OTA HD recording

Good Morning Imprimartin -

Golly, since there are a 'few' points to your 'post', please allow the easy one first.

No - unfortuntely, one may Not currently record HD Over-The-Air unless one does pay the monthly fees to TIVO, at the least.

No - all our days of endless taping with our VCRs of anything/everything are over & done with.

Richard's reference to the..Digital Millennium Copyright Act - 1998 .... explains how it began.

There are now multitudes of Copyright Rules encoded into the digital signals which are strictly enforced... essentially no hard copying onto one's own blank disc of HD.

Instead, one may use the TIVO Series 3 unit - which you'll not pay for - to record HD onto a hard drive, the same as in our computers. There is also a dual HD tuner to facilitate exactly what you do want - watch one, record another or record two, etc., as well as an excellent library feature. This box is $799, subject to various 'promotions.'

Before a "firestorm" besieges us all protesting about all the available workarounds with software, computers & other assorted gear, I'm just offering the more " reasonable, non-geek " answer, o.k.?
Naturally, with external tuners, hard drives, software and the like, essentially anything IS electronically possible.

You do need to know more about that donated antenna - too much work will be involved in order to have a properly installed, working system to be just "guessing." Hopefully, your friend still has some paperwork, carton, or recalls the name or type, etc..

Your tree will be a definite problem or challenge. If not sufficiently strong, those HD signals will not "lock" - we no longer have to fret about half pictures or snowy, ghosts, diagonals, etc., using digital ---
- it is all 100 % or just a blue / blank screen.

Operating more than 1 or possible 2 HDTVs from the signal provided by an outside antenna is possible, of course, but - it'll involve an antenna-mounted, good quality preamp of some sort. Whether or not it will support as many as you propose is up-for-debate.

Those "crimped terminations" are very dubious ( how about useless ). There are many video tutorials on our web sites about the procedure of using a much superior, very simple 'compression' tool & associated weather-tight connectors. These are also available in varying sized kits from the web or even your local LOWE's, etc..


That "Quad Coax" is very fine / appropriate. Simply cut off those previous terminations & reapply the compression.

Nine miles distance will be " a piece of cake " other than for your tree problems.

Since it is still actively being debated herein as to whether or not all future HD broadcasting will be strictly UHF, I prefer to suggest that one use a balanced antenna ( both spectrums ) instead. Although more "unsightly" atop one's roof than the other, these will be needed ... IF ... both happen to be used after Feb '09.

Do compare the existing antenna with the Channel Master # 3016 in the provided link. Or, if it is strictly UHF, it may resemble the DB-4.

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display ... OD=ANC3016

http://www.solidsignal.com/prod_display.asp?prod=AD-DB4


Since all towers emanate from the one location, you'll Not need any rotation of the antenna, which is a good thing.


No, there will be no 'interferences' offered from that home power wiring (romex).

For now, this should " get you going ."

Naturally, until you DO buy that above TIVIO, you need do nothing at all.

There is another Tivo model that runs $299 and the top one dropped to $599. They are pretty aggressive at the moment...

Morning Richard -

Many 'thanks' for reminding about that other TIVO ! In fact, there was a 'posting' regarding
yet another "TIVO" box in the works with a slightly different ' cable card' which would do away with any local cable company's HD Receiver, for those that wish.

It is still amazing at how some expect all the great features of HD - including unlimited HD Recording - to be absolutely "free."

Just how are all those involved supposed to get these huge investments back in a proper time frame if Not by charging ? And, at TIVO's $13 / month, why the complaint? A fully-featured local cable HD account will run about $80/mo, with a satellite's ... 101 all HD channels ... easily topping $100 !

Have a great weekend !
eli whitney

While admittedly not "really HD", if you connect a Panasonic combo DVD/VCR model EZ475V to your setup and output it's recordings on DVD to your TV via the HDMI output or (better yet) take the recorded DVD and put it in a Playstation 3 connected to your TV you will discover an astonishing level of picture quality that is nearly indistinguishable from the original broadcast. It will do cable (qam) or OTA (ATSC) channels and when the signal is recorded at the XP (1 hour on a DVD) speed it really is amazing quality.

Hope this is helpful.
John

..Hi All -


For all who might not yet have noticed, here's another possibility - complete w/ all three tuners - including HD - internally as well as an old VCR unit for the existing libraries - Sony's RDR-VXD655 @ $380 plus their 5 year warranty @ $80...

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/sto ... 1665186462

Of course, this unit STILL doesn't overcome those Copyright rules...Digital do not copy, etc..

IF a particular show is so protected, there'll be no recording at all. So, Richard's TIVO unit or the larger capacity original will provide a hard drive HD recording while one is away.

While it does not have dual tuners and cannot do some of the things you would like:

I have a Mitsubishi HD VCR and feed it via a standard single plane antenna that is laying in my attic. I get great HD reception and am about 25-30 miles from the transmission towers. Pretty flat terrain though and no large trees.

The problem with the internet is that once a false rumor gets started there is no way to get it stopped. There is no

I use a 91XB UHF antenna on my roof to receive free OTA HD programming from CBS,NBC,FOX,ABC etc I connect to a AVerTV Hybrid Ultra USB (Media Center Upgrade Kit) with ATSC tuner and use Vista Media Center to record my HD programs that I store on low cost 500GB HD's. I use a DVI-HDMI cable from my homebuilt Core 2 Duo PC to my Sharp Aquos LC-42D64U 42" HDTV in 1920x1080 display mode and the recorded HD programs look fantastic.

----I use radio shack rabbit ears with a dial-thingy on it.
----Reception is okay to pretty-good but I want it to be great.


I may be out in left field, but when I read your statement that reception is okay to pretty-good it suggests to me that you are not getting the digital stations at all but rather are just getting the old VHS stations. The digital stations that are in HD will either be excellent or not there at all. Well, I suppose that you could count intermittent breakup and pixellation as okay to pretty good - most of us wouldn't. But if you're lookin' at a picture that runs from old fashioned "snowy" to pretty good, you're not watching HD channels at all.....

Incidentally, I live in a woods and about 70 miles from the Twin Cities. My OTA does not get above the trees nor does it peek through a hole in the branches and I get digital stations with 100 signal strength (on my Dish box) all the time. So that tree may or may not be a problem. I'm guessing at 9 miles unless its a real monster, it may not be a problem. With a dish, it would be, of course....

Jerry

For a list of permanent channel numbers for all stations after 2009 see http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/a ... -138A2.pdf .


This is good news for folks in Atlanta who own CM 4228 antennas. Looks like the lowest permanent channel is 10 which can already be received by the UHF 4228.

... Your tree will be a definite problem or challenge. If not sufficiently strong, those HD signals will not "lock" - we no longer have to fret about half pictures or snowy, ghosts, diagonals, etc., using digital --- it is all 100 % or just a blue / blank screen.

Operating more than 1 or possible 2 HDTVs from the signal provided by an outside antenna is possible, of course, but - it'll involve an antenna-mounted, good quality preamp of some sort. Whether or not it will support as many as you propose is up-for-debate.

I think that even with that big tree, there should be plenty of signal for the TVs without a pre-amp. The signals are all coming from a high location and only 9 miles away, so he should have a good signal from his antenna.

Since it is still actively being debated herein as to whether or not all future HD broadcasting will be strictly UHF, I prefer to suggest that one use a balanced antenna ( both spectrums ) instead. Although more "unsightly" atop one's roof than the other, these will be needed ... IF ... both happen to be used after Feb '09.

The FCC published the final list of assignments for the TV spectrum post February, 2009, a few months ago, and there are lots of stations assigned to channels 7 through 13, so the debate about digital broadcasting being UHF only is long over. There are few stations on channels 2 through 6. There are only 37 in the entire country on the low VHF channels due to the electrical interference that tends to wipe out digital signals. Thunderstorms are terrible for signals in that band, too. Channels 7 through 13 work fine though, and you'll be seeing lots of stations in that segment of the band.

Larry
SF

Hi larrykenny -
Thanks for your info.

But, that does seem to reconfirm my suggestion that strictly an UHF antenna might not be the best.

Although some may work below their designed frequencies, certainly there's still the "need" or advantage of a balanced antenna perhaps, such as that C.M. 3016 or other similar.
eli whitney

Head on over to Digital Connection and pick up an HDTV tuner card for your PC.

http://www.digitalconnection.com/

If your PC is a bit old by todays standards look at a hardware assisted tuner such as the MyHd, if you've a newer PC one of the less expensive tuner cards may work for you.

Eli Whitney... You're correct... there is still a need for VHF antennas, but many are finding that their UHF antennas are working fine for the higher VHF channels. The CM 4228, for example, does a fine job receiving channels 7 on up, if you're within 25 miles or so of the transmitter.

With few low band VHF stations, there is no long much of a need for those huge antennas needed to cover those frequencies. Some company... can't remember which one off hand... is now making a High VHF-UHF combination antenna that will work for channels 7 to 51.

Larry
SF

I'm still experimenting with this. I live in Florida (flat, flat, flat) and am 10 miles from the transmitters which are mostly above 400 ft. in height. I get a good HDTV signal using a 4-element bowtie antenna that I made with copper foil tape on a piece of cardboard, sitting about 6' above the ground in my living room.

I also have a home build PVR using a Hauppauge DV1600 tuner which has both ATSC and QAM tuners in it. I read on the GBPVR forum (http://forum.gbpvr.com/) that others are doing HD recordings with this setup, but the ATSC tuner in the DV1600 seems to be a bit "fussier" about the signal than the tuner in my Samsung television, so it has trouble locking on to the signal.

I've ordered a DB2 antenna which I will put in the attic - then will try recording OTA programs.

FWIW, there is another thread on this forum discussing problems receiving Clear QAM channels from Comcast - I am having similar troubles and have decided to concentrate on OTA for now.

Walt