Recording HDV off of Mitsubishi TV

[Ervin]

I am just about to buy a Mitsubishi WD-57833 DLP TV equipped with firewire. The specs do not list much about this feature, except that both firewire connectors provide for both playback and recording.

Does anyone know if it will let me record HDV programming say to my HDV camcorder or (better yet) directly to my PC? First of all is the a/v format the same? And second, what are the DRM issues with such a signal?

Thanks,
Ervin

[edDV]

I am just about to buy a Mitsubishi WD-57833 DLP TV equipped with firewire. The specs do not list much about this feature, except that both firewire connectors provide for both playback and recording.

Does anyone know if it will let me record HDV programming say to my HDV camcorder or (better yet) directly to my PC? First of all is the a/v format the same? And second, what are the DRM issues with such a signal?

Thanks,
Ervin

The IEEE-1394 codec spec is most likely for a DVHS VCR. This is similar to what comes out of an HD cable box IEEE-1394 connector and if not blocked can be captured to a PC using a program like CapDVHS. The resulting file is an MPeg2_TS (transport stream).

It won't work with an HDV camcorder. Formats differ.

[orsetto]

I do at least know it should let you record full HDTV quality directly to a compatible Mitsubishi D-VHS unit such as the HS-HD2000U, which is specifically designed to pull an HDTV signal off MGA television tuners via mutual firewire connection. There have been spotty reports of folks then successfully getting their PC to recognize the MGA recorder to import the tape, but whether any non-MGA device can tap into the TV tuner itself I can't tell you. Absolutely the signal could be cluttered with DRM depending on the source. Perhaps owners of this actual TV can be more helpful...

[Ervin]

Makes sense.

OK, so no camcorder, that's fine. And I know how to take it from a .ts file once captured with CAPDVHS.

But what do you mean by "if not blocked"? Mitsu still has HDVHS machines, so one copy (at least) should work fine. Can you elaborate?

[edDV]

There are many ways to block the stream to unauthorized devices. Best to just try it and see if it works.

Look at Wiki or Google for DVHS + IEEE-1394 to find the blocking schemes.

BTW, HDV might work for playback to the TV. This depends whether they wrote the software to decode the HDV MPeg2 stream. The tuner chipset might support HDV decoding. Call them up and ask.

Unlikely they will update firmware in the future so you are locked to the features at time of purchase.