Recording HD Video

SCCutler

SCCutler

Administrator
Management Council Member
PoA Supporter
Joined
Feb 27, 2005
Messages
17,273
Location
Dallas
Display Name
Display name:
Spike Cutler
As of now, all my HD video watching is done over the air; my only extra video sources are DVD and standard-def satellite, and I have no Tivo or equivalent.

I would like to be able to record an HD program, and it appears to me that I should be able to do so with some of the available USB HD tuner/software combinations.

Any recommendations / reviews / practical advice? Can this work with my laptop, or do I need a hot-rod computer to do it?

It would be a bonus if, as a part of the deal, we could either stream the recorded video to folks we wanted to show it to, or send the video file to them to watch via email (not so practical for size, I expect), or the like. I presume in this instance, we'd likely be down-sampling it for size, too.

Suggestions?
 
Your laptop can do it. The tuner boxes have hardware encodiers onboard so the hard work is not done by the PC. You might want to make sure you don't have other programs runnign while you're recording.

For Mac, El Gato EyeTV.

Haupage is good/ This includes DVR software:
http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-Win...al-Recorder/dp/B000J1CCGA/ref=thepilotcast-20

For PC (no experience) You might need Windows Media Center, which as far as I know, needs an internal tuner card to work:
http://www.engadgethd.com/2006/07/1...-atsc-tuners-artec-t14a-and-fujuplus-fd-usb7/
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=324900&banner=dc
http://www.ramelectronics.net/audio...uner-for-pc-usbhdtv-creator/prodAUT00001.html

You'll see it's real hard to find these. Wanna know why? BECAUSE THE MOVE INDUSTRY DOESN'T WANT YOU TO BE ABLE DO IT without them being able to control what you can do with DRM. Ain't America great or what?

No commercial HD DVR allows you to pull the recording off. The CableCARD "standards" won't let any device that uses it record without encryption.
 
I have an HP Z556 Media Center box designed for that exact purpose. I love it's DVR ability and excellent replay quality. It does have an HD tuner but usable ONLY for over-the-air service. Why they designed it that way, I'll never understand. From what I've seen, the others after it aren't any better. I'm betting there will be a change when analog goes away but the cost will skyrocket for a while.
 
KennyFlys said:
I have an HP Z556 Media Center box designed for that exact purpose. I love it's DVR ability and excellent replay quality. It does have an HD tuner but usable ONLY for over-the-air service. Why they designed it that way, I'll never understand. From what I've seen, the others after it aren't any better. I'm betting there will be a change when analog goes away but the cost will skyrocket for a while.
Click to expand...

See above. There are no component or (horrors!) HDMI input devices because the movie industry doesn't want you to have one. The HDMI spec specifically requires that the device on the other end has to be allowed by the source. When some devices that spoofed were made outside the U.S. they were banned from being imported.
 
Spike,

I was also going to suggest the EyeTV by El Gato. My brother has one, it works great. If it is Mac only :dunno:, pair it up with a Mac Mini.
 
Spike, forget what I said about not being able to transfer content...although it is true that you can't record it over a direct conenction.

I just dug out my HD Tivo and set up TiVo Desktop and pyTivo. I'm amazed but I can in fact transfer content at will TiVo<-->PC/Mac. I was just enjoying viewing a movie on the PC on my main TV and vice-versa. It's Multiroom viewing! I finally get to enjoy what I should have worked all along. (The DirecTV TiVos never had these features.)

This has the advantage of having the TiVo UI which is the absolute best, bar none. I have lifetime service on the TiVo so it doesn't cost me anything more. Else It's $129 a year.

This is finally pretty much the setup I always wanted. I can watch anything in any room on any device...except for things the TiVo gets which are marked "No Copy"

I'm thinking seriously of buying a Series 2 TiVO for $69. I will as long as they work out the TiVo working with a AT&T Uverse set top box. Then I can do TiVo<-->TiVo transfers. Note that the Series 2 requires a cable or sat box, while the HD TiVO works off an antenna or with CableCARD.

In your case, if you got an HD TiVo you could put the TiVo on the antenna to get all the shows you want and transfer shows to and from your laptop at will.

Geek alert! I don't even have an antenna on mine. I'm too far way from town now and I don't have an outdoor antenna installed yet. For now, I'll just use what can come over the network, which BTW includes a lot of music, podcasts and other shows and even movies, if I wanted, from Amazon unbox. I can as above watch videos and play music that on any PC or Mac.

I'm thinking I may have to entually add a disk to my TiVo. I'm in heaven.

If you want some advice on this stuff let me know.

See here if you want to read up: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=371710
 
Well, my computer is too old to work with these new-fangled video tuner sticks- can someone record the ABC News special "Living to 150" for me, in HD? It is on tonight at 9:00 Central.

I'll pay good money.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
I've got it queued up for you, Spike.
Click to expand...
As said in the other thread, I can't record HD as that's only on the broadcast input and I have no aerial. But, it is cued to record digital version from cable. It should fit on an 8.5gb DVD pretty easy.

You'll get a copy from one of us.
 
Am I a lucky guy, or what? :D
 
Mike,

You can record HD off of cable using a QAM tuner. My DVR records it (in HD) and saves it as a native MPEG file. No middle man needed.

It's not as simple as plugging in a Tivo, but it's all possible.
 
FlyNE said:
My DVR records it (in HD) and saves it as a native MPEG file. No middle man needed.
Click to expand...

Mine too. Remove the hard drive, mount it using Linux drivers under Windows, and freeware pulls the native file off and converts it to whatever format I want/need.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Mine too. Remove the hard drive, mount it using Linux drivers under Windows, and freeware pulls the native file off and converts it to whatever format I want/need.
Click to expand...
You have to pull the HD every time? That bites.

I use a HP Media Center machine so it's a clean digital copy; just not in HD.
 
tlglenn said:
Stay away from Pinnacle.
Click to expand...

How recent is your experience with them? I ask because I had Pinnacle a number of years ago and got a refund. Their Firewire adapter card wouldn't work in my computer and their customer no-service folks weren't any help. Wrote a strong letter to the president of the company about it. The SW wasn't bad, but if you can't download the raw material, what good is it?

Now, my daughter has the latest version of their software and likes it. She has a BA in Communications with an emphasis on broadcast production, so she has more of an idea what to do with this software than I do.

So, back to my original question, what don't you like about Pinnacle? I'm thinking of changing and they are on my list.
 
I got one of their PCI tuner cards that they released late last year. Blue screen issues and buggy software. I found some workarounds, but I think I shouldn't have to perform the role of a software tester. There are a lot of other ticked-off people based on the postings on the support forums.
 
tlglenn said:
I got one of their PCI tuner cards that they released late last year. Blue screen issues and buggy software. I found some workarounds, but I think I shouldn't have to perform the role of a software tester. There are a lot of other ticked-off people based on the postings on the support forums.
Click to expand...

In other words, not much has changed in the last 5 or 6 years. Sorry to hear that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top