I've been researching a change to our home TV setup (USA). (The "FAQ: DVD Recorders and the Analog to Digital Transition" here was very helpful.) What I currently believe is summarized below. What I hope is that any of you who really understand this will check this summary for errors and/or suggest better ideas. But not ones that cost a lot.

We have a low-end setup consisting of an ancient (1985) G.E. TV, VCR, DVD player, RF modulator, and Time Warner analog cable. We watch live TV, play Netflix DVDs, and occasionally tape cable TV shows. The VCR is eating tapes, so I want to replace it and the DVD player with a DVD recorder.

Instead of paying the cable company $7.64/month for a cable converter (set-top) box, I'd prefer to buy a DVD recorder with its own tuner. Because I could buy one in town, I researched the Sony RDR-VXD655 (list price $330). It's manual says that is has NTSC, ATSC, and QAM tuners (but no cable-card capability). Sony's cheaper recorder (RDR-GX360, $180) has no tuner.

The cable tech-support people have not been useful; "NTSC" was a new word to them. They believe their cheat sheets confirm that analog cable is sent as NTSC, and they claim that will continue after the analog switch-off. They did not see "QAM" anywhere. So the RDR-VXD655 with its NTSC tuner should suffice, I think, for now.

And what about the future? I gather the ATSC tuner in the RDR-VXD655 is only useful for digital signals sent over the air, i.e. local channels. If Time Warner were to switch basic stations to digital, they would most likely go to QAM, which the RDR-VXD655 should also handle. But if they were to scramble them, I'd have to rent their cable box.

I'm assuming the RF modulator will still suffice to convert the RDR-VXD655 composite video output to a coaxial signal for the TV.

Is any of this incorrect? Can you think of better solutions that aren't much more expensive and should work for at least a few years? I'm aware that many of you swear by HDD models. I looked into the Philips DVDR3576H 160 GB and see it priced online as low as $225, but only at places that have none to sell. Amazon has some but wants $850!?!! Walmart shows the Magnavox H2160MW9 for $250.

Thanks.

I'd suggest the Mag 2160 w/160GB HDD for $249 at Walmart online.

Don't need a modulator and if you connect as shown in sketch 1b here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12298409&postcount=10), you should be able to pick up not only all your subscribed analog/NTSC channels, but also some or many of the digital channels that might also be in your cable feed. I get 10 digital channels in my basic cable sub incl. 7 HD channels, as described here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12470932&postcount=131).

Lots more organized and easily maneuvered info if you click #1 in my signature. The Sellers are listed in the table, Section 8. Sellers and Support.

I agree with Wajo and while I have many Sony products, I wouldn't touch there DVDRs. Read the Sony threads yourself but most people using Sony DVDRs seem to have bogus copy protection problems and there picture quality is no better than the Maggy Wajo suggested.
Since your TV only has a RF input I think you'll still need your RF modulator though. All the rest of your statements seems correct, you've done your homework:)

kleene, your ideas are in the ballpark, but subject to change at any time because the situation is unstable. With the move to ATSC and QAM, cable companies are changing their signal standards and eventually the "no-box" cable tier will go the way of the model T: don't count on using a recorder to decode cable indefinitely. In order to be accountable to the studios, and offer more programming options, the decoder box is fast becoming a necessary evil for the cable companies: they will probably start giving the damn boxes away soon as part of the basic package.

It is a very hard concept for people to swallow, but for all intents and purposes the DVD recorder is a totally dead product in the USA: 95% of the recorders still on the market here are horrible crap their makers wouldn't dare try to sell in Europe, Australia or Japan. Current Sony recorders are problematic and should be avoided, as should Toshibas and many others, due to reliability issues and their draconian recording limitations (these machines assume every broadcast is "protected" and either refuse to record, or stop recording in the middle of a program). Because USA consumers have completely rejected good recorders, the mfrs are now giving us the finger and offering us mostly junk. There are literally only three (yes, just 3) recorder models left in America that are worth spending money on: the Panasonic EZ-28 (DVD-only), the Magnavox H2160 (DVD+hard drive) and its twin the Phillips 3576. See wajo's excellent posts for complete details on the Magnavox and Phillips units. Forget the idiotic $850 prices from Amazon sellers: those morons are trying to take advantage of a momentary shortage, the Magnavox is already being restocked at Wal*Mart, just be patient.

All other machines you see in stores, ALL, are a nasty surprise in a cardboard box: don't bother. If you don't want, or can't afford, to spend $180-280 for one of these three machines, you would be better off with a TiVO or cable/satellite rental PVR. Canada is hanging on by a thread with a few more choices, only because they have not made the move to ATSC digital broadcasts yet. If you live in or near Canada, Pioneer still sells excellent DVD/HDD recorders for approx $299 (model 460, 560 and sometimes 660). There is also a Sony 780 which is very similar to the Pioneer 560 but cheaper. Any of these will also work well in the USA for cable/satellite, but they cannot pick up ATSC or QAM digital broadcasts.

Thanks to all three of you for your expert advice and opinions. I did just order a Magnavox H2160MW9 from walmart.com and will hope to get a couple of years from it before scrambling renders it obsolete. And if I get stumped with its operation, I'll probably be bothering you again. This is such a useful forum.

Just a side note:

Comcast has been starting to deplay DTA boxes in a few markets. When they do that, they have to open up the digital equivilents of ch 20ish-99(expanded basic channels, like ESPN,CNN,Discovery, etc. No HDs)

So any DVD recorder with a QAM tuner can then record regular cable TV again, provided they aren't setting copy flags(most say they have no problems recording).

So a nice byproduct of them moving channels to digital only is them unecrypting 40 something QAM regular SD cable channels, and thus DVD recorders being able to record them with their onboard tuners. This does eliminate a digital/analog/digital conversion that would take place outputting Svideo from a cable box to a DVD recorder's line input.

If this was the case a year ago when I bought a basic DVD recorder, I would have spent the little extra to get one with a QAM tuner in it, since those channels are now unencrypted.

(These models that have tuners in them, they have QAM in addition to ATSC, right?)

If this was the case a year ago when I bought a basic DVD recorder, I would have spent the little extra to get one with a QAM tuner in it, since those channels are now unencrypted.

(These models that have tuners in them, they have QAM in addition to ATSC, right?)
I've not heard of any DVDR with an ATSC tuner that also didn't have QAM capability. I think it's cuz our DVDR digital tuner is a hybrid version... a single digital tuner with ATSC and QAM "components" or circuits that must be manually selected via the remote, rather than surfed thru in integrated fashion like HDTVs.

I think it's cuz our DVDR digital tuner is a hybrid version... a single digital tuner with ATSC and QAM "components" or circuits that must be manually selected via the remote, rather than surfed thru in integrated fashion like HDTVs.

Unlike the Philips/Magnavox, the Panasonic EZ series recorders integrate the analog and digital channel "surfing" into a single sequence. This design characteristic is probably the origin of at least some of the problems with Panasonic's EZ series recorders.