Can't convert video from dvr to show full screen

[DB83]

I do recall reading on here that you can install 32 bit drivers etc on a 64 bit system (not the other way around)

You can run 32 bit programs on 64 bit Windows but you cannot install 32 bit drivers. 64 bit Windows requires 64 bit drivers. This was one of the major problems with 64 bit Windows until recently -- there weren't any 64 bit drivers for a lot of hardware.

Ah. Gotcha.

[usually_quiet]

Interesting that on the driver page it states that Win7 is supported.

I think the OP's problem was that 64 bit Win 7 (and 64 bit XP) isn't supported.

Ok. I did read that he uses Win7 64. Now I will confess that I know f... all about 64 bit systems but I do recall reading on here that you can install 32 bit drivers etc on a 64 bit system (not the other way around) so I am clearly missing something here.

According to Microsoft, 64-bit drivers are needed for all hardware if one has a 64-bit version of Windows, even though most 32-bit software runs on a system with a 64-bit version of Windows installed. See: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/32-bit-and-64-bit-windows-frequently-asked-questions

Dang! jagabo beat me again...

[usually_quiet]

It seems strange, but apparently capture from a US cable STB "just works" if the STB is connected to a Mac via firewire, although Apple doesn't include firewire on most of their products anymore. https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/335556-Windows-7-(x64)-and-Set-Tob-Box-Firewire-(1394)-capture

[NTSC Refugee]

The software drivers for using a firewire cable with my dvr is for winXP ONLY. I have since moved to WIN 7 64 bit. My computer recognized the firewire cable and dvr, but would not let me go any further.

Can you explain how it sees the DVR? Specifically, what does it see the DVR as?

One thing that you should look at is the Computer Management console, and check the Disk Management section to see if the DVR's HDD appears there when the cable is connected.

Googled the heck out of it and it comes down to NO win7 support drivers and may never be. Acouple of programmers were talking about it. But neither decided to put the time into it. So as far as right now I won't be able to pull anything off the dvr via firewire.

I'm not so sure of that. Windows provides the IEEE-1394 driver, so that's no problem. It also should have the drivers for a standard block device, such as the HDD in the DVR. Beyond that, everything else would be user mode software. Note that people call a lot of things "drivers" when they really aren't.

I was able to spend a little time tonight playing with Handbrake. I finally got it to work, gotta be smarter than the software I guess!! Anyway I did manage to get Handbrake to crop my video. Handbrake only converts to MP4 or one other I forgot what it is at the moment. So I had to turn right around and convert to MPG2. But after all that it looks pretty good on my TV and at full screen!! Yes it's not HD quality far from it actually but good enough for these old eyes.

That's great news! Looks you got what you needed from the capture files. As long as you're happy with that, then you can go forward like that for the foreseeable future.

Sure wish I had a Winxp machine that could handle the video stuff. I have an old Sony laptop around but it only has 512 megs of ram and that's not counting what the on-board video takes. Damn thing can only upgrade to 1 gig of ram. Figuring the graphics card and XP there would be nothing left for anything else. Right now it can barely handle XP. It would make a better Win98 machine!! SO at this point I don't know how much more anyone can help me here.

IIRC Windows 7 Professional allows you to run a 32-bit WinXP virtual machine. I own VMware, so I just use that, and so I never tried the Windows virtualization. If you want to get into the wonderful world of virtualization, I may be able to provide an XP boot image for you. Do you have an XP install disc?

[jagabo]

The software drivers for using a firewire cable with my dvr is for winXP ONLY. I have since moved to WIN 7 64 bit. My computer recognized the firewire cable and dvr, but would not let me go any further.

Can you explain how it sees the DVR? Specifically, what does it see the DVR as?

It sees the DVR as an MPEG 2 video stream.

One thing that you should look at is the Computer Management console, and check the Disk Management section to see if the DVR's HDD appears there when the cable is connected.

It will not appear as a drive.

IIRC Windows 7 Professional allows you to run a 32-bit WinXP virtual machine. I own VMware, so I just use that, and so I never tried the Windows virtualization. If you want to get into the wonderful world of virtualization, I may be able to provide an XP boot image for you. Do you have an XP install disc?

He won't need an XP install disk with Win7 Pro's XP Mode. XP is included.

[jagabo]

Oops, duplicate post.

[usually_quiet]

Sometimes it helps to read the manual, which I am pretty sure jagabo and the OP have done. The installation procedure is well-documented at the web page hosting the STB Firewire Drivers. The drivers appear in Device Manager under "Imaging Devices" if installation is successful. What shows up there depends on the STB.

[bradf58]

Hey guys

That would be great but I have the home version not pro. But that may not be a bad idea I will check out the upgrade cost from Home to Pro, it maybe cheaper that way instead of a capture box but not sure of that. I know nothing about virtualization software so that would probably have a high learning curve? Yes I did follow the instructions on how to install the firewire drivers and the cap software. But nothing actually worked. Win 7 recognized the firewire and that the dvr was attached but I could not access it from the computer, did try to access as a drive but did not recognize it as accessible. It also would not give me an option for hardware drivers for it. But that did give me an idea and attempted to force a install of hardware for it I think it was called something like avc or something like that. It installed it but it would fly. If I had an extra computer with xp on it I would try it that way but about 2 years ago we upgraded everything and we either have Vista Ultimate (YUCK) or Win 7 Home edition 64 bit. I'm hoping later this year to upgrade the wife's computer, she wants to go to Win 7 64 but needs more memory for that, but when that happens that will give me a machine I can put xp on then go the route of firewire than but that's later down the road, hell who knows by then I might be able to sneak that HD capture box on to my Credit card then once she sees the charge it will be too late (hehe)! At this point though got a lot going on that needs work around the house so money into stuff like this is on the back burner for now that why I was hoping for ideas from you guys. Which has worked out better than I thought anyway! At least now we have a couple of other ways to try this. By the way I don't have a MAC sitting around, damn! (sarcastic comment there).

Anyway it sounds like either an upgrade to Pro or a Capture box is in my future!

Again guys you are terrific!!!!

Brad

[jagabo]

I don't know if any of the virtual machines support firewire ports for video input. My guess is they don't, given how little need there is for the feature. Do you know for a fact that your DVR even has the firewire output enabled?

If you have spare drive around try installing a bootleg XP on it and see if you can get the firewire drivers working.

[usually_quiet]

Hey guys

If I had an extra computer with xp on it I would try it that way but about 2 years ago we upgraded everything and we either have Vista Ultimate (YUCK) or Win 7 Home edition 64 bit. I'm hoping later this year to upgrade the wife's computer, she wants to go to Win 7 64 but needs more memory for that, but when that happens that will give me a machine I can put xp on then go the route of firewire than but that's later down the road, hell who knows by then I might be able to sneak that HD capture box on to my Credit card then once she sees the charge it will be too late (hehe)! At this point though got a lot going on that needs work around the house so money into stuff like this is on the back burner for now that why I was hoping for ideas from you guys. Which has worked out better than I thought anyway! At least now we have a couple of other ways to try this.

If the Vista Ultimate installed is 32-bit not 64-bit, maybe you could try installation on that machine, with the owners permission. (I'm guessing that one belonging to your wife.) There are Vista drivers included in the STB firewire package, and installation instructions for Vista nearer the bottom of the ExDeus STB Firewire Drivers page.

I think I have read that the Vista drivers work for Windows 7 32-bit versions. I plan to try that if I ever get an HD service and an HD cable box.

By the way I don't have a MAC sitting around, damn! (sarcastic comment there).

Oh well. It was worth a shot. Every once in a while a Windows user has a Mac around the house because their spouse or child owns one.

[bradf58]

Hey All

Jagabo I do know for sure the DVR's firewire port is active, also the usb is too. I've had this box for a couple of years before my upgrade to Win 7. I was able to extract/rip video's off the dvr but didn't have the software to convert. WHat I was able to find that said would work, would not at the time, now I'm not so sure it just wasn't my stupidity rather then the software. But yes I did get a bunch of .ts files off of it. Most of them pretty big one's also. I should have kept them and just archived them for later. But again, my stupidity and lack of storage space at the time. I'm a little bit smarter now and a lot more storage space. I have about 2 terabytes and it's down to only 243 gigs! Yes a lot of video stuff, music and games. Games only take up about 75-80 gigs the rest is the video's and music. I ripped all of my cd's about 450 of them. I thought about putting one of my old smaller drives in and installing/dual booting but that wouldn't fly because I have 16 gigs of memory installed. The only other way would be to wait till the wife upgrades her machine (i do all the upgrades) and use the old parts to build a xp machine but then I'd have to get a pci firewire card for it. The cards are fairly cheap 25-40 bucks if you shop around.

Oh sorry rambling again

Anyway I had a tech from Time Warner here to fix a line problem last month and he noticed that they (ports) were live, he said that I got real lucky as most are not. So I'm not looking to replace the box anytime soon I hope anyway.

Usually Quiet:

Hey

Sorry didn't mention that did I , yea we checked with her laptop actually a large tablet with Vista on it. Again the same thing it would recognize the cable and DVR as a motorola, but no access there either. I did notice people were able to use the firewire with Vista 32 bit so I did give it a go. I wish something had worked. It looks like Jagabo just said virtualization doesn't support firewire so the only thing left at this point would be to do what Sanlyn mentioned on a earlier post about the Hauppage HD PVR Box. But then again can't afford that right now, but I'm looking into ways I can sneak it on my gold card. Until then I think I'm stuck doing the way I did it with handbrake then converting to mpg.

By the way gave up on Apple in 1989 when Apple screwed a whole bunch of us Mac users. I took my mac and tossed it and never looked back. If anything I do play with Ubuntu at times.

Thanks

Brad

[jagabo]

When I had a cable box the firewire port only worked when playing recorded shows. It didn't send live video out firewire port. I could capture standard definition recordings but high def recordings were always corrupt. The picture would break up every few seconds.

As I understand it, the FCC has dropped the firewire requirement for cable boxes:

http://connectedhome2go.com/2010/06/28/cablecard-firewire-and-fcc-mandates/

And there is supposed to be some kind of IP standard in the not too distant future:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/12/06/fcc-clarifies-ip-interface-requirement-and-extends-deadline-to-2/

But given Hollywood's DRM lockdown don't expect anything but local over the air local channels to be freely recordable. Other channels will likely be encrypted and flagged "record once" or "record never". The former will be recordable but only playable on the computer that recorded it.

[usually_quiet]

Usually Quiet:

Hey

Sorry didn't mention that did I , yea we checked with her laptop actually a large tablet with Vista on it. Again the same thing it would recognize the cable and DVR as a motorola, but no access there either. I did notice people were able to use the firewire with Vista 32 bit so I did give it a go. I wish something had worked. It looks like Jagabo just said virtualization doesn't support firewire so the only thing left at this point would be to do what Sanlyn mentioned on a earlier post about the Hauppage HD PVR Box. But then again can't afford that right now, but I'm looking into ways I can sneak it on my gold card. Until then I think I'm stuck doing the way I did it with handbrake then converting to mpg.

What provides the firewire connection on the Vista laptop's end? Does it have a firewire port or are you using an ExpressCard firewire adapter? If you used a USB to firewire adapter, they tend not to work with most firewire devices.

[jagabo]

Yes, most USB/Firewire adapters only work for hard drives.

[bradf58]

Hey All

It's a built in mini firewire port not the card kind. It didn't work either, but I'm guessing at this point it had something to do with vista.

At this point it looks as if I want anything better I will need to invest in that capture box. I talked to my neighbor today he has a spare xp machine but no firewire. So still looking like the pvr box way. At this point it will have to wait until probably fall before I dare put it on my card, maybe I will find a sale by then. If I can find one on sale for about 100 bucks or less I'd grab it up in a heart beat. I would bother with a refurb. have had to many past problems with refurbs. I may check around on ebay. The more I play with these files the more I think of getting that cap. box. It's not the end result that's a problem really it's getting there is a pain. But I chaulk it up to a learning experience! I'll be one of those that after I get the cap. box I'll be saying what a idiot I was I should have just got the Box in the beginning!!!!