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DVR Recording to itunes
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Well, it depends on how crippled Comcast has made your cable box.
It will take multiple steps.
Firstly, you will need to see if you mac "sees" your cable box. Download iRecord, connect your mac to your cable box, and do a test recording, see if what your cable box is outputting shows up as a file on your Mac. Once you have the file on your Mac, you can use something like MPEG Streamclip to convert it to a more friendly format.
I have done this with Cox Cable's Motorola DCT6412 cable box connecting them using firewire.
It will take multiple steps.
Firstly, you will need to see if you mac "sees" your cable box. Download iRecord, connect your mac to your cable box, and do a test recording, see if what your cable box is outputting shows up as a file on your Mac. Once you have the file on your Mac, you can use something like MPEG Streamclip to convert it to a more friendly format.
I have done this with Cox Cable's Motorola DCT6412 cable box connecting them using firewire.
I'm in Houston, Texas using a Comcast DVR (recently bought out of from Time Warner) and I have a Scientific Atlanta 3800HD. I have done much research on this subject, and here are the facts. Straight transferring of the files stored on your DVR is pretty much not possible. There are many AV/HD forums on the net discussing about alternative solutions to this, and here is what I do. I connect my Mac via Firewire to my Active Firewire port on the back of my DVR. Key being that you have active ports. Older STB (set top boxes) were not active, and newer ones are only being forced because of a new law. I then use the Apple Firewire SDK which can be found here (a free Developer account is required). I use AVCVideoCap to capture the video. You must select your DVR from the source list. (It should recognize it) and then you click on the Capture from Device button. Name and save the file, set a time length for recording and go. Here's also where I have run into issues. I can only record from previously recorded material to the HD of my DVR. Meaning I have to DVR it before I can record it in real time to my Mac. This sucks. The reason for this is the 5c protection instituted by cable companies to, you guessed it prevent piracy or something. I have read reports that others can capture 'LIVE' TV, but I've never had success. At the bottom of AVCVideoCap you will see a text field that should say 'Copy Freely' That means it is 5c free. If you can get that message you should be able to capture. Here's some of the tutorials (1) (2) I've used to get going, but I'm glad to help others. I mainly use this to capture Music Videos since whole TV shows take a long time and I dont want to sit through the whole thing.
The last part of course is the resulting file you have. An m2t file. This is an MPEG2 stream. You can google this to find many solutions for playback and conversion, but I simply use VLC that will open the stream just fine, and use the Export Stream Wizard to convert it to an iPhone friendly MPEG4 format.
I've used iRecord too, but since I can only record DVRed stuff, I have no real need for it's timing and scheduling features.
The last part of course is the resulting file you have. An m2t file. This is an MPEG2 stream. You can google this to find many solutions for playback and conversion, but I simply use VLC that will open the stream just fine, and use the Export Stream Wizard to convert it to an iPhone friendly MPEG4 format.
I've used iRecord too, but since I can only record DVRed stuff, I have no real need for it's timing and scheduling features.
If you invest in a tivo series 2 I can't explain how drop dead easy it is to get shows into the iphone.
3 words: Tivo Decode Manager....
3 words: Tivo Decode Manager....
The Apple Firewire SDK version 18 (I think) contained an app called VirtualDVHS_18 that can be used to record the video stream coming off a Moto 6412 III cable box and VLC is the way to convert the resulting file to mpeg4.
I'm assuming you're recording standard def video that's been recorded by your DVR? Because HD content is protected by the 5c encryption and can only be recorded once. You can capture *live* HD content, but you can't rerecord HD content recorded by your DVR to the Mac. If you know of a way, I've love to hear it. But I don't know of a practical way around the 5c problem.
Oh, great to know. I know of the VirtualDVHS app, but didn't know how to use it. I'll have to play around. That makes more sense too about the 5c protection. I have tried doing HD content with AVCVideoCap both live and from DVR and obviously didn't work.