Recording from cable

[mccue001]

Question from a newby. I have an RV and travel from place to place. These campgrounds frequently offer cable without any cable boxes (some analogue and some digital). You just plug your TV into an RF output and the stations show up just fine. I want to be able to use a DVR to record cable TV shows in these situations.

As I understand it, without a cablecard, a DVR will only read unencrypted signals. It seems to me that for my TV to successfully read the signal, that the signal must be unencrypted when it reaches the TV. Therefore, if I can read the signal coming from the cable's RF output to my TV, it must be unencrypted at that point. If I put an unencrypted-reading DVR between the cable RF output and the TV would I be able to successfully record the signal without a cablecard? Any explanation/help would be appreciated!

 

[Kartajan]

Your assumption is valid. Just make sure that the DVR you choose supports "Clear QAM" for the digital part.
The el-cheapo solution is probably this, as a customer review stated that it does QAM after the appropriate software update...
https://www.amazon.com/Mediasonic-Homeworx-HW180STB-Converter-Recording/product-reviews/B00IYETYX8

Spoiler: Amazon Review from an RV'er

ByA. Brownon October 14, 2017
Verified Purchase
I bought this device for my RV so when I'm camping and pick up over the air TV I can record shows to watch later. It's not perfect but for $30 it worked great. I put a spliter on the coax so I can watch TV while the device records. There are a few downsides (but it's only $30). You cannot watch something from the beginning that is recording, you can't watch another channel through the device while recording. That's why I put a spliter on the coax so I can watch directly on the TV . It also froze up several times and I had to unplug to reboot it and that was annoying. If you lose the OTA signal while recording it may freeze up. The EPG (electric program guide) feature is very good, over the air channels broadcast their schedule for several hours and so it's easy to see what's coming up and record it. I also found it does recognize digital cable if it's "basic cable", ie no cable box is required, which is what you get at RV parks. There's actually a channel scan option for cable channels. It does not recognize cable analog channels. I also put some DVD video (VOB files) on the USB stick that I watched through the box, I did not try music MP3's but it has that capability. This was my first use of OTA TV digital and I was surprised at how clear they can be and even in remote RV parks I was still getting several channels. One RV park had really bad analog cable so I used the OTA TV and it was much better.

 

[mccue001]

Thanks for the info. If, indeed, a unit like the Homeworx will successfully recorded unencrypted signals, why won't it record signals coming out of a cable box receiver going to the TV (these should be unencrypted going to the TV)?

 

[Kartajan]

usually the cable box is not putting it out on the RF, it tends to be HDMI, composite, or component (which would need a different kind of device to get recorded)

If it is being output via RF you could record it "VHS Style".. (Recording based on start/stop time only)

 

[mccue001]

Makes sense. The cable box does not output in RF so there isn't an easy way to imput its output to the Homeworx... Thanks!