early days of VCRs. Is this too much to ask? We don’t want to subscribe to TiVo or anything like that - just buy a recorder and plug it in and go.
If we find a DVD recorder, since I don’t suppose there are any compatible VCRs, can you reuse the DVD disk like you could the old VHS tapes?
I saw one DVD recorder designed to connect to a TV. It was $150, so I gave it a miss. You can re-use a DVD-RW as long as the writing device doesn’t “close” the disk (i.e. doesn’t put a “this is a closed file system” signal on the disk when it is done writing), but I don’t know if these DVD recorders work that way. I am using a satellite PVR which saves to an internal hard drive, so I really don’t need the ability to save to tape or disk any more.
Can you name any brands (maybe PM me so as not to violate any advertising standards)? The stores I have nearby that have electronics are Sears, Fred Meyer, Radio Shack, Best Buy, Costco, K Mart, Target, ShopKo, and Wal Mart.
If you have a PC with an HDMI output, you
can get a USB tuner attachment to allow
the PC to act as a DVR. That’s the cheapest
method, but it comes with a little work to get
going.
Fear - I have a hard enough time trying to watch any videos on You Tube or such sites with a dial-up connection - I’m not about to try to watch TV that way!! Even though the HDTV manual does give instructions on how to hook it up as a computer monitor and it would be a lot nicer than the monitor I’m using.
A slightly proctology forum comment: I don’t think Big Brother wants us to be able to control when we watch the telescreen - excuse me, HDTV.
It seems odd that there aren’t many compatible recorders available, since this switch has been very well publicized and the electronics firms probably knew it was coming long before the public was told about it. One would think the companies would have had lots of time to develop something.
I would guess that availability and choice more likely reflect the state of the market, i.e. that most people are getting their TV signal over cable or satellite. I’m sure there must be some sort of nobility in holding out, but it doesn’t wash with the producers of electronics goods. Money talks.
I wasn’t talking about watching TV over the
internet, I was talking about adding a TV tuner
to your PC, and using the PC as a DVR.
It’s not that there aren’t any recorders compatible
with the new standard, there just aren’t many
harddrive recorders to compete with Tivo, even
for the old standard-definition TV. I reread your
first post, and realized that what most people have
already mentioned – a DVD recorder – is what you
want. It’s pretty much a VCR, but with DVD discs.
I have a USB TV device. It works well with an upgraded antenna. Total was about $100 for the device (WinTV and antenna GE Quantum HD antenna). I can record or watch HDTV on the computer, or schedule recording. The computer TV receives the signal over the air, just like a regular TV, so no Internet connection is required.
