I need to record and store about 170 hours of HDTV. What are my options?

[kelman3]

Here in the US we are getting all 64 world cup games for the first time. This will also be the first world cup in high definition and I really don't want to miss out. What's my best option to record it all?

Here's my math:

1 game = 2.5 hours.
miscellaneous footage (opening ceremony etc.) = 10 hours
64 x 2.5 = 160
160 + 10 = 170 hours

Are there any HD-TiVo boxes that can record that many hours without compression or with minimal compression? If it looks virtually the same to the eye then that's fine with me. For example I have a DVD recorder and LP looks as good as SP to me. There is some compression but it looks basically the same after my eyes adjust.

Blu-ray/HD-DVD recorders and disks seemed to be priced out of this world at the moment.

I thought of recording on the XP setting on DVD but I was told DVD is only 480p and HD starts at 720p so I'd be loosing quite a bit of information. But I'm not a purist so it's all about how it looks to the eye for me.

It seems like my best option would be to get a capture card and transfer from TiVo to computer to data DVD on a daily basis to free up space on the TiVo but I read somewhere that 1 hour of HDTV is about 9GB. So that would be an outrageous number of Dual Layer discs.

Any ideas?


Thanks

[morph166955]

Yea theres ALOT that it sounds like you havent thought about.

First, how are you going to get the video from the cable box into the computer? i know that my hd tivo box has an external sata port on it but the files are stored in an encrypted method on the disc making them useless. Im assuming that the games arent broadcast over like abc or anything thats free over the air.

[kelman3]

Forgive my ignorance, I'm new at this and there's a lot of things I can't figure out since I don't have any HD equipment.

I read in a magazine article that it's not so hard to rip TiVo boxes. I guess that might not be the case.

The games will be on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2. I'm pretty sure you can get ABCHD free over the air with the right antenna. Are you saying that if it isn't free over the air it's most likely to be an encrypted broadcast?

I'm also thinking that if I have the games stored on a TiVo box I can transfer them to HD-DVD/Bluray whenever I can afford that. I figure I can record the images from the TV as the TiVo is playing them.

[Edit] I've done a bit of reading and it looks like unless an HD signal is recorded with a capture card it can't be recorded at all because of encryption on HDMI inputs of HD recording devices. Is that right?

I've also been reading around CNET and it looks like HD TiVos don't store too many hours of programming and are pretty expensive unless you get the cheap one that comes with the service. But I think I read that those don't record full HD resolution which is disappointing. Most people don't need to record 170 hours of HD programming I will admit. I might just have to enjoy watching the world cup and be happy with the 5 or 6 games I can store to transfer later.

[morph166955]

yea basically you have limited options. Currently there are NO hdmi or dvi capable capture cards availible(atleast not any that are even remotely reasonable for a non commercial customer).

The other thing, 170hours of HD video is going to run you atleast 1.2TB of just raw video before you encode it (im using 6.5-7gig per hour which is what i see now on my card), so i hope you have alot of storage space. Your then going to need prob another few hundred gig to do the encodes and all the temp space and stuff.

Saddly due to encryption of hdtv theres no real easy way to bring it into the computer. ive been trying to find something equivalent to the old "ch 3" boxes that used to take rca/svideo and put it to channel 3 antenna in that i could use on component or dvi/hdmi and get a hdtv out, but thus far i havent found anything because its borderline illegal. if i can find the components and some decent documentation, i may see if i can build one myself considering the hdcp decoder chip is like $11 or something like that, but thats a last case senario and i probabaly dont have the motivation to do it...and im also not going into any more depth on it so that the mods dont strike me down (::ducks::).

My only recommendation to you if you want to do this and have the ability to go back later is to get some removable hdd's. I have a box made by a company called penguin co (look for it on newegg i have no idea as to model #'s) which converts any internal drive to an external w/ usb2.0 and sata2 plugs. If you can get a tivo box that has the ability to use an external sata, then i recommend you get one of those penuin boxes and possibly a few 400-500gig hard drives (3ish maybe? i would go with the WesternDigital 500 if you have a choice...i have one now and there great. I also have 8x 400 gig WD drives that i bought before the 500 was out in one of my servers all in a raid5 array...and yes...thats where i do my video stuff mainly.) Then just fill up each one, and once its full, take it out, put a new one in, label the old one and put it away until it can be used. Not the best senario but atleast you will then have it so that you can use it in the future once the hardware is availible.

Something else you may want to follow closely is ATI's "OCUR" unit that you can read up on here: http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2662&p=2

the OCUR is the first piece of equiptment thats due out soon which can take a cablecard from the cableco's and bring an encrypted HD signal into the computer. With Vista MCE i believe you can record it into the computer but I have no definite as to if that record is encrypted or anything of that nature.

[kelman3]

Thanks for the repsonse. I appreciate it.

It looks to me that as HDMI evolves there will become more ways to record it. I'll just keep what I can on an HD-TiVo until I find a suitable transfer method.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Doubtful..

The whole point of HDMI is so that the corporations have greater control over who gets to record what when and how.

DRM is evil.

~misfit