What video format does Windows XP MCE record TV to?

[BroadbandGamer]

I'm going to assume it's .wmv.

Are there options to record TV to MPEG-4 or any other format?

How good is the recording quality? Can you select the bit rate?

I'm trying to find the easiest way to get TV shows on my Archos AV 500.

Thanks,

 

[phisrow]

I was under the impression, correct me if I am wrong, that MCE uses some flavour of DRMed .wmv, designed to keep wicked, wicked, users from transferring recordings to anything but MCE extender devices. I think that you may be out of luck.

Microsoft has http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/using/tv/portable.mspx to say on the subject. Looks like there is a class of devices that is designed to play nice with MCE. I don't know if yours is a member of that class.

 

[spyordie007]

.ms-dvr

They are a modified MPEG2 format with metadata that allows you to store show information. The DRM is there, but only kicks in if it is protected content you are recording (and that comes down from the content provider, not Microsoft).

There are applications out there that will convert the format to something else. You can transfer the files to another XP machine (which I frequently do to watch things I've recorded from my laptop). You can also nativly (in MCE) burn something you've recorded to DVD (again assuming it isnt protected content).

How good is the recording quality? Can you select the bit rate?

The recording quality that MCE is capable of is very good (all the way up to high quality HDTV). You can select quality when you record a show though the dialog doesnt state what bitrates you are recording at (it just dumbs it down to "best", "good", "fair", etc.)

EDIT: keep seeing more things to respond to.