So you’ve built up a huge Library on your DVR that you don’t want to part with. Then save it!
A reason I hear more and more that someone does not want to give up their cable service is
“I don’t want to lose the shows on my DVR”.
People, this is why Cable and Sat companies give them to you for free or really cheap and also why the drives hold so many hours of air time. They are preying on humans instinct to Hoard possessions by making you feel protective of something you probably don’t even own!
There are a bunch of ways to back your stuff up. But before I go on, a word on Copyrights. Just because something is on your DVR does not necessarily mean you have the right to copy it to another device or media. So please contact your Content Provider/Cable Company before using the methods posted below about the rules/laws in your area.
So with that out of the way here are a few options.
Method 1 – Get the shows elsewhere. This is the easiest and in my opinion the best method. Just buy the stuff on DVD/BR or watch it online! Most shows these days come out on disk a few weeks after the last episode of the season airs or can be found online as soon as the episode airs on TV. And the source for DVDs is endless, Amazon, eBay, local stores, yard sales for as little as 25 cents, etc, etc. Next, there are tons of websites out there that legally stream shows in high quality. I’ll be covering this in a later post about where to find videos legally for free. And of course you can always just check out TV series and movies at your local library. If you want to spend a little money you can always go with Netflix or a similar service but we are here to cut our budgets not get suckered into another service!
Method 2 – The old DVR to DVR – Remember the golden age of the VCR? When you would hook two VCRs up to each other and copy movies because playing the original too many times would ruin it. The same thing goes for DVRs. Buy a new non cable company DVR and just plug your first DVR into it and hit record. Easy Peasy. You will need a DVR with Component Analog HD input for best quality because you cannot use an HDMI cable for this due to the restrictive nature of recording Digital content. Hit Play on your old DVR and record on the new one. Let the video play and hit stop when its done.
Method 3 - Use a capture card on your laptop or desktop Computer – This is easy enough as well, buy and install a video capture card. I recommend AVerMedia or Hauppauge. Again chose one that can do HD with component cables. Hookup your DVR and playback the video on your computer. Then just hit record.
Method 4 – Firewire capture – This method uses a little more technical effort. Some DVR cable boxes like the Scientific America 8300HDC have firewire ports on the back that can stream video just like a camcorder! Use a firewire cable to connect the DVR to your PC then install the drivers just like a camcorder and use a capture program to save the video to your computer. This is by far the best quality method since it results in a copy of the file on your DVR! An example of this is here. Use VLC player to play these files back. Note: some of these programs only work in Windows XP or Vista and you need a firewire port on your computer, so keep that in mind before you go this route.
Method 5 – Just start fresh! That’s right just delete those shows and return the cable DVR and BE FREE my brothers and sisters! It feels better than you think! I mean really, how many times can you re-watch Lost!
So there you go, no excuse to keep that old DVR! And if you went route 2 or 3 you can now record shows if you go the Free HD over air route with a HD over air tuner box which I will talk about in a later post.
Note: for legal purposes please note that you are NOT to use the above methods to illegally copy copyrighted materials. These instructions are only for content that you have full rights to disperse or copy. These methods are also listed for hypothetical purposes only. You use these methods at your own risk and as doing so hold this website and the author non-liable for any damages, etc.
