How to transfer DVR to a notebook

what dvr?

is it wifi capable? can u hook a wireless adapter usb into it? may work

most dvr usb sockets do not work. what you can do, is to open the dvr up, take out the HD, and use an external enclosure to download...you don't really need to take the hd out, just unplug the power and data cable going to it, take your external enclosure board and connect the wires to it. then connect it your computer.

That will only work if the harddrive is not formatted in a way your computer does not know (or even encrypted).

And that's why vdr is so popular cause it's linux software

i don't think so, i believe both ports are to feed video out.

taking the hd out will work, i just did it with mine

It's wonderful how some people in our times think about connectivity and totally forget that the content providers are totally going the other way.
a) they don't want you to be able to copy those data cause it has no copy protection
b) to make a) happen they put pressure on the hardware corps which obey
c) next generation (for hdtv) will have so many different copy protections (at least 4 different protections work on the way from the hd dvd to the display on a computer), all to prevent you from copying "their" content that you already bought.

Say by by to connectivity, from now on it will only go downward until we get to a new revolution (funny how history repeats itself all over again).

So?
Only cause it works with your hdd it will work with every hdd out of every dvr?
I can just speak for one device that won't work, cause else it would not have gotten the approval of a content provider in germany and that hdd is encrypted so that your legally recorded movies can't be stored anywhere else but on the tiny 80GB hdd inside the dvr - and believe it or not, there are stupid people out the buying this shit (and no, it's not me).

Yes, since I'm all knowing and all powerful, it applies universally. i have a 180gb seagate HD in my dvr.

how much recording time you get out of an 180gb drive anyways?

quite a bit of recording time. haven't come close to filling it up, but haven't really tried to fill it up. normally watch and then delete.

p.s. I lied about being able to connect it straight up to the computer. directv would never make it that simple. when i switch out to cable, i will take the hard drive and use it in an external hd enclosure as backup. nothing like a free 180gb HD.

Does yours have a firewire out on the back of it? I saw some tutorials on how to do it wiht firewire.

EDIT: Post the model number.

This might be helpful for some. It's a long standing, well maintained guide from the premier A/V enthusiast website.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403695

Yes, that works. Started doing this a couple of months ago.

What you will NOT get is a turn-key ready to use file. The exception might be if you plan to only play on the computer. To make a DVD or to edit the files (remove commercials) then make DVD is a process that is hardly worth it. Better to torrent that sort of thing IMO.

What you will be getting off the drive AND WHY JUST CONNECTING THE HD TO ANOTHER COMPUTER WONT WORK is the "Transport Stream" which will creat a ".ts" file. You cannot just copy the files off the drive as the data is encrypted. Instead, you have to do playback and grab the output via firewire. The advantage is no loss of quality over doing an analog capture.

You guessed it! Its a realtime capture. I couldnt find a way to speed up the process. Disclaimer: new things come out all the time. If someone has found a way around this process - yippie!

For computer based play, there are a number of players than can handle the file format without conversion. For ME to make a DVD from this sucked. I didnt want the commercials and editing out this data from each file was too time consuming when added to the time it took to capture in the first place. Using the FF feature in an attempt to "edit" out commercials would corrupt the file (too much data?!).

I did all of this on my desktop as thats where I have the editing software. No reason why it cant work on a notebook with firewire. Read all the documentation and realize that some hardware/software combinations just dont work for some people.

g-luck!

This is why i lik emy TiVo. If I want the recording on my computer I just run the software and it copies. Another simple program and it's in mpeg format.

Transfer off the Tivo is slow, but you can queue up all the files you want and let it run why you do other stuff.

Apparently you can now go the other way, transfer a video from your pc to your TiVo and play it on th TiVo (I am assuming it must be in mpeg).

Tivo is too expensive, esp if you had HD. I have read some of the crap they are planning to pull on their users, e.g. if you skip a commercial, a pop-up bar displays showing the ad. Just get the torrents off the net

Actually there are some fairly simple solutions that don't require hard drive removal. My DVR (it is an Explorer model from Brighthouse) has the capability to record a saved program to VHS via analog output. Simply get a USB analog capture device, such as Turtle Beach Video Advantage USB, and you can make recordings of anything you want. Then you can play them back over your notebook, pipe the notebook output to an entertainment system via wire, or cut a DVD. And there are also devices like SlingBox that will allow you to transmit a broadcast from your DVR to virtually any PC in your home or even on the internet.

There is evidently a way to connect your DVR to your home network and simply transfer video files from your DVR to your computer, then burn a DVD. I was in the middle of researching this and got side tracked, if anyone cares to pick up where I left off. The concept is similar to TIVO TO GO and Direct TV is supposedly coming out with their version. I guess there is a hack that exists now.