My cable TV package includes a DVR, Motorola - HD Dual Tuner DVR DCH 3416 HDMI Dolby Digital.

1. Is is possible to burn movies recorded on this DVR to a DVD?
2. Is it legal?

I know I'll need a DVD recorder and will get to that if I get through question 1 and 2 ok;)

TIA

If this is not the right place for this post, I apologize - first time here:o

Record all you want.

Sounds good to me.

Now to the DVD recorder - Sony RDR-GX455 showed up #1 in one rating I saw - any opinions on this unit.....

Thanks for speedy reply.

1. Is is possible to burn movies recorded on this DVR to a DVD?
2. Is it legal?

To be technical, if there is any copy protection (e.g. PPV or premium channel recordings), it is not necessarily legal to record it, especially if you have to work around the copy protection. That could be a violation of the DMCA.

Even if it's 'over the air' stuff, it has _not been decided_ whether it's legal or not to keep things for long term.

Of course, those of us who have DVD recorders do this.

(You *did* ask.. so I was nitpicky.)

Of course, those of us who have DVD recorders do this.

(You *did* ask.. so I was nitpicky.)

nitpicky is good - and I DID ask;)

FWIW - it is not PPV - mostly my new addiction to old movies.

All of us with DVD recorders archive stuff either directly off cable or from the timeshift DVR box. Obviously there are copyright vagaries depending on whether these programs contain a copy-inhibit signal and whether they are PPV. If I were you I would avoid the Sony: reports here indicate it is oversensitive to copy-inhibit signals, to the point where it hallucinates them sometimes when they don't exist. Ditto certain Toshiba models. Under $200, go with Panasonic. Over $200, get the Phillips 3576 which will also give you an additional hard drive to play with (this is often on sale for well under $300 at Wal*Mart and other chains, and is currently the best value-per-dollar DVD recorder available new in the USA).

I appreciate the suggestion to go with Panasonic or Phillips. I tend to look at Sony first. Thanks for the info.

^^If the Phillips 3576 interests you, then check your nearest Sam's Club-they typically sell for $249 there while Walmart carries them in store/online for the full $299(ish).

^^If the Phillips 3576 interests you, then check your nearest Sam's Club-they typically sell for $249 there while Walmart carries them in store/online for the full $299(ish).

Thanks for the suggestion.

All of us with DVD recorders archive stuff either directly off cable or from the timeshift DVR box. Obviously there are copyright vagaries depending on whether these programs contain a copy-inhibit signal and whether they are PPV. If I were you I would avoid the Sony: reports here indicate it is oversensitive to copy-inhibit signals, to the point where it hallucinates them sometimes when they don't exist. Ditto certain Toshiba models. Under $200, go with Panasonic. Over $200, get the Phillips 3576 which will also give you an additional hard drive to play with (this is often on sale for well under $300 at Wal*Mart and other chains, and is currently the best value-per-dollar DVD recorder available new in the USA).With regard to the Sony: I have no problems with the older GX330 (plus it has an S-video input on the back and lets you set the 16:9 flag). Also, the Panasonic S15/25 works well. Newer models do seem to be more sensitive to CP.

FWIW - it is not PPV - mostly my new addiction to old movies.

I record a lot from Turner Classic Movies, and I have Comcast, and a Moto DVR. I would suggest getting a DVDR with a HDD, like the Philips. Run your raw cable directly to the Philips, then to your Moto DVR. That way, you can use the analog tuner in the Philips to record the TCM films directly to your DVDR's HDD, edit them later, and burn them to disc. This saves having to do real-time transfers from your Moto to the DVDR, and it frees up space on the HDD of your Moto. Right now, I am recording most of the Laurel and Hardy marathon on TCM, direct to my Pio 640 DVDR, in big blocks, which I will edit, and divide into titles, and burn to disc later. :D

I record a lot from Turner Classic Movies, and I have Comcast, and a Moto DVR. I would suggest getting a DVDR with a HDD, like the Philips. Run your raw cable directly to the Philips, then to your Moto DVR. That way, you can use the analog tuner in the Philips to record the TCM films directly to your DVDR's HDD, edit them later, and burn them to disc. This saves having to do real-time transfers from your Moto to the DVDR, and it frees up space on the HDD of your Moto. Right now, I am recording most of the Laurel and Hardy marathon on TCM, direct to my Pio 640 DVDR, in big blocks, which I will edit, and divide into titles, and burn to disc later. :D

My Cable service maps TCM to their premium channel 501 that requires their Motorola digital cable box. That Comcast box is always tuned to TCM.

In my bedroom I have a DMR-ES30V and a DMR-ES15 directly enslaved to the cable box, one through the cable RF output and the other through the composite output. This is the small Motorola DT700 that only provides these outputs. From the DMR-ES15 RF output I have a coax cable running into my home office (the next room) where it feeds the Philips 3575 RF input. The 3575 RF output runs to the RF input on a Panasonic DMR-EZ17. With this arrangement I have four recorders enslaved to the cable box.

I use a tandem recording strategy usually scheduled about a week in advance. Usually I review the final schedule online within two days of the showings to verify the final schedule and make any necessary adjustments with the recorders.

If I observe instances of tight scheduling on, say an 89 minute movie in a 90 minute time slot or a 9 minute short next to an 80 minute movie in a 90 minute time slot I may use a tandem/alternating scheduling strategy between two or three recorders in order to provide buffer timing (with one to three minutes of overlap). With the dedication to TCM of three standard recorders and the hard drive Philips it's been a long time since I had to set my alarm to wake me up so I might swap out DVDs.

Occasionally TCM may have bad timings, even in the online schedule. I also check timings for movies I don't plan to record so I may spot those likely to run over their allocated time slots. Just recently I spotted a scheduled movie of around 122 minutes in a 120 minute time slot. TCM does not time-compress their movies so this scheduling problem jumped right off the page and bit me on the nose (well, not really). Due to this movie's importance and location in the schedule I was reasonably sure that it would start earlier than the scheduled starting time. The movie following this one was also somewhat tightly scheduled in its time slot (if I remember it correctly), compounding the problem. I made a scheduling adjustment to begin the recording three minutes early. Robert Osborne's outro for the previous movie incorporated the into for this movie. I was correct in starting the recording early, the movie began about 1.5 minutes early and the last of the opening credits was rolling at the movie's original start time. This is perhaps the second time in around three years that I have observed a tightly scheduled TCM movie beginning early.

As a Laurel and Hardy fan I am recording the the entire 24 hours (twice). In the bedroom the two Panasonics are the primary recorders for the day's recording to DVDs in carefully timed and programmed tandem blocks, three per machine, where each block is of approximately four hours duration (more or less) in Flexible Recording mode. This allows about four hours of down time for each machine between its recording blocks. The DVD needs to be swapped out at some time during the four hour down time so the Panasonic is ready for the next recording block. In the home office the Philips is recording Laurel and Hardy's 24 hours to the hard drive in blocks between 2:15 and 3:00 in duration at the SPP or LP speeds so each block may be dubbed to a single DVD for optimal recording quality.

My Cable service maps TCM to their premium channel 501 that requires their Motorola digital cable box. That Comcast box is always tuned to TCM.

That's too bad. TCM is on 66 on Comcast in my area.

I prefer to record the L&H marathon in straight blocks that end at the start of a feature, or short, that I already have, and start a new block when that is over. I do pad my start and stop times liberally. I have noticed that TCM's marathons can have creeping time errors. But, recorded in big blocks, I never have to worry about clipping off the end, and having it on the next block. I expect to have 4 SP DVDs of shorts, 1 single feature DVD (mn28), and three double feature DVDs, when I edit it all. I'll leave in as much of Bob's commentary as possible, probably most of it.

I also note TCM's listed length, and check it on the IMDb. TCM is usually rather accurate, but yes, when they list a longer timing than the slot, I pad the start and end by the difference, +10 minutes, at least.

My Pio 640 has the raw Comcast RF, S-Video from the AVR, which has the Moto DVR, a SVHS VCR, a LD player, (and a few more things) feeding into it, plus direct feeds - S-Vid from a NTSC/PAL converting DVD player, and line video from a multiformat converting VCR. So, my Pio is ready to record anything!

My Cable service maps TCM to their premium channel 501 that requires their Motorola digital cable box. That Comcast box is always tuned to TCM.
Hmm, I can receive TCM on my EZ47's QAM tuner (I have Comcast too). Since you have both the Phillips 3575 and a couple of Panny EZ17s (do those have QAM tuners?), perhaps you could run thru the channels on those to see if you're getting TCM but didn't know it?
Flipping thru those blank digital channels is a pain, but if you can pick it up on one of your dvdr's tuner, it may help you out tremendously with regards to timeshifting....

Hmm, I can receive TCM on my EZ47's QAM tuner (I have Comcast too). Since you have both the Phillips 3575 and a couple of Panny EZ17s (do those have QAM tuners?), perhaps you could run thru the channels on those to see if you're getting TCM but didn't know it?
Flipping thru those blank digital channels is a pain, but if you can pick it up on one of your dvdr's tuner, it may help you out tremendously with regards to timeshifting....

Ahead of the Philips 3575 is an A/B switch so it and its enslaved Panny EZ17 may be switched over to a straight Comcast coax feed. The original channel scans for the Philips 3575 and Panny EZ17 were made with this Comcast connection. I browsed through those hundreds of sub-channels on both machines a few times but I never found TCM (so it was encoded). I believe that our local Comcast service has Switched Digital (is that the correct name for it?) so even if I were to find TCM unencoded it might be gone five minutes later.