Chiff and Fipple Forums

My wife is upset because two of her favorite programs are on TV at the same time. She can watch the missed program on the computer, but it hasn't been working that well on our high speed DSL connection. We live right in the middle of a large city, so we can receive several quality high definition TV signals OTA (over the air) via an indoor antenna. However, it seems that all of the DVR's that I am familiar with require a subscription service. Best Buy didn't have one DVR in the store that would work for OTA reception without a subscription service and monthly fee.

Do I have other options for recording one TV program while at the same time watching another one? The recording would not have to be high definition. The solution, if there is one, needs to be not too complicated nor too expensive.

I don't think there's anything available yet. I hope someone does design a DVR or even a VCR that will work with the new channels. Right now we subscribe to DISH so we can use the DVR they provide, but there's no way to take a tape or CD to another location to watch it - we have to stay in the house by the TV, can't take a CD out and play it in our DVD player outside or take it along on vacation.

HULU is your friend. Many first run TV shows are on the website for several weeks or months after broadcast. CBS doesn't put any of their shows on though.

So if one of the shows is covered by Hulu.com, you are all set. The downside is that the show is watched via the Internet on the computer and high speed Internet is required.

Another solution is to buy a USB TV for your computer. If you get over the air programming another antenna or a splitter will be a necessary purchase. Total cost about $100, with no subscription fees.

The model I have is WinTV and I can watch, or record. Great little device. Adds another TV/recorder for little money. I believe the files are MPEG3 format and can be copied onto other computers or whatever. With a file converter utility, they can be compressed to tiny screen size to put on video IPODs or similar tiny video devices without taking up all the storage space.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions. Although there is a OTA DVR about to be released (EchoStar TR-50, no pricing yet, $300 hearsay), I think that our best bet right now is to upgrade the laptop and wireless network connection that my wife is currently using. It is running Windows Vista Home Basic, and it is really slow on our home network using a type G wireless router. We can receive Netflick movies and TV rebroadcasts, but there are so many interruptions that it gets aggravating. I think that a laptop with Windows 7 and a faster N router might do the trick.

Hi Doug

It is unlikely that a N router would make much difference - except maybe to range, as G will likely have a transfer rate significantly higher than your internet connection.


David

There are several TV capture USB devices
which come with DVR software. You hook
an antenna up to the device and plug it into
a USB port on the laptop, and then you can
set it up to record shows in the software.
Once a show is recorded, it's just a video
file you can watch on the Laptop, send to
another computer, burn to a DVD, whatever.
I've used a Hauppauge WinTV USB before.

http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hvr850.html

You may still need to upgrade the laptop,
though, if it's too slow to render online video
it might not have the resources to encode
either. Try hooking it up to your router using
an Ethernet cable instead of wireless to see if
that improves things.

Yes, the USB devices are processor and memory intensive. The current laptop might not have enough horsepower to render the video smoothly, depending on signal strength.

My experience with the USB device has been great. Now that I know there aren't any recorders for antenna folks, it seems even a better value for the money.

BillChin wrote:HULU is your friend. Many first run TV shows are on the website for several weeks or months after broadcast. CBS doesn't put any of their shows on though.

My wife is pleased that she can get "Glee" on HULU. Thanks for the suggestion, Bill.

Oh, I forgot one more option. Any old VCR will still work, if a person adds a Digital to Analogy converter box, and hooks the box to the HD antenna. My brother uses this setup to record to VCR tape and it works fine, though at lower than HD resolution.

The converter boxes can still be purchased, though the government coupon program ended some months back. If a person asks around they might be able to find someone who has an extra box that they aren't using.

BillChin wrote:Oh, I forgot one more option. Any old VCR will still work, if a person adds a Digital to Analogy converter box, and hooks the box to the HD antenna. My brother uses this setup to record to VCR tape and it works fine, though at lower than HD resolution.

The converter boxes can still be purchased, though the government coupon program ended some months back. If a person asks around they might be able to find someone who has an extra box that they aren't using.

We tried that, but when the stations switched to numbers such as 2-1, 4-1, 6-1, our old VCR didn't understand those numbers - it wanted 2, 4, or 6, and we couldn't set anything up to record on timer. I don't remember if we tried taping something while the show was on.

Digital TV Receiver Box.

Plug the antenna into the Digital TV Receiver Box -> VCR/DVD-R. That is what I did. I still have my old VCR. It is in the kids room, but it is there. I set the DTV Receiver Box to the channel I want to record, then set the VCR to begin recording "Channel 3" (the input channel signal for the DTV box) at what ever time. Voila. SD recording, old style.