Hi, currently when I want to offload recorded video from my cable box, I take the component output and capture it on dvd with a separate dvr and then copy the dvd to my hard drive. I'd like to bypass the dvr, going directly from the cable box (yes, also a dvr) to a hard drive. I have a Mac or PC available for this. I also have Pinnacle "Movie Box" which has a variety of inputs/outputs (not hdmi), so I'm thinking that I could run the component output through the "Movie Box" to output firewire into the computer. Then I suppose it becomes a software and compression issue.

Can anyone give me a quick overview on the process and what software I should be looking into? I'd like to end up with mpeg files that aren't larger than the files that I get on the dvd discs. These are just tv shows that I want to watch later, so super quality is not a priority.

thx in advance,

brad