Copying from the PVR to the computer

[bigcheez]

I am new to this scheme, and I have a dish PVR 501, and I would like to take the video and digital sound off of the PVR, archive it to my computer in its full form, and burn to dvdr. For the sound, I plan on taking the optical digital out and plugging it in to my optical digital in on my hercules sound card. For the video, this is where the questions lie. Do I need to buy a video capture card and send it out of the rca video out/svideo? Or should I try to get a video card with VI to take the video. Also, are there problems syncing the sound capture to the video, or do you set the sound capture device in the video capture program?

Thanks
BC
Here is the back of my pvr
http://www.dishnetwork.com/downloads/pdf/product_brochures/dish_508.pdf

[scooper]

I suggest you get something like a TV / video capture card and run both video AND audio (even though it is analog) to the capture card. Doing it this way, you'll minimize the A/V sync issue.

You ARE aware that DVD is MPEG2, so when you author, it will need to convert your captured A/V stream into MPEG2 / DVD format ?

[bigcheez]

I suggest you get something like a TV / video capture card and run both video AND audio (even though it is analog) to the capture card. Doing it this way, you'll minimize the A/V sync issue.

You ARE aware that DVD is MPEG2, so when you author, it will need to convert your captured A/V stream into MPEG2 / DVD format ?


Yes, I am aware of that. Maybe what I am unaware of is the format that it comes off of the pvr? I thought it was captured in Mpeg2 already...hmmm

[scooper]

Coming off the PVR via the A/V jacks - guess again - that's simple analog ! You'll need the capture card to convert the streams to digital (you may wish to consider cards that can take it straight to MPEG2). If you get the simplest capture cards - you'll be doing a software conversion to MPEG2 / DVD format.

If you mean to take the harddrive out of the PVR - then I can't help you. But I DON'T think it is simple MPEG2 streams.

[bigcheez]

What about quality? Will the quality be the same of the regular playback on my tv?(in the analog mode) Also, what are some decent mpeg2 cards that are cheap?

[Mark Lamutt]

No, quality won't be as good, especially if you want a cheap mpeg2 card.

[AppliedAggression]

check out the yahoo group called dishrip. Although it'll void your warranty, you'll be extracting the shows in full quality, which is almost 640x480. If you're willing to do it, it's quite nice because you get better quality and it only takes a few seconds for every 30 mins of video.

Fixed group, sorry

[wcswett]

I am new to this scheme, and I have a dish PVR 501, and I would like to take the video and digital sound off of the PVR, archive it to my computer in its full form, and burn to dvdr. For the sound, I plan on taking the optical digital out and plugging it in to my optical digital in on my hercules sound card. For the video, this is where the questions lie. Do I need to buy a video capture card and send it out of the rca video out/svideo? Or should I try to get a video card with VI to take the video. Also, are there problems syncing the sound capture to the video, or do you set the sound capture device in the video capture program?

You can do what you're proposing on your computer, and I have done this quite a bit on my Mac, but I would suggest that you consider getting a DVR with HD and DVD, such as the Panasonic DMR series. When you import and edit on your computer, you will end up leaving the computer on to crunch MPEG conversions for hours whereas a DVR will do the MPEG conversion in real time as it records and will allow you to edit on its hard drive and dump to DVD-R (or +R, -RW, +RW or DVD-RAM depending on the make and model). The DVR route will likely be more expensive than the cost of a video capture card and software for your PC, but I personally prefer not having my computer and hard disk space tied up with video stuff. I can also use the DVR with my receiver(s) like a VCR, avoiding re-recording from the DISH DVR.

--- WCS

[scooper]

I use a TV card that does the MPEG compression on the fly, and I get very acceptable MPEG2 streams out of it. Converting these while burning the DVD does take some time - (figure about 10 minute video / 1 minute real time) to split to PCM audio / MPEG2 video / burn the DVD. The DVD recorder that wcswett has would make this much easier / quicker, but it is also more expensive than my setup (based on a slow 600 MHz PIII). YMMV - there are several ways to get there - you need to decide how to do it.

[srrobinson2]

What about quality? Will the quality be the same of the regular playback on my tv?(in the analog mode) Also, what are some decent mpeg2 cards that are cheap?

I've got the ATI Radeon 9500 Pro and a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card. My Radeon card can process both S-Video and RCA Video, and my Santa Cruz can handle digital (using coax) or analog inputs.

The software I prefer to use for capturing from an analog source is called Scenalyzer. It is very nice because it will allow you to pre-configure the size of the captured AVI files. I usually keep them to 2GB which keeps the sound from drifting out of sync with the video. I then use Adobe Premier to stich the AVIs together and export to MPEG-2 format. I then use DVDiT! to author the menus and package the MPEG-2 video into DVD format. Finally, I use Nero to burn the DVDs.

As you can see, this is not quick, easy or cheap. It is great to xfer all of my old analog VHS home movies to DVD, however--so it's worth the time if you have the $$$ and the patience.

BTW--you need at least a 1GHz computer with 256MB RAM or something much faster (I upgraded to 2.6GHz with 1GB RAM) to do all of this.

Good luck!

[ClaudeR]

I've heard that the hard drive can be removed from a Tivo unit and rendered directly, is this true?

[MikeSoltis]

check out the yahoo group called dishmod
Or the dishrip group. There is software there to convert the video streams on the HD to MPEG-2 audio and video, which can then be edited using all kinds of tools like TMPGenc and such. As has been pointed out, you'll need to pull the drive out, but there's all kinds of how-to info on this group.

[jgoggan]

Indeed -- "dishrip" is what he wants -- not "dishmod" as was suggested earlier. "dishmod" is for putting a different HD into the unit mainly -- not for pulling the video off.

- John...

[pculley]

Cannot find yahoo group called "dishrip", is there any special way to search for it? Maybe a direct url?

P.S. Found "dishmod", so I cannot be too far off...

[jgoggan]

It's not in the search, I believe. You just go directly to it. Basically, go to the dishmod group main page and then just change dishmod to dishrip in the URL.

Or, I believe such links are allowed (please correct me if I'm not supposed to link to this -- I don't think it is a problem since it isn't illegal that I know of), just go to:

link deleted

- John...

Saying that the group is available is fine, but we can't have direct links to it posted. If you need to send links, please do it via email. Thanks!

Mark Lamutt