PVR to computer question...

[Slowburn]

I don't have a PVR, but my son borrowed one for a few days from a friend and was trying to download some of the saved programs to his computer. Does the PVR have to be hooked up to the service his friend subscribes to to be able to do this or can he do this without being connected.
He is experiencing problems when trying to do this.

[Slowburn]

Anyone?

[edDV]

It probably needs an active cable connection. It may even need to be connected at the proper address. Easy to test.

Use composite or S-Video and analog audio outputs to the computer, DVD recorder or VCR.

[DVD_Bar]

You can find groups on Yahoo which specifically address this issue. DishRip and PVRExplorer is another for DISH units. You do not have to be attached to the DISH service. Basically, you pull the hard drive out, attach it to an IDE to USB converter, plug that into your computer, and use PVRExplorer software to extract the files from the hard drive. Depends on what model PVR you have. The DISH units use a UNIX based operating system, I believe, so your Windows system will not recognize the hard drive without this type of setup. You can't use the DISH USB port, if it has one. If you have one of the supported models, the right setup, it works really well.

[edDV]

The owner of the box may not approve of breaking the seal and extracting the drive.