Question:
Hi, Big Picture Big Sound,
We're old & have no one to help us. The people in retail stores don't seem to know anything. Can you help please? Currently we have a rooftop antenna, an old TV and three old VCRs. We can record 2 stations on VCR1 and VCR2 while watching TV only or recorded tape on VCR3. All are set up in a daisy chain fashion using coax cable (no splitter).
We have no plan to get cable. We'd like to buy a new digital TV and 3 new digital DVD burners and continue what we've done for years. Can we do a daisy chain with coax cable with the new digital equipment?
Some additional questions:
Thanks so much for your help. We appreciate it.
-Steve & Maria in Seattle
Answer:
Hello, Steve and Maria in Seattle!
The short answer to your question is that yes, you can buy new DVD recorders (or DVRs) and a new digital TV and continue doing what you are doing now with your roof-top antenna feeding the various recording devices and TV. I would not recommend "daisy-chaining" the antenna output through the 2 or 3 devices as it will not only degrade the signal with each step but also the output on any of the devices in the chain could interfere with the input coming to any of the devices later in the chain depending on which mode the device is in. Instead you should simply take the antenna feed coming into the house, insert a high quality 4-way splitter and send an individual coax cable to each of your 2 or 3 recorders and one to the TV itself.
You probably would not use "channel 3" as the selected input any more on the new TV as this is not going to give you very high quality results. Your best bet would be to connect each of the recorders to the TV using an HDMI cable. An HDMI cable is both the highest quality option and the simplest one as it carries high definition video and audio on a single cable.
But unless you really need to keep DVD copies of every single thing you record, then you may be better off purchasing something called a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), instead of 2 or 3 DVD recorders. A Digital Video Recorder will store TV shows on a hard drive for later playback. After you watch the show you can delete it without worrying about throwing away a used DVD-R or erasing a DVD-RW or DVD+RW which is a little more complicated than just re-using a VHS tape.
Currently there are not that many Digital Video Recorders on the market that are designed to work with OTA (Over The Air) broadcasts. Tivo does make a High Definition DVR that would do what you need. IT is pretty highly rated and features a vey intuitive guide and user interface but Tivo requires a monthly fee of $12.95 for its use (or a one time fee of $399.95 on top of the purchase price).
The only over-the-air DVR that I'm aware of which requires no monthly fee is the DTVPal DVR which is made by Echostar/DISH Network. Although the device is made by DISH Network, it is not something that requires satellite or cable subscription. It uses a standard antenna signal to pull in local broadcasts and guide information from your local digital TV stations. Like the Tivo HD unit, the DTVPal DVR includes two tuners, so you can actually record two shows at a time or watch one show while recording another or even record two live shows while watching a previously recorded show.
One of the cooler aspects of a digital recorder like this is that you can actually start watching a show before it has finished recording. In other words, you can tune in at 9:15 to start watching a one-hour show that began at 9:00 and fast forward through the commercials and still finish up watching at around 10:00. Then you can delete the show when you're done.
Your other option would be to get digital converter boxes for each of your VCRs and TVs. But this would be far more complicated to use than a DVR as you'd have to make sure that each box is set to the right channel and the right time *and* that the VCR is set to record at that time and most digital tuner boxes cannot be automated to do this.
I believe the DTVPal DVR is currently only available online (see link below).
I hope this helps and best of luck to you with your digital transition.
-Chris
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