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  1. Member
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    Is it possible without a TV Tuner to transfer video from a DVR receiver to PC? It's a Motorola HD Dual Tuner DVR DCH3416.

    There are lots of connections; USB on the front, some in the rear, along with firewire ports.
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  2. Member yoda313's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by cowboyup910
    Is it possible without a TV Tuner to transfer video from a DVR receiver to PC?
    By tv tuner I assume you mean a capture card?

    It is possible but not as efficient. You can capture with the firewire port to a firewire card on your computer (or motherboard port if its got a firewire input slot).

    HOWEVER it can be a pain for firewire as some will be encrypted. The over the air channels should transfer just fine as those shouldn't be protected at all. However any cable channel could be locked and send junk data over firewire.

    If you want just plain old analog from the dvr you can get any old capture card and do it in realtime (fyi firewire transfer will be realtime also). Then you just use the composite cables and record into whatever format your card can do - ie divx or mpeg2 for dvd creation.

    If you want top drawer high def capture consider the hauppauge hd pvr. Much pricer at over 200.00 USD - probably less if you can find it used on an auction site. But it can capture widescreen high def over component cables from your cable box. PLUS 5.1 audio if the show has it via fiber optic input.

    It records in h264 and is very good quality with multiple bitrate settings to accomodate your file size needs.

    It depends on what your willing to spend, how much your willing to learn, and how badly you want to do this. If you've never done this before it will take some trial and error and plenty of PATIENCE.

    Come back to this site for more guidance depending on the path you choose.

    ------

    Please note the usb drives won't do you any good. Also you won't be able to simply connect it to the computer and transfer a show off the drive like a file transfer - their encrypted on the harddrive and use a special format depending on the cable company and won't be recognizable by software even if you could copy the files directly.
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  3. Member [_chef_]'s Avatar
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    Are the devices connections placebos or really in useable state?
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    I don't know about getting recordings off the DVR itself, but your Motorola box is supported for the method that yoda313 talks about where you record directly from the box to your PC. Here is a link you should look at:
    http://home.comcast.net/~exdeus/stbfirewire/

    You can use the CapDVHS program to make recordings. I do this all the time from my cable box.

    yoda313 covered the subject pretty well. Just note that pay channels like HBO likely will not work with this method. And your cable company could always screw up and encrypt something that they are not supposed to. In general my cable company doesn't encrypt anything except maybe HBO, Showtime, etc.
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  5. Member yoda313's Avatar
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    One other note on this - all methods will record anything that is on the screen. So if you have a status bar showing how much time is left on the recording you are watching that will be recorded as well.

    My cable box has a nasty habit of saying "recording started" or recording finished while watching a previously recorded show. That will end up on the recorded file and can not be removed. If there is a way to disable this on a motorola dvr I have never found it.

    So what I try to do when dubbing is to make sure I am not recording anything while I am playing back the recording. That will ensure that there won't be any popups on screen.

    Also depending on your capture method it is probably best not to fast forward during the dubbing - it can cause unwanted problems and possibly lead to audio desynching. Many capture programs have count down timers so you could start recording on the computer and press play on the dvr and walk away - set the timer on the software to go over by a minute or two to be sure nothing is missed - you can trim the excess later as well as cut out commercials after capture.
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    Originally Posted by yoda313 View Post
    One other note on this - all methods will record anything that is on the screen. So if you have a status bar showing how much time is left on the recording you are watching that will be recorded as well......
    NOT true when capping over firewire. The overlays are mixed in the uncompressed output (HDMI/component) while the firewire port outputs the mpeg2 transport stream un-molested.
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    So it is possible to transfer a movie or program that I recorded to a DVR receiver, just need Firewire cable? What kind of software I need?

    Thanks
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    Originally Posted by cowboyup910 View Post
    So it is possible to transfer a movie or program that I recorded to a DVR receiver, just need Firewire cable? What kind of software I need?

    Thanks
    Exdues drivers + CapDVHS/TSReader
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  9. Member yoda313's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by qz3fwd View Post
    Originally Posted by yoda313 View Post
    One other note on this - all methods will record anything that is on the screen. So if you have a status bar showing how much time is left on the recording you are watching that will be recorded as well......
    NOT true when capping over firewire. The overlays are mixed in the uncompressed output (HDMI/component) while the firewire port outputs the mpeg2 transport stream un-molested.
    Really? I did not know that. I had hassles the few times I tried firewire and gave up. That is good to know. Is that true for all firewire caps or just certain types? Ie cable vs sat vs fios?
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  10. Member classfour's Avatar
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    Tivo offers software to download from their DVRs, TIVO Desktop. There is some freeware out there that will also connect to a Tivo box - not certain if one could connect to a motorola box in the same manner.

    I use TivoDesktop to pull recorded shows from the Tivo over the network.

    You may find something about network transfers at http://tivocommunity.com
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  11. Member classfour's Avatar
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    Two other sites (for non-tivo DVRs):

    http://www.dvrplayground.com/

    http://www.techlore.com/
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    Originally Posted by [_chef_] View Post
    Are the devices connections placebos or really in useable state?
    The firewire port is the only one of the "computer" connections that can be used for video and audio output. The rest of the "computer" connections are reserved for possible future use, although based on something I read, cable company technicians may use the USB ports when servicing the DVR.

    The rear USB and eSATA ports would permit external HDDs to be added for more storage, although no US cable companies presently allow that, to the best of my knowledge. The front USB port may also be intended for attaching a keyboard, mouse, or game controller to make use of interactive functions that, as far as I know, have also not been implemented yet. The Ethernet port would be used to access Internet services, but I haven't heard of it being used for that yet.
    Last edited by usually_quiet; 19th Sep 2010 at 11:16.
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  13. Member yoda313's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by usually_quiet
    although no US cable companies presently allow that, to the best of my knowledge.
    Well I do know tivo has official external harddrives for more space - western digital drives with a tivo logo on them if I'm not mistaken.

    And I seem to remember jagabo or maybe jman98 mentioning that they were able to add drives to their dvrs - something about having to blank the drives on a pc and cold booting the dvr so it formats the drive. It was relatively complex but I think at least some dvrs do allow usb addons for storage. Though of course they'd be landlocked onto the dvr structure and not removable for use on computers (ie editing and burning the video files - encrypted and all that jazz)
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