DVD Recorders & recording

[The Boston Patriot]

I'm looking into getting a DVD recorder for obvious reasons (Pats games!). Can
anyone share what they have and if they would recommend it?

I'm also looking for a copy of the Cowboys and Colts game on DVD. If someone
recorded it and would like to do me a favor and make me a copy I would appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[wcda]

I have 2 computers setup as media centers. I can record/burn/play back the game on TVs in other rooms. One uses Windows Media Center 2005 with a TV tuner. The other uses Vista Ultimate with a cable card setup.

 

[AVrabel50Fan]

I have a Panasonic DVD Recorder. I just Tivo the games and then record them on a DVD that week. I love it, it works great and is super easy to use! I have a very large Patriots Library thanks to my recorder!

 

[wcda]

I just checked and I am missing the last 7 min and 45 secs of the game on my mce computer or I would have made you a copy. I also have it on my Vista Ultimate computer that uses the cable card that is in HD. unfortunately the cable card is very strict in respecting the DRM that I can not burn that one. only View it.

 

[sebman2112]

I have a Panasonic DVD Recorder. I just Tivo the games and then record them on a DVD that week. I love it, it works great and is super easy to use! I have a very large Patriots Library thanks to my recorder!

Same setup. I have a 150GB DVR, and a Panasonic DVD Recorder. I set the timer on my DVR, and allow it to do it's thing, then later I record the footage with the DVD recorder. I use Taiyo Yuden Blank DVD's, as they're some of the best blank DVD's produced, and used by professionals. I haven't burned a single coaster with that Panasonic DVD recorder, and I swear by the Taiyo Yuden's.

I also have custom built PC with a DVD burner, video editing equipment & Software. I don't usually capture games with my PC though.

 

[Grogan's Heroes]

I have a Panasonic DVD Recorder. I just Tivo the games and then record them on a DVD that week. I love it, it works great and is super easy to use! I have a very large Patriots Library thanks to my recorder!

I bought a Panasonic DMR-E80H in 2004 and it's been great for me. Easy to use and reliable.

 

[sebman2112]

I bought a Panasonic DMR-E80H in 2004 and it's been great for me. Easy to use and reliable.

I have a DMR ES15, and as I said before it works great.

 

[Frezo]

Panasonic DMR-ES20 here. no problems

 

[Patriot Power]

I've got a library of homemade Pats games DVDs dating back to late in the 2003 season.

I bought a Panasonic DMR-E80H in 2004 and it's been great for me. Easy to use and reliable.

That's the same unit I have... got it in 2003 and it's been chugging along, doing a superb job over since. My only issue with it is the automatic cross-fade applied to the edits when you use 'shorten segment'... it'd be fine if there were a way to shut it off. But this year CBS seems to be leaving a few more frames of black between the broadcast and the commercial, so it's no longer that much of an issue. I also wish it had component video INPUTS that you can record off of, but from what I understand there are no set-top DVD-Recorders that offer that yet (movie companies are paranoid about copy protection).

But I also have an older over the air HD-Tuner box that I use to pick up the HD channels of 4, 5, 7 and 25... unlike most current cable boxes, it will output a non-letterboxed 16X9 picture through the S-Video port... so what i end up with (when I replay the dvds on my widescreen HDTV in 'Full' screen stretch mode) is about the equivalent of a 16x9 480P DVD... not HDTV, but pretty darn good. It reminds me of how fox's 'enhanced' picture used to look before they started broadcasting every game in HD. It'll have to do until they come out with HD-DVD burners... and reasonably priced ones at that.

 

[AVrabel50Fan]

I bought a Panasonic DMR-E80H in 2004 and it's been great for me. Easy to use and reliable.

This is the same one I have. I only wish I could get a HD DVR Recorder now, I would be so very happy!!

 

[E Belichick Unum]

I have a LiteON All Write DVD recorder. The great thing about this recorder is that it will write to any media. I have a TVIO and copy the game to DVD while I rewatch the games.

 

[trench]

I have Directv > NFL Sunday Ticket > TiVo > Toshiba D-R2 dvd recorder and I've had no problems with that set-up. My only issue is that I live in Colorado so the late games on national TV have all been cut because the stations wait until the early game is over to make the switch (national games are blacked out on NFL Sunday Ticket). Fortunately all of those have been re-broadcast on NFL Replay so I was able to patch in the first 6-8 minutes albeit with some plays cut out.

If anyone has the Redskins game send me a PM. That was supposed to be a national game but it got bumped so it never recorded. I was out of town in British Columbia and I did manage to listen to the first half on the radio and watch the second half on HD on the ferry out of Vancouver (unbelievable luck, that). Lesson learned - if out of town, record both the national broadcast *and* the NFL Sunday Ticket broadcast. One of them will record the game.

 

[BostonBullit]

I have 2 computers setup as media centers. I can record/burn/play back the game on TVs in other rooms. One uses Windows Media Center 2005 with a TV tuner. The other uses Vista Ultimate with a cable card setup.

which cablecard machine are you running, and how do you like it? I was waiting for Vista for the cablecard stuff and then CableLabs pulled the "you can't build your own PC and use a cablecard" crap....now I'm looking at putting Vista Home Premium on a machine with a dual tuner Hauppage card and living with 16:9 SD recordings played out to extenders (if they ever come out)

 

[godef]

I make my DVDs on my PC; I have a SVHS cable running from my DVR. It's nice in that you have far better editing control. Some DVDs I've goten from other people will cut off two quick before commercials or come on late. Even worse is when whoever was watching the game starts switching channels to watch snippets of other games (obviously a direct-to-DVD-recorder job).

I have an HD-DVR, so I produce widescreen DVDs, though they are not HD, it's still a nice picture.

 

[xmarkd400x]

I just checked and I am missing the last 7 min and 45 secs of the game on my mce computer or I would have made you a copy. I also have it on my Vista Ultimate computer that uses the cable card that is in HD. unfortunately the cable card is very strict in respecting the DRM that I can not burn that one. only View it.

The cable card is not the component preventing you from burning DRM stuff, mediacenter/windows is. There is a Linux alternative called MythTV. I'm sure there are other ways around DRM as well.

 

[BostonBullit]

The cable card is not the component preventing you from burning DRM stuff, mediacenter/windows is. There is a Linux alternative called MythTV. I'm sure there are other ways around DRM as well.

The CableLabs requirements for CableCard on a PC are INSANE....I'd be suprised if you could get one up and running under Linux/myth, but I'd be very interested to hear how if you did

 

[xmarkd400x]

The CableLabs requirements for CableCard on a PC are INSANE....I'd be suprised if you could get one up and running under Linux/myth, but I'd be very interested to hear how if you did

I don't have very much experience building mediacenters. I am actually just starting my first one. I bought a pinnacle HDTV tuner, but I need to buy a hard drive.

I'll check out the requirements for that. Usually its just a driver thats needed (although those can be rare).

If you have the install discs for whatever software you have bought, it might be worthwhile to attempt it. I do not have enough experience to tell you to attemp it.
-----------EDITED--------------
This is what I found out about linux:

Before Microsoft was allowed to support CableLab’s CableCARD specification (CableLabs is a consortium of cable television companies), it had to guarantee closure of the proverbial analog hole through which content pirates often sneak. Enter — you guessed it — Microsoft’s DRM. This of course goes back to the elephant in the room question that Doc asked: "What about non-OEMs?" As far as I can tell, there’s basically no way for Linux to support something like CableCARD because there is no official DRM that’s built into Linux and there’s no one that can sign (on behalf of Linux) on such a guarantee’s dotted line.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2361

It is Windows that enforces the DRM, but the hardware manufacturer forced Windows to enforce DRM, so I guess it is like the hardware has DRM =P

 

[BostonBullit]

I don't have very much experience building mediacenters. I am actually just starting my first one. I bought a pinnacle HDTV tuner, but I need to buy a hard drive.

I'll check out the requirements for that. Usually its just a driver thats needed (although those can be rare).

If you have the install discs for whatever software you have bought, it might be worthwhile to attempt it. I do not have enough experience to tell you to attemp it.

Currently there is only one cablecard setup for a PC, the ATI OCUR cablecard thingamabobber, and you can't get it aftermarket and hook it up to your PC. well, you could but it wouldn't do anything. In order for it to be functional the system builder (dell, HP, etc) must submit the complete system spec to CableLabs for approval, at which point they get special stuff for the BIOS and a few other little tidbits that allow the thing to be used. Now I fully expect that all to be circumvented in the future, and I'll be one of the first to hack things up when it is, but for now if you want CableCard on your PC you're very limited.

The biggest thing for me with the Media Center cableCard setup is that EVERY recording you make with the cablecard is marked as protected regardless of the 5c flag from the cable company. the file can't be xfered to and played on another PC or a portable device like a Zune or iPod. it can ONLY be played on the original PC that recorded it OR a Media Center Extender. Total BS

on a side note - I have a nice 28gig file of the Pats Colts game in HD that I recorded from my cable box via firewire and it's USELESS because apparantly CBS flipped the god damn 5c bit and marked the signal as protected. I hold out slim hope I'll be able to decrypt the thing somehow but it's unlikely

 

[wcda]

I have an ATI box that is not available yet. That is on a Vista Ultimate 64 bit box. It has a lot of DRM restrictions. I also have a 32 bit Vista ultimate box with an Aver Media 1500 pci. With the last configuration I have few restrictions

 

[LiveShot]

I have DVD's of all the Pats games this year but I have no clue how to make a copy.