pelenor

I was looking to get rid of my cable (has gotten too expensive) and with the new tv season coming up, I realized everything I watch is on regular tv. What I'm looking for is a way to recieve ota HD and record shows and play them back. I've seen a couple of dvr/dvd recorders that I think might do the trick but any suggestions would be great. I have read that any old antenna would be able to receive HD broadcasts. Is this true? If so, would the recorder I purchase include a digital receiver?

68ShelbyGT500KR

I believe most antennas are trail and error. Use antennaweb to point your antenna in the right direction.

Test your current regular antenna. Disconnect your cable, use antennaweb for directional use, plug the old ant in , scan channels and see if any HD channels appear. If not, buy an HD Antenna and hope it works. Too many variables to give a specific ant suggestion.

Also, I assume you have a HDTV. My Panny Plasma has a QAM tuner built in and even though I don't have TV cable but have(had) internet cable I receive some cable channels, though not in HD. The DVD Recorder that I use is a cheap WallyMart model that is disc based and is component only, NO HDTV.

There have been threads on DVD Recorder recommendations recently.

BTW, if you need cables of any sort, buy from monoprice.com. Much cheaper and nice quality in ~3 days. DON'T BUY CABLES FROM B & M's.

Joe Schmoe

I've been using the Sony DHG-HDD250 Hi Def DVR for several years now to receive free HD programming on my main TV, a Mitsubishi. (At the time I bought it, the DVR was around $600. I'm sure it's much cheaper now.) It records 30 hours of HD or 200 hrs of SD. It has a free onscreen program guide by TV Guide, HDMI out, component out, and optical out. I have it hooked up to a small indoor UHF/VHF digital antenna from Radio Shack, catalog #15-1890. The antenna has 2 short horizontal bars as well as rabbit ears. I have to keep the rabbit ears extended to receive a good HD signal. I can receive ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS and The CW this way, but I would have to tweak the antenna if I wanted to watch Fox or The CW. (I never want to watch those channels, so it's not a problem for me.)

I have a second no-name brand HDTV with a built-in digital tuner from Wal-Mart in the bedroom. I have really old rabbit ears from another TV hooked up to it, and it receives all the same HD channels as my other TV.

I've been thinking of cancelling cable because of the price, but unfortunately I like a few shows on cable channels. I know I could watch them for less via a dish, but I'm not sure how a dish receiver would work in conjunction with my DVRs. Renting DVRs from a dish company would seem redundant and defeat the purpose of buying them.

DVD Polizei

I'm cancelling cable this week as well. Going back to basic. Not enough HD programming to justify a $60 increase on my damn cable bill. It was nice when I first got my plasma, but now, I'm just going to use that money for HD DVDs.

Sdallnct

There is no such thing as a HD antenna. That is gimmick and hype. Yes there are good antenna's and bad. But the best ones are the big one's mounted as high as possible. That saying is, bigger is better then smaller, higher is better then lower. If you have an old antenna still mounted from 20-30 years ago, try it. It will often give the best results.

Now, there have been a lot of compact antenna's come out to appeal to those who don't want the big things mounted on the roof. Heck, if you are in the right area, "rabbit ears" sitting on your tv will pick up HD signals.

For my media room I have a wing looking model that I got free when I bought an old voom HD receiver off ebay. I bought a 50' coax cable and messed with possitioning in and out of the house. I ended up mounting it upside down, in the attic on ridge beam (hightest point in the attic). It works great! Get all locals in HD. I'm roughly 25-30 miles from the antenna's. Luckily, in Dallas, all broadcast antenna's are on the hightest hill around, so this directional antenna works well.

For my bar, I had it wired for dish network, but never got a box. So I bought a $35 compact "square" powered antenna and hung it from my dishnetwork dish. It works well, but not great. I'm going to work on location with that one for on ocassion, I can't get one of the local's in HD. (the reason I didn't tie into the attic antenna as the way my house it, I can't get to the attic from the bar).

Use antennaweb as a guide, but if you are in a metro area, I'd just buy something from someplace with a decent return policy (Lowes, Homedepot, BB, CC, Radio Shack) and try some.

I'm so happy with my OTA HD, I have refused to upgrade my SD Dish to HD. Not worth the cost to get ESPN, on HD. We don't watch HBO, etc now, so don't need that in HD.

Chew

How about getting the TiVoHD and a Radio Shack antenna?

You'd get all the OTA HD broadcast channels you have the abiliy to receive, be able to record in HD, be able to record two at once, and only have to pay the monthly TiVo fee.

Tracer Bullet

This is what I'm contemplating. The Tivo HD with cablecards is nice but I'm having trouble justifying the extra $30 a month when most of the HD programming I watch is on the OTA networks. Of course I'm lucky in that I can pull in every network (except PBS for some reason, which drives me crazy as I can get their analog signal) with a cheap $10 Phillips antenna.

JZ1276

what service do you use?
I ask because if you have internet like you said, you can split the line and use that as your antenna instead of buying one. I know of some services that will have basic cable channels on the same line as your net, even of you dont subscribe.