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Need Help with a TV tuner

post #1 of 11
2/20/12 at 7:31am
Thread Starter 
So..... I am a total nub when it comes to TV Tuner cards and the such.

I have a problem..... my DVR is full. I Have At&t Uverse and i am a huge MMA fan so i buy all the pay per views and record them to watch again later. My DVR is full of very expensive content and i want to keep all of it and still be able to record new stuff as well.

So i was wondering if i could transfer all of my recorded content form my TVs DVR to my computer with a TV Tuner card.

If this is possible which i don't see why it wouldn't be I need suggestions for a good TV tuner card for up to $100 or so.

It needs to be HD capable, and has to work with AT&T Uverse

Also can you record HD video to a 5400rpm drive?
Edited by Aramaki23 - 2/20/12 at 9:56am
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post #2 of 11
2/20/12 at 7:53am
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BUMP
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post #3 of 11
2/20/12 at 8:17am
Calm down on the bumping, once a day is plenty btw....

Aside from that, you don't need to have a specific tuner for ATT, just play back the content you want to import into your main computer through the output of your current DVR, and use a program on your computer to record to a flat file like mp4 or mkv. It's slow, but without knowing the specs of your DVR (which sounds like one you are renting) I would bet you can't just transfer the files.
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post #4 of 11
2/20/12 at 8:35am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by herkalurk View Post

Calm down on the bumping, once a day is plenty btw....
Aside from that, you don't need to have a specific tuner for ATT, just play back the content you want to import into your main computer through the output of your current DVR, and use a program on your computer to record to a flat file like mp4 or mkv. It's slow, but without knowing the specs of your DVR (which sounds like one you are renting) I would bet you can't just transfer the files.



Any suggestions on a good tuner for the $? I really need like a crash course in the whole subject.
Edited by Aramaki23 - 2/20/12 at 10:16am
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post #5 of 11
2/21/12 at 7:54am
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post #6 of 11
2/21/12 at 8:04am
As far tuners go...if you pay less than $50 or so it will probably over heat after about 30 minutes of recording or at least I found that out on a few models back in the day. Also be careful you don't buy one that can't do HD...I know they are still on the market.

but have you looked into adding storage to your DVR? What kind do you have?

Like mine from DirectTV I can just add an external hard drive to it
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post #7 of 11
2/21/12 at 8:38am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Vagrant Storm View Post

As far tuners go...if you pay less than $50 or so it will probably over heat after about 30 minutes of recording or at least I found that out on a few models back in the day. Also be careful you don't buy one that can't do HD...I know they are still on the market.
but have you looked into adding storage to your DVR? What kind do you have?
Like mine from DirectTV I can just add an external hard drive to it

I just have the one that At&t providesi highly doubt that the storage can be changed and i really want all my content on my storage server anyway.


Do i need 1080p for the stuff recorded off the TV? I heard somewhere that cable broadcasts are only 720p and a lot of the tuners i have looked at are only 1080i
Edited by Aramaki23 - 2/21/12 at 8:48am
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post #8 of 11
2/21/12 at 9:08am
It is highly unlikely that you will be able to get your shows off of your AT&T box to a PC. I'm under the impression that most boxes offered from the cable/satellite company (rented) use a kind of DRM-type encryption for the shows recorded to the device.

I don't know though, i could be completely wrong.
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post #9 of 11
2/21/12 at 9:24am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GanjaSMK View Post

It is highly unlikely that you will be able to get your shows off of your AT&T box to a PC. I'm under the impression that most boxes offered from the cable/satellite company (rented) use a kind of DRM-type encryption for the shows recorded to the device.
I don't know though, i could be completely wrong.

I was thinking that may be the case but what i was going to try to do is just re-watch all the shows off the DVR and record them to my computer with the tuner if that would work.
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post #10 of 11
2/21/12 at 9:35am
If there is some sort of pass through that you can use - something like that might work. I don't know about all the HDCP stuff though, may limit what you can/can't do with hardware (like a A/V receiver w/ video out).
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