why do so many recorders lack IR blasters.

[JeffB]

My VCR's antenna input was struck by a power surge.
I am now looking for a replacement.
I have been looking at DVD recorders, but also just regular VCRs.
I have found only one product with an IR blaster. This is an infrared device to change the cable channel. It allows you to leave the house and record on one channel at say 8:00 and a different channel at 9:00. It strikes me as an absolute must have feature for every device. Its importance being up there with the power button and the play button. And yet this feature is absent on most all products. I am mystified. Is there some workaround that I am unaware of? Can you split the cable signal and send 1 signal to the cable box and the other to the recorder? The cable box has two way communication over the antenna cable to pull up the TV guide and navigate. I fear this might create a problem with a split signal. Also, I don't know if recorders can tune in all the cable channels. Is the lack of IR blasters due to somebody holding a patent and charging too much? Finally, the IR blasters I have seen mentioned on the internet are a cable that plugs into the back of the recorder and the other end can be pointed at the sensor on the cable box. My current VCR has the blaster built into the front panel. It shoots the IR beam across the room where it reflects off surfaces and comes back to change the channel. I don't know how, but this approach has worked every time without problem. And since it works, I like it better than the separte cable approach.

 

[MDS]

Those IR blasters for a VCR are a workaround (hack) for the fact that the VCR has only 1 tuner. If you want to watch one channel and record another, you need two tuners. In the case you describe, the output of the cable box would be connected to the VCR so the VCR can only record the channel to which the cable box is currently tuned. So, the blaster simply sends the cable box 'change channel' command to the cable box and keeps recording.

All of that is moot now with DVRs as many of them have two tuners and the IR blaster is rarely included.

 

[JeffB]

MDS,

What you suggest would require that I split the cable antenna and send 1 connection to the recorder and one to the cable box.

What I wonder about this scenario, is would the split affect the cable box ability to communicate back to the regional office for display of the TV guide, pay per view options etc.

Secondarily wouldn't the recorder need to except a cable card to tune in the channels. It is a digital cable box. None of the products I saw mentioned support for a cable card.

I don't see how having a second tuner solves my problem at all. Sure it would allow me to watch something different than what I am recording, but that is not my desire. My desire is simply control over the channel that is being recorded. Finally, I didn't see a single box mention having two tuners.

 

[MDS]

I was talking about DVR (Digital Video Recorder) - not a DVD recorder when I mentioned two tuners.

Splitting the cable won't affect the interactive features of the cable box such as the guide or OnDemand, but if you have digital cable you need that cable box to unencrypt encrypted channels like the movie channels and you need its QAM tuner to decode the digital channels.

So splitting the cable from the wall with one going to the cable box and one to the recorder won't allow you to record anything but the basic channels that don't require the cable box. You have to go through the cable box which brings you back to the same setup as with the VCR - the RF output of the cable box has to go the recorder and then you can only record the channel to which the cable box is tuned (because the two devices are connected serially - the output of the cable box just feeds the input of the recorder.)

I know your scenario was two different channles at different times and that is what the IR blaster setup was for - so you could change the cable box channel at the next program time. Your cable box may allow you to set a sequence of programs and times to record and if it does then the serial connection of cable box to recorder would work.