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View Full Version : Wishful Thinking or Not? Product that just plugs in and is ready

jillnadine
30-Jan-2011, 5:36 PM
One more question:

Is there a recent newfangled TV that one could buy off the shelf and just come home & plug in & have it receive regular free network TV without having to dink around with antennas at all, not to mention converter boxes? Could/does such a product also have some type of recording device to record shows when you aren't home? All this without any subscription pay services....I would guess not, but you never know, worth asking...Thanks!
Dave Loudin
30-Jan-2011, 7:24 PM
Sorry, if you don't want to deal with cable, there's no such thing as a plug-n-play TV. You need to have something to catch the radio waves properly.

Home recording has become hopelessly and needlessly complex, unless you want to pay someone every month for a subscription. There maybe a model or two of "DVR" available, but you will need an HDMI interface to see anything in high-definition. Plus, moving the recordings to another device is virtually impossible.
John Candle
31-Jan-2011, 5:27 AM
You can have a good time making recordings and moving recordings , Panasonic DMR-WZ48VK , CM7000PAL , Zinwell ZAT 950A . Here are online Tv Guides , http://television.aol.com , http://tvlistings.zap2it.com , http://www.titantv.com , The down side of all this is you have think.
GroundUrMast
1-Feb-2011, 3:18 AM
There is a glimmer of hope...

A far cry from plug and play but recording in high and standard definition is available in an 'open source' format.

The Silicondust brand, HD HomeRun tuner will allow you to record to your computer hard drive. Depending upon what operating system and media center software you use, you can record the MPEG-2 data directly to you hard disk then if you desire, edit or copy as you wish.

That said, it is clearly a computer geek oriented product, not a plug-and-play 'any body can make it go' product.

For those folks who are able to make Windows-7 Home Premium edition OS work for them, the Silcondust tuner is one of several tuners supported by the Windows Media Center software that is already installed. That makes such a computer a complete HD receiver and DVR.