Copy Digital Signal Without Tivo?

[MMI]

I upped my Dtivo (Series 1) from 35 to 106 hours. That was the most challenging computer upgrade I’ve ever done and I’m happy to say that the operation was successful.

I would like to be able to make copies of programs I’ve recorded on my Tivo to a DVD or a PC HD. Reading the messages in this forum, the amount of work and study required to perform that operation is a more than I‘m interested in doing. So I was wondering…Is there a way to record the digital signal directly off the satellite onto a DVD or PC HD?

[zabs]

Not any that I'm aware of.

If you think the process of grabbing vids off the tivo (which has already conveniently stored the sat feed as a usable file) is involved, imagine writing a software to decode direcTV's broadcast directly onto your pc without knowing their feed protocol or encryption scheme. :)

Anyway, if you really want to pursue extractino from the tivo you are in for a bunch of reading. I've just started looking into DVD authoring of Ty Streams (got my first dvd burner last week) and my eyes are bleeding.

First helpful hint: get noscramble loaded right away while you have little to no recordings on the tivo. If you don't load noscramble anything you record cannot be extracted. (search for noscramble or noscramble.o)

[MMI]

Originally posted by zabs
Not any that I'm aware of.

If you think the process of grabbing vids off the tivo (which has already conveniently stored the sat feed as a usable file) is involved, imagine writing a software to decode direcTV's broadcast directly onto your pc without knowing their feed protocol or encryption scheme. :)

I have an old DirecTV receiver box that I can hack. This box converts the digital signal to analog. Is there a way to grab/convert the digital signal before it gets converted?

[DarkWing]

If upgrading your hard drive in your dtivo was your most challenging project, you're not going to be able to hack your ird to record the stream from the decoder chip. I won't go into all the reasons why.

Dtivo with extreme 2.5, noscramble and a turbonet is what you want.

Still easier is with a capture card in a pc (svideo and componenet audio is pretty good).

[MMI]

Thanks, DarkWing. That's what I wanted to know. I'll take your word for it that the Tivo hacking route is the easier of the 2.

Maybe someday I'll take on the Tivo hacking challenge, but not today. By then, maybe the process will be more evolved/simplified.

[hades]

MMI, you could also buy a stand-alone dvd burner and record directly from the dtivo via s-video. This is probably the simplest but also expensive. There are other issues, nothing huge.

I started a thread a few months ago about the topic. There was some good info posted on it. If you interested, do a search on my ID and it should pop up.

[zabs]

Analog can be converted to mpg with a capture card on the pc etc.
You would lose quality.
You would need a beast of a computer to capture at a decent resolution.
Transcoding your captured material would take 4-eva!!!

Again best bang for the buck is ripping from the tivo (Belive me, i've tried all the rest, except for that stand alone dvd burner thing...I don't have that kind of money. :) )

[Curb_an]

My ATI AIW(All in Wonder) P3 1gig w/512MB mem can capture native MPEG2 from any composite video source at DVD Quality with no problem. Files usually end up little over 5gig. I have then been able to conert to DIVX and still come out with good quality video that fits on one CD.

Not familiar with the TIVO process. What size are the files you pull off for say a 90min movie and what format do they play back in?

[DarkWing]

Unless your source is a dvd, you aren't going to get dvd quality.
Perhaps you meant, the file is a dvd format?

The point is, extracting from the dtivo looses no data from what dtv is sending. Yes composite recording is pretty good, but you loose data converting to analog (composite out of your ird) and back to digital (your ati card). Extracting is all digital (no loss), dtv sends it digital, it is stored digitally and you download it digitally, there are no conversions being done.

That said, what dtv sends down is no where near dvd quality, so not matter what, a dvd will still look better (depending on your display method of course).

Is that clear as mud? :)