question for our HT gurus

JoshK · « **on:** 10 Mar 2003, 06:28 pm »

I quit subscribing to cable because they are a rip-off. I live in an apartment complex so a big exterior satellite dish is a no-go. I have started to look at OTA HDTV tuners/decoders for my plasma using an indoor or real small outdoor antennae. My question is since my plasma does not have a built in tuner I would like to kill two birds with one stone. Will OTA HDTV tuners/decoders also serve as a tuner for regular OTA broadcast, that is, non-HDTV broadcasts?

Also if anyone has any suggestions/preferences for good but reasonably priced OTA HDTV tuners/decoders I am in the market for research.

Josh

Brad · « **Reply #1 on:** 10 Mar 2003, 09:51 pm »

All of the OTA tuners I found also support "normal" analog signals.

I ended up going with the Toshiba DST-3000, which also does DirecTV. It was the only way to get hd.net at the time. I paid about $450, which was less than I found any of the OTA-only tuners at the time.

Samsung had an OTA only when I last checked - maybe they've updated it now....

bubba966 · « **Reply #2 on:** 10 Mar 2003, 10:13 pm »

The Tosh DST-3000 is one of the better HD tuners available.

I wasn't sure if it was an SD tuner as well, but apparently it is.

KeithR · « **Reply #3 on:** 28 Mar 2003, 12:09 am »

Josh- the Perfect Vision this month does a tuner shootout...i would look to Gary Merson's wisdom above anyone else in this arena

Kishore · « **Reply #4 on:** 28 Mar 2003, 02:31 am »

Yes, you can use current STBs for OTA of HD & SD signals. I'd recommend Zenith 520, Samsung 160 (the newer generation) models.

Tosh DST3100, Pana HD52 & RCA DTC200 are expected soon.

Cheers,
Kishore