Connecting Sony RDR-HX710 to PC

[Aleks]

Hello everyone,
I have a Sony RDR-HX710 for a year now and must admit I'm quite satisfied with the picture quality and overall functionality. Now, what I'm interested in is is there a way to connect it to the PC somehow, in order to transfer video files stored on its hard disk directly to the PC? The reason why I'm asking this is that I like to put MY OWN menus on authored DVDs, and I'd like to encode into DivX (XviD) some of the recorded material. The way I've been doing it (i.e. transferring recorded videos to my PC for further edit) so far is by recording it to a DVD-RW, then copy from the DVD-RW to my computer. Save the time spent performing that procedure, the obvious flaw of such procedure is the wasting of DVD-RWs (didn't happen so far, but will in time). It will be a good thing to omit the DVD media completely in this process...
This DVD-Recorder has a firewire connection as well, but it seems that it works as input only, not as output as well (or I don't know how to set it up), because when I connect my PC to it, I cannot see the Recorder as a new device in Windows Explorer (as I would with other firewire-connected devices, e.g. a DV-Camera).
So, is there a way to do what I described?
Thanks for any info in advance!

[Bjs]

You need either a video capture device installed on the pc , to record stored clips from sony recorder hard drive , to pc ... or keep up using dvd-rw ... thats normal .

When finished editing on pc ... burn final edited content to dvd-r ... and use rw in sony again for next lot .

Dont delete clips on sony's hd untill they have been succesfully transfered to pc ... thats when the rw disc stuffs up , and you need a new one to continue .

Then theres removing the hard drive , and using it in the pc , using a tool like pvrexplorer ... but you do that at your own risk , and no warrantee .

[Aleks]

Thanks for the info!
Hmm, I don't know whether a video capture device could help me with this... That means a video output streaming from the DVD-Recorder is needed, and the only output ports on the recorder are analog ones (a SCART connector and A/V cinch connectors), meaning it will (could) degrade the quality of the recorded videos (which depends on the quality of the capturing device as well...)
The option with the tool called pvexplorer sounds interesting... although I'm not so very happy with taking out Sony's hard drive and putting it into my PC for each recorded show...

So I'll stick (for now) with my well-known method: transferring videos via DVD-RWs... purely digital and no quality lost within the process...

One remark: Funny thing is in this digital era in which we live, one cannot connect directly all the digital devices he has, but has to transfer the information the long way around or - in the analog way...

Thanks again for the help!

[Bjs]

So I'll stick (for now) with my well-known method: transferring videos via DVD-RWs... purely digital and no quality lost within the process...

There is a loss in this process because the files need to be converted over to suitable format as associated with dvd specs , where maximum scale applies .

Pal 720x576
Nstc 720x480 .

So if you have something in hdtv scale on the hard drive in unit , thats not what you get on the dvd recordable media .