I've purchased a BS3 but probably won't get it for at least another week.  Here in Atlanta we have excellent HDTV broadcasting over the air for the major networks.  I was told that the BS3 has an ATSC HDTV tuner built-in.  Does anyone have experience with the performance of the built-in tuner?  We were very happy with the performance of our Samsung STB HDTV tuner although it was a little slow switching channels and the integration with the BS1 wasn't too good.  Can the BS3 access the channel guide info/data the way the Samsung and other ATSC tuners can?

My wife and I are trying to decide between the Beovision 4, 7, and 9 to replace our Avant. I would be interested in the answer to this question also.

I got a BS3 last Summer.  Its ATSC tuner works pretty well for picking up signals, though I don't have much to compare it to.  I also have Elgato's hybrid USB tuner and software for my Mac, and the BS3's tuner does a superior job, and does switch fairly quickly (much quicker than my old MX5000, which was dog slow).

Although the BS3 also  accesses the channel guide/info, it's not too elegant at it.  I hit the blue Beo4 button to get the current channel's info, and some other button to get into the area that lists channels and current and upcoming shows.  My Mac's eyeTV software does a much better job of this, but then that's on a full-blown computer, so it would have the advantage at this.  I've got my Mac hooked up to my BS3 as my DVR, supporting surround sound and 1080i.  Oh, and the new BS3 software supports the Apple remote, so the combo works nicely.

In short, I'm happy with the BS3 tuner, and of course, integration is good.  Let me know if you have any other questions.

-- Paul 

I've had a BS3 since last fall and have a grand total of three ATSC tuners being used in the system: the built-in unit, which is clearly just an add-on board or chip for the NA market to meet FCC requirements, a Samsung 361, which I had left over from my previous BS1 system, and an LG 3410A, which is a HDD recorder with a single ATSC tuner. I get the impression that the ATSC tuner in the BS3 is a added-on kludge and not at all well-integrated with the rest of the system. The ATSC control software even has an entirely different look and menu structure than the rest of the BS3. In regards specifically to picture quality, the built-in ATSC tuner is very good, but the Samsung is marginally better, and the LG is substantially, even dramatically better than either of the other two. So I use the LG tuner as much as possible for OTA reception when it is not recording, and use the Sammy box when the LG is otherwise busy. I also have a BV7, and the ATSC tuner module, taking into account the different screen technologies, seems to be identical to the one in the BS3 in terms of sensitivity, picture quality, and menu structure.