Questions about digital video recorders

[cornicker]

Hi,

I'm currently subscribed to Comcast digital cable. I'm looking into purchasing a digital video recorder to record some of these cable broadcasts. Comcast does offer a recording service of their own but it's currently not available in my area.

All the DVRs I've seen require some kind of monthly service contract, though for what I'm not sure. I'm just looking for something I can connect to my existing Comcast cable service and use as a simple stand-alone recorder without any additional monthly service fees. Does such an item exist?

My intention is to eventually transfer some of these recording to a DVD disc for playback in my DVD player. What format does DVRs record in to their built in hard drives? Is it in DVD format (MPEG-2, 720x480 resolution)? Or is it in some type of AVI format which has to be converted afterwards to MPEG-2?

Any additional comments or suggestions are welcome.

Thanks.

[anubis13]

My intention is to eventually transfer some of these recording to a DVD disc for playback in my DVD player.

technically illegal

What format does DVRs record in to their built in hard drives? Is it in DVD format (MPEG-2, 720x480 resolution)? Or is it in some type of AVI format which has to be converted afterwards to MPEG-2?

my dvr uses a USPARC processor and runs some kind o proprietary OS that looks like customized linux.
the video files are stored in an mpeg format, but due to the OS, it probably would be useless if you inported it to your Mac/pc environment as you would have to reencod it anyway.

Tivo plans to release a unit that can transfer some of its content out via ethernet