Anyone Else Archiving Shows from their PVR to DVDR

[hojni]

I have a few shows that I really enjoy and have been recording on my 501 and then 721 for the last 2 seasons. When PVR space became a problem, I bought a Panasonic DMR-HS2 and began archiving to DVD-R. I can easily zap commercials and record two or more episodes per DVD in excellent quality.

This process is excellent for making 3 - 4 hour DVD's with kid's shows to play in the van. I can also make a quick backup on the computer if I know the kids will be handling the disks.

Anyone else doing this?

[gcutler]

I've done it a few times. But not to clean off my PVR but to keep shows that I know will probably not show up on DVD in the near future. Or better to make a "MY Favorites" Disk of a show (works better for 1/2 hour shows with commericals removed)

[Jason]

hojni,

I do the exact same thing with my Panasonic DMR-HS2 and the 721. But the pixellating issues lately with the 721 are really starting to piss me off! I want to archive some of the shows to DVD-Rs but when the 721 doesn't record the shows perfectly, it is kinda pointless to archive them for later viewing.

[dwforslund]

I wish there was a way to extract the mpg file on the PVR directly to the computer rather than having to go from digital to analog and back.

I've not seen any imaging problems with my 721 which I've had for a couple of weeks.

[Martyva]

You should see DVD recorders (stand alone) in the 499 price range, with firewire 599, both progressive scan. Don't be to suprised if the HDVHS doesn't follow suit.

[gcutler]

Recording via S-Video from my 508 (on a fairly well presented channel) gave incredibly good outcome. That type of config (Combo DBS/PVR and S-Video) is as close to DVD quality as you can get. Not as good as getting directly to the MPG file, but still relatively satisfying.

[psycaz]

I go from my 508 through my Sony digi8 camcorder to my pc. Edit out any commercials and burn to (s)vcd for my son. Haven't bought a dvd burner (yet). Quality is great as long as I don't get the evil " acquiring satellite signal" in the middle of my record.

[gcutler]

Of couse Encoding quality will make a difference. I usually do 4000-4500KB/Sec just to get a good average of 2 hours, I've gone up to 8000KB/Sec and didn't notice much worth while, but went down to 2500KB/sec and a bit disappointing when dealing with motion.

[firephoto]

I've been using a Canopus ADVC100 (http://www.canopus.com/US/products/advc-100/pm_advc-100.asp) for getting things onto the computer from various sources, including the 508. Now that I have a Cendyne DVR-105 (http://www.cendyne.com/product.asp?pid=15) I can start burning things to DVD instead of CD.

[Jacob S]

I am waiting for dvd recorders for tv's to come down to the $200 price range or less than that and by then there will ahve been some advancements in the marketplace as well. Can you make the dvd recorders/burners on computers record shows from tv? If so then how come are the dvd recorders for computers can be had for so much cheaper than the dvd recorders for tv?

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Jacob S
Can you make the dvd recorders/burners on computers record shows from tv? If so then how come are the dvd recorders for computers can be had for so much cheaper than the dvd recorders for tv?

The reason the stand alone recorders are more expensive is because they include all you need (a Analog to Digital converter and maybe hard drive and the burner). The reason the PC based burner is cheaper is because it is only the Burner (not the Analog to Digital Converter, and maybe the drive space you need.) But you can buy all the computer components that give you exactly what is in the stand alone.

If looking at what Firephoto has I've been using a Canopus ADVC100 for getting things onto the computer from various sources, including the 508. Now that I have a Cendyne DVR-105 I can start burning things to DVD instead of CD. he has everything you need to capture TV or VHS or anything analog and convert to DVD (assuming he has around 40GB+ of hard drive space free to do the DVD authoring, editing, etc)

[hojni]

Jason,

I have not had any pixelization and audio drop-out problems on my 721. I also have a 501 and have seen no difference in audio and video quality between the two. I could count the video glitches that I have seen on one hand and have had absolutely no audio problems.

I'm not sure what size television that you are watching your sat on, but have found my 50" Mitsu (4:3) to be a challenge for anything other that commercially produced DVDs. If I look real closely at any video on this TV (501, 721, and even DV from my Camcorder), I can see some "graininess" in the details. With DishNetwork this is a little more evident on certain channels on both PVRs; especially on the locals. None of this is "graininenss" can be seen on my 27" televisions.

I have successfully used the DMR-HS2 to record 1 hour (XP mode), 2 hours (SP mode), and 1-1/2 hours (2 commercial-less 1 hour programs in FR mode) of video on DVD-R's through the DMR-HS2 with very little video degradation.

Recently though, as my 721 has gotten down to its last 15 - 20 hours, I have seen a couple of "pauses" in audio and video in playback as a new timer fires off. This hasn't been a big problem, but try to plan transfers around timer kick-offs right now.

[firephoto]

I got my DVD-R/RW drive for $165 (if the $50 rebate goes thru), the ADVC100 was $269, and the ieee1394 (firewire) card was $40.

I've mostly been using ScenalyzerLive (http://scenalyzer.com/) ($33) for capturing because it splits everything up by scene, which means you can just delete out the scenes with commercials, then renumber all the files (easy). After that I use VirtualDub (http://www.virtualdub.org/) (free) to put all the pieces back together and stream it to TMPGEnc Plus (http://www.pegasys-inc.com/e_main.html) ($48) which encodes it to an MPEG file of whatever size/type to fit your needs. It takes quite a bit of time, but it's fairly easy to patch pieces together if you can't capture something all at once. It takes a lot of hard drive space too when you are working with DV caps (avi files).

Lots of help on the subject at DVDRHelp.com (http://www.dvdrhelp.com) .

[jgoggan]

Originally posted by dwforslund
I wish there was a way to extract the mpg file on the PVR directly to the computer rather than having to go from digital to analog and back.

There is if you are willing to open up your PVR, pull the drive, and connect it to your PC. Then use various tools to extract the data and then re-encode it so that you can burn it to whatever you need.

- John...