Time Warner (cisco) DVR cable box.

[rick snagwell]

so my GF and i just moved and are canceling our Time Warner cable service for DirecTV.

we have some really great stuff recorded on the TW box, in which we would like to save to our imac hdd.

i searched google pretty good, no help really. was hoping maybe someone here knows or has heard a way to grab that stuff off the box. it does have usb on it!

im thinking that maybe its copyrighted, so thats why they dont make it easy?

thanks

 

[pvmacguy]

I think a lot of companies such as TW and Comcast cripple their boxes and even though they have ports such as USB they don't function.

I think your SOL with your recordings.

 

[Weaselboy]

Yep... that thing is locked down and I don't know a way to get if off short of just using the analog video out to a capture device.

Some Time Warner cable boxes allow the use of an external drive for extra storage but it is locked to the cable box for playback.

 

[mentaluproar]

The DVR uses a standard SATA hard drive, and a cheap USB dongle could connect it to your mac. I'd imagine it records MPEG2, but probably in a strange container.

I wonder if there is a way to decode it.

 

[Tilpots]

Elgato has a couple of products that may work for you but they could be time consuming and you could lose quality. Unfortunately, you're in a bad situation for your DVR collection. But getting rid of TWC should certainly make you feel better! Good luck with DirecTV.

 

[squeeks]

Elgato has a couple of products that may work for you but they could be time consuming and you could lose quality. Unfortunately, you're in a bad situation for your DVR collection. But getting rid of TWC should certainly make you feel better! Good luck with DirecTV.

+1

its $200 but it will do the trick

http://www.elgato.com/elgato/na/mainmenu/products/capture-convert/GameCaptureHD.html

would be time consuming as you'd have to play it all back off the DVR

 

[Rodimus Prime]

The DVR uses a standard SATA hard drive, and a cheap USB dongle could connect it to your mac. I'd imagine it records MPEG2, but probably in a strange container.

I wonder if there is a way to decode it.

problem is the formating used on said hard drive is not one our computers can understand and chances are the data has been run threw a hardware encrypter on the DVR itself making it impossible yank the data off.

 

[mentaluproar]

Intentionally crippled equipment infuriates me. It's like being teased.