records to vcr (manually!)

I mentioned this is another thread...I have a three year old Hauppauge (pronounced "Hop-Hog") WinTV PVR-350 and it still works great!

Is this like a dvr?

will it still work great when feb. rolls around? i got the stupid circuit city one. can anyone recommend an antenna for me or should i paperclip/coathanger it?

This is really designed to record HD from HD Tivos and HD cable and satellite STBs via component I/O, thereby bypassing the copy protection built into HDMI.

Does this work like a TiVo? Do I need to buy a separate HDD?

ok, cross that. I read the FAQ. Do you think this is worth it? Any of you built a HTPC out there?

Seems like a good way to get around not being able to pull HD off of our cable and other DVRs. Just use this to record from an HD receiver instead. Should pay for itself in 18 months or so from savings of DVR lease fees. Nice...

Overview
--Make real-time H.264 compressed recordings at resolutions up to 1080i with HD-PVR (high definition personal video recorder) from Hauppauge®. HD-PVR records component video (YCrCb) from cable TV and satellite set top boxes, with a built-in IR blaster to automatically change TV channels for scheduled recordings. Audio is recorded using AAC or Dolby Digital. The recording format is AVCHD, which can be used to burn Blu-ray DVD disks. Two hours of HD recordings, recorded at 5 Mbits/sec, can be burnt onto a standard 4.7 GB DVD-R or DVD-RW disk for playback on a Blu-ray DVD player. The HD PVRs recording quality allows personal archival of your favorite high definition TV programs from any component video HD set top box. The HD PVR also has standard definition composite and S-Video inputs so you can record your old home video tapes into an AVCHD format for creating Blu-ray DVD recordings.

Seems like the DVD Recorder from Philips at Buy.com would be a better deal.

#8 ... this is to record content in HD ... Phillps box records in "SD" (standard definition) format. They are really little comparable. This is called a "recorder", but it (alone) doesn't "record" anything ... it must work with a PC, via a fast USB interface, to actually record ... so you need a decent PC to make it work. This box just puts the HD "signal" into the right digital formats for storage and recording.

Hauppauge is an awesome brand when it comes to HD cards and recorders. If you are thinking about this or the WD recorder, go with this one.