buying equipment and service questions

[sewerzuk]

OK...I'm setting up a new system at my house and have a few questions I'm hoping to get some advice on. Here is what I would like to be able to do:

1. Watch and record DirecTV HD channels
2. Use a DVR for recording shows when I'm not at home
3. Send the recorded DVR files to my PC for editing and burning (I'd like to be able to just take the MPEG-2 files and edit them directly; don't want to have to record from the DVR onto my PC and then edit)

I've called DirecTV and asked some questions, but the salespeople don't really seem to know what they're talking about. I'm under the impression that the only way I can receive and record DirecTV HD channels is to get the HR20 from DirecTV. I'm hesitant to do that because of all of the problems and negative reviews I'm finding...and there doesn't seem to be a way to pull the recorded files off of the HR20 and onto my PC. So, does anybody have any suggestions for a better solution? Any advice is appreciated...

[captain_video]

You can do most of what you want with a hacked HR10-250 HDTivo. You won't get one from DirecTV because they no longer offer them. You can pick up one on ebay, activate it on your DTV account, and hack it using the methods found in this forum and elsewhere.

You will have to extract the files from the HDTivo to your PC via a network connection and perform the edits there because there is no other way around it. You'll have to mux the extracted files to a compatible mpeg2 format before you can edit them. Once you've muxed and edited the files you can author them using most DVD authoring programs, with a few caveats, depending on what you're working with (i.e., HD or SD files). There are several options for creating your DVDs:

1. Create HD-DVDs from recorded shows that will play back on an HD-DVD player using your existing DVD burner and media.

2. Convert HD content to 720x480 resolution files that will play back on any set top DVD player.

3. Author SD content to DVD that will play back on any DVD player that is able to play SVCDs (480x480 resolution).

The extracted videos are all processed in digital format so the digital audio soundtrack (i.e., Dolby Digital) will remain intact.