Might be looking for a good OTA DVR

[ERD50]

How did it go with the device?

I was looking at video review on Amazon by a guy about a similar product
and he seemed pleased with that.

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Viewtv At-163 ATSC Digital TV Converter Box and Media Player w/ Recording PVR Function / HDMI Out / Coaxial Out / Composite Out / USB Input

Another small update: I did manage to get ~ 2 hours to play with this yesterday. Connected it, and it scanned and seems to have picked up all the channels our other TVs have. Picture looked as good to me through this box > HDMI of the TV as it did TV direct.

Next step was to connect some USB storage. I didn't have time to move data from one of my drives and reformat it to NTFS, I did try just reformatting the existing partition #1 to NTFS, but that was partitioned as GUID, and it didn't see it.

So I tried an 8GB thumb drive for a quick test. I was hesitant, as from what I've read, the thumb drive needs fast R/W specs to keep up with these data rates, and I buy cheap thumb drives. But it worked fine! 8GB only gives ~ 1 3/4 hours of recording at 1080i, so just a small test.

Live recording with pause, FF/RW worked fine. No skips or dropouts. I set up one timed recording from the EPG, and that started, but I inadvertently stopped it as I was doing other stuff with the remote just as the recording started (error on my part). So I just hit 'Rec' (like the 'instant record' on old VCRs), let it go for the hour, and then played it back. Played back perfectly.

The manual just gives the most basic info, but it really isn't that hard to figure out how to do things, the screen guides become pretty clear once you work through them.

I saw lots of complaints that the remote was such a narrow beam that it was hard to use (some suggested a piece of Scotch tape over the end to 'smear' the beam wider), but it seemed fine to me.

We will have to see about longer term about drop outs and quirks. A lot of people report problems with scheduled recording just getting dropped. But others report it works fine. I suspect that marginal signal quality is a factor. We will see once I get a hard drive set up and test daily/weekly recording.

One thing I've noticed, but need to verify - it seems the signal from the antenna loop-though to the TV degrades the signal significantly while recording. When I was recording, and then switched the TV back to the ANT input, so I could watch one show live OTA while recording another with the box, I lost many of the weaker channels. But these are fine while not recording. I'll need to verify this when I have more time, but I suspect that the box just creates some noise while recording. I think that simply using a splitter or distribution amplifier to get the signal to both the box and the TV, w/o routing it through the box will fix this.

But so far, so good.

-ERD50

 

[easysurfer]

Thanks for the update. Looks like a great device that you can't go wrong with for pausing Live TV for around $40.

I got a Magnavox DVR/DVD combo (like the following, but with a 1TB HD):

http://www.amazon.com/Magnavox-HDD-...d_sim_e_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0SA16TJ0Y8AGQEB2XSBT

I love my DVR/DVD combo except one thing. The picture quality is upconverted to 1080 and thus, though acceptable, the picture quality is definitely not as good as the from TV alone

 

[Chuckanut]

ERD50, Are you using it to convert digital to analog for an old TV, or just to record digital OTA for later viewing on a modern digital TV?

 

[ERD50]

Next quick update: Saturday night I set it to record two programs for Sunday AM. This uses the station's program guide, and it recorded both shows just fine. No skips or pixelation (even using a cheap 8GB thumb drive to test) - recordings were as perfect as live, AFAICT. Being able to pause/FF/RW is a real treat for this TiVo-less household!

The unit records with no compression, so GB/Hour depends on the broadcast source, which can vary for each show and channel. I recorded one show broadcast at 720x480P, that was ~ 1.5GB/Hr; another was 1280x720i, that was ~ 3.6GB/Hr; and one just now at 1920x1080P, about 5.7GB/hour. You have no control over this, it is whatever the broadcaster sends.

And as reported, I was able to remove the drive, plug it into my computer, and watch the video with any basic video player. So that's nice if I decided to take my recordings portable.

I just set it up to record Austin City Limits tonight (weekly), and Jeopardy (daily). So we will see how that goes. I think I'll stick with this thumb drive for now, though I'll need to delete the daily Jeopardy shows to keep enough room. But that's OK while I test it out.

Thanks for the update. Looks like a great device that you can't go wrong with for pausing Live TV for around $40. ....

Yes, even if it turns out recording is quirky, I think I can justify $37 and an old 8GB thumb drive even if I only use it for live pause/FF/RW TV.

Now that I'm somewhat familiar with this box, I'll read more of the Amazon and other reviews. I suspect that the people reporting problems fall into these categories:

A) Marginal signal strength/quality - I suspect a box like this could get flaky if the signal is dropping. I imagine it could lose sync and just not be able to recover?

B) Possible issues with some hard drives not spinning up fast enough when recording starts? I'll stick with the flash thumb drive for now to eliminate this possibility.

C) Faulty unit? Who knows about the quality control on a $37 box with a poorly translated manual?

But so far, mine seems to work just fine, and I am so far super impressed what this does for the money.

ERD50, Are you using it to convert digital to analog for an old TV, or just to record digital OTA for later viewing on a modern digital TV?

So far I've only had it hooked up to our big screen digital TV with HDMI in, so I have not tested the conversion quality. We do have two other older TVs with converters hooked up, so I could test them on there as well, but that's low priority for me, we just don't use those much. But I guess I should, just to make sure those are working.

-ERD50

 

[easysurfer]

All this OTA DVR discussion has me looking at my set up again. I just realized that I wasn't using a high speed HDMI cable like the instructions for my DVR suggests. So I figured what the heck, and got one at Amazon for about $5. Though the picture is still not HD, I do notice a slight improvement.

 

[ERD50]

Well, I did a bit more research and I just ordered it, so I'll report back when I've spent some time with it.

-ERD50

I made some quick updates a while back, but I've been using it pretty much daily for the past two weeks, so I'll give a fuller update:

Amazon.com: Mediasonic HW-150PVR HomeWorx ATSC Digital TV Converter Box with Media Player and Recording PVR Function/HDMI Out (Black): Electronics

For $38 - it works! Every show I've scheduled (~ 2-3 per day) has recorded just as it should. There is no compression, so the picture quality is identical to the broadcast quality. I formatted an old 500 GB drive as NTFS and that's what I've been using.

Since we haven't had cable since the 80's, and never had a DVR, and VCRs aren't very practical with digital TV, this is fantastic for us. A couple shows that I just never watched due to timing, I now watch daily, and can pause or replay for things I missed or skip over segments that don't interest me. Now I catch every 'Jeopardy', the PBS 'Chicago Tonight' news/events show, and have a bunch of NOVA episodes on the schedule. Fantastic!

If you are used to a DVR, this is going to seem like going backwards in time - it won't track program changes or anything fancy. It's a step above the old VCR style channel and time method, as you can select from the station's program guide (or enter channel/time) - but that program guide only goes about 24 hours in advance.

It is far from perfect of course:

A) The remote is rather picky - you need to aim it fairly accurately (I have not tried the 'scotch tape to disperse the beam' trick I've read about). It also hasn't been that big a deal to motivate me to buy a learning remote (some users recommend this).

B) The user interface is clunky - but workable. It is somewhat frustrating because some things should so obviously be better, but OTOH, you can do everything you need, just not as obvious as it should be. It mostly becomes second nature after a short while.

C) Not sure why, but in a one hour show, I might typically get ~ 2~4 little garbled blips, maybe 1/2 second each. Could be my hard drive seeking and running out the buffer? Could be a signal drop-out or glitch (though we get a strong signal here). This also has not been bad enough for me to take any effort to try to track down, maybe someday.

D) Recorded programs have file names that are just station ID, date & time. It's a little tough to pick out the show you want in a list like that. You can rename them after-the-fact (each and every occurrence of a daily recorded show?), but simply allowing the user to add a short name as a prefix to the schedule (a one time thing for repeat recordings) would go a long way. But pretty minor.

And of course, for $38 you only get one tuner. But we don't watch that much TV for it to be an issue, and you could always buy two. But the other day, DW wanted me to record something while she was out, and it conflicted with one of my scheduled shows. No problem, record hers, and I'll just miss mine (actually, I just watched it live). But I had to delete my show to set hers, and then re-enter mine later - this goes to the clunky interface. It would be nice to just tell the new entry to take priority over the old one. The new one was a 'one time', so there would be no future conflicts.

And though I have not done this much, yes, you can unplug the drive, plug it into your computer and watch those shows (or edit them, or copy them) with any video player/editor software. No conversion needed. Handy.


Overall, this is one of the best buys I've made in a long time. Very happy to have spent this $38, and clear out an old portable drive to use for it. Maybe for Christmas, I'll get DW a new flat panel with HDMI for the bedroom - she watches that TV when she irons and sorts laundry - and I'll buy one of these for that TV so she can have a bunch of shows pre-recorded to watch.

They really ought to put some work into the interface, I think they could sell a lot of these for $50 if there weren't so many complaints about the UI.

They should also consider another model that would drop all the other outputs and the digital-analog converter (HDMI only), and maybe they could add a second tuner and keep the price about the same. New TVs come with HDMI, the other stuff is becoming superfluous.

Bottom line, if your usage profile is similar to mine (OTA, modest amount of TV recording needed, and you're a cheapskate who doesn't want to pay $$/month for a program guide), and you would like to have the option of recording and watching later, plus be able to do the 'live TV' pause/replay thing, I'd say $38 (and a hard drive) is a pretty modest investment to try this out and see what you think.

OK, I'm going to watch some NOVA now....

-ERD50

 

[easysurfer]

As long as there aren't any major quirks (such as channels dropped, or setting for one channel but then the DVR records another), you really can't go wrong for $38 since you already have a spare HD. I think every DVR has it's own quirks.

If you are satisfied with it, that's the important thing. My current DVR doesn't record is the same picture quality as broadcast quality, but the picture is still adequate for football games (which is a deal breaker). I do have an option to skip a scheduled recording (I don't have to delete the schedule, then re-add) for the night if there is a time conflict to something else I want to record.

 

[ERD50]

As long as there aren't any major quirks (such as channels dropped, or setting for one channel but then the DVR records another), you really can't go wrong for $38 since you already have a spare HD. I think every DVR has it's own quirks. ....

Right, there seemed to be some complaints by some users about it dropping the schedule, but I am not aware of a single instance of that. And I have watched every episode of two M-F shows the past two weeks, so I would know of there was a glitch (some other recordings are just stacked up at this point - there could be problems, but I doubt it, based on what I do watch).

Maybe I got a good box, and those others got duds? I can't say on a sample of one. I suspect they have other issues though, such as weak/variable signals, or maybe power glitches (though it retains the schedule if you unplug it). All I can say is mine appears to be 100% reliable (based on a solid two weeks of use, and some more intermittent use for a few more weeks). I'm happy.

And if it does turn out to be glitchy for scheduled recording, I have a fall back (as I stated in an earlier post):

Yes, even if it turns out recording is quirky, I think I can justify $37 and an old 8GB thumb drive even if I only use it for live pause/FF/RW TV.

I'm very certain I'll be buying a second unit, and that would also solve the occasional schedule conflict, though not so elegantly - the recording might be on a different TV than where we want to watch it, but moving the drive and/or copying it is not a big hardship for a once-in-a-blue-moon (for us) event.

I need to get back on their forum and see if the users can push for the UI upgrades - they could really increase user satisfaction with a fairly small amount of programming.

-ERD50

 

[Chuckanut]

I made some quick updates a while back, but I've been using it pretty much daily for the past two weeks, so I'll give a fuller update:

Amazon.com: Mediasonic HW-150PVR HomeWorx ATSC Digital TV Converter Box with Media Player and Recording PVR Function/HDMI Out (Black): Electronics

For $38 - it works!

Thanks ERD50. You have done many of us a great service. May I ask you to briefly describe how you hooked this thing up. I am assuming the antenna goes into the device and a HDMI cable connects the device to the TV. I also assume that the hard drive is connected directly to the device by a USB cable. But, you know what they say about assumptions.

 

[ERD50]

Thanks ERD50. You have done many of us a great service. May I ask you to briefly describe how you hooked this thing up. I am assuming the antenna goes into the device and a HDMI cable connects the device to the TV. I also assume that the hard drive is connected directly to the device by a USB cable. But, you know what they say about assumptions.

You can download the manual here:

Mediasonic

page 8 of their manual shows connections - but that does look confusing, since they show every possible connection scheme. Here's what I did (very simple - and really just as you described, one added detail so you can record while watching another channel):

A) I ran one (cheap) HDMI cable from the HDMI output of the box to an HDMI input on my TV. The HDMI signal handles digital video and audio in one cable.

B) I plugged in a portable Hard Drive to the USB port on front - (I partitioned on my computer as MSDOS and formatted as NTFS - the box will do this too I guess, but I also wanted to create a separate partition for other uses, so I went the computer route - easy). I'm pretty sure a standard portable drive will be formatted this way out of the box.

C) Co-ax antenna cable - I ended up using a cheap splitter, and ran one input to the box, and one to my TV antenna in.

With this set-up, I can watch one program live (no pause/delay feature) directly on the TV using the TV tuner while the device is recording (exactly as I did before I got the box), I just use the TV remote to switch TV inputs settings from HDMI to ANTENNA and back again to watch recordings or live/delay/pause TV through the box.

The box does have a Co-Ax out that should do the same thing as my splitter set-up if you set it for 'loop thru' (or something like that, I forget their term) and run that to the TV antenna in. But it appeared that I got noise from the box into the signal of my TV when I did this. I would lose channels on the TV, but only when it was actively recording. When I tried the splitter, there was no real degradation at all in the signal quality meter on my Vizio menu (the numbers do bounce around by one or two counts, so hard to say precisely - but no problems at all this way). The lowest #'s I see on channels I watch are in the mid to high 20's, most others are in the 50's. IIRC, it was around 10 that I would start getting breakups. So I think I've got some signal head-room.

Anyhow, the splitter was so easy to connect, and I had one, so I never bothered to switch back to validate if that was the problem or not. Could have just been a loose cable/connection, but this works so I ain't fixin' it.

If you don't have HDMI inputs on your TV, this thing is a 'converter box' and has composite, component and digital co-ax outputs as well. The connections would be similar.

BTW, this company really needs a good marketing team. Their 'description' of this product does not even mention that it records TV! The really sell it as a converter box, but I got those for almost zero $ with a coupon when the conversion was going on, and people are giving them away now, as they buy newer TVs. Further down on their site, 'recording' is 8th on a list of 11 features:

Converts Digital Broadcast to your Analog TV
Analog Pass Through
Favorite Channel List
Parental Control Function
Auto Tuning
Auto, 16:9 Pillar Box, 16:9 Pan G Scan, 4:3 Letter Box, 4:3 Pan G Scan, 4:3 Full, 16:9 Wide Screen
Closed Caption
Real-Time recording & Programmed Time Recording
HDMI 1080P Output / YPbPr output / Coaxial Output
Timing Start Up & Shut Down
USB Multimedia Player

But... it works! (for me).

-ERD50

 

[Jackanory]

I thought I'd throw in an insight for those concerned with space constraints. I record OTA broadcasts using Windows Media Center listening to my 2 tuner HDHomeRun4. A 2 hour show often takes up around 12 GB though, which tends to add up quickly.

I installed a program on my MC PC called MCEBuddy. This program 'watches' the Recorded TV folder, and when a new show finishes recording it 'processes' it. First it strips out any commercials, then compresses the show from the WTV format into MP4 format. A typical 12GB show ends up as 1.5GB, and (to me) retains its HD properties, including great picture and surround sound. I have a very powerful desktop doing this; apparently, for a donation, a version is available that requires less horsepower.

Oh, I use XBMC to organize and playback my library of recordings, on my living room's nettop PC. It can also use that same tuner to play live TV over my network via uPNP.

 

[Chuckanut]

ERD50, Thanks again.

I just order the Mediasonic device and a HDMI switcher since my old TV only has two HDMI ports, both in use. I also ordered a splitter and two cables from Monoprice.

 

[ERD50]

ERD50, Thanks again.

I just order the Mediasonic device and a HDMI switcher since my old TV only has two HDMI ports, both in use. I also ordered a splitter and two cables from Monoprice.

Great! Please report back when you've had some time with it. Hopefully, my positive experience is the norm (assuming good signal quality at the antenna cable).

-ERD50

 

[sengsational]

I'll admit to not having read many of the posts in this thread lately, but for those that wish to get more than the 24 hour in advance listings, there's a non-profit called schedulesdirect.org where you can get listings for $25/yr. Unfortunately the free trial is only 7 days.

 

[Chuckanut]

Great! Please report back when you've had some time with it. Hopefully, my positive experience is the norm (assuming good signal quality at the antenna cable).

I will. It will take a while since being a dedicated LBYM person, I ordered everything with free or the cheapest shipping available.

 

[ERD50]

I'll admit to not having read many of the posts in this thread lately, but for those that wish to get more than the 24 hour in advance listings, there's a non-profit called schedulesdirect.org where you can get listings for $25/yr. Unfortunately the free trial is only 7 days.

I don't think this little Media-sonics box can access any files with listings like that. It's either select from the station's program guide (EPG), or a bit more manual to select station, start/end time, and daily/weekly/once (VCR style).

Yep, they don't even allow you to select M-F or days of the week. For my M-F shows, I ended up entering 5 separate schedules, one for each day of the week, and set each of them to 'weekly'. I could do 'daily' and just ignore the recordings for Sat/Sun, but if I wanted to record something on Sat/Sun, it had a higher chance of conflicting. A bit of a pain, but a set-it-and-forget it thing for me, I'm not changing schedules often.

So like I said, pretty crude if you are used to computerized options or a TiVo or something, but it does get the job done at a low price.

-ERD50

 

[tmm99]

Amazon.com: Mediasonic HW-150PVR HomeWorx ATSC Digital TV Converter Box with Media Player and Recording PVR Function/HDMI Out (Black): Electronics

For $38 - it works!
-ERD50

Thank you very much for your review. I opted for AverTV ($50 - you connect it to your Windows 7 PC) but it is not picking up all the stations my antenna is picking up, and there is more screen freezing. Anyway, when I get more Amazon points, I think I will try Mediasonic. It looks promising.

 

[Chuckanut]

I have hooked up my Media-Sonics box.

So far it is working very well. Both the Box and the TV seem to be getting a strong TV signal. ( I do live in an area that is close to broadcast towers.) I have managed to use the Media-sonic to record with delayed playback. Again it worked very well.

My only problem is that I can't find the extra HD I was going to hook up to the Mediasonic box. Looks like I will have to spring for a new HD.

The interface is a bit kludgy, IMHO. And the manual could certainly flesh out more details on how to operate the device. But, over all a geek or semi-geek should not have many problems. When using the Mediasonic menu system, I do recommend taking some notes about how you got to where to do what.

Thanks ERD50 for your review and helpful advice.

 

[Chuckanut]

FWIW, my thumb drive works well with the unit, except for its small capacity. From what I've read the unit dies not compress the digital signal, just records it. Thankfully storage is fairly cheap these days.

 

[ERD50]

FWIW, my thumb drive works well with the unit, except for its small capacity. From what I've read the unit dies not compress the digital signal, just records it. Thankfully storage is fairly cheap these days.

I'll be curious to see if you experience the short (1/2 second?), occasional audio/video break-ups that I get (maybe 1-4 per hour?). As I mentioned earlier, they aren't bad enough for me to spend any time tracking down yet (if I can), but I wonder if they are typical.

I also used an 8GB thumb drive for a few days to test it out before I cleared out and formatted an old hard drive that I had. Seemed the same to me, but of course with those storage limits I didn't use it much.

On the forums, some said you needed a higher-speed thumb drive. I don't know - like VOIP, I don't think speed itself is necessarily the limiting issue, but the ability to store a steady stream of data w/o a significant pause. Flash memory writes in 'blocks', and I think you might hit some delay while a block is being written. And the specs I see are average speeds, they don't really tell you what sort of starts/stops to expect.

And hard drives may need to 'seek' - move the head to a different part of the drive. I think having adequate buffer (fast RAM) in the storage device would be the best remedy, but I couldn't find buffer specs on my old drive - I seem to recall that an 8MB buffer was typical for hard drives a few years back.[-] I haven't done the math to see if that should be sufficient, [/-] --- actually, I did do the math, the highest rez station I see are 1920x1080p, and those require ~ 5.7GB per hour. That's ~ 1.6MB per second, so even 2MB buffer seems like plenty (I don't think the write delays are anywhere near a full second). I don't know if the Media-sonic box has any buffer in it.

Heck, it could even be something like a power spike from our fridge/freezer cycling?

The interface is a bit kludgy, IMHO.

Oh, that's not just opinion, I think we can call that a fact!

I won't make any excuses for the company, they really should clean up the UI, but as I said before, it is 'workable'. I think I also made a few notes to myself to get started. It becomes second nature after a while, but it still is a minor annoyance. But for the price/performance, I'll accept it, but I don't have to like it (the UI that is).

From what I've read the unit dies not compress the digital signal, just records it. Thankfully storage is fairly cheap these days.

Right, the amount of storage depends upon the resolution the broadcaster is sending - the box does not change it at all. So a 1920x1080p will take about 6GB/hour and an SD broadcast will be much less (I don't have notes on that offhand). But I prefer it this way. As you say, storage is cheap and I have no concerns about the quality - it is a digital copy of the broadcast, full quality. And it seems that watching/editing on a computer is easier - no concerns over the type of compression they used. Every video player I've tried reads this format w/o problem.

-ERD50

 

[Chuckanut]

I have not experienced any quick breakups so far, but then my playback viewing has been 45 minutes, max.

My alternative for this device would have cost over 6 times more, about an extra $210 plus tax, so make it an extra $230. And that more costly device had only a limited amount of external storage so I would still be buying a HD for badly needed additional storage.

If course the $250 unit has a much nicer interface and a much easier to use program listing to choose from.

I did try out recording a show and playing it back as it was broadcast. It worked very well. I can stop, reverse, fast forward, and restart a show with no problems. DVD's and Netflix have spoiled me in that respect.

I am a little concerned by device quality. A few people have reported failures after a few months, while others have used the device for a long time with no problems. That seems to be consistent with most electronics. They fail in the first 6 months, or they works well for years. YMMV.

 

[mpeirce]

If you can find a used TiVo I'd recommend it.

When we got a new TiVo in the family room, we retired the old TiVo HD to the bedroom.

It's only purpose in life is to record the 10 o'clock news so we can head up there a bit after 10 and watch he local news - mainly the weather ;-) - as we fall asleep.

In order to avoid paying WOW Cable a wapping $5 a month for another cable card, I hooked up a "rabbit ears" antenna to pick up OTA broadcasts.

We are at the edge of reception (it doesn't work downstairs, but upstairs we get a reliable signal for the channel we watch) and if I angle the antenna just right... The only trouble is sometimes the cleaners dust around it and end up moving it. Then the TiVo dependably records the news with breakups and digital noise until I reposition the antenna.

 

[easysurfer]

ERD50,

Might the occasional audio/video breakup be due to your signal? Before I get my new antenna, for CBS for the first hour or a program the recording would hum along fine, then for no apparent reason, I'd get audio and video breakup. More than the few seconds like you.

Now after my new antenna, pretty much no breakup at all.

 

[ERD50]

ERD50,

Might the occasional audio/video breakup be due to your signal? Before I get my new antenna, for CBS for the first hour or a program the recording would hum along fine, then for no apparent reason, I'd get audio and video breakup. More than the few seconds like you.

Now after my new antenna, pretty much no breakup at all.

It very well could be - though we get a pretty strong signal here (rooftop style antenna in the attic), the only breakup I ever see on our TVs is when there are storms between here and Chicago (one time I longed for the days of analog - you can at least hear and see something through the interference, but a pixelated 50% broken up audio/video is useless).

But I do think this box kicks off some interference in the recording mode - I noticed that when I ran the TV tuner through it. So maybe it is just on the hairy side enough to cause the very intermittent breakup that I'm seeing, essentially interfering with itself while recording?

I'll experiment when I get a chance, I might be able to clean up the signal a bit, or maybe add an amp at that point. I've got a distribution amp at the point the antenna coax gets to the basement, and I run feeds to each TV from there. And IIRC, I've got an amp at the antenna (it is fed by a DC connection in the basement). It's worth taking another look at all this, I may be able to clean things up and cut out a few paths.

-ERD50

 

[easysurfer]

ERD50, Thanks again.

I just order the Mediasonic device and a HDMI switcher since my old TV only has two HDMI ports, both in use. I also ordered a splitter and two cables from Monoprice.

All this OTA DVR talk has me contemplating getting one of these or something like it for football. I wouldn't use the DVR to record much but more to just watch and pause to sync to the radio broadcast.

I should have kept my older DVR. That was buggy but the picture quality was great! Now, my current DVR is very stable, but the picture just isn't as sharp. The picture is adequate, but I sure got spoiled watching games in HD .