DVR to PC - Pioneer DVR 550HX

[codylion]

How the Hell do i get videos from my DVR to my PC.

Please note : "I do not want to capture the data"......I want the Videos that are on the Hard Drive of my DVR and export them to my PC Hard Drive.

At the moment I can only copy them to DVD which is useless when I have sporting events that have been recorded for 5 hours and don't fit on dvd unless I use a crappy compression or split the recording which takes forever to do.

I am really pissed as it has USB ports but I can't see Jack Shit when I plug them to my pc. Only thing i can do is add files.

I hope someone has the answer

[guns1inger]

Your choices are simple. Split the files and record them to DVD RW and re-assemble them on your PC, or go the analogue route. The USB on that model in input only, and cannot be used to get the footage off. Splitting files only takes a couple of minutes, although burning them takes around 15 minutes per disc.

[codylion]

Thanks for the reply guns1inger

I have taken the lid off the unit and plugged the Sata cable from the Hard Drive of the DVR into my Sata to USB Adapter and it shows up as a drive on my PC as a Storage Device....but i cannot see any files and it does not give it a drive letter....tried checking Disk Management and I cannot see anything there and also viewing Hidden files but nothing shows up.

I ran "Partition Find and Mount" software from www.findandmount.com and it finds the 160GB drive that is the DVR Hard Drive but cannot discover any of the partitions on it.

I read somewhere that the HDD for this DVR is in Linux format....any ideas anyone on how to proceed from here ?

[orsetto]

Consumer DVD/HDD recorders are ALL very specifically, intentionally, spitefully engineered precisely to prevent exactly what you're trying to do: Hollywood insists and Japan, Inc obeys. There is no way, no how, you are going to obtain direct access to the video files on your Pio 550 hard drive: put it out of your mind, Linux or no Linux. The files are in a proprietary format and have to be reconstructed practically field by field using a hex editor: they cannot be directly opened in any video software application. The only practical method of moving files between a 550 and a PC is via DVD-RAM discs, or DVD-R/W if you don't have a RAM drive in your PC. Splitting a 5 hour file does not take all that long, many of us here record long sports sessions or TCM marathons and a simple split to two or three hi-speed dub dvds from the Pioneer hard drive is easy. The time consuming part is editing the commercials or other prep for the final DVDs, but a simple slog between 550 and PC is not that big a deal. (There is zero quality loss if you use RAM discs, the Pioneer does a straight dump of the video file which your PC can then work with.) But if you can't stand the thought of intermediary transfer discs, put your 550 up for sale on eBay and use your PC for direct-to-Windows recording: you are not the target consumer for a standalone recorder.

[RabidDog]

YEp burning to DVD-rw ain't too bad. I do this when necessary.
IF you have the disk space however, it might be worth you while taking a "snapshot" of your dvr hard disk.. as if some genius does figure out what format its in, you can then take recordings off at will. It is probably a linux format, ext2 or ext3, as CE companys aren't in the game of writing file systems. Somebody out there may already have figured this out..

[codylion]

I see......thanks for the advice guys

Wow that really stinks though....I will just build a bridge and forget about this possibility then.

Thanks for the advice.

If anyone does figure out how to do this please post a reply....there just has to be a way.

Cheers.

[orsetto]

People on these forums have been trying for years- these drives can't be "cracked". Don't assume "CE mfrs don't have the resources to create their own file format": they didn't develop these machines in a vacuum, Hollywood had some input and insisted on an HDD system that would be utterly DRM-compliant. The file *system* is indeed some variation of Linux but the specific *files* themselves are in a wacko proprietary CE format that logs them in multiple small pieces all over the HDD: your recording of CSI is not one coherent file but six dozen snippets with cryptic header names scattered in discontinuous locations, whether or not the drive is optimized. The most anyone has achieved with these drives is to salvage corrupted files by a laborious process of flying blind, it takes weeks to piece together 30 mins of footage bit by bit. Sure, you can clone the drive or repair damage if you're dedicated but there is no "point-and-click" access to the actual videos they contain unless you put the drive back into the recorder. The irony is that this whole HDD lockdown was in anticipation of complex broadcast/cable copy-control signals that never materialized until very recently: 95% of DVD/HDD recordings the past five years have been of unfettered programming. Of course, the studios would argue they still needed to slow down dumping of "American Idol" from DVD/HDD recorders to Bit Torrent.

The industry assumes anyone who's hellbent on immediate PC file manipulation would/should buy an HTPC instead. I have to agree with them there: how many consumers do you really think are interested in tearing their recorders apart just so they can put the HDD into their PC and rip a few shows? Why would anyone want to do that on a regular basis when you could just buy integrated HTPC hardware in the first place? Standalones and PCs target different usage patterns: a standalone is basically a VCR replacement. Its a little unrealistic to expect DVD/HDD recorders to facilitate instant Xvid conversions and so on.

[codylion]

Many thanks everyone for your responses.....I now clearly understand the complexity of what I was trying to achieve.

I will just burn to DVD and transfer to my PC.

Thanks for your advice guys.

Cheers

[pcourtney]

use Isobuster - thats what I do - simples

https://www.isobuster.com/news/isobuster_4.4_release_notes

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-capture/9613-isobuster-supports-pioneer.html