Cable STB and Magnavox mdr537H

Hi Scnoodle, I'm in Manitoba (with Shaw's STB, same thing basically) and unfortunately no recorder will capture subscribed channels through its tuner as they are "scrambled" hence the need for the STB. If your STB is a PVR, you will need to send the S-video and audio to the Magnavox, play and record real time the shows/movies on the PVR's HDD, edit and dub what you want to transfer to disc. I also subscribe to HBO and also Movie Central and this is the only way you can, albeit not easy, archive stuff with recorders.

Hope this helps

Use your setup #4 with a splitter so you have bi-directional communication between your STB and the cable co for VOD and other features. Connect the Magnavox DVDR and STB to separate HDMI inputs on the TV and connect the STB into the DVDR with S-video.

The DVDR can only record clear QAM channels (probably just your basics) through its tuner and only in SD --- you can schedule those. Any of your other cable channels will have to be recorded through the STB -- if the STB can be scheduled you would have to set timers for both STB and DVDR. The picture coming out of the STB will probably be letter-boxed widescreen.

If you want to be able to easily schedule recordings of all the channels you pay for and watch one channel as another one records and record in HD -- consider getting the cable co DVR (do they sell TiVos in Canada).

Not sure about Rogers but most of the non-PVR STBs on Shaw have a feature called “Record to VCR” and when you click that option on a program via the guide, the STB will change the channel to that show so your recorder can record it via S-Video.

As to Tivo, its available in Canada but I would recommend for all Canadians who subscribe to cable to stay away from Tivo because most Canadian cable cos encrypt all digital cable channels including basic. Clear QAM is pretty well useless in Canada and 95 percent of cable cos in Canada don’t support cable card. In other words if you subscribe to cable – you need a cable co supplied STB or PVR to record any digital cable channel. The good news is that from time to time the cable co will sell you a PVR for a loss leader price (to keep you as a subscriber). I got a DCX3400-M dual tuner PVR with 500GB HDD capable of receiving MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 channels for $97. Twelve or so years ago I got a DCT2000 for $50 including $100 worth movie channel programing.

Yes, a TiVo without a cable card is pretty useless.

Hi Scnoodle, as you have non-PVR STBs, you could check to see if you have the "record to VCR" option, if so here's what you could do; be aware that you will be watching what you are recording unless you split the cable and send one feed to the TV and watch a basic channel off the TV tuner while recording. You may also want to check your over-the-air capabilities in your area, this way you could at least watch the local HD channels while recording stuff otherwise it's plain SD basic cable through the TV.

First things first, always set an appropriate recording mode for your recording ex; 2-hour movie or little bit less, set the recorder at the 2-hour mode and so on, it's not really recommended to go past the 2-hour mode as you loose resolution, these are to the eye of the beholder, so some testing on your part to see what is satisfactory to you.

1- Connect the S-Video with audio to the Mag input.
2- Set a "Record to VCR" timing on the STB
3- Set the same timing on the Mag (line-1, I suspect) maybe a minute before the start and a minute after, check the clocks on both PVR and Mag to be as close a match as possible.
4- Change the TV input to its tuner to be able to watch basic channels (or OTA) while the Mag is recording off the STB.

I work with a PVR, I record my subscribed channels on the PVR, so sometimes I'll record as stated above and/or here's how I (and many others) also operate;

1- the PVR's S-Video and audio outputs run into the recorder's line input
2- Record all I want on the PVR's HDD
3- When no one's using the TV ot PVR (at night or off shopping) I'll start the one-touch-recording on the recorder for one setting longer than the PVR recording or I will actually set a timer recording to start right then and there for as long as the PVR show, wait for the recorder to start recording, I sit for about 15-20 seconds recording essentially nothing then I start the PVR recording, I do this to be able to do a nice edit afterward splitting the front end of the recording and the back end, tilte up the recording and dub to a disc.

If you are going to record and watch TV at the same time I would suggest to tuck away the STB's remote while recording and use the original TV remote to prevent the GUI to pop up by accident, believe me nothing more frustrating than looking at a nice recording and all of a sudden you realize that you pressed a couple of buttons on the STB remote and it shows up on the recording !!!

That's just awful, without a Cable Card, the typical HTPC is also useless.

It really does suck but the rare loss leader sales of a STB / PVR kinda makes up for it. I mean really, under $100 for a dual channel PVR with a 500 GB HDD that’s capable of receiving AVC H.264 is pretty good. When I finally built a HTPC I will dedicate a PVR to it and hook via something like the Hauppauge 1212 component signal. I heard good things about Tivo but unfortunately the majority of Canadian cable subscribers are out of luck.

I did hear that the future of cable is 1) MPEG-4 AVC H.264 and 2) Switched Digital Video. I did hear that Switched Digital Video will render all non-true2way cable cards useless and it’s not a matter of just swapping a card for a true2way card, as the older one-way cable card tuners can’t handle true2way. Plus most of the cable card tuners are MPEG-2 only.

As to any Canadian reading my info please contact your cable provider as some smaller cable companies may support cable card and or clear QAM but Rogers and Shaw which cover 90 percent of subscribers don’t offer clear QAM or cable-cards. But you should contact them in your specific region just to be sure.

BTW my cable co just dropped from three tiers of analog + basic (around 75 channels) to just the basic (around 33 channels) left in analog. I know both Shaw and Rogers are doing this this year region by region. Most likely even the basic analogs will be dropped within a couple of years.

 

Great report... congratulations!

 

For your On-Demand stuff where you press REC on the Mag, don't forget you can do a "manual timed" recording where you press REC multiple times to add up to 6 hours of REC time so you can walk away and the machine will shut off after the time you set. You just need to know the run time of the show.