Recording a game from a Comcast DVR to a DVD recorder

ConfusedinSC · Member Joined: 16 Dec 2008 Location: United States

I recently bought a Sony DVD recorder with the intention of putting several football games I had saved on my DVR onto DVDs.

I had bought a Magnavox one a few days ago, and successfully recorded a game from the DVR onto a DVD+R. The quality wasn't so great, so I tried it on some DVD+R DLs, for added space, only to find that the recorder I had bought didn't support DLs.

So I took that DVD recorder back and bought the Sony, which advertised its ability to record DVD+R DLs. Great, I thought. I've tried twice to record a game in SP mode from the DVR (should allow for 3:45 on a DL disc). Twice, it has randomly stopped recording. The first time, it was about 15 minutes in, the second time, it was about an hour in. No message given. It just stopped.

I tried calling customer support, and they tried to tell me it was a copyright issue, which sounds like a tech support cop out. I know a friend with a similar recorder that records game straight from TV regularly without problem.

Sorry for the long post. Anyone know if this can, in fact, be done? Should I just take the thing back and get my money back?

wabjxo · Member Joined: 22 Sep 2007 Location: United States

jjeff · Posted: Dec 17, 2008 12:18

You might also want to try a Panasonic EA-18. It's tunerless but should record just fine from your DVRs S-video output or second choice composite video.
The Panny does DL discs but I rarely use them since Panasonic keeps full resolution all the way through LP or 4hrs/disc. I really never go over 3hrs/standard DVD for something like football that would contain a lot of motion. If you do you'll see the picture break up into small squares when the bitrate can't keep up with the motion. To make a disc using a speed that would be 3hrs/disc you need to use FR. FR allows anywhere from 1-8 hours/standard disc.
Trust me, I tried many DVDRs before Panasonic and didn't like how most all cut the resolution on speeds above SP or 2hrs/disc.

Wajo's suggestion is also good. Using the Philips or Maggy in SP will give you a fine picture also and with it's HDD editing a recording couldn't be much easier.
The Panny is usually available at Target for $179 but yesterday I noticed my local Target anyway, had it on sale for $159.
Sony makes great DVD players but IMO their recorders are quite poor. I think they are too close to software to make a decent software recording device.