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best way to record off a tv and get onto a computer?

charlestrippy

charlestrippy

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 29, 2006
386
0
Tampa, Florida
So look's like i'm going to be on national televison for this "webjunk" type shows and I would like to be able to record it and get it onto my computer to upload the brief clip..

what's the best way to go about this? is this possible! thanks! :confused:
 
charlestrippy said:
So look's like i'm going to be on national televison for this "webjunk" type shows and I would like to be able to record it and get it onto my computer to upload the brief clip..

what's the best way to go about this? is this possible! thanks! :confused:
Click to expand...

It is possible, but unless you have a DVR or a DVD recorder (or maybe a DV camcorder with a FW port, if it can somehow use the cable signal as a record source), you will need additional hardware to do this. Probably the easier thing is to find someone who has a DVR or EyeTV or the like and get them to make you a copy of the show....
 
mkrishnan said:
It is possible, but unless you have a DVR or a DVD recorder (or maybe a DV camcorder with a FW port, if it can somehow use the cable signal as a record source), you will need additional hardware to do this. Probably the easier thing is to find someone who has a DVR or EyeTV or the like and get them to make you a copy of the show....
Click to expand...


well,
my parents down home (im out in college) have a DVR - how hard is it to record off a dvr? can it just plug into the mac or something and load it into imovie or something?

also, how does eyetv work?

thanks for responding - any more help would be amazing!
 
If you buy an EyeTV, you plug it into a USB port on the Mac and then you plug the cable line into it. It's very easy to use. But it will cost you ~$200....

If you want to use the DVR, it depends on the brand. TiVo should have software you can download; ReplayTV has a program called DVArchive. Both are free. I dunno about other DVRs....
 
mkrishnan said:
If you buy an EyeTV, you plug it into a USB port on the Mac and then you plug the cable line into it. It's very easy to use. But it will cost you ~$200....

If you want to use the DVR, it depends on the brand. TiVo should have software you can download; ReplayTV has a program called DVArchive. Both are free. I dunno about other DVRs....
Click to expand...


It's the DVR that comes with Bright House Networks I believe....not exactly sure what brand that is - i'll call and ask...

as for EyeTV - how much and where do you get a product like this? seems like a nice little product - sounds simple too - just pluggin in and and pressing record...

thanks for helping too btw
 
There are a few options for doing this. The one I use is through a Canopus ADVC-100 DV box and my Dish Network receiver. This attaches to the Mac via Firewire and has RCA composite and S-video inputs and outputs. When you plug it in and turn it on, it's recognized in iMovie as a DV source and you can just import the video you want. If I want to record something or my girlfriend wants something recorded, it's just a matter of flipping it on, hitting import and getting what we want. You can export it to a Quicktime file, DVD, iPod etc with ease.

Canopus has a USB 2.0 box now too... Formac makes them... not sure who else, but there are a few companies. You could also use the EyeTV box from El Gato to do this. If you want a cheaper and more rudimentary setup, you can use the Interview from Daystar (you need a separate cable to catch audio though). The maximum resolution is limited with that as well.
 
what to do? please help!

Ok so I have the brand new Motorola DCH3416 DVR Box. It does not have a fire wire hook up. I have attached photo of the front and rear panels of the box to show what it does have.

I am using a 13" Macbook and would like to be able to hook it up to this box so that I can record onto the macbook. If anyone knows how I can do this than please help. Thanks.
 

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jazeppi said:
Ok so I have the brand new Motorola DCH3416 DVR Box. It does not have a fire wire hook up.
Click to expand...

Actually, if those are pictures of your device, it does have Firewire -- Firewire is also called IEEE 1394 (it's pictured on the right-hand diagram, on the lower right side of the device back).

But honestly, I have no idea if it will let you copy shows off via firewire (or anything else), off hand....
 
I have a similar DVR box that came from my cable company. Though it has the firewire port, it is not turned on and as such is useless. If it happens to be turned on, Apple provides a Firewire SDK download that supposedly can let you record from firewire, but since my box was disabled I never got very far along. I was working from a tutorial I found through Google.

Edit: just found a very similar tutorial as the one I was using.

You should also look into Elgato's EyeTV.
 
Better to use a DVD-recorder. Record the program onto DVD(-RW?). Finalise the disc. Put the disc in your Mac, use MPEGStreamclip to open the VOB file and extract the clip you want.
--------------------------
Edit - sorry! Just realised I'm answering the OP from 2006! Doh!
 
Keep Answering!

mooblie said:
Better to use a DVD-recorder. Record the program onto DVD(-RW?). Finalise the disc. Put the disc in your Mac, use MPEGStreamclip to open the VOB file and extract the clip you want.
--------------------------
Edit - sorry! Just realised I'm answering the OP from 2006! Doh!
Click to expand...

I still have the question in 2010. Trying to figure out how to get macbook to do it as I have no money to buy a recorder. So far the firewire thing is the main consistency in the various methods I've seen-although most of those specify hd, I'm not so picky.
The question of whether the firewire on the cable box-I understand the cable companies are legally required to have this port enabled.

My biggest fear is that not knowing what I'm doing I'll plug in wrong and blow something up! :eek:So-answer on. We can't all afford eyetv and tivo. Anyway I do like the challenge. (As long as it doesn't fry the macbook...)
 
I had a friend on tv a year ago and asked the same question. Not wanting to spend a lot of money, I came up with the idea of setting my macbook in front of the program which I had recorded on my DVR. I started playing the program on the tv, Then I used imovie to record the program onto my macbook. A simple solution that worked fine for me.
 
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