DVR to PC

DVR to PC
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anon @ 4th Nov 12:59PM:
DVR to PC

I remember hearing some people mention that it is possible to record shows recorded on a Comcast DVR to a PC using a firewire cable.

Problem is, none of my systems have firewire, is there any way I can do this through USB or any other type of connection? Or read the harddrive on a PC? I want to get some recorded episodes that I want to keep off of that thing without basically doing an analog copy over composite, yes composite, my equipment is old, it doesn't even support s-video.
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gar187er @ 4th Nov 01:22PM:
Re: DVR to PC

usb wont work.....only dvrs that have usb activated are SA boxes, and thats not for transfer, its for expanding the hard drive space...
to read the hard drive on the computer, your have to bust open the dvr, not to mention, its encrypted, so youd need to find the software to read the files....its not simply an mpeg....

easiest way is to analog it out, and record it that way....

especially if you dont have firewire.....firewire cards arent that expensive though..
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anon @ 4th Nov 02:04PM:
Re: DVR to PC

said by gar187er :

to read the hard drive on the computer, your have to bust open the dvr, not to mention, its encrypted, so youd need to find the software to read the files....its not simply an mpeg....

Yes I know, obivously i'd need special software to read it, if such software even exists. Which is why I asked.

Pretty much all of my recordings (the ones I care to save anyway) are from G4 and The Food Network, not sure if those are encrypted, aren't only HD movie streams and big shows like Simpsons/24/Heroes/etc encrypted?

said by gar187er :

especially if you dont have firewire.....firewire cards arent that expensive though..

Main problem is that not only are all the PCI/AGP/ISA ports on my desktop used, its a Pentium 3 system that can't even play youtube properly, firewire likely won't wotk on it since IIRC its just streaming the video data.

Not sure about my laptop, its CPU im sure is up to the task but I don't know if they make laptop firewire adapters and how much they would cost, and if an addon card would even work properly.

Not to mention the firewire drivers/apps I found were designed for Windows XP 32 and I have Windows 7 64 on it.

I seriously want to avoid doing an analog transfer over composite/s-video by any means possible, there are a lot of programs I wish to get off of it, mainly a show that no longer exists so I want to get it off the DVR before anything someday happens that wipes my harddrive, there are dozens of episodes of it on the DVR.
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darcilicious @ 4th Nov 02:14PM:
Re: DVR to PC

If you have a PCMCIA slot in your laptop, you should be able to find a firewire card that will work. I know I had one several years ago, I can assume they're still available. And it worked like a charm.
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anon @ 4th Nov 03:18PM:
Re: DVR to PC

I forgot, I have a Mac Mini that has a Firewire port. So I can use that.

But are there MACOS versions of these programs? Or Windows 7 64bit since I plan to dualboot my Mac with Windows 7?

And how does the firework method work? Does it just stream video, meaning I will need to capture it, or does it actually send the files themselves?

Thanks
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anon @ 7th Nov 09:01PM:
Re: DVR to PC

Umm, anyone?
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sortofageek @ 7th Nov 11:06PM:
Re: DVR to PC

It has been suggested you might find more help in this forum: »Audio/Video Chat

Please let me know if you would like the topic moved to that forum.
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Join Team Helix * I am praying for these friends .
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KenAF @ 8th Nov 12:12AM:
Re: DVR to PC

said by Cyber AkumaI :

And how does the firework method work? Does it just stream video, meaning I will need to capture it, or does it actually send the files themselves?

It just streams the video, so you have to capture it. This only works for unprotected content, such as local channels.

TiVo is the only DVR that actually allows you to download the recorded files. You can't do that with any cable co DVR.
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anon @ 10th Nov 11:46PM:
Re: DVR to PC

said by sortofageek :

It has been suggested you might find more help in this forum: »Audio/Video Chat

Please let me know if you would like the topic moved to that forum.

Oops, sorry about that.

Yes, please move the topic there, sorry for taking such a long time to reply and for posting in the wrong section.
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sortofageek @ 11th Nov 11:56AM:
Re: DVR to PC

The topic was OK posted in Comcast TV Forum. I'll move it, however, on the chance it may attract more of the assistance you are requesting in »Audio/Video Chat
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Join Team Helix * I am praying for these friends .
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anon @ 11th Nov 12:19PM:
Re: DVR to PC

Thank You
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amungus @ 11th Nov 04:42PM:
Re: DVR to PC

Only software I've seen is for PC, but who knows, there may be equivalents for Mac...

I'd go w/getting a PCMCIA Firewire card and giving it a try (if your laptop has such a slot).

As for what's encrypted, I doubt the shows you mention are.
Doubt Heroes is either, but I haven't tried it in a long time.

I've only ever tried dubbing from firewire once because a friend wanted me to tape a show they'd be missing that night...
It streams (MPEG2) video, you capture it. If there's any encryption, you'll see the video, but when you go to play the file back, it's scrambled.

If you do go firewire, make sure to test it before waiting the entire hour or so for a show. Dub in about 5 minutes, stop/pause playback, and stop recording, then check the file to make sure you can get a good dub.

If firewire's not an option, getting a clean analog dub is actually not a terrible choice since the signal from DVR is generally pretty clean... It'd certainly be better than dubbing VHS into a computer :D

Either way, firewire cable + PCMCIA card is probably about the same price as an analog capture device.
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