Any cheap off air HD receiver boxes with PVR functions yet?

I live abt 20 miles form two HD transmitters

I'm cheap

having aid that id give HD a try if I could buy a low
cost HD tuner box with PVR functions

Any advice on something low cost that does the job
well? Or is everything still above $500?

wrote in message
...
Any advice on something low cost that does the job
well? Or is everything still above $500?

The Sony PVR DHG-HDD250 (I think that's correct) was recently discontinued
and has been available for sale prices recently. You might find one on eBay.
It has three types of tuners (NTSC, ATSC, and QAM), and works great.
--
Gerry

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 09:27:33 -0500, me wrote:

I live abt 20 miles form two HD transmitters

I'm about 45 miles.

I'm cheap

Me too, and proud of it.:-)

having aid that id give HD a try if I could buy a low
cost HD tuner box with PVR functions

Any advice on something low cost that does the job
well? Or is everything still above $500?

Build your own for a lot less.

Go to ebay and buy a couple of old Air2PC Rev.02 cards for $25 each. These
are OTA only. They don't do QAM.

Put together a cheap PC equal to a 754 Sempron 2800+ or faster. Use a
board with 4 or more PCI slots. Fry's has these on sale almost every other
week lately for $79 (Nforce-3A MB and Sempron 3100+). Add 512M ram, An
Nvidia FX5200 or faster video card. 120GB minimum HDD. Figure 7GB per hour
of storage you want and buy accordingly. Rec. 300GB or more. Now put it
all together, download KnoppMyth and install it. See sig line.

I run mythbackend server and 3 clients off this, with one being on this
machine, and one on each of my other TV's/Monitor's. A client only machine
cost about $200. I can record up to 4 HDTV shows at once.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

"Gerry Wheeler" wrote:

The Sony PVR DHG-HDD250 (I think that's correct) was recently discontinued
and has been available for sale prices recently. You might find one on eBay.
It has three types of tuners (NTSC, ATSC, and QAM), and works great.

Ok

Dumb question but does there exist anything that is
portable and fits bill above?

Something for use in RV or camping?

Wes Newell wrote:

Build your own for a lot less.

Hi Wes

yes I keep "thinking" abt that

Tell me again what off air antenna you use ok?

Do they make a good off air HD antenna that is very
discrete looking? Something that could be mounted under
eaves of a house and just look like a box or something?

Or....any way to use such a HD box above in an RV or
van??

I'm kicking around doing the RV thing soon

wrote:
Wes Newell wrote:

Build your own for a lot less.

Hi Wes

yes I keep "thinking" abt that

Tell me again what off air antenna you use ok?

Do they make a good off air HD antenna that is very
discrete looking? Something that could be mounted under
eaves of a house and just look like a box or something?

Or....any way to use such a HD box above in an RV or
van??

I'm kicking around doing the RV thing soon

Here it is again. Works fine at 35 miles in 90274.

http://www.winegard.com/offair/squareshooter.htm

GG

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 12:54:36 -0500, me wrote:

Wes Newell wrote:

Build your own for a lot less.

Hi Wes

yes I keep "thinking" abt that

Tell me again what off air antenna you use ok?

I use the CM4228 UHF antenna mounted on top of house on a tripod. There's
also one lousy station that's vhf and I've got my old lousy regular
antenna up there for it. Might work without it, but I'm not climbing up
there to see.:-)


Do they make a good off air HD antenna that is very discrete looking?

They make all kinds. Or you could put one like the CM4228 inside wood
box with a tinted cvoer over the front if you don't want it seen. Maybe
thin tinted plexiglass or something. At only 25 miles the smaller 4 bay
model 4221 should work great.

Something that could be mounted under eaves of a house and just look
like a box or something?

Or....any way to use such a HD box above in an RV or van??

Sure. They even make special RV attennas but I wouldn't waste my money on
them.

I'm kicking around doing the RV thing soon

Hmmmm... Coax fitting on outside of rv. When you camp, put tripod mounted
antenna on triop of rv and connect and point. Or maybe a retractable mast
mounted on the back and leave the antenna on it all the time. I had a
converted van I put a luggage rack antenna on. It worked, but not real
good.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm

Wes Newell wrote:

I use the CM4228 UHF antenna mounted on top of house on a tripod

Actually that unit above might be easier to use in an
apartment than the other antenna

Could you mount the above antenna inside the apartment
on internal wall? Or maybe outside on patio?

wrote:
Wes Newell wrote:


I use the CM4228 UHF antenna mounted on top of house on a tripod


Actually that unit above might be easier to use in an
apartment than the other antenna

Could you mount the above antenna inside the apartment
on internal wall? Or maybe outside on patio?

The CM4228 is a pretty directional antenna. You will need to aim it
plus or minus a few degrees of the broadcast towers. That might be very
awkward for an inside mount unless it is in an attic space.

Looking back at your earlier posts, if you are 20 miles from the
broadcast towers and all the digital channels are UHF, a Channel Master
4221 (or 3021) 4 Bay Bowtie will work. I have one in my attic and it
picks up the Washington DC stations at 16 miles and the Baltimore
stations (with occasional dropouts for the weakest channel) at some 42
miles. It is still large, but 1/2 the size of the CM4228. Or perhaps
something smaller with a still wider beamwidth might fill the bill.

If you are looking for information on TV antennas,
http://www.hdtvprimer.com/ISSUES/erecting_antenna.html is a useful
website. Click on the Comparing some commercially available antennas
link which will net gain charts for the various antennas with further
links to photos & beam pickup diagrams for specific models.

Alan F

On Tue, 13 Jun 2006 18:05:44 -0500, me wrote:

Wes Newell wrote:

I use the CM4228 UHF antenna mounted on top of house on a tripod

Actually that unit above might be easier to use in an
apartment than the other antenna

Could you mount the above antenna inside the apartment
on internal wall? Or maybe outside on patio?

Duriing the transition of it from the attic to the top of the house I had
it sitting on top a patio table and it worked ok even with the roof
blocking line of sight. I don't know how well it would work inside the
apartment. Too many unknown variables to say. But for best performance,
outside with line of site would be much preferred.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
My server http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/cpu.php
HD Tivo S3 compared http://wesnewell.no-ip.com/mythtivo.htm