DVR/PVR questions

[pejsaboy]

Probably around the end of the month I'm going to be upgrading my satellite receiver to the HD receiver since I've had an hdtv for almost a year already Anyhoo, I also want to incorporate a dvr/pvr into the mix. I have two options to choose from to get this accomplished: First and easiest, I just pay a little more and get the HD DVR receiver. Plug it in and done. The other option is a tuner card and storage hard drive for my pc, which happens to sit behind the tv.

First question: Can recorded media be transferred off of a satellite receiver, generally speaking? I'd like to be able to burn programming to a dvd for portability. I noticed that the dvr receiver I had at my last house had a usb port on the back of it, but I never thought much about it at the time. I haven't researched whether or not the receiver I'd be getting has a usb port or not.

Second question: If I go the route of tuner card and storage hard drive, would I be able to split the coax and send one leg to the receiver and one to the tuner card while maintaining signal integrity? That would allow me to record on the pc without interrupting normal viewing through the receiver.

Last question [for now]: Are there tuner cards that handle HD programming, or is that even a concern since it all ultimately runs through the coax cable?

 

[pejsaboy]

Ignore the last question- I see now that most of the cards handle up to 1080i.

 

[LandShark]

First question: Can recorded media be transferred off of a satellite receiver, generally speaking? I'd like to be able to burn programming to a dvd for portability. I noticed that the dvr receiver I had at my last house had a usb port on the back of it, but I never thought much about it at the time. I haven't researched whether or not the receiver I'd be getting has a usb port or not.

I've heard some PVR/Tivo box could, but most couldn't. it's really depends on your service provider!

Second question: If I go the route of tuner card and storage hard drive, would I be able to split the coax and send one leg to the receiver and one to the tuner card while maintaining signal integrity? That would allow me to record on the pc without interrupting normal viewing through the receiver.

yes, you could split a coax while keeping the signal quality. (I think my cable friend once told me it could handle up to 6 or so before signal degradation) however, in order to capture/tune your cable/sat channel, the tuner card have to plug into the STB! it's like outside the house coax --> STB --> tuner. 'cos pretty much all the signal (besides your local channels) from your cable/sat provider are encrypted! the STB is basically acting as a decoder that decrypt the signal before it could output to your TV (or PC in your case). and that's how your content provider could limit/control which channel you had paid for, and which they won't allow you to watch (didn't subscript/pay for)!

 

[pejsaboy]

That makes perfect sense for my second question... I forgot about the STB also being a decoder of sorts I'll have to give directv a call and see if their boxes support transferring of recorded media. Thanks LandShark!

 

[silent bob]

I believe the HR250 and new recievers make use of the USB , all earlier versions , that was for future use and never got acvtivated . Now with some of the Older units you could do the Hinsdale hack to get the usb to work but it was hit or miss depending on model .

 

[pejsaboy]

Ok, the usb is promising then. Let's say I go the route of STB -> Tuner Card. I'm sure I'd go with a Hauppage card since they seem to be the most popular. My concern is how much processor power I'm going to be setting aside for watching and recording video. Does the card handle it all, or is there going to be a pretty good load on my cpu? This will be going into my primary computer, so I don't want to cripple it for gaming