DVR Question

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baballin328

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 7, 2006
Messages
437
Hey

I'm not sure if I put this in the right section or not, but I recently got a Cox HD DVR, and I want to record the Olympics in HD quality. Cox says the DVR can store up to 10 hours of HD quality recordings. So my question is what is the best way to get my previously recorded Olympics off the DVR HD so I can record more? I was thinking about getting a DVD recorder to record off the DVR as it was playing back, but I don't think that DVD's have enough storage capacity to do the job efficiently. Also, would it keep the HD quality? Or is there a way to rip to a computer hard drive? Or is there a better method?


Thanks
 
Usually you can't 'rip' anything to a PC hard drive, because there are safeguards in place by the manufacturers to block that functionality.

Some HD DVR's come with an eSATA port on them so you can hook up a bigger hard drive to record more. Take a look on the back and see.

Otherwise, I'd recommend recording to a PC with the Hauppauge HD PVR.
 
How about some type of capture card on your computer and connect the DVR box to capture card?
 
You can't. Cable Company DVRs are locked and can't transfer their recordings off of them which is why we build HTPCs. You might be able to upgrade the HDD in it though, google your STB and see if there are any mods for it.
 
Yeah, but will that keep the HD quality? The Hauppauge HD PVR looks good, but pretty expensive and I can't find it in my local stores (Best Buy, Circuit City). And thanks for the capture card suggestion, I was thinking about buying a TV tuner . Any PVR/capture card suggestions?
 
Lazy_Moron said:
How about some type of capture card on your computer and connect the DVR box to capture card?
Click to expand...
That's why I mentioned the HD PVR in my post.
 
baballin328 said:
Yeah, but will that keep the HD quality? The Hauppauge HD PVR looks good, but pretty expensive and I can't find it in my local stores (Best Buy, Circuit City). And thanks for the capture card suggestion, I was thinking about buying a TV tuner . Any PVR/capture card suggestions?
Click to expand...
The HD PVR is pretty much the only thing that will retain the HD recording.. or you could always go with a blu-ray standalone recorder and spend 4x as much.
 
Hmm..too bad it isn't a TV tuner also. I would want a TV tuner because after Olympic times, I'm going to move my computer back into my own room where there is only basic cable (no cable box) so, the HD PVR isn't my best option. Is there really no TV tuner capable of recording in HD quality?
 
Only ClearQAM tuners or CableCARD, or ATSC. ClearQAM might get some channels, or it might not get any HD channels.. it all depends on your subscriber and what they have encrypted or not. With my provider, I only get a few local channels in HD that are unencrypted. CableCARD tuners are only available with new OEM HTPC's from certain manufacturers, and they'll get all the channels, including HD encrypted ones. ATSC can record over the air signals if you have a nice antenna.
 
baballin328 said:
Hmm..too bad it isn't a TV tuner also. I would want a TV tuner because after Olympic times, I'm going to move my computer back into my own room where there is only basic cable (no cable box) so, the HD PVR isn't my best option. Is there really no TV tuner capable of recording in HD quality?
Click to expand...

It is a tuner. That's the point of it. It just doesn't have an NTSC antennna in port which would just be totally wasted on it and you (since you have a cable box).
 
Um..okay sorry..I'm not asking you to do anything. I am just asking if a there is a TV tuner out there that can allow me to record from my DVR and eventually be used with basic cable. If there is no way to keep the HD quality from my DVR, that is fine, I just don't want some crappy, grainy picture
 
Well then, pretty much any standard def tuner will work. Be aware though, many companies are switching over all their analog stuff to QAM for the digital switch over because it makes things much easier for them in terms of equipment, so the analog standard def tuners might not work anymore. We'll see what happens in 2009. But going with a standard def tuner, of course it will be much lower quality of a picture. It all depends what you want and what you want to spend.
 
Will the QAM tuners act like a conversion box and work with standard cable? Also, with TV tuners (good ones), is the picture quality going to be the same as on a TV? Sorry I'm new to all this stuff....
 
With a PC TV tuner, I've always seen a slight quality loss compared to TV's or cable boxes, but maybe it's just because it's more noticeable on a PC monitor.

A hybrid ClearQAM/Analog/ATSC tuner will get all your basic cable channels, and it *might* get some high def channels IF they are unencrypted.

The only way to for sure get all of the channels is to buy a CableCARD enabled home theater PC from someone like Velocity Micro. Either that or go with the Hauppauge HD PVR and hook it up to your cable box or DVR.
 
There is another route you could explore...

Tivo HD and Tivo Series 3 boxes record HD (assuming you can get a cable card from your cable company....but if you have cox there is a good chance you can get them...I have cox and have two cable cards in my Tivo right now).

I am currently recoding HD Olympics on my Tivo sending them to my PC then recoding them into AVC using nero record. It's a long process, as it takes several hours to transfer a HD recording from the Tivo to the PC, then I strip out the commericals using VideoRedo, then I throw it into Nero Recode 2. (currently the opening ceremonies are being processed should be about 30 hours alone in Nero to get that done...) I have all the NBC airings of the Olympics and a few from Universial HD....currently I have about 6 episodes to encode so the slow part will be the PC if I want to preserve the HD quality going from the tivo Mpeg2 to AVC Mpeg 4.

I just bought a 1TB from Bestbuy today to boost my storage buffer so I don't loose anything in backlog....

I have 5 SATA drives in the setup and here is how it goes..

Tivo (via ethernet) to my PC to a 320GB Western digital 7200rpm SATA
Tivo File on 320GB Western digital is run through Direct Stream Dump Utility to strip Tivo Wrapper->Resultant file ends up on a eSATA Western Digital 320 notebook drive.->Stripped of the Tivo wrapper file is run through Video Redo and strips the commericals->file is re-written to same drive->Commerical free file is loaded into Nero Record and outputs on to my 74GB Raptor->Finished file is moved->160GB eSATA notebook drive.

That opening ceremony file still isn't through all this yet...long process. Its on a quadcore Q6700 at 2.7ghz with 3.5gb ram in XP....

I can do about 3 files in nero encode at a time as each instance only runs at about 30% of the CPU...
 
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