Record cable TV to the Canon GL-2...Can it be done and how?

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Hi everyone:

I need your help please.

Within the last week I replaced my old 19” old style CRT with a Sony Bravia 32” M-Series 720p lcd tv and am very pleased with that decision. The same day I also upgraded my COMCAST cable service from basic to include the addition of high definition channels. That move was certainly a quantum leap for me! Besides the obvious one of my goals was to be able to plug in the Canon GL-2 to any and all components that would allow me to record cable TV programs direct to mini-dv tape. I wanted to try it with the Olympics but that’s event is over now. The problem is to successfully execute that mission. No, I opted for the COMCAST HD box that does not offer direct taping to the set-top box’s internal hard drives which was more expensive to rent. The Bravia alone by itself unfortunately seems to have zero capability and plugs for sending a video signal out as far as I can determine it.

The Comcast HD box has 3 dedicated holes (2 channels of audio and 1 for video) which allows for the “output”/signal to in theory flow into the main AV port on the GL-2. I thought from there it could be recorded to tape by am perplexed to how that is achieved at the moment.

Is the GL-2 main AV port for outputting video to a monitor or tv only?

How can I input a signal from an external source into the GL-2 and record it?

Any of you gurus tried this yourself, can it be done and what do I need to do?

Open to all advice, suggestions and tips available.

Thanks so much.

Bruce

[edDV]

Hi everyone:


The Comcast HD box has 3 dedicated holes (2 channels of audio and 1 for video) which allows for the “output”/signal to in theory flow into the main AV port on the GL-2. I thought from there it could be recorded to tape by am perplexed to how that is achieved at the moment.

Is the GL-2 main AV port for outputting video to a monitor or tv only?

How can I input a signal from an external source into the GL-2 and record it?

Any of you gurus tried this yourself, can it be done and what do I need to do?

Open to all advice, suggestions and tips available.

Thanks so much.

Bruce

You didn't ID the model of the Motorola box but most have S-Video and "RCA" stereo audio out and the GL-2 accepts both as input.

All the Moto boxes I've experienced letterbox HD to 16:9 SD 720x480i so it looks like ths from HD channels.

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Hi,

Bingo, Yes.... it is a Motorola box, it's the model DCH-3200.

Thanks and please keep the dialogue going!

[edDV]

Sorry, my file box was hopelessly not on the network.

[Canon GL-2 Guy]

Ed Dv,

How do I set up the GL-2's controls and/or menus to accomplish this?

Sorry to ask this but this is brand new to me.

Thanks so much.

Bruce

[edDV]

Ed Dv,

How do I set up the GL-2's controls and/or menus to accomplish this?

Sorry to ask this but this is brand new to me.

Thanks so much.

Bruce

The GL-2 ouptuts S-Video and analog audio every time you play a tape. There are no settings.

[vhelp]

You should have just got'en an cheap hd tuner card, like the Pinnacle PCTV Pro (USB-2) stick, and recorded the games lossless-ly. Then, later, when you have the time, you edit them according to your needs.

I started out [s:0015d3c3a9]recording[/s:0015d3c3a9] capturing the games to my HDD via my Pinnacle Studio AV/DV (pci) card, and then played around with various deinterlacing techniques until I was generally satisfied with them. Course, you don't have to deinterlace them if you are going for dvd playback. But it does make for a good challenge with your skills, assuming you have some in this area. Anyway.

I was also recording them to tape, in EP mode, but because I got my antenna to receive the NBC broadcast, (thanks to an roof antenna amplifier) I was able to record them through the Pinnacle PCTV Pro to my HDD and decided not to continue them onto tape, though I will record the closing ceremony, tonight.

Now I'm just messing around with different ideas of deinterlacing techniques because these games originate from PAL and are converted to NTSC, and so on. But I already have a bunch of the recorded mpegs burnt as-is to +R discs and I'm still at it as time allows. The whole process of recording these games has been a full time job for me (in the evenig hours after work) and so I've been very busy

. . .

Recording (digital type) broadcasts will come out nearly lossless when the recording medium is DV. I"ve done many mini-tivo type projects of this nature back in the early days of my directv satellite endeavor and my Canon ZR-10 cam. I used the S-Video connections for maximum reproduction.

The reason I say, "near lossless" is because of the fact that with DV and the way the video is obtained through the mechanisms of the source-to-cam, there is no inducements of interference or line noise recorded to the tape or pass-through. So the OUTPUT source is as clean and identicle to the INPUT, lossless-ly. The only limiting factor to this is the with the color space subsampling. DV is 4:1:1 (NTSC) and digital MPEG-2 is 4:2:0, though *both* get upsampled to 4:2:2 during transport/processing anyway, and then processed further by your interventions of things. But never the less, your eyes in most cases will not descirn any difference with all this going on.

Course, I don't use this (mini-tivo) scenario in my day-to-day work. That was a long time ago. Now, I use other tools for these hobbies. I would advise against going to tape and just go the pass-through to HDD. This will cut down on a lot of steps and tapes, etc.

However, I have no knowlege of the GL-2 camera, sorry.

-vhelp 4840