OT possibly?

[George]

there has been a few instances on here were people have asked what type of cards there are to capture video to HD and burn to DVD, well read on...

Yesterday I found a Phillips(BT Vision)freeview box with a 160Gb HD in it,the freeview box has got all the necessary inputs and outputs for recording from TV/VIDEO and CAMERA so all we have to do is connect the appropriate device, press record on freeview box,press play on camera and let it roll till it finishes playing the video. The HD stores up to 80 hours of video so thats a few vids we store. Once finished take the HD from freeview box and connect to PC as a slave drive. There ya go first generation VHS/SVHS video to HD ready for burning to DVD.

[dennis]

Not a very good way to record TV though.. I have a Hauppauge freeview receiver and record the actual first generation MPEG stream to disk using the Vista media center (you need to do a noddy conversion to MPEG2 as media center records in an odd file format). Camcorders are just connected using firewire and recording the DV. If I want to capture composite or S video than the camcorder does a better job or converting it to DV than anything else I have, quite a lot have A/V in these days.

[George]

How do you mean Dennis "Not a very good way to record TV though"? and not all computers sport "Firewire" Surely a freeview recorder will give a better definition of recorded video than a cheap capture card? I should know I have a pinnicle studio card and the captured TV footage is s**te so therefore VHS or digi video is going to be worse.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Since it's a FreeView box I'm pretty sure it will record the MPEG stream direct for that purpose.

That's got me confused. ;-)

The point is it's unusual to find a PVR which will also record an external source. Because this means the inclusion of an A-D codec.

[George]

Halfway down the page MrPloughman you will see it has input for external source via a SVHS or SCART input or Firewire(camera) to USB?

[cpvh]

[e-mail]...

=A0 London SW

recently............

1. The box only works if it's connected to a BT Vision enabled BT Broadband line.
2. As my lerarned collegue Mr Plowman rightly pointed out, It only records from the freeview aerial input.

[George]

Further to add to this,would it be possible to input a video surveilance camera into the scart or SVHS socket to record surveilance data? worth thinking about ain't it. :-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Plenty of HD versions of these already on the market. And it's best to use a 'skip frame' type to increase storage time.

[GMM]

Bit of a side/follow-up question I guess, and please excuse my ignorance!

I have a DVR and I was thinking of how to burn a DVD from it (don't have a DVD recorder at present, but that's easily solved). Is it as easy as connecting with a scart, selecting the input and recording or is that too simple?

Cheers

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I presume you mean a PVR? If so most have a second SCART marked record for just this purpose. However these may be designed for a VHS and output composite video only. A DVD recorder may accept an RGB input in which case you'll get better results by using the TV SCART on the PVR - assuming that is set to RGB. And at maximum quality on the DVD recorder the results should be pretty indistinguishable from off air.

[matthew.larkin]

And all that would be good, except that it can't actually do that at all.

All it can do is record from Freeview in the way that "normal" PVRs (DVRs) can, but it can't record two / watch one at the same time.

It can do other stuff via BT Total Broadband, but from what I have read it certainly can't do the things that you think it can do. Unless you know differently?

Matt

[George]

If its got an aux scart input then the chances are it will record whatever you input into it? This one I found in the back entry and I not really bothered about it as the remote wasn't with it,but I took the Western Digital 160GB HD out and am using it as a slave drive in the PC. :-)

Some of these have been sold on ebay at silly prices and the HD has got to be worth £16 at least?

[dennis]

All PCs support firewire even if it means adding stuff to them.

Not if you read what I wrote.. they record the broadcast digital stream not the video. I.e. they are perfect as are most freeview recorders but not analogue ones.

Anyway before you rush out and buy that box I suggest you check what you say as the spec doesn't say it can record from analogue inputs or from DV camcorders.

Assuming BT are still using the plans we did for 21cn you will find a usb cameras as an accessory, its for ip video calls.

[dennis]

I have a canon DV camera and it converts analogue video to DV. Its quite good as I can just connect say the Sky+ box to the camera and the firewire to the PC and record the sky+.

DV is far easier to edit than mpeg BTW.