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RE: need tuners for monitors

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In Reply to: RE: need tuners for monitors posted by Joe Murphy Jr on September 05, 2011 at 14:19:36

You seem to be comparing a specialty item versus a item that benefits from economy of scale. TV tuners have always been a specialty item and therefore expensive. I recall when Sony introduced the Profeel line, and other manufacturers copied the component TV concept. That didn't last very long, but there were nice looking TV tuners to match hifi equipment for a while. The tuner half of portable VHS recorders was one way to get a TV tuner back in the days before camcorders.
The recent CECB was a (one-time?) historical aberration for a low-cost (ATSC) tuner (w/only NTSC outputs).
I suspect your requirement for a NTSC and QAM settop box means it's targeted for a very tiny tiny market (an analog subscriber who wants to see the locals & anything else in clear QAM, and using a monitor or TV w/broken tuner). Do cable companies even use/offer such a combination of tuners in their STB? Wouldn't the subscriber either have just an all analog package or all digital?
Maybe you should consider separate tuners, like a old VCR plus a digital tuner (such as the Centronics or ChannelMaster CM-7001).

BTW from what I've seen recently from both Cox and TimeWarner analog feeds, analog PQ has really gone downhill. Both cases looked much worse on CRT TVs than what a ChannelMaster CECB can do with OTA.

Edits: 09/05/11 09/05/11 09/05/11 09/05/11 09/05/11

Follow Ups:

can't agree with that - Joe Murphy Jr 21:53:35 09/05/11 (2)
For people who don't want to rent boxes from the cable company, there is a market. Not huge, but it's there.

A tuner is a specialty item? Not even close and here's why. Want an NTSC tuner? Just use a VCR or DVD recorder. How cheap are those these days? People are giving them away. Want an NTSC/ATSC tuner? Not a problem, as you can find them for under $70 as an STB or for even less if you get the "connect to a computer" types. However, throw in QAM and you get screwed (ie; add at least $100 more to the price).

Remember, a brand new 24" 1080p LCD HDTV capable of NTSC/ATSC/QAM signals was advertised for $169. The least expensive tuner that accepts NTSC/ATSC/QAM signals is also $169. Think about that for more than a second.

Economies of scale? Give me a break. More like economies of screwing.
- your ranting might be rewarded - blue_z 18:00:22 09/07/11 (1)
  > Want an NTSC tuner? Just use a VCR or DVD recorder.
  
  Thought we were discussing *standalone* tuners, AKA STBs.
  
  It's not $75 used but the Mygica LDA-9000 at $100 seems to meet all of your other criteria. It's targeted at the computer market, rather than consumer electronics.
  - Mygica LDA-9000 at Amazon.com (Open in New Window)
  - that's $35 more than the $65 it's not worth - Joe Murphy Jr 22:38:55 09/07/11 (0)
    It was only $65 from meritline.com, so I tried it. Sent it back because it doesn't tune to any of the digital channels that the cable company provides. None of them. I guess the part of that tuner that is QAM should be labeled SQAM. I have two televisions and two tuners that get at least 30 "free" digital channels (SD, HD and music) from the cable company.
    
    As for the VCR/DVD Recorder reference, I don't recall any STBs that were NTSC only.

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