On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:27:09 -0500, Lawrence
wrote:

On Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:09:53 -0400, micky
wrote:

I don't know what the term is
but I mean a model designed to work off the air (and/or off cable
tv??), or any model that is sold alone and not rented out by Verizon
or a cable company.

Yes. But I'm still not sure if or how it would work if one has FIOS.

Would it work with FIOS?

I use mine with over the air stations.

Don't have any of these models, but when my VCR's are beyond repair. I'll
be looking at these.
http://www.channelmaster.com/Set_Top_Boxes_Antenna_DVR_Subscription_Free_DVR_s/40.htm

Thans for this page. Solidsignal.com sells some channelmaster stuff,
including a non-PAL version of the DVDR. Probably better than the
Magnavox below.

www.walmart.com/ip/Magnavox-HDD-and-DVD-Recorder-with-Digital-Tuner-1TB/20710259

This is the new version of the Philips, (model DVDR3575H/37 You can
probably ignore the /37). I mentioned that I have. The Philips is no
longer being updated, but this is definitely made by the same people.
(Where the features haven't changed (which was the vast majority of
them when my friend bought one) the manuals are identical) Now
they are selling models with 3 different size hard drives. (Mine has
only 160G, which is actually big enough as long as one doesn't want to
keep a big library or record more than he has time to watch. If otoh,
one wants to keep a big library or record much more than he has time
to watch, probably even a terabyte is not big enough. )

The PHilips had a long long thread in the popular AV web list. I hate
weblists, but since it dealt directly with my device, I read all 500
or 1200 messages or more.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...44342787,d.dmQ

There were 2 or 3 or more threads. One contained over 1000 messages.
You should read that. Another contained maybe only 10, but a couple
were important.

Check here http://www.avsforum.com/f/106/dvd-re...s-standard-def
Check all 333 threads subjects for the model number. Oops, there may
be 15,000 threads. Maybe there's a way to search. if not at avsforum,
Use google and the parameter site:www.avsforum.com and search for
3575H. That will do it. H means hardddrive.
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient...w=1024&bih=599

Maybe by now there is a thread for the channel master.
One explained how to install a new HDD when the current one eventually
fails. Easy mechanically and pretty easy as to formatting, but if I
bought the Philips or Magnavox, I would definitely read and save that
page, and some other pages which showed how to get hidden information
by pressing the right keys. Sorry my info is so vague. I'll hunt for
some details if anyone asks.

The Philips had lots of flaws, but despite them, it's still wonderful
to have. The first Magnavox has all but one of the same flaws afaik.
(The one it doesn't have is you only have to say you want to delete a
program (that you've already watched for example) 2 times not 3. That
is, You only have to confirm the delete once, not twice.)

For one thing, no good way of setting the time. It will set
automatically but it's off by a minute or a little more. If you set
it manually, the clock runs fast in 2 or 3 weeks, it's off by a
minute. I set the timer to start a minute earlier and end a minute
late, but that doesn't work when I want 30 minutes at 6:30 and 30
minutes at 7:00. Or when I want to watch The Rifleman and 6:00 and
the timer insists on changing to another station at 6:29. It won't
wait until 6:30 because I set it to start early, in case the clock is
slow.

It's logic is not always the best. Could have more preferences than
it does. Minimum back up amount is 15 seconds and I would like 10.
(This does not count going in reverse, but that takes more time.)

I had four others that I warned my friend about.

A new one is that sometimes it records a show, but when I go to play
it, it displays a forward arrow, but it doesn't actually play, it
wont' fast forward or skip forward, or do anything. I deleted a show
because of this but later found I could go back 4 or 10 programs and
play an old one that played, and after that, the new one would work
too. 4 other times in the last 5 years, it's gotten stuck and I
have to turn it off and back on for it to keep playing. (But it
forgets where it was when that happens.)

Also 3 times it has recorded a show of no length, and when I try to
play it, the box freezes and can't even be turned off with the remote,
have to push the button on the box. After turning it back on, the
show can't be deleted either. (Unless one deletes every show on the
harddrive) So these 3 entries in the list of recorded shows sit there
like black holes if I'm foolish enough to try to play one.

The memory says the date and time and station that was recorded, but
the description, that it shows when not recording, doesn't show WHEN
recording and doesn't get saved, so it can be hard to tell what a
recorded show was without playing it. Even then I sometimes can't
tell. (It does play in a little box, but it's usually a commercial
that got recorded at 6:29 or 7:00PM.

The DVDplayer recorder works well, but doesn't do PAL. One can copy
from DVD to HDD and back. A lot of the manual deals with editing
reordings, snipping and splicing. I never do that. I wish they had
spent their time on other features. Maybe since they went to the
trouble to add 2 more sizes of harddrives, they've fixed some of the
many flaws. I wish I knew.


Maybe the Channel Master has none of these problems, but when I bought
mine, mine was 200 and the CM was about 400 or more. Now there is
less difference, iiuc. (Or coure there is also the second-hand
market that sometimes has one of these) The CM will record two
programs at once, but the days are gone when there are two programs
worth recording at the same time over the air.

AFAIK, there was no detailed online discussion of the CM

Other than that, I might buy the CM if I started fresh. If anyone
does, please let me know how well it works and any problems it has. I
don't real this busy group all the time so if you could email me at
misc07 at bigfoot dot com, that would be great.

or a MythTV box.

Hadn't heard about this one