Need Good OTA in New TV

[Electronic M]

Your Tivo box records for free without a subscription? Every used Tivo box I've ever got required a subscription be bought to work (sometimes after working okay for a month or two)....I usually just buy them used for a cheap hard drive, and other parts to use in other stuff.

[loopstick]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Your Tivo box records for free without a subscription? Every used Tivo box I've ever got required a subscription be bought to work (sometimes after working okay for a month or two)....I usually just buy them used for a cheap hard drive, and other parts to use in other stuff.

It's a Series I (Philips). I found it at an SA. Didn't know what it was. Went home and googled it. Went back the next day. Still there. No price. Guy put $3 on it. Original owner had lifetime subscription. Had to make it "think" I lived near some Canadian channel 3 (which may have gone digital by now). Haven't let it "call home" in a couple years. Clock off by seven minutes. Afraid if it calls TiVo Central they'll zap it to make me buy newer version.





You're screwed without remote but luckily my mother-in-law gave me a Series II which was great for a couple of weeks then it wanted money to keep going. I put it in the basement then e-wasted it a few years later. Fortunately the remote was somewhere else at the time and I kept it. It works fine on the older Series I.

They didn't call it the Series I when it came out. Because of lifetime subscriptions these things would bring in $$$ on auction site but when switchover to DTV happened the bottom fell out of the market. FM tuner in pic is used to pick up FM station "beacons" when I move the rotor.

[Electronic M]

Interesting. I Can't remember what I had, but all three were the same on the inside. One had a few months on the subscription so I let it run. It needed to call home to work (could not make it record without an updated schedule), and eventually the free ride ended.... I have a non-tivo Panasonic DVR/DVD recorder to use, so that tivo did not last long after losing service.

I wonder how hard it would be to decrypt the phone signals to those boxes, figure out what the signals sent to them are, and create a dummy phone server to set the time, update the guide, and tell them their subscription is still up to date.....

[loopstick]

I talked to a guy at work who's some kind of monitor / display guru (a pro, that's his job). I didn't understand half of what he said but he was a big fan of LG. So I went to Best Buy and got the LG 42LB6300. Really like it so far. Syracuse PBS is the holy grail. I actually donated $$$ until I lost them when the weather warmed up (seasonal reception).

I love the manual channel add menu. You can spin through the whole spectrum (RF 2 - 69) with the thumbwheel on the remote. So it's kinda like semi-auto. Well:



The "meters" seem really sensitive / responsive to small gooses on the rotor, so you get a sense of really peaking it. This station doesn't show up on the TV fool compass map but appears near the bottom of the chart:



Unfortunately there's 80 miles of mixed forested terrain between me and the station and that's why I think it might be leaves that make reception more difficult in the summer. OTOH in the summer Lake Ontario brings in stations from Canada because of thermal inversion over the lake's surface?



________________

[ChrisW6ATV]

It is nice to see that you got a good set.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Username1

Anyone have experience with any of these boxes.... Like the siliconDust cheaper models...?

I have two of the original HDHomeRun tuners made by Silicon Dust, and they do work quite well. All of the tuners of that brand, if it is not clear in the description, are made to be accessories to one or more computers in a network setup. You run software (such as the excellent Windows Media Center that is free in Windows 7) that turns the computer plus this tuner into a totally-free DVR setup. (Free, that is, after you buy the computer and tuner, of course.)

This is the only way I have been watching and recording high-definition TV for almost ten years now. Once you have one of these tuners, ANY computer using your Wi-Fi or plug-in network at home can display TV shows live, or record them.

[Username1]

Thanks Chris- that's what It sounds like in the description.... My main interest though,
would be in the tuner end.... Any idea if it is better than the Zenith/Insignia coupon
converters from a few years ago.....?

By the way... How much space does a 60 minute tv show recorded in HD use... GB's ?
And do you save them on to DVD...? Can you save it to DVD ?? Of do you keep it
on the computer Hare drive....? Then I guess you can WIFI it to whatever....

This one for example.... Insignia NS-DXA1-APT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Sealed-I...item4d2d3e3871

.

[ChrisW6ATV]

I have not tried to directly compare the HDHomeRun to (in my case) a Zenith DTT-900/901 (same as that Insignia).

An HDTV over-the-air show can be up to 8 GB per hour, depending how it is recorded. That is the full size of one hour of a digital TV channel's signal. As you likely know, most digital TV stations have two or more channels in their signals, so some recorders use less than the whole 8 GB per hour in their recordings, which are 100% exact ("bit for bit") duplicates of what was broadcast.

I just leave all of my recordings on hard drives; I do not keep that many shows long-term, at least not on purpose. HD shows would need to be converted to standard-definition to be put onto DVDs, and I know it can be done but I have not tried. Programs such as Nero may be able to do it semi-easily. Actually easier (no conversion) would be to put shows onto home-recorded Blu-ray discs.

[Username1]

Thank you !

.

[loopstick]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

Interesting. I Can't remember what I had, but all three were the same on the inside. One had a few months on the subscription so I let it run. It needed to call home to work (could not make it record without an updated schedule), and eventually the free ride ended.... I have a non-tivo Panasonic DVR/DVD recorder to use, so that tivo did not last long after losing service.

I wonder how hard it would be to decrypt the phone signals to those boxes, figure out what the signals sent to them are, and create a dummy phone server to set the time, update the guide, and tell them their subscription is still up to date.....

My Series One is totally legal, totally unhacked, the original owner paid for the lifetime subscription, TiVo got their $$$. So in theory I should be covered. But we all know sh*t happens. I doubt TiVo has established a Board of Trustees and set up a perpetual trust fund to ensure that thrift store Series Ones will always work. That's why I'm paranoid about calling in. Nothing good can come of it. I don't mind the clock being off, you just schedule the recordings according to TiVo Standard Time.

[rpm1200]

I'm in the same boat as you. I got a Series 1 Philips with Lifetime at a garage sale for $20 prior to the DTV conversion. Around 2008 TiVo offered to transfer the lifetime sub to a refurbished TiVo HD for $99 so I did that. The HD is still going strong on my main TV (although I did clone and replace the hard drive a few years ago). I disconnected the Series 1 from the phone line and only use it for playing back shows already on its hard drive (and I only do that on extremely rare occasions).

The reception on the HD is pretty decent; it has two tuners and a good signal strength indicator. TiVo is good at keeping on top of what OTA channels are available and sending out channel list updates appropriately. It's locking up and requiring a restart from time to time (maybe once a month) so sooner or later I'm sure it will totally quit and I'll have to try to upgrade again.

[loopstick]

Originally Posted by rpm1200

I'm in the same boat as you. I got a Series 1 Philips with Lifetime at a garage sale for $20 prior to the DTV conversion. Around 2008 TiVo offered to transfer the lifetime sub to a refurbished TiVo HD for $99 so I did that. The HD is still going strong on my main TV (although I did clone and replace the hard drive a few years ago). I disconnected the Series 1 from the phone line and only use it for playing back shows already on its hard drive (and I only do that on extremely rare occasions).

The reception on the HD is pretty decent; it has two tuners and a good signal strength indicator. TiVo is good at keeping on top of what OTA channels are available and sending out channel list updates appropriately. It's locking up and requiring a restart from time to time (maybe once a month) so sooner or later I'm sure it will totally quit and I'll have to try to upgrade again.

That's cool, a one-time fee for technology upgrade. So I guess you just got the lifetime suscription info out of the "System" menu and called or applied online. They didn't care if you were the original owner I'm guessing. I love my TiVo for time-shifting, commercial-skipping, and instant replay because sometimes I'm a big mouth and talk over top of something.

Right now I time-shifted six hours of "MuchMusic Eighties Weekend" I recorded onto VHS back in 1998 from my BUD (big ugly dish) antenna. I fed it into TiVo as channel 3 and set up a manual record. The video quality is surprisingly good for a 17 year old EP recording. My daughter had no idea how cool the Eighties really were.

On my big screen I can see tiny artifacting which I guess is TiVo processing and probably cleaning up defects as they come across from the VCR deck. I know I can time-shift and commerial-skip directly with the VCR but TiVo is so much more nimble and snappy.

[NowhereMan 1966]

I don't have much of a chance at TV DXing since I live in the Ohio River valley at the bottom but I do pick up the locals. I do have a Vizio flatscreen my aunt gave my Mom when she was sick but I have it in my bedroom as my TV in there with an amplified antenna. I also acquired a 2002 Zenith TV console, 25 inch and that's in my living room with a DT-900 tuner and Phillips rabbit ears. I also have my 1982 Zenith with a DT-900 in my dining room with my desktop PC and a set of old Rembrandt rabbit ears (I'm using it now). That is the best DXer here, I can pick up the satellite DTV station that WTRF from Wheeling has. I have a spare DT-900 box and a DT-901 but my friend bummed the 901 off of me for now.

The Zenith Boxes I like better since you can add channels manually, the Vizio is a pain in the butt when it comes to that but I can't complain about the latter, it is a good TV.

[centralradio]

Tuner gain and sensitivity is probably my issue here.They dont make them like they used too.They probably said "Why Bother"Most sets will be on cable.I used to receive about 7 to 12 locals when analog was up and running.Now I receive zero.

That scanning BS is for the birds.

Today's Radio tuners suck too.thats another topic.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by centralradio

I used to receive about 7 to 12 locals when analog was up and running.Now I receive zero.

You won't get anything in analog anymore, even with a deep-fringe area antenna, because there is no more analog TV in this country. The FCC ordered all analog TV stations to switch to digital just under six years ago, and low power translator stations will be required to switch before the end of the year.

Unless you live in an area cut off from local TV signals by mountains, etc. you should be able to receive a few DTV stations with an antenna. I live in a low-elevation area (610 feet ASL, above sea level) some 35 miles from the Cleveland TV transmitters and get excellent reception on all but two stations, using amplified rabbit ears (the two stations I don't get still operate on VHF DTV channels). The only way you can get TV reception on your old analog sets is to get cable and connect it directly to the TV. This will work until your local cable provider tells you you need a cable box to receive anything, as Comcast has done already and Time Warner will be doing in the near future (in fact, every cable operator in the U.S. except TW is fully digital), or else use a converter box and an antenna.