I have purchased a new dvd recorder (to replace my dvd recorder I have had for years), I also got a new hd-dvr from directv and would like to take the recordings off my old directv dvr and put on a machine on my home network to be able to play back on my hd-dvr through the media share setup

I have everything setup and working as far as the networking and the dvr seeing the media share folders

(I'm not new to dvd recorders or pulling recorded shows off the dvd, editing and putting back on a dvd)

What I'm not sure of is the video format that the dvr will playback from

Does anyone know what the smallest file size video format the dvr will playback

and, what would be the quickest conversion from dvd to this format, is there any program that will rip from the dvd and directly convert

it's been a few years since I played with a dvd recorder and editing the recordings, I do remember that it was easier to record onto a dvd-rw for pulling the video off the dvd onto the computer, I believe all I had to do was not close out the dvd and just copy the file off the dvd onto the computer

thanks for any help