Dual Tuner HD OTA Recorder options?

At the moment, yes. There are other options coming soon - like E*/Sling's OTA-only DVR (not sure if it's dual tuner or not - probably is thought). However, they're still at least a few months out. The Moxi OTA DVR that was supposed to be coming out (perpetually) soon was cancelled, so that's one less contender.

The Sony DHG-HDD250/500 and LG LST-3410a can still be had off eBay, but they're both single-tuner units, and both depend on analog TVGoS data (quite likely no longer available after 2/09).


The cost of the TiVo service is the same no matter how you get your programming - ~$13/mo, or $130 for one year, or $300 up front for 3 years. It's not a lot of money - for me, slightly more than a day's lunch out, so not a big deal.

The Echostar TR-50 will have dual-tuners.

For a standalone, dual-tuner HDTV DVR that supports OTA, you have three choices:

(1) Buy a TivoHD for $250 and pay $12.99/mo, $129/yr, or $299/3yrs.

(2) Buy a TivoHD "lifetime" for $699 and pay no fees ever.

(3) Wait until July and buy the Sling TR-50, expected to cost <$500 with no fees.

Or you could build a cheap Windows Media Center (Vista or XP) box with dual (or more) tuners, and also use XBox 360s or the newer Media Center Extenders for viewing elsewhere in your home. No subscription for the EPG - and these days $700 shouldn't be difficult to hit as a price point.

(If you go the 360/Extender route you can put the main recording PC somewhere out of the way rather than paying a premium for a quiet and small unit - though if it is on 24/7 low energy consumption should probably be a consideration in these days of watching our carbon footprints)

Does your TV have a digital tuner? You could always check out the OTA possibility using that, and just either rent a DVR or do without until the TR-50 comes out, provided you can get OTA reliably. You can get lots of great help on this forum with OTA reception advice.

If you don't have a digital tuner, you could apply for the $40.00 govt. coupons and get one pretty cheap - even free in some cases (like the TR-40). They should start sending out the coupons to applicants anytime now, and the boxes are starting to show up in places like Walmart & BB.

If you have a DVD recorder with a digital tuner, you could just record in SD until the TR-50 is available. The Panasonics have excellent PQ, so it wouldn't be such an unbearable sacrifice in the meantime. Or even just get a cheap Magnavox. Even the Maggie with HDD is the same price as the cheapest Panny DVD recorder. Not really a bad addition if you like to occassionally archive stuff anyway.

If you already have one without a digital tuner, you could use one of the govt. boxes with it.

Remember too, that with TiVo using QAM, if you just have limited basic, the chances are high that you won't get any guide info for the locals, because of the odd channel mapping. At least that's what I always hear around here, anyway. You might have to use/rent a CableCARD, also. So in all, between the two and taxes, you could still end up paying over $30.00 a month, just so your aware. Pre-paying for the 3-yr. TiVo rate would at least knock over $4.50/mo. off of that, plus, you'll be locked into that rate.