How does one play from a DVR to a laptop screen

[lookingforhelp]

I have a Canadian digital receiver that I have recorded TV programs on. I want to hook it up to my laptop with a HDMI cord and watch some of those programs using the screen on my laptop. Problem: I can't figure out how to do it. My laptop does not seem to even recognize that the device is hooked up to it by way of the HDMI cord. I am running Windows 7.

[aedipuss]

if your laptop has an hdmi port it is a video "out" port only 99.9% of the time.

[dbanimal]

I like to record shows from my DVR to my laptop using my firewire port and CapDVHS. Just need to download the specific drivers for your DVR so the laptop will recognize it. I have a DCH6416.

[jsliu111]

You can check if they provide this kind of software in windows. I know the direcTV and TiVo has.

[usually_quiet]

In the US, HD cable boxes and DVRs are required by law to have an active FireWire port. Recordings from channels that are not copy protected could be transferred to a PC via CapDVHS using the PC's firewire port5 and watched that way. However, I don't think the same requirement exists in Canada, where cable providers are less regulated overall.

For most laptops, the only other way to watch the output from a DVR would be to get a USB 2.0 capture device and hook it up to the one of DVRs analog video connections and one of the audio connections. Capture software will allow one to watch. The only USB 2.0 devices capable of providing HD resolutions are the Hauppauge HD PVR and the AVerMedia AVerTV USB HD DVR, which use component video inputs for HD video. There are many inexpensive USB 2.0 SD capture devices that will permit watching in SD.