I don't have cable or satellite, just a broadcast antenna, and want to be able to record broadcast content (especially including digital/widescreen/HD), time-shift, and skip commercials without paying a monthly DVR fee, let alone subscribing to pay TV.

So I'm interested in the JVC HM-DT100U D-VHS VCR. It's listed as having an NTSC and ATSC tuner, so I should be able to use a splitter on the coax from my antenna, feed one downstream coax into the TV, and the other into the VCR, then feed an HDMI cable from the VCR to the TV.

However, while the listed connections do say it has HDMI-out, they do NOT specify that it has coax-in. I would have thought that was necessary for any TV signal tuner. I even called B&H Photo Video and they admitted they didn't know whether it had a coax-in.

Maybe JVC figures it just goes without saying, but it would be nice to know for certain whether this seemingly rock-bottom no-brainer capability exists before dropping $799 on a VCR. Hard enough to explain that to the wife without having to explain why I'm having to send it back to an internet company instead of being able to just return it to a Best Buy or whatnot.

Can anyone help here? Does this machine have coax input? Does any D-VHS VCR?

I'll let someone else who has one answer for sure, but I see no way it could receive any TV signal without a coax in, and if it were me I would not use a splitter, but use the RF out to feed your TV. Then on the recorder disable the RF modulator. You should get less loss than a splitter. I do it all the time with my DVDR's.
Speaking of DVDR's not sure if you've tried any with a ATSC tuner, but I get excellent results recording OTA from a HD 16x9 channel to a DVD-RW. I can get between 2-3 hours of very good 16x9 material per disc.
Not true HD like your DVHS, but very good. If you're used to analog 4x3 DVDR's there's no comparison.
I'm currently using a Panasonic EZ-28. Digital tuner, records to all disc types upconverts output to 1080i and costs ~$229. You might want to try one before investing $800 on a DVHS. Just another thought:) No doubt the DVHS will produce better PQ, it's just if the cost justifies it.
That or wait for the Echostar TR-50 when it comes out. It will record "true" HD, like the DVHS.

that DVHS has a F pin coaxial input you need that to connect an antenna to pickup the OTA signals

I'll let someone else who has one answer for sure, but I see no way it could receive any TV signal without a coax in, and if it were me I would not use a splitter, but use the RF out to feed your TV. Then on the recorder disable the RF modulator. You should get less loss than a splitter. I do it all the time with my DVDR's.
Speaking of DVDR's not sure if you've tried any with a ATSC tuner, but I get excellent results recording OTA from a HD 16x9 channel to a DVD-RW. I can get between 2-3 hours of very good 16x9 material per disc.
Not true HD like your DVHS, but very good. If you're used to analog 4x3 DVDR's there's no comparison.
I'm currently using a Panasonic EZ-28. Digital tuner, records to all disc types upconverts output to 1080i and costs ~$229. You might want to try one before investing $800 on a DVHS. Just another thought:) No doubt the DVHS will produce better PQ, it's just if the cost justifies it.
That or wait for the Echostar TR-50 when it comes out. It will record "true" HD, like the DVHS.



Thanks for the advice.

I already do have a Panasonic DVD-R/VCR from RadioShack. It's been my mainstay for 18 months. Not sure if it's your model but it upconverts, has HDMI out, transfers non copy-protected tape to DVD, and can record to various formats (they push DVD-RAM). Problem is the HDMI has gone on the blink (not sure if component has as well), so I'm returning it for a refund (glad I bought that maximum length service plan!). Where I'll put the money I'm not sure. I could buy another for a measly $50 or so at this point. I've never actually recorded a broadcast program on it though, on either disk or tape.

I hadn't known about the TR-50; it seems very interesting. I'll have to decide whether retaining any VCR capability is worthwhile. I do like the fact that the JVC DVCR upconverts VHS to near-DVD quality at 480p.

that DVHS has a F pin coaxial input you need that to connect an antenna to pickup the OTA signals

Actually it has two coax F pin connectors on the back. One is for ATSC and one is for NTSC. JVC does that with their TVs too. I guess this way the NTSC can be disconnected in about a year.

The only headache you'll have is that channel up/down on ATSC stations is slow. NTSC is fine. All of the analog stations are grouped together, followed by the digital stations and then the various unit inputs (L1, L2, F1 and 1394).

As much as I like the DT100U, you might also look at a MyHD card with a PC. If you build a quiet PC and add the MyHD card (or another tuner card), you'll get the quality you're after, have a better editing capability and *maybe* come-in with a cheaper price.

The only headache you'll have is that channel up/down on ATSC stations is slow. NTSC is fine.
I think that's common across most all ATSC tuner devices, except TV's. I would never like to channel surf on the Panasonic DVDR's. They are also very SLOW. Up to 5 seconds to lock into channels when surfing the digitals.:(
LeoO, if your Panny is one with a analog tuner there is no comparison. Recording from a HD source on one of the newer ones with digital tuner is far better, but again not "true" HD. More like commercial DVD quality, which isn't bad IMO.

I own this model and alk3997 is correct about the F connectors. It's a good D-VHS VCR and a decent tuner for whatever you plan to use it for within the broadcasting standards it uses. I feed firewire into it to record shows from my cable box to it. I just have to find my Radio Shack VCR programmer remote now.

AIUI the reason for separate ATSC and NTSC antenna inputs is so that the ATSC input can be fed directly, whilst the NTSC can still be fed via a VCR so you can get VCR replay via the tuner as well as composite?

In the UK many IDTVs (i.e. TVs with both PAL analogue OTA and DVB-T Digital OTA tuners) have three RF sockets. An input that feeds the DVB-T tuner, a looped through output you can feed to your VCR, and then an analogue PAL tuner input that you can feed with the output of your VCR. This ensures your digital tuner is fed a decent quality signal, but that you can also "see" your VCR via your analogue input?

I purchased the JVC DT-100U from B&H last August. After many frustrating hours and calls to the experts at JVC I confirmed that the timer for recording digital channels depends on the time sent by the local channels in the PSIP data stream. The clock on the front of the unit that can be set manually only controls timer recordings from analog channels. Here in El Paso, the time sent by the local channels varies from one station to the next. I did get a couple of helpful local engineers to correct their information but still that did not solve the problem.
I would set up a timer recording of a local digital channel for test purposes, within a half hour of the present time. It would come on and record then go off as expected. However, 80% of the time if I set up a timer recording several hours away, such as overnight it would not record. I actually started getting up in the night to see if it would record and the unit would come on at the appointed time, go into record pause mode then just turn off. I tried everything I could think of such making sure the last channel it was tuned to was the one I wanted to record from due to the still slight differences I the time from the PSIP data.
As the main reason I purchased this unit was to time-shift, I had to return the unit to New York and lost about $80 on the shipping both ways. I got a follow up call from JVC later and even they did not realize these problems exist and I am sure this is a very low priority on a discontinued and low volume unit.
Although like others on this forum, I did not want to pay a monthly fee to record, I bit the bullet and purchased the TIVO Series 3 and it has worked very well.

Very disquieting and disappointing report. Thanks for providing the benefit of your experience.

Any other owners have this problem?

Not me, but I live in the NYC market so that could make a difference. I when I got mine there was an issue plugging in the firewire cable with my front port (it wasn't lined up properly with the front bezel), so I sent it to JVC and got it back with the bezel adjusted and they did some firmware upgrades. That might have made the difference between the problems you had and the near flawless issues I've gotten with it.

Not me, but I live in the NYC market so that could make a difference. I when I got mine there was an issue plugging in the firewire cable with my front port (it wasn't lined up properly with the front bezel), so I sent it to JVC and got it back with the bezel adjusted and they did some firmware upgrades. That might have made the difference between the problems you had and the near flawless issues I've gotten with it.


This is unfortunately quite a common problem with ATSC recording devices. They try to be "too slick" (IMHO) and keep users from having to set the time. However, there is a trick...

What I have found is that if you set the ATSC tuner to the station you plan to record prior to setting the timer, your odds greatly improve. I have my DT-100U set to record weekly and it only misses when we change times (such as CST to CDT). Once that program is re-entered then the recordings, at least in Houston, are consistently recorded.

The really bad box for this type of problem was the Samsung ATSC tuner with firewire (it was so bad I've tried to forget the model number). Getting a single recording was a challenge with that thing.

This is unfortunately quite a common problem with ATSC recording devices. They try to be "too slick" (IMHO) and keep users from having to set the time. However, there is a trick...

What I have found is that if you set the ATSC tuner to the station you plan to record prior to setting the timer, your odds greatly improve. I have my DT-100U set to record weekly and it only misses when we change times (such as CST to CDT). Once that program is re-entered then the recordings, at least in Houston, are consistently recorded.

Thanks, Andy. Unfortunately, if I understand him correctly, Mister B says he tried your suggestion, to no avail:

I tried everything I could think of such making sure the last channel it was tuned to was the one I wanted to record from due to the still slight differences I the time from the PSIP data.

Not me, but I live in the NYC market so that could make a difference. I when I got mine there was an issue plugging in the firewire cable with my front port (it wasn't lined up properly with the front bezel), so I sent it to JVC and got it back with the bezel adjusted and they did some firmware upgrades. That might have made the difference between the problems you had and the near flawless issues I've gotten with it.

Have you noticed any time discrepancies among NYC broadcasters? I know there are in Baltimore, where I am.

There can be but it's usually a minute or two between them at the most.

My first hint that the timer for digital channel timer recordings was not the clock that I had set manually was when I set up a recording and the first available time for "start time" was a time that had already passed about an hour ago. I thought "why would it offer to start recording in the past?" Then I gradually caught on that the first available time to start recording was the current time displayed by what ever station I had tuned to last. So yes, I certainly tried to go to the channel I wanted to set up for a timer recording to "capture" the time as displayed by the PSIP data stream for that particular channel even if it was only off by a minute or two from the other channels in town. I assumed that if the recorder came on based upon one time and then switched to another channel which displayed a slightly different time that would cause problems.
Even so that did not solve the problems. As I stated above if I did an experiment and set up a timer recording in the near future it would usually work. However in real practice one almost never sets up a timer recording within a half hour. It is usually for several hours after one has gone to bed or left the house. Those almost never worked. The recorder would come on, go into record/pause mode as if getting ready to record then just shut off. I don't know why and neither did the people at JVC. There is always the possibility that my unit was more defective than others.
I had downloaded the owner's manual and read it extensively ( I found the link some where here on AVS forum) and I have had three JVC S-VCR's in the last 15 years which are similar in many ways. There was no hint in the manual about the timer for the digital channels being linked to PSIP data. I would not have considered this model if I had know since it is notoriously off by at least a few minutes, or they do not correct for Daylight Savings, which by the way changes on the wrong date since Congress changed the dates for enactment.
I also feel they have tried to make recording too easy as so many people never could record on their VCR's. I am also reluctant to consider this new Echostar 50 recorder scheduled to come out later as it will get it's time and schedule from the local digital CBS station. Here in El Paso the CBS affiliate is the lowest budget major network in town and although the engineer has gotten many of their problems under control I would rather pay my fee to TIVO and get the time and schedule straight from the Internet.
The JVC did record a beautiful picture and would be good for someone who want to record a show as they watch it for archive purposes or has devised some other way to start a timer recording.

My aforementioned VCR Programmer fits the bill nicely, in that way to start a timer recording. I originally used it to record from an older D-VHS deck that didn't have a timer function for HD record modes.