standalone DVR for antenna input?

[imported_navboy]

This is for a situation in USA to pick up digital broadcast over the air using antenna then into DVR then out to digital-ready TV. Replacement for VCR. Would be nice if it also could accept standard digital cable input as well in case we move to that down the road.

Twin tuners would be nice. Main thing is that it does not need any scheduling feature and don't want any sort of subscription program or anything, just needs to record on a specific channel for a specified time frame at a specified quality setting. Would be nice to have content flaggable as erasable or not, and a dvd burner built in.

What searching i have done - it's very hard to find boxes not tied to cable or satellite companies that will just record like a VCR without any sort of programming service required. It's possible DVD records with internal HDD's might do the trick - not sure if any of those come with tuners (or dual tuners) or can manage content on the HDD as well.

Any help greatly appreciated.

-steve

 

[sivart]

If you need HD output, then the closest I can see is the DTVPal DVR $250 (on this page --> http://www.dtvpal.com. However, it doesn't handle cable. I have one of these and it works great.

Since you didn't want subscription you've ruled out TiVO.

If you don't want HD you might go for the Philips DVDR3576H single tuner $300-$500 if you can find one used / refurb

The only box that will do everything you want (aside from dual tuners) is the Sony DHG-HDD250 or DHG-HDD500 (http://reviews.cnet.com/digita...-6474_7-31155637.html). However, these have been out since 2005 and if the hard drive fails (they run 24/7 when plugged in), the only way to fix it is to send it in to Sony (even an identical drive swap WILL NOT WORK). So, you'd be risking $250-$400 on eBay on a machine whose hard drive has probably been running 24/7 for 4+ years.