HDTV Tuner for Amazon Basics 50ft/35ft Antenna and Other Questions

[Davidh373]

I've been trying to find information regarding what will be needed to record HDTV from an Antenna, and what towers in my area broadcast an HD signal.

I've been to TVFool.com and many others, but none specify what quality and resolution they broadcast in. Also, are the TV channels Encoded/ Encrypted in ClearQAM or others? Maybe I'm just missing that ALL channels broadcast in HD, and it's simple to setup.

I want to record/ watch TV Series like Gotham, Agent's of SHIELD, and Agent Carter, Once Upon A Time, and Auto Record them so I don't miss them and be able to watch them. I normally buy the Blu Ray but sometimes it's a pain to wait and sometimes the prices are quite high.

I also notice there are towers for all of the channels I watch the the area within 30ft from my address, but I'm worried a tower might not have good signal strength to reach the rated distance of the 35ft Antenna. Is there any validity to this thought and might it be worth spending almost twice the price of the 35ft for the 50ft antenna?

Side note: Will I be able to re-encode the episodes I record with a program like Handbrake?

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Basically all major channels broadcast in HD, either 720p or 1080i. Both are HD and there honestly isn't a huge difference between the two unless you are anal about these things.

QAM only applies to cable signals. Over-The-Air (OTA) is an ATSC signal. There are no copy protection flags so you will be able to re-encode the recordings.

What you want is an HDHomeRun (not the Prime version with CableCARD). That will allow you to receive OTA signals and record them. The only way to truly know which signals you can receive is by trial and error. TVFool or Antennaweb.org can be a good guide, but only experience will be the true proof.

 

[Davidh373]

Cool, any internal cards with the same capability? Real Estate on my desk is prime, as there isn't very much lol.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Cool, any internal cards with the same capability? Real Estate on my desk is prime, as there isn't very much lol.

Sure. Go to Newegg or Amazon and do a search for "TV tuner card." Just make sure that whichever one you pick does ATSC signals and is the form factor you want (PIC, PICe, or USB). I used a Hauppauge HVR-2250 some years back and it worked very well.

 

[Binky]

Side note: Will I be able to re-encode the episodes I record with a program like Handbrake?

DVRMS toolbox and MCE buddy both can be set to automatically convert recordings to other formats. The files recorded by media center will be very high quality but very large. They can be played easily on other windows machines. Are you thinking about converting to reduce file size?

 

[Davidh373]

I like to have my files in m4v. I don't mind large files, but I rip Blu Rays and take the ~20GB files down to ~8GB

 

[Binky]

If I remember correctly, one hour of off-air HD is 7-8gb in the native WTV format. I believe that DVRMS toolbox can easily convert the recordings to many formats, including MKV or M4V. It can also remove commercials if desired. I don't use DVRMS for conversion, but I do I use it for commercial marking and skipping.

Back to your original questions, off-air recording with MCE is very easy once you get the antenna dialed in. Like others, I strongly prefer the HDhomerun tuners since they very reliable and they are are connected via network, so you can put them anywhere. TV tuners also generate a lot of heat, so I prefer to get them out of the case.

 

[Davidh373]

Any chance there's a device to set recordings W/O a computer? Or I guess I could build a cheap computer. Any advice there?

 

[Binky]

Tivo?

 

[snoturtle]

What about a Tablo?
I have been looking for something recently that would work with an antenna and send out over the network to work with just about any device and this will do it.
Add a usb hard drive to it and its a stand alone dvr
http://www.tablotv.com/

They have a 2 and a 4 tuner model
200 for 2 tuner and 300 for the 4 tuner

Any chance there's a device to set recordings W/O a computer? Or I guess I could build a cheap computer. Any advice there?

 

[Raincity]

I am interested in the Tablo since it integrates with Plex. $200 is too much to put down on a piece of hardware where the company has no track record to speak of and may be gone tomorrow.

 

[snoturtle]

Was more looking for roku support but either way

The only thing holding me off from buying either a Tablo or a Simple TV is the monthly charges

Simple TV is got together with Silicon Dust if that helps and does offer a lifetime subscription similar to tivo

On the other hand part of the reason I cut cable was to save money and another monthly service isn't quite what I want

I do wish that Aereo hadn't lost that would have been perfect

 

[Raincity]

Was more looking for roku support but either way

The only thing holding me off from buying either a Tablo or a Simple TV is the monthly charges

Simple TV is got together with Silicon Dust if that helps and does offer a lifetime subscription similar to tivo

On the other hand part of the reason I cut cable was to save money and another monthly service isn't quite what I want

I do wish that Aereo hadn't lost that would have been perfect

Ran across this review today. http://www.heronfidelity.com/blog/r....heronfidelity.com/blog/review-tablo-dvr.html

Seems to need a patch already since its not ready to record OTA DD5.1 but still interesting since Robert mentions manual recording if your not going to use the guide data subscription. So maybe this box has a future by a user community if the company pulls the plug down the road.

Sorry for the thread highjack folks for those not interested.

 

[snoturtle]

May want to check out
Simple.TV for 99.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...5345025&cm_sp=