Connecting DVD recorder to a Cox DVR (1 Viewer)

[Haggai]

This is a really basic question, but I'm wondering what my options are here. I have a Cox cable HD-DVR, and I'm trying to figure out if I can connect a DVD recorder to it for recording movies. I'm not planning on using this for anything HD, basically just for stuff from Turner Classic Movies. I haven't even bought a DVD recorder yet.

In the DVR menu for the programs I've recorded, there's an option for "copy to VCR." I just called customer service and asked if it would work with a DVD recorder if I connected it up the same way, but they said "no." Are they right, or did I just talk to someone who's really clueless?

 

[Parker Clack]

Haggai:

If you have composite our component outputs off your DVR you should be able to hook up a DVD recorder and copy the program to your DVD. You are probably going to be limited to using the composite outs for video and audio though as I doubt you can pass the component outs to your recorder.

I have a Sony DVD-R hooked up to my ReplayTV DVR and I can output the contents of a show a recorder to the Sony with no problem. Both are SDTV and not Hi-Def but the same should work for your HD-DVR as they do with my Replay. You aren't going to be able to pass a Hi-Def picture to your DVD recorder though in Hi-Def.

Parker

 

[Haggai]

Thanks, Parker. Now that I have everything hooked up properly, it looks like I'm probably good to do. I burned a quick little test segment, 2 minutes worth of an old movie showed on TCM, and it looks OK on the DVD-R.

My only concern is that the instructions for the recorder say that "titles are divided into about 5-minute chapers...[and] there is a pause
of several seconds between titles and chapters during play." The DVD recorder I got is a Panasonic DMR-ES15. Sounds to me like I might get pauses every 5 minutes on playback when I record something, but hopefully not. I'll see what happens when I record a full movie later on tonight.

 

[Ruz-El]

Did you have the pauses? I don't think you should of. On both of the LG HDD/DVR's I had, the automatic chapters play smoothly and can be set at 5,10 or 15 minute intervals. The "TITLES" would cause a pause. So if you split up a 2hr movie into 50, 15 minute "TITLES" (my math might be off ), there would be a pause every 15 minutes as it went to the next title (like how porno plays on your computer when you que up a bunch of seperate files to play continuously... so I've heard) If you edited out the commercials on that 2 hour movie, and than combined all the parts into one "TITLE", I would think that it should play okay, with the automatic chapters being invisible.

At least that's how it is in LG land.*

*LG land was once a very bitter land, but with the new player I got, the bitter shell of the old has broken free to display a very sweet butterflly that I love to look at pinned to my cellar wall.

 

[Haggai]

Fortunately, it seems like I've got smooth recordings with no pauses. You might be right that it only pauses on playback in between different titles; the wording in the owner's manual isn't very clear. I'm just recording movies from TCM, so they're commercial free anyway. It records the whole movie as one title, with chapters inserted every 5 minutes or so.


Riiiiiight...

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm doing the same thing. I figured it would help with me having to buy every box set that Warners puts out. It hasn't. I bought my player specifically for copying my 7 boxes of VHS tapes. 5 boxes down, 1 DVR toast (I got it Nov 2005, it ran non-stop till April, in spite of it's incredible audio flaw).

 

[diver22]

OK, we have a Motorola DCT6416 III HD-DVR from Cox that only has one set of component outputs. Cox is telling us that the only way to hook up a DVD recorder is to network it to a computer. If I have to hook it up to a computer, I don't need a DVD recorder. I don't see how we can hook it up the way you can the Dish network DVR. Can anyone help? I don't want to make copies of movies. We want to save some Discovery shows and football games. Haggai, you didn't state which Cox DVR you have. Is it the same one we have?

HELP

 

[Bluzman]

I've got a Comcast-furnished Moto DCT6412 III. I save programs and movies to the Moto's DVR and then record the ones I want to keep on DVDs using my Samsung DVD-VR330 combo VCR/DVD recorder. The recording set up is simple.

DCT6412 III >> s-video >> VR330
DCT6412 III >> stereo audio (red/white) >> VR330

To monitor what I'm doing, I also do the following.

VR330 >> component video >> AVR (upconverts component video to HDMI)
AVR >> HDMI >> HDTV
VR330 >> stereo audio (red/white) >> AVR

 

[Stephen Orr]

I have my HD DVR hooked up to a Panny DVR, and record programs to burn to DVD quite often. Planet Earth from DiscoveryHD looked quite spectacular on DVD, even though it had been rerecorded to the Panny first.