TV & Home Theater

[phinsfan99]

I'd like to get a DVR that records HD programs, and I then have the ability to burn the program onto a Blu-Ray disc. 

Does such a unit exist?

Rudy

[Entropy]

There are HD DVRs, but I don't think anything that will burn to Blu-Ray.

There are few, if any, standalone Blu Ray recorders.  Everything I've seen is PC-based.

You could use one of the PC-based DVR software packages that has HD support and combine this with a Blu-Ray drive and possibly some extra software to do what you want, but it wouldn't exactly be automated.  (Not entirely sure of this, some of the packages may now support Blu-Ray archiving.)

I'm not familiar with the Windows based packages.  Windows MCE has a nasty habit of DRM-protecting everything so it can't be copied/burned,  SageTV might do the trick.  I use MythTV which runs under Linux with a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun digital tuner.  MythArchive already exports to DVD and will probably add high def Blu-Ray support soon, if not already.  If it doesn't, export to Blu-Ray could be done manually since high def recordings in Myth are standard MPEG-2 transport streams.

[LEM617]

Even if the product existed now, it would not be worth the trouble to record to BluRay.  First, the disks are expensive and secondly the content you will find on TV is mostly 720p or equivalent. 

There are HD DVRs that will make it worthwhile to use for now.  I remember reading somwhere that such animal (BluRay DVR combo) is coming but it will be very very expensive, making the HD DVR the common sense choice. 

Another thing to keep mind as well is that a feature of the HDMI cable technology is DRM enforcing. 

[phinsfan99]

Are HD DVRs available that can then burn onto DVDs?

RUdy

[LEM617]

Not that I am aware.  

[Entropy]

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phinsfan99 wrote:

Are HD DVRs available that can then burn onto DVDs?

RUdy

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Wouldn't make sense.  It would either have to downconvert to standard def, or be restricted to only recording 20-30 minutes of HD per DVD.  (You can burn a Blu-Ray file structure to a DVD and it will be treated as a Blu-Ray disc by players, but it will only be able to hold 20-30 minutes of content.)

[Phidian]

Hi entropy: hope this goes to you, you sound like you know what youre talking about. I

have a dvr from Time Warner Cable...I have a program that I recorded on there...and I want

to record it onto a disk of sometime, preferably a dvd...what do I use? thanks!

[Phidian]

oh, and I don't care if the dvd's i record off of this dvr are in HD...i just want to record this program

off of my dvr....

[Entropy]

If it's already on a cable-company-owned DVR, it's probably locked in there, especially if it came from an encrypted channel (anything other than broadcast network re-feeds).  Most prebuilt DVR systems apply some pretty nasty DRM (copy protection) to recordings, so even if you remove the hard drive and put it in another machine, you can't access the recordings.

The only way to record TV and be able to archive it to DVD or BR is to use a homebuilt PC-based DVR system like MythTV (Linux), or for Windows BeyondTV or SageTV or a similar package.  Note that Windows MCE is another solution in this arena but MCE tends to DRM recordings too...

If you want to record high definition programs that are not on broadcast TV networks (e.g. not ABC/CBS/NBC/Fox/etc), you will likely need to connect a capture device with analog inputs to your cable box's analog outputs.

For example, a Hauppauge HD-PVR 1212 connected to the component outputs of a cable box can permit a PC to record in high definition from that box.  Be warned that the recordings produced by the 1212 are MPEG-4 AVC which require a pretty beefy PC to play back.

[LEM617]

I would like to know which show it is you need to get off your DVR? 

Chances are you gan get it elsewhere.  It may be worth the 9 dollars for a dvd to avoid all this headaches.