I want a DVR setup but I don't have cable or satellite, just OTA HD with a rooftop antenna. Not interested in monthly or yearly subscription fees, and I don't need TV Guides or automatic show recording. I just want the ability to set it to record a program at a given time and duration, and play it back when I want to watch the show.

Recommendations?

 

Buy a Tivo with a lifetime subscription. Should be a ton of them on Ebay.

Caveat - I have never used a Tivo with OTA (well, digital that is) but I have owned 10+ Tivos. I have a dish network DVR now so I am out of the Tivo market (even though I still have 2 or 3 laying around). There is a HUGE Tivo forum on the web. Do a search and you will find it (tivocommunity.com or something like that). They will tell you exactly what to get/do.

 

Seems like there's a few options:

1) Tivo with subscription (or upfront lifetime subscription). SD units are fairly cheap. Not sure how expensive the newer HD units are.
2) Channelmaster DTVPal something or other (similar to Dish Network's DVR but works for antenna, questionable quality with apparently high % of glitchy units)
3) Sony DVR, no longer available, running $300-500 on the used market

Someone could lock up this (albeit small) market with a $200 antenna-compatible dual-tuner DVR that didn't have a 5% DOA failure rate.

 

TV tuner card into your PC?

 

Buy my first gen HD TiVO which has an OTA antenna input.
You can program it manually, or get a TiVo subscription and get the TiVo benefits.

 

I thought they didn't work without a subscription? Or do you just not get the automatic scheduling and TV guide stuff? I don't care if I have to manually set the recording with a date and time like a VCR.

How much?

 

They work, what a lack of Tivo subscription does is, you don't have the automatic program schedule download, and no Tivo recommendations. It becomes a DVR where you tell it what time and channel to record.

 

It's a DirecTV ("HD DirecTiVo") HR10-250.
What it gives up vs. my newer DirecTV (not-TiVo) DVR is the ability to tune in to the newer Directv HD satellites.
What I miss on the TiVo is the better UI and the TiVo recommendations.

 

oh **** I have one of those too. It's sitting in my basement doing nothing.

the new HD Tivos are $99 and a lifetime sub is $499.

you *can* get external drives for Tivos that work without voiding any warranties.

The other nice thing about Tivo is that it includes the ability to stream from various sources (netflix, amazon, etc) if you have an account. That is pretty nice.

 

Based on what I'm reading, that TiVO unit generally can't be used to record OTA without a DirecTV subscription.

http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/sh...ad.php?t=53343

 

That's lame. I wonder if it can be hacked so it can DVR/record OTA.

 

i still have my SD humax dvd burner series 2 tivo with a 500gb hard drive wifi adapter for transfer to a computer.... just like others have said with OTA without service except that annoying blinking clock! A series 2 is pretty much useless now that every tv needs a DTA or STB so finding one for OTA should be cheap. Tivo UI trumps every other DVR I have ever used. On that note Comcast Is The Devil!

 

if it can, none of the forums will let someone post about it so it might as well be a boat anchor.

make you a sweet deal on a second so you can have a matched set.

my research shows you can indeed get OTA HD but you can only time shift within the 30 minute buffer and not set recordings OR get tivo service.

 

In the old days we used to hack the DirecTivo's. Had to be the sweetest box in history. FREE Tivo subscription and FREE DirecTV and it had two inputs which was unheard of back then. Now I think a Tivo is damn near impossible to hack (for free service). If you didn't care about HD you can definitely hack one of the early Tivos for free service (well, at least no nag screens).

 

how old were these "old days"? Like Series 2 old?

I've got a canadian friend who can't use new HD Tivos because they all require cable cards and canada is cable card free. Thought he could use my old HR10-250.

if you've got links to hacking stuff, I'm all ears.

 

Why not a HTPC with TV tuner?

http://www.google.com/products/catal...ed=0CFEQ8wIwAA

 

I just picked up an HDHR dual tuner for QAM- but it will do OTA. I've got to say of all the media projects I've played with, this was by far the easiest to set up and the quickest to work- literally out of the box.

I'm using SageTV on XP to record, but I've also used XBMC and Plex in OSX to watch live and shows recorded by the XP machine to shared drives. I've watched content wired and wireless (N) on laptops, desktops and nettops (Atom powered Aspire Revo running OSX). There's a lot of open source media apps for multiple OS - if you have a pc, then you could have a solution for <$150 - <$200 if you buy some commercial media software.

I added this "cloud" device called a pogoplug (onsale last week for $40) that is sharing three drives so I can log onto it anywhere from any device. Of course (my) bandwidth dictates what streams- but I have watched 480p tv shows streamed over 3g on my iphone.

 

I've only got a netbook, not a real laptop that could handle DVR stuff, and I'm not interested in setting up the desktop computer in the living room. Would much prefer a set top solution.

Also, no real home internet connection so no "cloud" type solutions.

 

I'm thinking around '99