Now that you bought that shiny new High Definition TV and subscribed to (or receive an over the air) HD service, it's time to learn how to pick a High Definition Digital Recorders (DVRs) to record your favorite shows.Hi-Def DVRs are becoming popular due to their capacity to store and playback many hours of high-definition material. HD DVRs have the ability to pause and rewind live programming, record one program while watching another and to fast forward through pre-recorded material. Some DVRs are able to record over-the-air material, while others are specifically for use with cable or satellite services.
We've put together a starter list (and links) to the following units currently available for recording High Definition programming. There are others and we'll add them as we find them - also, feel free to email us with those you've found.
Cable DVRs:
Scientific Atlanta 8300HD (Comcast)
Motorola DCT6412 (Comcast)
Digeo Moxi (Charter)
TiVo Series3 (CableCard and over-the-air)
Satellite DVRs:
DISH ViP 622 & 722 DVR
DIRECTV Plus HD DVR
HDTV Tuner Cards
High quality HDTV tuner cards are capable of saving HDTV broadcasts to your computer's hard drive. HD broadcasts require lots of storage space, but this is becoming less of an issue now that high capacity hard drives are available.
HDTV Tuner cards: (Windows)
MyHD MDP-130
Telemann HiPix DTV-200
Access DTV
Hauppage WinTV-HD
pcHDTV HD-5500 (Linux)
Fusion HDTV5 Gold QAM
ATI HDTV Wonder
External USB 2.0 HDTV Tuner:
AutumnWave has released the OnAir GT, an external device that can be plugged into the USB 2.0 port. It otherwise functions similarly to an internal tuner card.
1 comment:
I enjoy reading your blog from time to time. I noticed your post on HD DVRs and wanted to relay some information about the DirecTV HR20 HD DVR and WKYC. As it turns out, the HR20 is unable to receive WKYC's ATSC Over-The-Air (OTA) broadcast. The HR20 is capable of receiving DirecTV's MPEG-4 AVC satellite re-transmission of WKYC's feed, but when using an aerial antenna and trying to receive the local MPEG-2 ATSC feed, the HR20 receives zero signal.
I know my OTA feed is good because I receive WKYC from it with an 85% signal on my HDTV's built-in tuner, an El Gato EyeTV 500, and on another DirecTV HDTV Receiver (not an HD DVR, just HD receiver). I found that others are experiencing the same problem on the dbstalk.com forums, specifically with this specific receiver and WKYC ATSC in the Cleveland DMA. Their website is has been down almost all day, otherwise I would send you the direct link to that page. It is under the DirecTV --> HR20 Forum --> OTA Issues forum post (just search for WKYC).
I have a solid theory on what the problem is. The HR20, unlike other ATSC tuners, does not actually scan the spectrum for available channels but instead relies upon DirecTV's provided guide for the channels and corresponding frequencies of all the ATSC channels in the DMA. I am pretty sure that DirecTV has WKYC ATSC OTA prematurely listed at UHF channel 17 right now, instead of VHF channel 2, which is resulting in the zero signal. This seems to be a common problem for HR20 users, but unfortunately only the individual stations contacting DirecTV are able to resolve the problem.
I just wanted to make you aware of the issue.
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