Are there any major stores that sell HDTV tuners?

Question

I have a standard television set. And I would like to hook up an external HDTV tuner. Besides ebay, where can I purchase one?

Answer 1

You can buy HD tuners for over the air broadcasts in places like Best Buy/Circuit City, they also need an antenna. The type of antenna depends on how far away from the broadcast towers you are. You can determine this at http://www.antennaweb.org

However, since you have a regular TV it's pointless for you to get one.

Also in response to the previous poster, a lot of HD tv's are sold as HD ready. Meaning there is no built in HD tuner. Most people attach TV's to HD cable boxes and HD satellite boxs so they don't need a separate tuner. These tv's do have a standard tuner though.

Answer 2

The HD TiVo Series 3 is has two built-in HD tuners (ATSC), two built-in standard definition (NTSC) tuners, and two built-in digital cable (QAM) tuners.

The HD TiVo will record up to two programs on any of these tuners for live or later playback.

You can hookup your standard definition TV to the s-video or RF output on the HD TiVo.

But, as someone else pointed out, this will not make your standard definition TV display pictures in high definition. All of the HD programs will be converted to standard definition to display on your TV in standard definition. The picture quality will likely be better than you receive using the standard definition (NTSC) tuners, just as DVDs look better than broadcast programs. But it won't be displayed in HD because your TV won't display high definition.

You can order one of these from TiVo directly, Weaknees, and many local retailers like Best Buy and CircuitCity.

You may also want to look into the external TV antenna that would be best for your location so you can receive the external ATSC over-the-air broadcasts.

Answer 3

why would you be attempting to connect an HDTV tuner to a standard def tv? its not going to do anything to improve your picture quality. as far as i know all HDTVs sold now have tuners built in, so I doubt that any large stores sell stand alone tuners, and even if they did, they would probally have high def outputs not compatible with your old tv...