No monthly charge DVR. (1 Viewer)

Recently, we canceled comcast and have decided to go with air broadcast; rough economy. The only thing we miss is the DVR. We are cutting back on monthly service companies, so Tivo is not an option.

I read that PS3 released a player or add-on (I think called Torme?) in japan that is a 360Gb DVR and the japanese public gobbled 'em up (Nov '10). Not sure if it will be available in the states or not?


In this economy, I think there are more people like us that are tired of the "nickel and diming" that goes on, plus the bad programing that is thrown at us on cable/satelite tv. We enjoy broadcast TV, ie. CBS, NBC, ABC, WGN and we are now saving about $90/month. If I were a VC (venture capitalist) I'd invest in a DVR that you could buy at your local Target/Kmart store, like the days of the VCR.


Com'on Panasonic, Sony... if you are paying attention, I think there is an opportunity here...

All of those companies tried to create a stand alone DVR and already failed. The market for OTA only reception is small. Very, very small. Out of those that are OTA only a few like you want a DVR. What is your budget for this? You can build a dedicated PC with an ATSC tuner and use mostly free software to grab programming guides. You can also use it as a playback device or get a dedicated media player for playback.

The thing is, the economy was different when those companies tried the stand alone DVR market. I bought a second antennae from costco recently (http://www.antennasdirect.com) and apparently there are a lot of people buying these antennas, so maybe the market is ripening for a DVR OTA product?

I suppose if and when the economy picks up, we will jump back into the cable/satellite market. Hell, I'm told that after a month or two comcast will give us an introductory rate for another year. I will check into a PC option, although I've been a Mac guy since the '80s and have already checked out a Mac mini set-up with EyeTV , but fairly expensive and not in my budget right at the moment.
A DVR for $299 would be awesome.

Here are two DVR without monthly fees:


Magnavox MDR513H/F7


Toshiba DVR670/DVR670KU



Not a bad price for the MAC product.



I hope you find something that works for you.

I got one of these when it was branded as the DTV Pal. It essentially works like a VCR in that it's timer based recording, but it does record in hi def (unlike the two above) & allows two recordings at the same time. It also pulls in guide data so you can just click on the program in the guide to record like a DVR. The one area it's lacking is that you can't set up a season pass, though you can set it to record from the same channel at the same time every week. It also ONLY works with OTA so if you're planning on going back to cable or satellite it won't do anything for you there.


I've had mine over a year & while it's not a full featured DVR, it works very nicely for what it is. And saves me a ton of money while still being able to time shift my network shows in hi def. A little pricey upfront but after buying it, using it is completely free.


http://www.frys.com/product/6147839?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Thank you Blimpman and Eddie W.


You are right Blimpman, the EyeTV is very reasonable. The killer is buying another dedicated Mac (Mac mini starts at $599 $699).

The Channel Master from Frys.com does sound like my best choice. Thanks Eddie W.