It's time I got a DVR. But I don't know where to start.

Here are the important points. I don't have cable or satellite; I only watch broadcast TV. I don't want to pay a subscription fee to a DVR service like Tivo. I just want to record programs off the air, watch them later, and delete them.

Is there an off-the-shelf unit like that records audio and video with good fidelity?

http://www.hauppauge.com/ is one of the first sites I found, but I would have to buy a used computer to run their product, or run cables all over the house to use one of the computers as video storage.

Do you have any plans on getting digital cable or satellite? If you do, I'd suggest just getting a HD PVR from your provider.

I don't know a lot about the PVR, but the one that I just got from my service provider works pretty good and it has a decent amount of storage. You can watch one program while watching another, but if you are recording two shows at the same time you can't turn the channel.

This might not be the answer you're looking for, but the DTV is coming in 2009 and I think this would be a good excuse to buy a HD PVR from a cable company. Even if you don't have a HDTV yet; at least you will have the box.

Hola Nick,

I think Tivo will do it, but not 100% certain. I use a Dish DVR but I think there use to be some stand alone models.

I did find this thread at AVS. Maybe it will help get you started.....

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=750555

No. What you want does not exist. I know this for a fact because I want the same thing. Echostar demoed the TR-50 at CES 2008 but not another peep in six months.
http://ces.cnet.com/8301-1_1-9840910-67.html

I'm using a computer PVR but the damn thing requires constant attention and I would love to dump it.

Tivo reinstated Lifetime service arrangements. For $400 plus the cost of the machine, this does exist. They do have some refurbs at tivo.com for under $200, I think.

Otherwise you could try a Panasonic DVD-R with DVD-RAM capability, which behaves more like a DVR than other recordable DVD formats. The DVD-Rs with a hard drive would be even better, but I don't know if these are still sold. I don't see any.

Or you could try to find a Voom receiver for sale. It would have to be activated properly.

Or a computer. EyeTV for Mac is very good, I understand.

You probably are going to have to spend some coin, one way or the other. Could look for used for any of the above. Voom would have to be used, of course.

No plans on getting digital cable or satellite. I'm already watching digital broadcast TV. The Feb 2009 deadline is why I'm thinking about this now. I've seen the results of recording digital satellite onto a VCR, and the results are pretty poor.

It seems a pity if the content-provider corporations have made it so I can't record digital television without paying a subscription fee.

why not just get a dvd recorder with a digital tuner built in and use a dvd rw then erase it when it fills up?

Is there such a thing? That's what I do now, but with VHS. If it has record and playback capabilities, that's all I want.

Okay, I found this review of the Philips DVDR3575H/37, a DVD-R with digital tuner and 160 GB hard drive.

http://www.epinions.com/content_380382121604

So I can't actually record the high-resolution picture that I'm receiving over the airwaves. It seems kind of pointless. There are so many restrictions on this device that I might as well get a $20 converter and record onto a VCR.

There is a huge difference between VHS and DVD, bigger than the difference between DVD and broadcast HD, so even that would be very worth it. And no recorder will break Macrovision unless it can be hacked in some way. There are external boxes to get around that, but what do you plan to use this for? It's basically a moot point, IMO. Most of those restrictions are pretty basic and obvious. They are true for almost all players/recorders that have ever existed. This is the world as we know it. I guess if you haven't heard all this before (like the reviewer, apparently) it may seem overwhelming, but that is all very old news. There are restrictions on DVD or BD playback, too.

A DVD couldn't even hold a whole TV episode in HD, anyway. Not in MPEG2, which is all your players will read on a DVD. I'm not sure why you thought you'd be getting HD on a DVD. Sorry if you thought anyone implied that, but a DVD recorder gives you...DVDs. If you want HD for this potential DVR, pony up the $600 for the Tivo or get into one of the sat companies with a DVR.

Also, Philips sucks. Even if it is the only hard drive model still available, I would skip it and just try some other genre in that case. As an example, the review says it doesn't even store instructions in case of power failure, which is just stupid in this decade with inexpensive non-volatile flash memory. (it's not battery backup that would do this, that guy may not be too bright) But I'll bet that model is no longer being made, either. Panasonic makes good DVD-Rs, they would be my choice, and are actually, I have one in my rack.

Well I'm not sure about anyone else but I have Dish DVR(VIP722) and my subscription fee is waived as long as I keep a phone line hooked up to it

A DVD recorder with a ATSC Digital tuner is all you need. Use erasable discs.

A model with a build in hard drive would be even better, because then you'd have extra recording capacity and wouldn't have to use a disc to record. As others have said, these aren't as easy to find as they were a couple of years ago, but they are still out there if you shop around, though you'd have to be careful to get one with a digital tuner if you don't have any cable service.

Well, the problem is most/all of those don't let you WATCH in HD. The tuner automatically down converts assuming an analog TV.