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VCRs are aging and I'm looking for a replacement -- probably not a vcr because they've pretty much vanished. Also, I don't want a TIVO like deal. I record just a few shows because I basically like to watch TV on my schedule. I don't really watch much, and I can't see paying a monthly fee.
My 2nd humble request is for some kind of analog tuner with composite out. I have a wireless gimmick (as suggested by FTE ) to send my satellite stuff to our screen porch. Unfortunately it's a fairly long ways, and it's a little touchy. i could put the transmitter by my TV2 in the living room, but that's fed by the RF out of my sat receiver, so I can only set it for analog channels.
The RF extender only takes composite vid.
I can also see that as an issue when I need to replace my living room tv. I called Dish about the situation, and they said sorry.
as for your old vcr replacement, they do have some dvd recorders with a hard drive in them and you can record onto hard drive, or onto dvd, to watch later. The hard drive would be the better, because you can go and erase after, or, if you have a good pc, you can get tv input in it and record on your computer.(that is a little more technical tho) (Maybe a pc upgrade is in your future- media center computer will have all of that in it already)
The other stuff, it is always better to run a splitter, and go hard wire to the other tv's instead of wireless. Radio shack should carry some converters to go to the composite video.
Download shows, and watch them on the Western Digital Media Player. It's less than $150, has composite out for oldschool teevies as well as HDMI for newfangled stuff. It's not much bigger than a couple of VHS tapes, and it wouldn't be hard to use it in-car (or truck). It plays almost any media around, even Blu-ray quality high-definition, off of USB thumbdrives or hard drives.
If you want a "digital VCR" without getting into a media PC, the "Neuros OSD Media Center" looks good... reviews at Amazon are positive. It records to flash cards or USB drives, can do scheduled recordings (and has an IR blaster so it should be able to change channels on a sat box or converter), and also plays back video, audio or pictures.