DirecTV DVR......

[Deleted member 133]

It didn't take me much searching to find a lot of "dongle" type A/V capture devices but most of them looked to be of dubious quality / capability.

However it looks like Hauppauge makes some high quality affordable devices.

Their USB-Live2 http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_usblive2.html looks great for SD (using composite/S-Video connections) and a portable.

Pricier, but much more capable, is the Colossus card http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_colossus.html for desktop PCs. It handles HD via component connections.

Anyone have any experience with these, and their associated software?

 

[Towen7]

Hauppauge makes good stuff. I've used their internal video capture cards with great success and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the brand.

 

[yromj]

DirecTV reps around here tell people in no uncertain terms that you can NOT get any content from their boxes because it's a violation of FCC copyright laws. I know with Dish I can do what Yesfan describes (and I have been doing this for a few years and it's FREE!). It is not a copyright violation because the content is moved from the internal HDD to the external (still just one version).

Dish will now let you move content to mobile devices but I haven't done any of that yet. I strongly suspect that when it's moved to the portable device it is down-res'd to 480p because you have to prepare the content for mobile before exporting it.

John