Transfer video digitally from DVR to Mac

[tnsmart]

Hi everyone,
I have a Dish Network DVR 625 and am trying to figure out how to transfer digital video from the DVR to my MacBook. The DVR has a USB port on the back of it, but as far as I know, it's useless. I know about transferring it via analog and then back to digital, but that takes a while and you lose quality. I'm wondering if anyone knows how to transfer the actual DVR files digitally.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[GoCubsGo]

I have done this a few times but I used an eye tv 200. The unit is old but still quite capable. Basically you want to be able to use the RGB outputs on your DVR and plug them into something like the EyeTV 200, 250, etc etc.
From there I just set my EyeTV to record as though the program was playing. I know there are other ways (Dazzle?) but I didn't do it often enough to care how long it took.

 

[alphaod]

I don't think you can. The files are encrypted... at least the USB ports don't work. You can try to play it back and record it through Eye TV.

 

[tnsmart]

Any new ideas?

 

[tnsmart]

Any new ideas on this??

 

[QuarterSwede]

This is the ONE reason to get TIVO sadly. I would love to do this as well, but I don't think it's possible with Dish Network or DirecTV (what I have) with just a cable. You'd need to break the encryption they use and then figure out what format the drive is in. Too bad too because, as far as I know, DirecTV records everything straight to the hard drive in MPEG2 (comes that way from the satellites) so it's not converted to any other codec. That's the reason, even standard def looks so clear.

 

[dalvin200]

thus method will transfer the recordings ANALOGUE resulting in loss of PQ.. but it does work

I have done this a few times but I used an eye tv 200. The unit is old but still quite capable. Basically you want to be able to use the RGB outputs on your DVR and plug them into something like the EyeTV 200, 250, etc etc.
From there I just set my EyeTV to record as though the program was playing. I know there are other ways (Dazzle?) but I didn't do it often enough to care how long it took.

 

[DrTwoFish]

Dazzle DVD

I'll second the Dazzle recommendation, but only if you can use Boot Camp. I just picked up the Dazzle DVD converter from Best Buy for $36 on sale, and it works pretty well, with a few caveats. I run s-video into it, but the video quality's still kinda shaky - a little pixelly during fast movement. And as I mentioned above, you need boot camp - it's Windows only, and had some audio stuttering problems with VMWare. But it's cheap, and it's good for archiving things where video quality isn't crucial. Good luck.

edit: I forgot to mention that this particular unit will only record to a DVD or (preferably) a DVD image on your HD. Though I haven't tried it yet, I think you can then use Handbrake or something similar if you want to convert it to mpeg. Or, you could spend three times as much and get one that does that little step for you