Not sure if this is strictly on topic here, if not my apollogies in advance.

I see, looking at the big shops like Futureshop that they have lots of cable/sattelite  compatable PVR's but none that seem to be Over-the-air compatable.  Anyone know (preferable recommend) a few models that are OTA compatable, and who sells them?

Well I have been waiting for those stores to sell one one day , but then again , mind you I am obviously so naive. Echostar sells one that apparently its very good , it is basically a Bell/Dish Network PVR with an OTA tuner but without the Sat tuner. DTV Pal PVR I think they call it or something like that.

You can also use an FTA HD Sat receiver that has PVR via USB capabilities. You have to also buy a USB HDD in that case but now that the hackers are in the dark I think the prices for those FTA boxes has gone down. Check ebay for CS 8100 and the likes. sony used to sell the HDD 500 I beleive, which most people claim is an awsome machine , check ebay for a used one since they stopped production several years ago.

The cable and sat industry apparently made sure no one manufacture one of those. I am talking an HD PVR , for SD there are several HDD based recorders. Welcome to freedom , the freedom to force you to consume cable or sat pay TV.

Choices for recording OTA:

* The Echostar DVR
* TiVo HD (monthly fees)
* FTA receiver with ATSC tuner (generally these are pretty poor on DVR implementation)
* HTPC-based system.

I have a Sony DHG-HDD500, long out of production, and for a first (and only) generation product it really is quite good. Reliable, and it was designed much *smarter* than the SA 8300HD I use for cable.

Its main drawbacks are that it only has one tuner, storage isn't expandable (but available in 250gb and 500gb models), and the tuner doesn't hold up to current tuners (sensitivity, multipath rejection etc.).

So the real choices are the Echostar (any idea of a Toronto area dealer???) or a media PC with a tuner card.  

I think I am more likely to go with a build-it-myself media PC, that can sit under the TV in the slot for the VCR and DVD player and retire both those machines.  Run a system like Mythbuntu so I don't need to pay the Microsoft computer tax :)

At this point, were I starting fresh, I'd go the media PC route. With dual dual-tuner cards. :-)

Wouldn't dual tuner cards mean a splitter?  Is there a card with dual ATSC tuners in one unit???

There's HDhomerun, but its a networked product. Its not expensive, but I don't fancy having my computer running to watch TV. Or in my case buy another computer to sit next to my TV set. Why they didn't add HDMI or component video outputs I'm not sure?!

They are only available in the US and at Sears. I have one and I'd call it "ok at best". The firmware is atrocious. There's been 5 versions in the past 12 months. The first 3 versions had numerous crash problems. The 4th version stopped the crashes, but couldn't keep time so it missed recording programs.

The 5th version is generally ok, but still has several rough spots. It's been almost 5 month since the last update, so perhaps that is the version us owners are stuck with.

I think is is essentially a TV tuner card that uses the network instead of a PCI slot to connect to the computer.  Simpler for those who don't spend time under the hood.

What gets me annoyed with a lot of this stuff, is that they sell it in Canada through the US, you end up needing to pay exchange, customs and brokerage fees, so that the price ends up instead of being X dollars, it's 2X dollars in real money. 

More thinking on an HTPC, implementation date September, 1st 2010

Tuner card needs to be Linux compatable, most of the Haupauge cards are, prefer  dual ATSC tuners, QAM would be a bonus but not required.

Video card would need to have the ability for composite out.  Although the TV has a PC port, don't know if this will remain common.  Knowing the way the computer industry works they will replace the traditional video port with the digital one in the next 5 years.....

Any comments????

VGA is already all but dead... everything is DVI or HDMI these days. Or Displayport if you want the one after that...

Yes, actually VGA was replaced by SVGA 20 years ago, but it used the same cable pin out.  The usual reason for replacing things in computers is that they need a reason to sell more stuff.  After all if you replace your computer and don't need to replace your year old monitor and six month old printer at the same time, then the world will end.  Nobody seems to tell this to mobo makers though, which is why most motherboards still have a floppy drive port on them, even though floppy drives have been obsolete for 2 decades already.   It's been 10 years since I had a computer with a floppy drive in it.  Funny thing is, there are still some floppy discs here, I think.    

HDMI may be the last big thing, but there are still a lot of computer boards that don't have it, and most monitors have both HDMI or DVI and VGA ports on them. 

The new TV here has both a VGA and HDMI port (2 IIRC), a set of old fashioned Red/White/Yellow jacks, a couple of sets of composite video jacks.  You would think that over time the older ports would get removed, but that doesn't seem to be the case.   Then again I have a working Circa 1995 VCR which has a splitter so that the mono sound gets divided between the  2 channels, because it's mono only, so it's good that the old ports are still there, because the RF on it doesn't work anymore......

Disagree 100%....DVI/HDMI came out hand in hand with HDCP/DRM Daniel.....and i will scream
bloody murder if the venerable VGA port is ever dropped from monitor production! As for mainstream televisions,
you have to keep an eye on the manufacturers, as recently as four months ago in one of the other forums I visit there are TV models out there that don't go all the way to 1080 on the analogue port, in many cases 1024x720/1366x768 because of DRM, they are meant to force use of the HDMI port. However, many nVidia based mobos designed for the gamer crowd are including HDMI. You really have to investigate the models you're interested in buying before hand.

I challenge anybody to tell the difference of MyHD MDP-130's VGA pin out vs. the now unobtainable DVI daughtercard
at 1280x1024p with the unaided eye! The only reason I use that setting is both Acers have a max of 1680x1050[22 inch]
which is used on the desktop and the 1024p setting is so close I doubt anyone can tell with the naked eye.
Now, am i clear? the 130 acts as a second vid card, the desktop is at the max of the monitor out of the primary and if I ever get an 24 inch or larger with say a 2100x1600 max, then I'll use one of the 130's 1080 settings. Right now, 1280x1024 keeps ppl and objects in their proper porportions when viewing TV materiel.
Don't forget, Mother Nature, as in electricity and electromagnetism is analogue, only the delivery system is digital.

Microfloppies still have their uses, as i reported elsewhere, I used XXCLONE in order to have a backup boot drive, plus a
Quick boot diskette, when I discovered that the workstation's 1.44 floppy drive wasn't working.
I've come across too many ppl who panic when their optical drives fail at the same time the HDDs do and they never entertained the idea of making QBDs.

Many systems now can boot from a USB device as well, so a QBD can be created on a USB drive.   Naw floppies are still dead.  I remember some of the early systems, seeing an IBM 4341 that had an 8 inch floppy drive.  Then playing with micro-computers including a Northstar Horizon that had a hard sectored 5 1.4" floppy, then the 3.5" even had a zip drive in one computer.....  If the optical and hard drives both quit at the same time, I think I would toss the whole computer out the window into the snow. 

In this particular case though, a PVR, you probably wouldn't bother with a floppy drive, a bootable CD/DVD drive is probably sufficuent, bigger question would be DVD or BluRay?  2 years ago, when I built the computer I am typing this on, BR was too expensive, I don't know if that is still the case or not.