Recording shows from dvr to dvd?

Question

I just went to buy a DVD recorder at Best Buy for the sole purpose of recording from my DVR to DVD's so that I can share with my mom shows she does not get. The guy at best buy said that the new generation dvd recorders are all encoded and send a block signal and although you would have no problem recording onto the dvr, recording to dvd's has become very difficult. Does anyone out there know about this or have a NEW dvd recorder that works just fine and is able to record from their DVR with no issues? I assume this is all an attempt to get consumers to buy the dvds of shows as opposed to recording them. I dont want to waste money on a recorder that wont record the shows off the tv or the dvr. thanks

Answer 1

This is actually much easier to do with a pc based DVD burner, where you can stream from your DVR to your pc over your home network and burn from there. You have much more control over your pc than a stand alone hardware device.

Answer 2

Yes, there are a couple of ways to do it.

1. If your DVR has an active USB port or can be networked, you might be able to copy onto your computer through your network.

If not, you can go here to see if there is software that makes your brand networked:

http://www.dvrupgrade.com/dvr/stores/1/c...

2. You could also stream to a video capture card.

You need to have 1 of the following:

A video capture card inside your PC, either a combo video card that also does capture like the All-In Wonder cards, or a dedicated separate video capture card

OR

An external (USB/FireWire) video capture device like a Dazzle that will plug into your comptuer externally and let you plug any video input into it.

Both have the RCA/S-Video inputs you need to feed VHS, DVD, Cable, or any other video feed into your PC.

After you capture to your PC you can do watch it, burn DVD's or format for iPods, PSP, or just save the video.