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getting shows off of a Comcast PVR

2K views 6 replies 6 participants last post by  hearncl 
#1 ·
My Comcast PVR is being delivered Saturday, and I am wondering (already) how I will get stored shows off the device and onto my Mac for burning to DVD.


Any sites that have hacks for this Comcast box? Or will I have to figure it out on my own?


Thanks!
 
#3 ·
The comcast dvr's (if your region has he sci atlanta box that I have) has an option on the dvr to "archive to tape." It allows you to output a svhs analog signal. You can run this into your dvd recorder. Not ideal, but very good quality output.
 
#4 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by santafen
My Comcast PVR is being delivered Saturday, and I am wondering (already) how I will get stored shows off the device and onto my Mac for burning to DVD.


Any sites that have hacks for this Comcast box? Or will I have to figure it out on my own?
What is the brand and model# of the DVR your local Comcast office is giving you? You may or may not be able to output your stored shows depending on which exact DVR you get, and of the ones where it is possible we'll have to know exactly which one it is before being able to tell you how to do it. And if it is possible, any HD content will only be output at 480i whichever method you use. And if it's a Scientific Atlanta DVR, you need to know if it runs SARA or Passport software.
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by santafen
My Comcast PVR is being delivered Saturday, and I am wondering (already) how I will get stored shows off the device and onto my Mac for burning to DVD.


Any sites that have hacks for this Comcast box? Or will I have to figure it out on my own?


Thanks!
i have the pvr and i am wondering the same thing as i'm contemplating a mac.

sherry
 
#6 ·
The way to record to a DVD from a DVR program is to use the DVR's analog composite or s-video 480i video output plus the stereo analog audio outputs, no hacking required. Use a computer video capture card and use software to encode to DVD-compatable MPEG2 format and then use DVD authoring software to format he files for a DVD-video. I do this all the time on a regular PC with an ATI All-In-Wonder video/capture card and their software.
 
#7 ·
This is easy to do with a Mac. You do need additional equipment, as well as the Macintosh programs iMovie and iDVD. The additional equipment is an analog-to-digital converter, such as the ADVC boxes sold by Canopus. As mentioned in the other posts, most PVRs have analog video and audio outputs. Both my Tivo and Comcast HDTV DVR (Motorola 6412) have such outputs. Connect the analog outputs (using either composite or s-video) to the AD converter, and connect the converter to the Mac with a Firewire cable. The Mac then thinks the AD converter is a digital camcorder, and the digitized video can be imported into iMovie, edited (remove commercials, etc.), and burned to DVD using iDVD. Note that the video uses lots of hard disc space--about 12 GB for an hour of video.


There is a way to record HDTV directly to the Mac using the Firewire port on the Comcast DVR, but it's not too practical. Not only does it use gobs of hard disc space, but it's not easy to record to DVD at this time.
 
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