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View Full Version : Video capture from DirecTV

MountainJeep
March 17th, 2007, 03:51 PM
So I was thinking the other day....

What would I need to capture video from a standard Hughes box and record it on to my PC. I have looked at some of the products out there, and it just confuses me.
JeepWheelin02
March 18th, 2007, 01:55 AM
You would need a Video Capture card and the software capable of doing such. Windows Media Center and Vista both have the software built in. If you use either of those then you also need to make sure that the video capture card you use is compatible with Windows
ColoradoSkier
March 19th, 2007, 11:17 AM
http://www.byopvr.com/ has a ton of info for this sort of thing.
lilgreenjeepyj
March 19th, 2007, 11:26 AM
It should be one of the normal cable signals, and most cards should be able to handle them.
Eric
March 19th, 2007, 11:37 AM
I bought a kit at Sam's Club to do it. Plug it into the audio/video out on the DVR and it connects to the PC via USB. It came with software for editing the video (adding titles and chapters, cropping, etc.). I think it was around $40. I had several PPV movies that I wanted to save before swapping out the drive for a larger one.

Since then I've gone to the dark side and upgraded the DVR software to enable the USB port, networking, and HMO, plus expand the buffer from 30 minutes to 60 minutes and disabled the encryption. Now I can copy the video files over the network to burn to DVD. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Much much happier with the system now :)
Eric
March 22nd, 2007, 10:43 AM
Last night I finally looked at the hardware and it's called "DVD Xpress" made by ADS Tech. Here it is on Tigerdirect for $50:
DVD Xpress (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=580965)
http://images.tigerdirect.com/SKUimages/medium/A03-7042.jpg

I comes with the software and lets you record any video signal to your PC. So in DirecTV I'd use the "record to VCR" option to play the movie, hit Record on the DVDXpress software, and use the software to trim the start/end and add title & chapters.

A quick search reveals that ADS has a newer version (http://www.adstech.com/products/USBAV-709-EF/intro/USBAV-709_intro.asp?pid=USBAV-709-EF) out which, of course, I know nothing about.