looking for something for my wife's mother, who really wants something she can use like a VCR (but obviously not a VCR)...she's not especially technical, but she's capable of navigating on-screen menus, so it doesn't have to the dumbest thing on the planet

she doesn't have (or want) cable/satellite and she'd get virtually no use out of a subscription service even if they weren't overpriced rip-offs in the first place

this might be a dumb question, but i was under the impression that things like tivos always required subscriptions

also, less than $200 would be nice

4/2/2011 3:49:50 PM

BeyondTV + tv tuner card was the answer to this a few years ago, but I don't even know if they're still updating it.

4/2/2011 4:08:36 PM

^ that requires a computer, and i think a more consumer-oriented solution would be better

4/2/2011 4:43:52 PM

For some reason, PVRs became really hard to buy a few years ago.

Toshiba used to make a pretty awesome one that was reasonably priced.

4/2/2011 5:01:53 PM

If you tech savy, go hunting for a p4 machine with a gig of ram and install some free dvr software. I used MythTV for years before getting a too good to pass up deal on a Tivo. If you have an older system, a new tv tuner card and a graphics card shouldn't cost any more than 150. Use the last 50 bucks for a big HDD and your done.

4/3/2011 12:13:08 AM

^ i think i made it pretty clear that this is for my wife's mother, who would be better off with a standalone, consumer-oriented, single-purpose box

i've got my own HTPC

4/3/2011 10:05:09 AM

im not 100% certain this would work but you could get a blacklisted directv dvr with an am21 or whatever the OTA module is. a tivo with on a lifetime subscription paid on it works as well

4/3/2011 11:08:58 AM

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/04/02/review/

4/3/2011 11:20:38 AM

Well you wanted something under $200, and if you do any searching you will quickly see that the market for consumer level hardware is well above that. This is higher in price, but looks to meet your needs.

http://reviews.cnet.com/digital-video-recorders-dvrs/channel-master-cm-7000pal/4505-6474_7-34142156.html?tag=mncol;lst

4/3/2011 1:40:40 PM

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=975806

go there and read. Good luck getting one under 200 bucks. But they are out there for around 200-250.

Yes TiVo requires a subscription, but honestly its probably worth it for your wife's mother.

4/3/2011 4:12:11 PM

The fact that Tivo offers phone support is probably worth the yearly cost. She can call them instead of you every time greys anatomy doesn't record right.

4/3/2011 9:21:39 PM

We are probably going to cancel cable, but I still want a DVR for OTA shows. What is the best option available now? I don't mind a subscription fee if they are small, although I would prefer no fee.

I'm not interested in capture cards or setting up computers, I want something that I just have to plug in and use.

4/24/2014 10:02:45 AM

Tivo is pretty much it.

4/24/2014 10:26:20 PM

^ nope

http://www.walmart.com/ip/20710258?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227015551597&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=41954013430&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=40018258270&veh=sem

Seems like a good set of results searching for "DVR with ATSC tuner" or "PVR with ATSC tuner"

Some neat looking products here: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=pvr+hdd+atsc&rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Apvr+hdd+atsc

[Edited on April 24, 2014 at 11:12 PM. Reason : ]

4/24/2014 11:09:30 PM

Yeah I found a bunch, but I have no idea which ones are decent. Most of the reviews I can find deal with cable/satellite pairings and not OTA.

4/25/2014 8:56:12 AM

most of them have god awful interfaces. buying a lifetime subscription tivo unit is doable <$300. I believe you can use a unit without a sub to connect to one with a sub and stream the content off of it for the whole home dvr approach. you can still do pause/replay type stuff too

4/25/2014 11:14:47 AM

^Exactly, they are fucking garbage. Like I said, Tivo is about it.

4/25/2014 11:33:11 AM

So I'm looking at the TiVo Roamio and 2 TiVo minis; the Roamio has 4 ATSC tuners for OTA.

I'm sure this is a dumb question, but do all 4 tuners use the same antenna?

4/25/2014 1:05:25 PM

ordered

fuck you TWC

4/26/2014 4:31:40 PM

^let me know how it works out. We are also thinking about cutting the cord... well at least for TV... we still need interwebs.

4/26/2014 8:43:46 PM

I just got Plex installed and am figuring out sickbeard, hopefully with those and OTA dvr we won't even miss anything.

I was checking the progress on our vacation/travel savings account and realized that if I had canceled TWC a little while ago when I thought about it, we would already be at our savings goal.

4/26/2014 9:07:20 PM

I use sickbeard, sabnzbd, as well as my own newznab+ install.

5/1/2014 8:21:34 AM

http://tretflix.com/

5/1/2014 8:28:33 AM

^only works w/ oracle and vmware?? Lame.

5/5/2014 1:53:54 PM

Any update here or still the roamio?

6/24/2015 7:23:01 PM