Cable/Air tuner. Channel Master vs the field

I am looking for advice on the Channel Master http://www.channelmaster.com/Clear_QAM_Broadcast_Tuner_Box_p/cm-7001.htm has anyone else had experience with it? Is there a better brand?

What I would really like is something akin to their dvr tuner, but for some reason, they did not put a QAM tuner in that box. Does anyone know if there is a dvr that tunes over the air channels as well as QAM? I have been researching for two days and my eyes are bleeding. I have ruled out Tivo, unless I can find one with a lifetime subscription. More research....

A little background if it helps. We are replacing our primary television, which doubles as my computer monitor. The trailer was built pre-flatscreen era, so the mounting area is limited to a 32" television. I toyed with tearing out all the millwork, and re-building it to accommodate a large screen, but the cost was too high, so we compramised, and just widened the existing hole to 32"

I did gobs and gobs of research on tv vs monitor, 21:9 vs 16:9 ultra hd vs all the other things. Curved screens flat screens, virtual screens. I settled on a high end monitor, designed specifically for CAD, which is what I do for a living. It even has built in speakers that will pass muster until I tackle the surround sound. The main reason for going monitor over tv is that it will  have drivers designed to talk to the laptop, and from all the reading I did, will have a clearer screen, especially sitting up close like I do for work. The other issues for me when deciding was how to get sound out from a monitor when using it as a tv, and how to get cable into it. Turns out modern tv's don't have coax inputs anymore, so I have to get a coax converter regardless. As far as sound goes, happy accidental discovery. The stereo receiver I bought a couple years back has hdmi ports. Turns out you can plug all of your hdmi devices, computer, xbox, cable box, into the back, and run an hdmi cable from it to the computer screen. It passes the video signal to the monitor, and splits the sound out to the speakers attached to it. Awesome. Not sure if it is downsampling the video quality, but I will look into that later.

So, new computer monitor, and I need to get tv to it. We mostly netflix anyway, but I like to watch the local news and weather sometimes, and if we are staying at a park that has cable, I like to hook up to that. Not to mention football. I need a device that will tune the over the ai channels, and park cable channels, and send them via hdmi to the monitor. The channel master seems to fit the bill, but then I got greedy and started thinking about dvr.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The issue with a DVR for OTA TV is not the DVR itself, but the program guide that enables it to "know" what programs are available on each channel. Gathering and distributing the hundreds of channel program guides for every broadcast station is expensive, as witnessed by Tivo's subscription fees.

Right, so I am guessing there will be some front end programming for me at every stop. "Record on this channel at 8:00", after I do the program guide research on the computer. This may turn out to be a deal killer, especially during the time when we are moving once a week.

The Channel master supposedly has a guide program built in, but again, they did not put a cable tuner in the dvr which makes me sad.

This university -- https://students.case.edu/services/cabletv/compatibility.html -- recommends the ChannelMaster or the Firebird DCT10 for their students.

The ChannelMaster does have a QAM tuner. It will only tune unencrypted  (Clear QAM) channels.  To tune all digital cable channels requires a device that has a slot for a CableCARD. Many, perhaps most cable companies are encrypting all channels now. TiVo is about the only device with a CableCARD slot.

Tom_M said:

The ChannelMaster does have a QAM tuner. It will only tune unencrypted  (Clear QAM) channels.  To tune all digital cable channels requires a device that has a slot for a CableCARD. Many, perhaps most cable companies are encrypting all channels now. TiVo is about the only device with a CableCARD slot.

Click to expand...

The channel master dvr does not have a qam tuner. On top of that, I was talking to them on the phone yesterday, and they are discontinuing the product that does have a qam tuner. They want to focus solely on over the air products.

I only need to tune cable channels that are provided at some rv parks, so do not need the card slot

Digging around yesterday, I found out that supposedly, Microsoft has partnered with a usb tuner, and the xbox1 will stream television. I have an xbox1 that I already use as my bluray player, so I am going to try it. The tuner packaged with xbox branding does not have qam tuning, but the product originally referenced in the article I read does. If it does not work on the xbox, I can put it on the laptop I guess.

Thanks for all the feedback

patagoniadave said:

Digging around yesterday, I found out that supposedly, Microsoft has partnered with a usb tuner, and the xbox1 will stream television. I have an xbox1 that I already use as my bluray player, so I am going to try it. The tuner packaged with xbox branding does not have qam tuning, but the product originally referenced in the article I read does. If it does not work on the xbox, I can put it on the laptop I guess.

Click to expand...

I'll bet you're talking about the Hauppauge WinTV-955Q. I use one on my computer from time to time. Here's an Xbox1 video on using it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq2r6oj3VMs

zulu said:

I'll bet you're talking about the Hauppauge WinTV-955Q. I use one on my computer from time to time. Here's an Xbox1 video on using it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq2r6oj3VMs

Click to expand...

That was a little creepy! I just this minute finished trying to scan the qam channels on the xbox, only to find out that their software does not currently support it, only the over the air.

I will try the device in the laptop next.....

Just as a follow up for anyone who runs a search on this in the future. I went with the Hauppauge WinTV-955Q device. Basically a cable input on one end, and usb on the other. It hook sup to the laptop, and will tune for analog and digital of both over the air, and cable signals. It also has a mini input on the side with rca hookups, and what I think is an s video. There is a remote that works, and a portable digital television antenna that I could take to the park, or tailgating or something. An added bonus of the laptop being able to act as a dvr with the software that came with it, although I have not tried this feature yet.

After I figured out that I needed to be scanning analog cable instead of digital cable, everything worked great. The laptop ports out to the big screen, it will all run through my audio receiver some day, and life is good in the electronic entertainment department. Just in time for the playoffs