DP510: can I copy HD programs to my computer?

[d1taylor]

My DP510 is filling up and my wife keeps telling me that she doesn't want me to delete stuff we've watched in case we want to watch it again. Since I have some very powerful computers in my house and plenty of disk space on them, I'm wondering if there's any way to get to the hard disk in the DP510 and copy programs onto a different system? I do have video capture equipment (an ElGato EyeTV200) so I can just play the material and recapture it, but then there's a generation degradation of the image which I'd like to avoid.

Any way to do this? Thanks!

[retiredTech]

no legal or easy way to copy direct from HD,
use S-video L/R out for capture,
if you are "seeing" degradation then you're doing something wrong,
heck ,even copied to VHS is not "that bad".

[boba]

What is recorded on your hard drive is DISH'S compressed digital data stream, the only way to display a picture is to process it through DISH'S receiver.

[mikemike]

You can transfer vids from HD to PC with a Replaytv. Then burn to dvds if you have a burner.

[EvilMan]

Go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dishrip/

There you will find software and instructions for directly dumping the video files from the DVR to your computer. The setup is a little difficult if you've never messed with hard drives before, but after the firsr time, it's easy.

I should say that doing this will void your warranty, so proceed with caution. Oh, and there's nothing illegal about this.

[Roger Tee]

I'll second the not illegal bit.. As i understand it, the 50X series data isn't encrypted or copy protected so the DMCA shouldn't enter into it.

Having said that the easiest way is to buy a stand alone DVD recorder. Last time I looked they were starting around $249 and up depending on features.

OTOH opening up your 510 will void the warranty if you break the security seal on teh drive.