I want to record OTA.

[GGalewski]

What is the best way to record over-the-air programming in HD quality? I have a Samsung SIR-T451 tuner and a 20 inch LCD monitor that I use to view the locally available HD broadcasts.

I am looking for something that will let me record in HD. I do not want to have any subscription or other monthly cost.

What I am looking for, I think, is a device that will have it's own HD tuner that can take a coax lead in from my antenna, and then record programming to a hard drive. Then I will want to play the content back, either directly to my monitor or through the SIR-T451 tuner.

Any suggestions?

I have been time-shifting like this with my VCR for years, but I can't seem to find a DVR that does not require Cable TV, or D* or a phone connection to TIVO.

[Jimboy]

Just went to the Best Buy site and did a search for  "USB HDTV".
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8516091&productCategoryId=abcat0507002&type=product&tab=1&id=1186006197079#productdetail

I've never used these products, I'm sure someone else here has.

At home I use a product (software) from http://www.snapstream.com in conjunction with an ATI HDTV All In Wonder Card. Not the best card to use but the software is great. Snapstream also has cards HD tuner cards as well.

Make sure your PC is beefy enough to handle HD. I use a standard P4 2.4Ghz with 1G of Ram and it's just enough (barely).

[GGalewski]

My computer is no where near where my HD Monitor is located.  I was hoping to find a VCR-like box to have under the monitor.

If I followed the PC approach, how does that work?  Do I run a wire of some sort from the PC to my HD monitor?  Or can I only view the programming on my PC?

[Jimboy]

DVI - VGA - HDMI are some current means of outputting from a PC

This is the link to the avsforum HTPC (Home Theatre PC) information
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=30&f=26

[tazman]

My computer is no where near where my HD Monitor is located.  I was hoping to find a VCR-like box to have under the monitor.

If I followed the PC approach, how does that work?  Do I run a wire of some sort from the PC to my HD monitor?  Or can I only view the programming on my PC?

There is an option If you want to use your PC to do the recording, provided you have a tuner card or USB tuner device attached to the PC and that you have an antenna lead going to the computer also.  D-Link has been selling a box for a couple of years now and it is even available at Best Buy. That is this product  http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=438  it has both wired and wireless ethernet.  So with a wireless card in your computer or your computer connected to a wireless router or AP.  You could do what you want with out any wires between the PC and the media player.  Another option that I have not done too much research on is an HD FTA satellite receiver that also has an ATSC and Cable tuner built in along with a USB host port for connecting an external Hard Drive to it for recording.  It is the Pansat 9200HD receiver.  I am considering getting one of these to replace my aging Integra It912 receiver.  If your not into FTA satellite then it may be over kill for you.  A final option would be something like what I bought a little while ago and that is the Samsung DVD AR-650.  Although it is not true HD, you would be hard pressed to be able to tell the difference on anything smaller than a 50 inch screen.  I have recorded football games in HD to standard rewritable DVD's and have played them back on my 60 inch Sony and they look really good.  This unit basically down converts the signal to what can be recorded on standard DVD's.  Then when you play it back, it up-converts the video again.  Like I said it's not true HD, but its not bad at all.  If your a purest then you probably would not be happy with it.  But for a $180.00 it was worth it for me.

[waterhead]

What you do depends on how much you want to spend.

I just built a dedicated PC that works as a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) and is a full blown Media Center computer. It uses the small form factor mATX, so doesn't take up too much room. It even has a built in S-Video TV-out jack.

Here's the components and the prices:

Barebones system - ASUS P1-AH2 $159.99
CPU - AMD|A64 X2 4600+ 65W AM2 2.4G - $89.99
DVD BURN LG|GSA-H62NK - OEM $28.99
Memory - CORSAIR TWIN2X2048-6400 R - $81.00
Remote XP MEDIA CENTER - OEM $27.08 (open box item)
HDTV card - AVerTVHD MCE A180 $75.00
Hard Drive - Seagate 500GB SATA $120.00

Total $582.05 (not including keyboard, mouse, speakers or monitor)

I am not using Windows. I am using a newly released Mythbuntu operating system. It is a specialized version of the Linux Ubuntu operating system, with the MythTV PVR application as part of the regular installation.

It works great! If you want to have a full blown TV guide in it, you have to subscribe to the Schedules Direct service, for $20/year. It makes scheduling recordings a breeze, but you can still manually schedule recordings without the guide data ( I don't have the guide).

[kevbeck122]

There are D-VHS recorders out there if you don't want a computer or subscription DVR.  I know JVC makes them or at least used to make them.  DVD recorders have ATSC tuners in them that you can record from, but they will be downscaled to 480i.  Otherwise you could wait for blu-ray/HD-DVD recorders.

Otherwise I'd recommend going the computer route.  It'll probably give you the most features without a monthly fee.  If you go the Windows route, XP Media Center Edition 2005 requires an analog tuner if you want a digital tuner... Vista doesn't.

[StarvingForHDTV]

If you get an HD card for your computer, I would suggest one that does the processing itself instead of having your computers CPU do all of the work.  Unless your computer is super powerful, or you don't want to do anything else with it.  I don't know which brands of cards do this, but I'm sure other people here know.

Good luck.

[waterhead]

If you're not into building your own PC, I just looked at the Dell web site and found a similar PC to mine. It's a Dell Inspiron 531s.  You can configure your own:http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/services/inspndt/531s_DDCWGA1?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
The bigger CPU adds $150 to the basic $349 system.

For $499 w/free shipping you get this:

PROCESSOR - AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4400+
OPERATING SYSTEM - Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
MEMORY - 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
HARD DRIVE - 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
OPTICAL DRIVE - 16x DVD+/-RW Drive
VIDEO CARD - Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 graphics GPU
SOUND - Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
KEYBOARD & MOUSE - Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse

This does not include a HDTV tuner card. I'm not sure if a full size card will even fit. You would also need recording software, at additional expense.

Since it comes with the Microsoft Vista spyware preinstalled :Smash: , you could erase it and install Mythbuntu (my recommendation) or have a dual boot Vista/Linux system.

[waterhead]

Dell is now offering this same basic system for $399.
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&kc=&oc=DDPCGZ1

Upgrading the base CPU from a 4000+ to a 4400+ adds $40. So, for $439 you get the same system as my previous post, except for more memory

2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs

I still believe that this would make a good MythTV system.

EDIT: According to the Dell on-line manual, this unit only has a VGA video output. As this is not acceptable for HDTV, a video card would be needed. It has one PCI Express x16 card slot and one PCI Express x1 card slot.