Digital Video Recorder

[oldcat]

What we have in mind is a DVR that we can hook-up to our home Comcast HD cable, record shows/movies, then use an HDMI cable to watch on the road. Don't need the TiVo features, just something that would work like the old VCR's. Anyone using something like this? Thanks

[Herk7769]

Getting the DVR material onto your computer is a bit more complicated than you think. The files are not accessible directly (that I am aware of anyway).

However, I have a small desktop computer that is part of my home network that spools movies to the TV using a VGA -> HDMI interface. I also download DVR material to that computer using a Haupauge Streaming video HD capture device HD PVR Product Description

The downside is the capture is in real time and so the capture takes as long as the show takes to play. Once captured, you can edit as required to remove commercials and remove leading material and trailing material to just save the TV show/movie.

For movies; Netflix is better as there is no editing required.