[Anubisrocks]

Ok, first thank you to Citibear and all who helped me in getting my DVR and stopping me from making a huge money wasting mistake.


Now that I have it set up and just tested it recording to HDD from VHS successfully I have something else I want to try.


I'd like to know if there is any way to record streaming video (HULU, YOU TUBE, etc) to the Pio 460 HDD? I've tried doing by hooking up a USB cable, no luck. I also tried hooking up an S-Video cable and audio cable to the front ports and setting the input to DV Front and still no luck. Is there something I am missing or not doing or something I am doing wrong?

If there is no way of accomplishing this, let me know and I will figure out a way to capture the streams on my PC and then I can just copy them to the DVR via USB doing it like you would another HDD or something. (One can do that according to the manual).


I have another question regarding recording VHS to the 460HK HDD: I tested doing that on the "4 hour" mode and the PQ turned out awful. If I set the HDD record time to 2-hour or less will the PQ be better or is it completely dependent on the original tape? (The tape was recorded on 4 hour mode and plays ok through the TV (although not as good as on my old CRT TV).


Thanks for the help and advice.

 

[Rammitinski]

No matter what speed the tape was recorded at, it will always look best copied at the highest speed possible on the DVD recorder. (Also, the tapes usually look best played back on the actual VCR that they were recorded on.)


However, there usually isn't a whole lot of noticable difference between the 1-hr. and 2-hr. speeds on most DVD/HDD recorders, so you can usually go down to that speed without any ill effects. It's when you go past that where you usually start noticing things.


I don't know much about the recording off of the PC thing (CitiBear's the big Pio guy around here these days), but I do know enough not to expect recording from You Tube or Hulu to be very palatable (especially You Tube).


(One more thing - VHS always looks better on a 480i CRT than it does on any modern, high resolution display - especially flat-panel LCD. Not much you can do about that, short of only watching them on the old set. Make sure you are at least recording them through the HDD/DVD recorder's composite inputs, anyway. I don't know if the Pio's have it, but many recorders have circuitry in the composite input which improves the picture quality.)

 

[Anubisrocks]

Hulu looks fine, in fact far better than VHS when I stream it over my 40 inch LCD. You Tube however, is a totally different story - pretty much unwatchable 95% of the time. I wonder why?

I also wonder if I were to find a way to get the You Tube stuff to the HDD in the Pio and then burn it to DVD if there is some improvement that would happen with some settings or something?

 

[northrk]

If your PC has s-video or composite outputs you should be able to record from it. Test the output first by connecting it to the TV directly.


About connecting the s-video to the front input and setting the input to DV. L2 (Input 2) is the correct input for the front video connections. DV input is for camcorders with a iLink or Firewire port. This port is left of the usb ports.


I would also suggest that you concider using the video adjust menu to adjust you inputs for the specific device you connect. See pages 110 in the manual. Basically adjust it so it looks best to you.