TV tuner help

JoshK · « **on:** 16 Jan 2003, 05:27 pm »

hey guys, especially our resident cinema guru Brian, I have a question. I decided a while back to bail on cable. Our local cable company sucks, don't watch it enough and it is expensive. I live in NYC however and can't mount satelites in our apartment (big no-no). My plasma has no built in TV tuner, so I was looking around for a basic TV tuner that you can pick up local stations with via a regular rabit ear attenae or what-not. I know, I know, it is 20 year regression in video broadcast. I like the idea of free though (except for initial purchase of box). I was looking at something like this AV Tool

Anyone have any other suggestions? It would be cool to get local stations like CBS w/ HDTV broadcasts in HDTV but my plasma isn't truely hi-def (nr 852x480, purest say isn't true HD but many say it is just as good in practice, leaves me a bit confused still). Second of all, who sells hi quality RGB/VGA cables?

TIA,
Josh

JohnR · « **Reply #1 on:** 16 Jan 2003, 05:33 pm »

I have a little box that seems similar to that one that cost 100. I forget the name of it, will look it up when I get home. The audio on mine went south tho but I expect I can get it replaced, just haven't bothered (mostly use it for movies)

bubba966 · « **Reply #2 on:** 17 Jan 2003, 05:56 am »

Quote from: JoshK

hey guys, especially our resident cinema guru Brian, I have a question.

I assume I'm the one you're referencing here.

When I sold Plasmas a couple years ago I'd advise people to get a good quality VCR, (preferrably a S-VHS deck) and to use the tuner in the VCR. Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Sony, & Panasonic make pretty good VCR's. I'd had better luck with the Mits & Tosh decks.

But you might want to look at the D-VHS D Theater decks now. Then you can watch HD movies and have a tuner in one box.

I'm not sure of what you can do with the OTA HD deocders as most of my HD experience has been with sattelite HD. So I don't know if the OTA boxes are also NTSC tuners.

As the stand alone tuners weren't really needed before plasma monitors I honestly don't have much experience with them.

I'd personally go with a D Theater deck & use the tuner in that. Everything I've read about the D Theater tapes says they're awesome. And the HD footage I've seen played back off D-VHS was simply beautiful.

And to answer the RGB/VGA cable question. AudioQuest makes them. I've looked at a couple before & they were quite well built.

JohnR · « **Reply #3 on:** 17 Jan 2003, 06:22 am »

Oh FWIW, the little box I have is called a ViewSonic VB50HRTV

JoshK · « **Reply #4 on:** 17 Jan 2003, 01:14 pm »

Thanks guys! I didn't even think about getting a VCR.

bubba966 · « **Reply #5 on:** 17 Jan 2003, 05:59 pm »

Josh, one more thing about VCR's. A warning about JVC S-VHS decks. I've got one at the moment. And every time I ever use it I regret taking back the 6 head Toshiba I had as it was a better deck in every sort.

Granted this was only JVC's $320 S-VHS deck, so it wasn't the best one they make by a long shot. But it's seriously outclassed by Mits & Tosh $200 decks.

But if you end up getting a D-VHS D Theater deck then the above doesn't matter.

JoshK · « **Reply #6 on:** 17 Jan 2003, 06:07 pm »

I am not really interested in D-VHS in fact. I wouldn't mind however a cheap VCR (for my wife's tapes) that has a TV tuner in it. This is going to get very minimal usage so I am looking for cheap but works.

bubba966 · « **Reply #7 on:** 17 Jan 2003, 06:19 pm »

Cheap but works huh? Look to the Toshiba's. The 6 head models are really nice. Don't know what they're running at the moment. But their 4 head Hi-Fi decks are usually $100 or less and those are still pretty nice.