transferring recorded tivo shows to dvd (1 Viewer)

[Juan Castillo]

someone please point me in the right direction... I have a full tivo (hughes SD-DVR40), no time to watch what I have recorded, no desire to delete what I have or to put it on vhs, and plenty more to record. I'll be 70 by the time I get to watch it all but....... So my question is, since I apparently am stuck at software version 6.2 and can't get tivotogo without hacking the box will a component dvd recorder help me out. Can I record all my season pass material to dvd? If so, what model do you recommend. Thanks for your help.

 

[Robert_J]

Connect any DVD recorder to the S-video output of your DirecTivo. You can use the Save To VCR menu selection of the DirecTivo. That will disable most of the remote control commands so you won't accidentally pause the show and it will give you a nice title screen at the beginning of the program.

As for recorders. Pick one that has the features you want and the price you can afford. I use an Ilo from Wal-Mart. It's not perfect but it does save the how-to shows from DIY with OK quality. I'm not looking for exact duplicates with that type of programming.

-Robert

 

[Juan Castillo]

Thanks Robert, was hoping to hear that it was as simple as dumping to vcr. My understanding of save to vcr is it will do the transfer, while still allowing you to watch other live tv... although I may have incorrect information.

Any other input on recorders? I already own a sony upconvert dvd player, so upconversion is not required. Thanks all.

 

[Stephen Tu]

You have incorrect information ... The Tivo has only one MPEG decoder, can only output one thing at a time on all its analog outputs. If it is decoding a show to save to vcr, it can't also be showing live TV or some other recording. Watching other shows can only be done at the same time as a network transfer, which isn't available on the DirecTV models. So plan to do any dumping while you aren't watching, like overnight while you are sleeping.

The only useful thing save to VCR does is the title screen at the beginning, and block some remote commands (though still flashes a little "can't do that, recording" icon on the screen, so really you don't want to hit anything while doing the transfer).

DVD recorders ... depends what other things you intend to do with it. If you intend to do a lot of editing of commercials, or of home camcorder videos, I'd recommend one with a hard drive. If Tivo dumping without commercial editing is all you intend it for, then the cheaper ones will work fine.

Another approach to consider, which might be a lot less trouble (esp. since Tivo has no batch play, requiring shows be manually played one at a time), is to just add a second, bigger hard drive to your Tivo. Check out http://www.weaknees.com/tivo-hughes-sddvr40.php

If you never get around to reducing your backlog, this would just delay the inevitable, but at some point you decide either "I'm never going to watch that show, delete now", or buy the DVD if available & you want to keep a copy (much higher quality than a Tivo->DVD transfer). So many TV shows are on DVD these days, when I want to catch up on a series I just rent via Netflix.