Recording From HD DVR to PC

[eddiegnz1]

I have a Verizon FIOZ HD DVR and a Windows XP desktop. Is there a way to record the programs saved on my DVR into the hard drive on my PC? I'd like to then burn a DVD from of those shows. I can add any card to my PC. It currently has a firewire input and USB inputs but no HDMI input.

Thank you,
Eddie

[edDV]

Probably not unless you capture playback in analog component. There will be some loss.

HDMI will be blocked with HDCP.

[eddiegnz1]

so I can probably deal with a little loss. The DVR box has the following outputs.
1394 firewire
SPDIF optical
SPDIF composite
component
composite
S-Video
and some other stuff.

So if I'm willing to deal with a little loss, what's the cheapest way to get it done?
which one of the above output types will have the least loss?
Thanks

[yoda313]

The ideal way to preserve hd is to get a hauppauge hd pvr. You can record high def up to 1080i with 5.1 via fiber optic. It is a bit pricey though around 200.00 usd give or take - you can shop around for prices or try your hand at a used model. (edit the hd pvr records via component video cables - as long as your hd dvr has component out you are good to go)

you can do firewire but it is an inexact science. You would use windvhs to capture. Some channels that shouldn't be protected might be and you wouldn't get any signal at all. But that is your cheapest option you can try right away assuming you have the firewire cable and the input on your computer.

The cheapest lowest quality option is to get an analog capture card or usb device. Than you can use composite or ideally svideo to record in analog sd quality. Chances are the widescreen would be recorded as letterboxed (ie not automatically stretched to proper proportions on your screen - it would be fixed with the black bars). It can be reencoded as 16:9 in the authoring process.

Analog devices are pretty inexpensive and readily available. If you have a pci slot available I'd recommend looking for a hauppauge pvr 250 or 350 model on ebay (as far as I know they are long since out of production, the finicky 150 model was the last made but it has a hit or miss reputation on this board, the 250 and 350 models are far more reliable - I should know i had the 250 myself for a few years and it was an excellent card).

[eddiegnz1]

I've conected my DVR box to my PC via firewire. But I can't find windvhs on the internet. I tried google and yahoo for searching.? is that the right spelling windvhs ? are there other options for capturing for free ?

[edDV]

Do you mean CapDVHS?

[yoda313]

Do you mean CapDVHS?

Oops that was it.

I guess I was confusing it with windv......

[eddiegnz1]

OK, so i tried the CapDVHS software and it works great on movies that have been recorded in HD on my DVR. But when I try to do a movie that was recorded in SD (4:3 aspect ratio), it creates a mpg file but none of my video players will let me view the video (i.e. nero, realplayer, quicktime, microsoft, pinnacle studio 12). Is there a way to playback the SD videos with this CapDVHS software?

thanks for your help,
Eddie

[edDV]

Try VLC or MPCHC. Both play my CapDVHS files plus most others.

[Niles5150]

Do you want to transfer your HD programming onto your PC for editing before burning to a DVD? Or is your real goal just to have DVDs of your television programming? Because a simple, easy method is to just cut out the middle man, the PC.

Use the DVR's Component Out connections to connect to a DVD Player/Burner. Since the connection is not HDMI, there are no copy protection concerns. I use a Toshiba D-R410, but there several others on the market. Start your DVR playback, push record on the Player/Burner. Recording HD programs onto a regular DVD+R produces a very high quality recording. It's not HD, but it's very good.

Recording this way is real time, so it's not quick, but it is easy. Also the Toshiba provides very limited editing capabilities. If someone wants to sit there while the DVR is playing, they can pause the recording during commercials, fast forward the DVR, and re-start recording when they're over.

[jsliu111]

First, you can check Verizon if they provide this kind of software, because I heard that directv and tivo provides their software, that you can watch and record dvr data from the pc. After that, you can use Analog recorder way to store the data into DVD. You need a s-video cable, and capture card for pc (if you have dva recorder, it will be better), then play the dvr, and caputer the data from your pc, and burn in dvd. There is a instruction here: DVR to Computer