[polyh3dron]

So I've been looking at OTA DVRs and don't think I've seen what I'm looking for:

TiVo Roamio - subscription fee
Tablo - re-encodes video and records at 30 FPS, so any live TV doesnt look as good as it did live
Channel Master+ - can't seem to get much specific specs on it.. Frame Rate? Re-encoding or native encoding? Can I grab .ts files of the recordings from it? Does it have HDMI output so I can watch untouched live TV without rewiring stuff?
Simple.TV 2 - only viewable through Roku or Apple TV which basically confirms re-encoding and 30 FPS

Does the DVR I'm looking for exist? Or should I just set up a pc with MythTV?

To clarify, I'm looking for a solution that:

-Records the raw MPEG stream from the antenna, complete with the Dolby AC-3 5.1 audio. End result should be 60 frames per second when source material is at that rate

-Has HDMI output so that I can still watch live TV without rewiring

-Allows me to pull the recordings from the DVR so I can use them on my computer

 

[Kelson]

So I've been looking at OTA DVRs and don't think I've seen what I'm looking for:

TiVo Roamio - subscription fee

Of course it is subscription free. You need to do your homework. You can buy it for full price at $550-570 or pay a small upfront cost and pay a monthly fee if you can't afford to buy it -- like leasing vs. buy a car.

 

[jjeff]

Your biggest sticking point is being able to easily off load your recordings to a standard PC. Other than using a PC to begin with you have the extremely "cheap" iView or Homework clones, which technically does everything you asked for but lacks any real guide or things like season passes and is also single tuner with really no easy way to be recording something while watching an already recorded program, or something like the $500+ non subscription Tivo which does it all and more. Oh other than a extremely limited feature set, the iView and clones tend to miss scheduled events on a regular occasion, with a Tivo(don't know much about the PC solutions) mine is basically 100% at recording events.
$39 or $500+, not much in between unless you build something yourself with a PC.

 

[Kelson]

@OP
TiVo, CM DVR+ and iView (and all the iView clones) record the transport stream exactly as broadcast. They all have HDMI outputs.

TiVo can output the native resolution of the broadcast and allow your video processor or HDTV to scale it to the panel size or it can scale the output to a specific user-selected resolution (i.e. 1080p). Letting TiVo scale the output and maintaining a single resolution across the HDMI speeds up channel surfing. The lo-res PQ's look good when TiVo-scaled to 1080.

TiVo enables bi-directional network transfers of recordings using either TiVo Desktop or kmttg. TiVo Desktop allows recordings to be transferred back to the TiVo for later viewing so you can archive recordings to a server, Kmttg will strip the TiVo wrapper leaving a standard MPEG-2 encoded .mpg file that can be played by anything -- including the TiVo. Nothing is altered from the original.

I'm not sure of the DVR+ or the iView but I believe neither allows for native output and scales to a specific user selected resolution.

The iView records to an NTFS formatted external disk. You can plug the disk into you PC and pull the recordings off.

The DVR+ records to an EXT formatted external HDD (linux). You need a linux driver on your PC (or a linux PC) to access the disk. Search for the posts by @pachinko in the DVR+ thread for his program to make sense of what is on the disk and pull off the recordings. The recordings are TS but not standard format and won't play on many devices or PC players. They need to be run through ffmpeg or Video ReDo and remuxed to standards. Then they play OK.

 

[polyh3dron]

Kelson, you answered all of my questions, you are the man. Thank you kindly.

Looks like the TiVo is the way to go after all.

 

[tootal2]

TiVo will do that and you can watch it on your phone when away from home. and get TiVo minis for every room in your house