TiVo as a tuner: EASY QUESTION

[zman4011]

Here's an easy question for all you TiVo veterans out there. I have a projector I'd like to watch football on, but it obviously does not accept the coaxial cable coming out of the wall in my apartment, it only has the 3 RCA input jacks. I know I can use a VCR to take the coxial input and send the output through the RCA jacks to my projector; changing the channels through the VCR. Can I do this same thing through a TiVo?

[stevel]

You can, yes, and can even do "trick play" features such as rewind, pause and slow motion.

[zman4011]

As a VCR is really the cheapest option.......is there any Tivo/DVR option that does not require a service subscription. Simultaneous recording isn't really that appealing to me.

[vman41]

The TiVo never directly outputs the tuner output, you are always seeing a decode of the encoded signal being saved on disk. On a projector, you'll almost certainly notice picture degradation relative to a VCR tuner.

I'd wait a few months and see if I could get a subsidized ATSC converter box that also includes an analog cable tuner.

[Mikeguy]

As a VCR is really the cheapest option.......is there any Tivo/DVR option that does not require a service subscription. Simultaneous recording isn't really that appealing to me.
Yes--Toshiba had the RS-TX20 and 60, which are TIVO DVRs/DVD recorders with 120 and 160 gb hard drives. They came with "TIVO Basic," a lifetime free basic DVR capability--I believe 2 days of program guide at a time, plus basic TIVO DVR functionality but not certain of the bells and whistles--excluded, if I recall correctly, were season pass capability, more extensive TIVO DVR options (such as changing some recording functions on-the-fly), etc.; they also cannot network. Basically, with Basic, the TIVO was a digital VCR with some further enhanced functionality. For some people, that is enough.

The maketing approach, I assume, was to hook people with the free Basic service and hope that they then upgrade to "full," paid TIVO functionality.

There were some other boxes like this as well, including from Humax.

You actually still can find them around, on eBay. At least the Toshibas are nice machines (I have one).

[TiVo Troll]

Toshiba and Pioneer TiVo DVD recorders came with TiVo Basic Service. New Humax TiVo's come with eligibility for $299. TiVo Lifetime Service when first activated, because of Humax's contract with TiVo. All these TiVo based DVD recorders are generally available on eBay. Search eBay for "TiVo DVD recorder".

Regular TiVo 'Plus' Service couples the DVR concept with a sophisticated search engine to offer a product specifically designed for timeshifting. In addition TiVo offers additional features designed to enhance appeal and increase revenue from its service.

DVR 'service' has shown to be difficult to make profitable. But recently TiVo's DVR turned the corner on profitability making TiVo the only standalone DVR to succeed commercially. All other DVRs now generally available are either affiliated with cable or satellite companies or are software-only products for computers.

Even the simplest HDD based digital TV recorders (DVRs without any program guide at all) are a far cry from VCRs. DVR's primary operational advances are the ability to record and playback simultaneously as well as providing much higher quality recordings. But these advantages have nothing to do with DVR 'Service'.

[gastrof]

...I'd wait a few months and see if I could get a subsidized ATSC converter box that also includes an analog cable tuner.


Are there even going to BE such boxes?

Why would the government subsidized digital OTA tuners have cable ANYTHIHNG?

If this is the aim, I like (especially if the cable tuner does QAM), but WILL it actually happen? Who said this?

[classicsat]

It is my understanding, to keep costs down, the Subsidy compliant boxes will tune OTA digital only.

You can get non-subsidized all purpose tuners now, I'd think.

[pdhenry]

You can get non-subsidized all purpose tuners now, I'd think.As recently as June the cheapest way to get a tuner is to buy the cheapest VCR you can find. For awhile I was recording cable TV for an ad auditing firm - the setup I was given had 4 VCRs that were only used as tuners, feeding a time lapse VCR that actually recorded. One of the tuner-VCRs went flaky and I had trouble finding a replacement. If I could have found a cheap standalone cable tuner I would have bought it.

[timckelley]

BTW, I'm pretty sure that all TiVos, used only as a tuner + trickplay, don't require a subscription.

[stevel]

As far as I know, Tim is correct, which is why I answered as I did originally.