I have a relative who refuses to get cable - even basic cable. He's using an off air antenna for his TV. Years back, I split the antenna and routed one to his VCR and another to his TV - so he could watch one program and record another at the same time.

Flash forward to 2009. He's going to get one of the converter boxes. However, those boxes are tuners in themselves, so he'll have to connect that to his VCR, and connect his VCR to his TV. So, he won't be able to Watch something and record something else. I'm sure that can be lived with. However, he can't use the VCR's built in tuner anymore, since the tuner is now in the converter box. Back in the days of cable boxes and VCR's, all you could really do is leave the cable box on the channel you were going to record, and tell the VCR to record channel 3. Then they got fancy and some VCR's had "cable mice" which were IR blasters that could control the cable box.

He has no such thing, so he's going to be royally stuck.

I can't see another solution, given this setup. Any thoughts?

He can get TWO $40 discount coupons from the government and get two converter boxes.

I was just looking today and most of the ones the coupons are good for are in the $50-$60 range. So at most he is only looking at spending $20 for both.

But he will have to remember to set the box on the VCR to the right channel.

He could buy a newer DVD recorder with digital tuner to replace that old VCR.

Or wait for the Echostar TR-50, coming this August. The essential issue is that, despite the coupons, people will have to change, and/or incur some cost, in order to continue enjoying television as they have in the past.

bicker1: What's special about the Echostar TR-50? [Seeing as how nothing is happening until next year, I don't think he's going to run and buy it now]

Joxer: I didn't know the DVD recorders had digital tuners - something to contemplate.

11001011: Yes - remembering to set the box to the right channel really is the issue, and would seriously impact recording multiple programs - especially in the middle of the night!

A quick search shows the Echostar TR-50 as a full featured HD-DVR for OTA signals, similar to Satellite and TIVO boxes but without the need for additional subscriptions or services. Currently this functionality pretty much requires a PC based system right now.

The Echostar/Sling TR-40 is a coupon eligible tuner/converter that sports a "VCR Timer" for $39.95 (coming in June) This box has analog outputs for viewing (or recording) downconverted digital content. The timer allows the box to turn on, change to the desired channel, while the recorder turns on and records the output of the box. Unclear is whether the box has a "Blaster" to control a recorder or if you need to use the recorder's own timer.

Most (if not all) of the DVD/HDD recorders have ATSC tuners and record downconverted digital signals to a hard drive or DVD disk. They downconvert all stations to SD (720x480 DVD type mpegs). They are, therefore, not truly "High Definition" recorders but will act as a convertor box for analog TVs. (but not "Coupon Eligible").

Joxer: I didn't know the DVD recorders had digital tuners - something to contemplate.


Yeah, since March of 2007, any device, TV or DVD recorder or whatever, if it has a legacy analog tuner, it must also include an ATSC digital tuner by federal mandate.

Some recorders don't have a tuner (I own one), so you have to look out, but it might be a good option, although I think a hard drive based solution may be better.

The Echostar/Sling TR-40 is a coupon eligible tuner/converter that sports a "VCR Timer" for $39.95 (coming in June) This box has analog outputs for viewing (or recording) downconverted digital content. The timer allows the box to turn on, change to the desired channel, while the recorder turns on and records the output of the box. Unclear is whether the box has a "Blaster" to control a recorder or if you need to use the recorder's own timer.No blaster. I don't think anyone's sure yet if it'll have a manual timer or one where you just program by highlighting the programs in the guide (but you really ought to have the option of manual timing to be able to adjust the recording times if need be in order to have what you would call full-functioning). It may have an underlying version of the TVGOS guide like the TR-50 sounds like it will have, with a Dish-like interface, which would be great (it's a lot more dependable and precise than the PSIP guides, that's for sure). Either way, it'll be more than any other CEBC box has.

I just hope the timer and guide aren't part of the legal conflict with TIVO that Echostar is involved with. We could lose that feature before we get it.

A quick search shows the Echostar TR-50 as a full featured HD-DVR for OTA signals, similar to Satellite and TIVO boxes but without the need for additional subscriptions or services.And an excellent replacement for a VCR.

The Echostar/Sling TR-40 is a coupon eligible tuner/converter that sports a "VCR Timer" for $39.95 (coming in June) This box has analog outputs for viewing (or recording) downconverted digital content. The timer allows the box to turn on, change to the desired channel, while the recorder turns on and records the output of the box. Probably too much trouble, given the situation the poster was asking about. BTW, it'll reportedly be out in July, a month before the TR-50.