Transferring DVR video to PC...

[Dunyduke16]

I live in Northern Jersey with Cablevision as my provider. I'm thinking about getting their DVR, which I think is the 8300 version. According to Cablevision, the only way to take footage from my DVR box and send it to my PC is to send it from my DVR box to a tape in my VCR, then to my PC. I would assume that doesn't help the quality of the final product.

Is there some way to get a hookup so that I can directly send recorded footage from my DVR to my PC so that it can be burned on a DVD?

Thanks in advance.

[setarip_old]

Hi!

If you have a capture card in your PC, simply connect the DVR to your capture card in exactly the same way Cablevision is suggesting you connect it to your VCR...

[LocalH]

Yeah, I have Charter's DVR and I quite regularly cap video from it. I don't like the Copy to VCR function, however, as you can only play it back in real-time (meaning you can't skip commercials to save space on your PC's HD) and you're limited to using composite video, whereas if you use the box's standard S-Video out then you'll not only get better quality (depending on the channel) but you'll also be able to pause/stop your capture at a break and recue the DVR to near the end of the break.

One tip, if Cablevision's box lets you do this - when selecting a program to record from the guide, I will manually extend the recording to catch an extra minute on each end of the program. This way, you don't have to worry about clipping the beginning or end of the program.

[Nothingface]

You may want to check into the non-dvr box... the SA-3250-HD has a DVI and a Firewire output and the firewire is enabled on the 3250 only. With the 3250 you can firewire into your computer and use a few different HD cap software, also it saves you money on buying a HD-cap card.

[Bucky Wheat]

With the 3250 you can firewire into your computer and use a few different HD cap software, also it saves you money on buying a HD-cap card.
Which application is there to capture the TS? So far, I only know of D-VHS, is there any other application out there that can capture the TS through firewire? I seem to have odd problems recently with D-VHS and would love to try other applications

Thanks
Bucky

[travisbell]

Which application is there to capture the TS? So far, I only know of D-VHS, is there any other application out there that can capture the TS through firewire? I seem to have odd problems recently with D-VHS and would love to try other applications

Thanks
Bucky

I use Windows Media Center 2005 to record from Firewire with Tim Moore's awesome plugin. See here: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/98686.aspx

And before that, I used SageTV. See here: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9288

These solution work perfectly for recording off of Firewire although you still won't be able to watch a live broadcast.

IF you don't need the whole media center experience, CapDVHS is your next best bet in my opinion.