Comcast HDTV cablebox to DVD recorder. How do I?

[wayshway]

I have a comcast DVR cablebox DCT3416.
I have 2 DVD recorders. GO Video VR3845 & Panasonic DMR-E30

All I want to do is record my HD channels so don't get those black bars when I play it back.

Thanks so much.

[usually_quiet]

What you want to do is record anamorphic widescreen from either the composite video out(good) or S-Video out(better) of your DVR (plus the red and white audio connections of course).

If you looked at this type of video using a 4:3 picture setting the picture would look squeezed, and would be pillarboxed on a widescreen TV. When played back on a TV set to display 16:9, it looks like normal widescreen, and there are no letterbox bars on a widescreen TV. I can record that kind of picture using an OTA source with a converter box set up for "full screen" picture mode and connected to a DVD recorder.

I looked at the Comcast's instructions for setting up your DVR and did not see a setting that looks like it will do what you need, nor was there a picture of the back of the unit showing the connections it has available. Maybe you could try setting it up for a 16:9 TV and set the Y Pb Pr OUTPUT to 480i and see what happens with S-Video or composite out to the DVD recorder.

[edDV]

My Motorola Comcast HD box won't allow any wide screen outputs from composite or S-Video. Everything gets letterboxed. You have to use 480i wide over analog component thus requiring an analog component capture solution.

Some Scientific Atlanta HD cable boxes allow wide S-Video settings.

The real solution is the Hauppauge HD-PVR. Skip the DVD recorder.

[pepegot1]

Try this: http://www.xdimax.com/grex/grex.html

[edDV]

That Dimax won't take analog component in so it will only capture letterbox.

[budwzr]

Yah, you need RGB(component) connection. That's 720p HD. Hauppage HD-DVR like edDV said.

[yoda313]

Well if you don't want to invest in new hardware you could do it via software in sd. You'd capture in letterbox but reencode to 16:9.

It's a long way to do it but you could do it without new hardware. But you'd be in sd not hd.

The hauppauge hd pvr is definitely the preffered solution for recording in widescreen and hd (plus 5.1 via fiberoptic if the program was broadcast in 5.1 - otherwise it will just capture stereo if the program was in stereo naturally).

Edit - for an sd solution I do believe the older pinnacle usb sticks worked in sd 16:9. I was able to capture 16:9 for dvd creation. I think hauppauge is the only one still making usb hd sticks. The hd in those sticks refers only to an hd antenna tuner not component inputs. If I remember correctly that should mean you will be able to record in 16:9 in one take from the sd source. Than you can author to dvd like normal (via mpeg capturing on the usb stick).

This is another option for you to look into.

[dphirschler]

I was able to record from my parent's Comcast cable box to my DVD recorder. And although it was not HD, it was at least widescreen anamorphic. I don't remember if it was a setting on the DVD recorder or the Comcast cable box, but it was easy to do.


Darryl

[kctobyjoe]

Has ANYONE purchased the NEW BlackMagic Intensity Pro HDMI/DVI HDTV card and used it with ANY COMCAST HD-DVR or HD box?
O rany other DVI equipped box???
It appears my new HD-DVR is NOT the 500GB Motorola; I need to check the model no
Dunno (NOW) how to get into the setup menu either.
NOT clear If eSATA and Firewire is 'shut off' via the firmware; I am sure someone has a hack regardless.
It appears Cyberlink Power Director 8 would allow me to get DVI/HDMI streaming into this card and then into a PC to capture un compressed video/audio. I wish to take say NFL HD feeds and shrink onto a 25 GB blu ray disk; based on what I read using these tools it is quite do-able.

[edDV]

The BM Intensity would not work with DVI/HDMI due to HDCP encryption.

The BM Intensity Pro or Hauppauge HD-PVR would work in analog component mode. The BM Intensity Pro does not encode in hardware so places a heavy load on the PC with software MJPEG compression. The HD-PVR hardware encodes to h.264 but your machine may have difficulty playing the files. An ATI 9200SE isn't going to cut it for H.264.

[pepegot1]

Xdimax takes component, composite and S-video inputs. Check it out!

[edDV]

Where do you see component?

[usually_quiet]

Where do you see component?

I looked at the cabling diagram. The green component connection runs through the Grex via its composite ports, while the other 2 connect directly to the recording device. I guess the copy protection is only carried on one of the three connections, but I'm not sure how well this would work.

...but a Grex is probably not necessary for a PC capture device that captures HD video via component in, and the recommendation is not any help for the OP, since AFAIK only Polaroid made DVD recorders with component video in.