Recording the 721 programs onto DVD

[boogi_man]

Can someone tell me how they have done it or point me in the direction of a website that explains the easiest way to somehow offload the recorded programs from the 721 to a computer and record them on a DVD-R

Thanks in advance

[Scott Greczkowski]

Best way it to output the video via its SVIDEO connection to a PC and then record it on a DVD.

There are no ways to directly rip the video digitally off the 721 (So don't ask) :)

[boogi_man]

Whats the quality when done this way?
so id need a video card capture card?


Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Best way it to output the video via its SVIDEO connection to a PC and then record it on a DVD.

There are no ways to directly rip the video digitally off the 721 (So don't ask) :)

[Scott Greczkowski]

I would suggest something like an ATI ALL In WONDER 7500/8500 or 9500 card. The video quality is VERY VERY good using this method.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by boogi_man
Whats the quality when done this way?
so id need a video card capture card?

There are two ways to go on this. limited budget (under $100-$150) or very good quality (up to $300). You may be happy with the limited budget path, or may not. Often the limited budget path gives you frame drops and lack of control over how things are brought over to the PC. But then again the available control may be more than you are asking for as well.

Have you given thought to which you might be happier with a Video Card that also Captures, A dedicated internal capture card or a dedicated external capture box.

There are internal PCI Video Capture Cards, as well as USB or Firewire External capture boxes. What is your budget. The more expensive (work better as well) external devices cost $300, they can go as inexpensive as $100. Some of the Video Cards that do capture are not so good as the dedicated devices are devoted to video capture and not just an add-on feature like some Video Cards.


According to the majority of the people at DVDRHELP.COM this company (Canopus) makes great products...

Here is an internal one for $199
http://www.canopus.com/US/products/advc-50/pm_advc-50.asp

Here is an external one for $299 (very Highly rated)
http://www.canopus.com/US/products/advc-100/pm_advc-100.asp

If you want to go a little cheaper, avoid the USB1.1 only products, you want either internal, or USB2.0 or Firewire.
www.dazzle.com

[Martyva]

When you young fellas say easy and computer in the same breath--it appears as an oxymoron in my old brain. There are stand alone DVD burners in the 499 price range---to me that would appear to be much easier.

[gcutler]

Yes, that is true, don't know if original poster specifically wanted PC in the equation or didn't know about the stand alone. The Stand Alone like Martyva mentions would be easiest to implement.

http://www.panasonic.com/consumer_electronics/dvd_recorder/dvd_recorder.asp

[abospaum]

I believe that some of the software available today can get past the copyright protection on most DVD's. This means that going the path of using the computer might have more versatility.

Why spend $499 on a DVD recorder when you can only record the non-HDTV signals. If you could copy DVD's that has much more value. Also there has been a lot of talk about the satellite providers also adding copyright protection via the firewire outputs from future receivers.

[marko]

As far as video capture hardware goes, don't forget that some digital camcorders have an analog pass through feature. Connect satellite/vcr to camcorder, then camcorder to computer through firewire, and go from there. Works really well for me, and helped me justify spending $450 on a camcorder, which would also serve nicely for capturing video from analog sources.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by marko
As far as video capture hardware goes, don't forget that some digital camcorders have an analog pass through feature. Connect satellite/vcr to camcorder, then camcorder to computer through firewire, and go from there. Works really well for me, and helped me justify spending $450 on a camcorder, which would also serve nicely for capturing video from analog sources.

But in general the less expensive camcorder do not have the passthru, usually the more expensive ones do. I don't know where the price point is on the passthru currently. Does your $450 unit have passthru?

[Chris Blount]

I just purchased a Sony digital 8 camcorder for $400 that has passthru. Works great.

I don't understand the big deal about ripping video from a 721 hard drive. Using the S-Video output to a DVD recorder or to a video capture card yields practically the same high quality video with very little loss.

[marko]

Yep, I got a Canon ZR-60 for a little about $475(when they first came out). I'm sure you could pick one up for $450 from various retailors online.


Overall I'm happy with my Canon, although if I had to do it again I might go the Sony route, since the Canon doesn't perform all that well in low light (something I've read the Sony does better at ).

But yep, I'm pretty sure the low level Canon and Sony's usually have analog pass through , although I thought I read newer low end Sony's did not have this feature.

[scooper]

I would like to put in a recomendation for Hauppage WinPVR250 / 350 as capture cards. They do real-time on-the fly MPEG recording , going from VCD (MPEG1) to 12MBps MPEG2 contant bit rate), and they do this on 400MHz + Pentium II's. From there, you can use the DVD burners / authoring programs.

[xgrep]

I agree with both Chris, who made the point that an S-Video transfer doesn't lose much (given this is SD, not HD), and scooper, who recommended hardware-based MPEG2 encoding.

I've been using my Sony camcorder (with pass-through) to send the S-Video into my iMac and then burn DVDs. But Apple's iDVD MPEG2 compression take forever, and won't burn more than 90 minutes. Having a good HW MPEG2 compressor solves both of those. There's a firewire unit that will do this for around $500, if I recall.

But this is all with respect to SD. When it comes to HD, first of all, there are just about no affordable A/D converters with YUV (Component) inputs, and secondly, they do lose noticeable detail. That's why I'm really annoyed that the industry can't manage to get us any reasonable, legal way to archive HD off a 921. As much as I'm excited about getting one of these, I'm probably going to wait until terabyte drives are cheaply available. Unless we get some kind of legal archival path.

x

[gcutler]

Originally posted by Chris Blount
I just purchased a Sony digital 8 camcorder for $400 that has passthru. Works great.

I don't understand the big deal about ripping video from a 721 hard drive. Using the S-Video output to a DVD recorder or to a video capture card yields practically the same high quality video with very little loss.

But that is an extra step when the file might be available and useable (without degredation). But it is a pipe dream unless someone develops a way to hack. So the S-Video is the Best way, the the RCA video connector is the next best, etc.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by xgrep
But this is all with respect to SD. When it comes to HD, first of all, there are just about no affordable A/D converters with YUV (Component) inputs, and secondly, they do lose noticeable detail. That's why I'm really annoyed that the industry can't manage to get us any reasonable, legal way to archive HD off a 921. As much as I'm excited about getting one of these, I'm probably going to wait until terabyte drives are cheaply available. Unless we get some kind of legal archival path.

x

Any talk on these devices, or the copy protection schemes would nulify any of these devices usefullness?. Or is it just demand keeping them from being reasonable priced?