Advice on purchasing an HD converter Box with at least a 7 day guide

[mwdxer1]

I have the vip211k Dish receiver with the OTA tuner. The unit works well, but several of our OTA channels do not show a guide. It just says "digital service". Some time back I purchased a little Ematic HD converter box. It is supposed to have a 7 day guide, but at most I get 12-24 hours. I have the thumb drive on the unit to record. Is there an HD converter box out there that has a 7 day guide? Better if it has a DVR. The local TV stations claim their guides go on for at least a week. Thanks.

 

[dweber]

The boxes that give you 12-24 hour guide are using PSIP data that is part of the OTA signal. Boxes that give you a week of Guide use the internet and they usually charge a fee for the guide. For example Silicon Dust sells a network tuner but charges a fee if you want the guide.

 

[mwdxer1]

Interesting as a couple local TV stations claim their OTA guide goes out for several days. That info then is not correct?

 

[navychop]

Look at the Channel Master DVR+. It has a free EPG via the Internet and will fall back to PSIP if there is no Internet.

Records internally or you can add an EHD. I have two DVR+ units.

 

[mwdxer1]

Thanks. I'll look into the Channel Master. Their OTA TV amps work very well.

 

[navychop]

It’s being replaced with a totally different unit. I prefer the DVR+.

 

[harshness]

Interesting as a couple local TV stations claim their OTA guide goes out for several days. That info then is not correct?

Trust your experience over what the TV stations claim.

I would imagine there may some limitations as to how much some tuners can store in their guide database memory.

 

[pamajestic]

I agree the Channel Master DVR+ would be a good choice however that model has been discontinued. There are some used on eBay but the prices are high.

You could also consider a used TiVo Series 3 or Roamio with lifetime as well. They also need access to the internet for the guide data. The two tuner TiVo Premiere also does antenna tuning but the tuner is significantly less sensitive than the series 3 or Roamio.

 

[mwdxer1]

I see the older CM unit has been discontinued. I do not want to pay for the guide, if I do not have to. I wondere there are other units out there that offers a free guide?

 

[harshness]

I wondere there are other units out there that offers a free guide?

Back in the day, I used to have an Avermedia tuner that used TitanTV but that was an NTSC tuner and TitanTV discontinued the guide service. It would even start a recording based on closed caption content.

As dweber pointed out, the ones that claim more than a couple days do that magic only with additional cost guide service. It is unreasonable to expect that the guide companies would give away their intellectual property when they can charge for it. Yes, the guide data is indeed copyrighted.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Silicon Dust sells a network tuner but charges a fee if you want the guide.

They charge a fee *if* you want more than the PSIP data timeframe provides. The HD Homerun app displays guide data for all of my channels for the usual 12-24 hour period and I don't pay them a dime. All subchannels have guide data as well.