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How do I take HD video recorded on my DVR and put it on my computer?

4K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  hondo21 
#1 ·
I recorded Planet Earth last night and I'd love to take it from my DVR and put it on my computer.


I know it is possible, but what do I need to do? Is it then possible to burn it onto DVD?



I have Time Waner Cable with the Motorola Explorer 8300HD DVR
 
#2 ·
Anyone???
 
#3 ·
???
 
#4 ·
Simply put, you cannot.


On most Time Warner (and other) cable systems, cable channels are flagged as 5C "copy once." The PC is not a 5C authorized device, so it cannot record such content using the Firewire interface.


Other products, like HDTV D-VHS recorders and future HDTV Blu-ray recorders, are 5C authorized, so you can record all content with those devices.


For the most part, the only content not 5C flagged -- and thus, recordable with a PC -- is the local DTV/HDTV channels. Using your PC, you can create HDMV DVDs with high-definition content for playback on HD-DVD (but not DVD) players. Note however, that a dual-layer DVD only holds about one-hour of HDTV at ATSC bitrates. If you want to record more than one hour on a disk, you should start saving your money for a Blu-ray recorder.


There is one solution to record all HDTV cable channels with a PC, but that requires a Windows Vista PC with OCUR. You can read more about that right here . Note however, that all recordings of 5C flagged cable channels with this solution are encrypted on your hard disk, so you can't send them to friends or copy them to DVD. As before, you can copy and burn content recorded from the local channels.
 
#5 ·
I have also been trying to download from my motorola 3412 to my pc using a firewire connector without success. I called Motorola and was told by a tech that there are no existing drivers but they are" under development".He suggsted that Comcast( my provider) might have software. However the Comcast rep told me they dont and there is no way to download from the stb-dvr.

I had thought one could download but only non HD or HD that was degraded to non HD but apparently not.
 
#6 ·
If your computer has a TV Tuner card that accepts inputs via RCA/S-Video, then you can record it to your computer, but it will not be HD quality. Once everything is connected, you'd basically hit play on the recorded show and then record on the pc - old school style a la "VHS!"
 
#7 ·
I was able to do exactly what you are asking. I have a Comcast (Motorola) DCT6412, I connected from the first 1394 port on the 6412, to a 1394 port on my HTPC. I loaded the firestb application http://home.comcast.net/~timmmoore/firewire/readme.htm and I loaded VLC from http://www.videolan.org/ - the firestb enables your cable box to appear as a Panel Device and a tuner Device. When running VLC, you open a capture device, go to the Directshow tab, click refresh list, then select Video device name listbox, should see the Motorola tuner device. Then click on stream output below, then click settings. click on File on left towards top, browse to a directory, and give it somename.ts to save it to. Click on Play local above that. Go to your DVR and queue up your planet earth episode and pause it. Click ok in vlc to start recording, start your dvr playing. It should then display in a vlc window, if you run explorer and go to where you are saving the file, press F5 and watch it grow. When done press the stop button on the VLC control, then stop your DVR. This creates an MPEG-TS file which VLC can play anytime, and any player that can play MPEG-TS files and deal with HD can play it, Windows Media player does not play the sound. VLC does a great job and is free, albeit not very user friendly.


HTH
 
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