Using a capture card to save shows from PVR??

[CanadianZ]

I want to transfer some shows I have on my PVR receiver to my computer. I was thinking of getting a capture card and using that to save the events, but I have a few questions first.

1. How much quality am I going to lose through this method if any??

2. How much video can I fit on a DVD without losing quality??

3. What features or specifications should I look for when buying a capture card??

4. What about software?? Any recommendations??

5. Any recommendations for a card??


Thanks very much for the help.

CanadianZ

[tipstir]

Daily stuff off the TV I use High SP 720x480 DVD
Of course going HIGH SP requires a huge HDD 120GB min to 300GB or even higher

Boils down to how much you want to spend?

WinTV-PVR Series 150, 250 are just great
WinTV-PVR Series USB2 and 350 are very good

To learn more about those products goto:

www.hauppauge.com

Software PVR
www.gbpvr.com

I would recomend

WinTV PVR-150
Media MVP 1000

[jdizzy40]

PVR 500-MCE TV (Dual MPEG TVTuners) and Beyond TV (Software) or PVR 250 and Beyond TV. The PVR 150s are too new still for me to try out as I have too many others at present. I capture at High Rez DVD and convert to DVD one of 2 ways. Series shows I author using Sony's Vegas Video, specifically the DVD Architect software. Superb piece of DVD Menu and authoring software. Stable and fast using raw MPEG2 as source files. For Movies I use TMPGEnc MPEG Editor (MPEG Tools) to Demultiplex the MPEG2 file. Then Author using IFOEdit and lastly DVD Shrink to edit out commericals, trim begining and end, thus creating automatic chapters. Flawless method that has produced lots of nice entertainment. Quick and simple.

[tluxon]

If you have a Tivo or ReplayTV, there's no need to capture a show over again. A ReplayTV hooks right into your home network and with the free tool DVArchive, you can offload shows from the Replay right onto your PC's hard drive with no loss of quality. Similar tools are available for Tivo.

Any kind of re-capturing you do is going to result in some loss of quality, but it can look very good at high bitrates.

If you can't offload the shows directly, you might want to opt for a standalone DVD recorder. One with a hard drive will make it easier to edit without/before using your PC.

Medium Quality on my Replays looks very good at approximately 1.6GB/hour.

[skistyle]

If you have a Tivo or ReplayTV, there's no need to capture a show over again. A ReplayTV hooks right into your home network and with the free tool DVArchive, you can offload shows from the Replay right onto your PC's hard drive with no loss of quality. Similar tools are available for Tivo.

I came here looking for a good card to take video from my DirecTV with Tivo to my PC to clean up and press on DVD. But I was torn between going to analog (which will degrade anything) and wondering if I was just better off getting a cheaper standalone DVD Recorder like GoVideo, but now you have me thinking an entirely different way.

Now you have me very intrigued! What is the equivalent of DVArchive for Tivo???

[Bruce Kuhn]

Tivo has a new service out called Tivo-to-Go. If you have your Tivo connected to your home computer network, you can now transfer the show on Tivo to your computer hard drive.

To do this transfer, you need to download the new Tivo desktop software from Tivo.com. BUT, here is the catch. In order to use Tivo-To-Go in order to transfer files, your Tivo box has to have the latest software version (7.1). Your Tivo box will EVENTUALLY automatically be upgraded to this latest version. There are many Tivo users waiting for this new software on there units (including me). Once the Tivo software is updated, the transfers should be very easy. Tivo states it may take about a month to update all of the boxes in use around the county.

[skistyle]

Tivo has a new service out called Tivo-to-Go. If you have your Tivo connected to your home computer network, you can now transfer the show on Tivo to your computer hard drive.

Do you know if this will be available for straight TV only, or trimmed down versions, specifically DirecTV with Tivo?

[CanadianZ]

I don't have a TIVO or Replay TV. I have an Express View PVR receiver.

I thought the easiest way would be to get a capture card and just plug in the RCA's or S-Video cable (preferably) and play the showw on my PVR as I capture it on my computer. I know this would be a digital to analog to digital conversion so I do expect some loss of quality.

I have a P4 2.6, 120 gig hd so space and computing power should be no problem.

I just want to capture decent quality video, edit commercials out, and burn to a DVD player compliant DVD. I don't need a remote or a TV tuner.

IS the WinTV-PVR 150 probably the cheapest chocie without sacraficing quality??

Thanks, CanadianZ

[tluxon]

Check out the thread, https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=253112. It's got me considering a DVD recorder for capturing content that's not on one of my Replays. Then again, I might just want to dedicate one of my Replays as a VHS capture device.

[mbellot]

TiVo To Go is not going to be available for DirecTV version TiVos

However, for all your TiVo hacking interests I suggest you visit:

www.dealdatabase.com

Some serious hackers there, just be sure to do some reading before you start asking questions - they don't take kindly to people who want to be spoon fed answers.