Rob Malpass wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I mailed this list a few months back with something similar - but
> please bear with me - this question is slightly different...
>
> What's the best method for archiving video? Most of us I guess will
> have some form of PVR be it freeview, cable or satellite. Clearly
> there's a PC at work inside them but I don't know of a way to actually
> get at the files that you create when you record a broadcast. My
> Humax box for instance has both ethernet and USB - but I've not been
> successful in looking at what's "under the hood".
>
> The reason I ask is it strikes me that the method we're supposed to
> use seems to be blank DVD or Blu Ray. Fine - but if you have a
> programme you want to keep - you physically have to play the Sky+
> recording (or whatever) into the DVD. This does allow editing out of
> adverts but the chances are that if you want to keep something this
> means you have to watch it twice - the second time being to archive it.
>
> I'd probably settle for a system that transfers from PVR to DVD by
> copying a file rather than making a DVD recording of a PVR broadcast
> so to speak but is there a simpler way? I don't have a nice enough
> looking case so I've not tried a media centre PC, MythUbuntu or some
> such solution.
>
> Cheers
> Rob
Hi Rob,
I am currently stuck with the Sky+ to DVD option, although to be honest
I rarely bother as I find there are simply not enough hours in the day
to watch TV, let alone watch it over, so if it drops off the Sky+ disk
(either watched or unwatched) I figure I'll buy or borrow a copy at a
later date if I am that desperate to see it. But, that's me and having
just 'ramped up' from watching maybe 1-2 hours of television per week to
a massive 3-4 hours, I am probably not representative of most folk!
My friend who watches a lot more than me on the box uses a Mac Mini that
has a big NAS plugged in the back end, which to record and edit the
programs he likes, before squirting them off to the NAS for archiving.
He is just in the process of swapping over to Blu Ray and so tends to
purchase and watch his movies in that format.
A colleague who rips and archive his movies recently knackered his RAID
and effectively lost the lot (they were recoverable but only with a big
investment of time and effort). Of course, he still has the original
discs in the roof but I think the thought of starting over with many
hundreds of them made him weep!
Slightly off-topic, but on a related note, I encountered an interesting
issue last night. Basically, the 'Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles'
episode that we had recorded on Sky+ had been interrupted part-way
through by a recording clash (Sean shakes his fist at Caroline!).
Anyway, I toddled off to TVTorrents (using my Sky Broadband connection)
and pulled the episode in question in, and watched it using my Western
Digital device [1]. It occurred to me that this was technically dodgy,
although in reality I am subscribed to a supplier who provides me with
the means to record and archive programmes. It got me wondering where
the line is drawn in that regard; I appreciate that it is probably
there, in the small print somewhere, but as I mentioned at the start of
this post, life is just too short! Morally I have no issue with it for
hopefully obvious reasons, but it did get me thinking about how Sky
might view it in, say, a three strikes scenario, as proposed and chucked
out in France.
Sean
[1]
https://funkygibbins.dyndns.org/wordpress/?p=672
--
The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what's missing is the eyebrows.
Frank Zappa
