TV to hard disk

[pannayar]

What (are there any) products are available that can :

* Capture video (from regular yellow-white-red cables) directly to a hard drive in regular VIDEO_TS format that I can plug into my PC (with a USB?) and take/edit and burn.
* Have the ability to set timers for scheduled recordings
* (Bonus) Be able to specify resolution/bit rate for the capture

I am not interested in a had disk based dvd recorder since that would mean about 30 mins of burning (per 2 hours of recording, assuming a 4x dvd+rw) to a disc and then taking it to the PC which is painful...

[Duchess]

Look at the link to "Capture Cards" on the left and do some research in there before you start asking questions like this.

[jman98]

Duchess does have a point, but then again those are not unreasonable questions to ask.

Many card can capture as you ask. Hauppauge makes the PVR-250 and PVR-350 which I recommend. The 350 has TV out, so if you don't need that, the 250 will work for you. Both can do scheduled recordings and they'll let you set the bit rate and resolution as you like.

I'm not aware of any card that captures directly to DVD format, so you're going to have to edit (if you wish) and author without being able to just take the files directly and burn them.

[pannayar]

I had looked through the 'how to capture' sections here and the Hauppage products. It seemed to me that the device needs to be connected to my PC?

"While recording, the WinTV-PVRs' hardware MPEG encoder does all the work so your PC continues to run at full speed!"

My PC is is another room. What I want is a standalone hard disk recording equipment which I can just plug into my PC periodically and get the videos out.

[mpack]

I am not interested in a hard disk based dvd recorder ...

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss that option since it does exactly what you need, and does it more reliably than a PC based capture card (none of which, AFAIK, do what you want anyway). You could capture directly to DVD disk with a DVD (no HDD) recorder, but I prefer to have the editing facilities that an HDD offers.

... since that would mean about 30 mins of burning (per 2 hours of recording, assuming a 4x dvd+rw)

I don't think the equation is quite that simple. "4x" does not mean four times playback time, it means four times the standard data rate of a DVD. How the dub time relates to playback time will depend on the compression choice (SP, LP, EP etc). Besides, after you have waited 2 hours of real time for the show to be recorded, I wouldn't have thought the extra minutes needed to burn the DVD was a big factor.

[mpack]

Meant to comment on this bit too...

What I want is a standalone hard disk recording equipment which I can just plug into my PC periodically and get the videos out.

Connected to the PC via USB 2.0 or something? You might be disappointed by the transfer rate.

I suppose a DVD camcorder is another option (if you can find a model with analog video/aud inputs), but you might find it expensive.

[jman98]

What you want doesn't exist. A DVD recorder comes closest.

[pannayar]

I have been using rewritable media with a dvd recorder... only thing is the limited 4.35G capacity I bought a hard drive recorder with the thought that I can record for a few days and do the cutting/burning etc in the weekends, but quickly realized that since my intention is more for archiving (and not time shifting) daily programs, leaving it to record for a few days would mean hours of transferring title by title to rewriteable media to take it to the PC for editing... Returned the hard disk recorder and just sticking to a regular dvd recorder for now.