Copy Video From A DVR

[Pghpooh]

HI
I have a dvr on my television cable.
(added 3-6-2006)
The dvr is provided by Comcast as part of the cable box. I want to feed the video stored on the hard drive of the dvr to my computer and then burn the video to a cd or dvd.
I'd like to be able to burn some of the tv shows to a cd or dvd.
Probably 70% of the shows are children?s shows such a Dora, Max and Ruby, etc. that my grand kids like to watch. The storage on the dvr is always around 85% to 90% full and every time I delete a show that's the one the kids want to watch!!!! LOLOL
What video card or other input devices can I use on my computer that will let me copy the stored video on the dvr?
I am aware that ATI makes the All In Wonder and Hauppauge has tuner cards and Pinacle has input devices.
My computer is a slow AMD T-Berd running at 1300 mhz and I have 768 meg of ram. Also I have 3 hard drives with a total storage capacity of over 300 gig. Add a Plextor dvd burner. The USB is a slow USB 1. (I could add a pci card to upgrade to a USB 2)

I am looking for advice and suggestions on what I can do and how I can copy the dvr stored video. The little that I do know I think that it would be best to use hardware decoding because it takes a lot of work off of the cpu. Other then that I need ANY AND ALL THE HELP I CAN GET!!! 😀
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[robphelan]

you can buy a cheap PCI TV tuner card that has a Coaxial cable input.

use your DVR to output the signal to your PC and you should be able to record the show using MythTV or whatever other freeware is out there.

 

[obeseotron]

Yeah, you'd have to capture from a tuner card and then use a dvd authoring program to burn dvds for a standard player. Using a DVR with a DVD burner built in would be a much easier option.

 

[Pghpooh]

Bump 😱

 

[obeseotron]

You will not be able to do what you want to do with a standard cable company DVR box. The video is encrypted, so even taking apart the DVR and putting the hard drive into a PC won't get you what you want. Tivo with a burner or Tivo2go are your only options besides exceedingly tedious manual captures with a tuner.

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
I guess my best bet is to buy a tuner card and and install it on my computer. I did a little checking and if I assume right I can record from the tuner card to the hard drive on the computer and then burn a cd or dvd.
Correct me if I am worng.
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Texun]

With a 1.3g CPU I would suggest a TV card or capture card with a hardware decoder. I use the Happauge 250, which I've had for a few years, but Newegg has a PVR-250 which should work well for what you want and can be had for under $100.

I built a PC just for downloading and burning content from my DVR for many of the same reasons as you have mentioned and never had a problem. Anything I can record on my DVR can be easily transferred to my hard drive and burned to DVD.

 

[Pghpooh]

Hi
Thanks for the info.
Texun, when I click on the link it goes to the pvr-150 unit. Do you mean the pvr 150 or pvr 250?
Thanks
Pghpooh

 

[Texun]

Originally posted by: Pghpooh
Hi
Thanks for the info.
Texun, when I click on the link it goes to the pvr-150 unit. Do you mean the pvr 150 or pvr 250?
Thanks
Pghpooh

I linked the 150 but the 250 is what I use. I can't vouch for the 150 but like the 250 it does hardware decoding so I *think* it would be fine for what you want.

Before I got the 250 I tried some software (cheap) decoder cards and was not at all happy with the quality.

 

[Pghpooh]

Hi

Texun,,,
Thanks for the update.
I have the grandkids here for the next two days. After they go home and I regain my sanity I'll head over to the Newegg site and do some shopping!!! 😀
Thanks
Pghpooh