Technician's Corner

[Dave Sikula]

I have a technical issue that I'm hoping someone can help me with.

Long story short: we weren't receiving some stations on our Comcast/Xfinity system, so the guy came out to fix it (as much as he could; apparently, there's some issue with the box on the pole across the street). When he re-hooked up my DVR, though, it wasn't working, and there are a number of things (such as my TCM intro) that I don't want to lose. (I'm getting an "E1:26" error message, which apparently means the box is about to fail, even though it was fine until he unhooked it).

Is there any way to download the video on the DVR to an external hard drive--or even another DVR--or am I just screwed? I've consulted my computer guy and a friend who runs the video department at Stanford, but I'd rather do it myself if possible.

Thanks in advance.

--Dave Sikula

[Adam Bowie]

I don't know the ins and outs of your box, but I suspect that your recordings have some kind of encryption on them. 

I'd be looking at using a combination of an HDMI splitter and an HDMI capture card. The "splitter" which you can find cheap on Amazon and eBay needs to be one that removes the HDMI encryption. They're used by gamers on consoles to send one signal to the TV and another to their computer for capture/streaming. Then use the output of the splitter with an HDMI capture card to record onto your PC using something like the free OBS. Capture cards from name brands like Elgato aren't super cheap, and have been hard to find recently. But there are some really good cheap no-brand Chinese ones (https://www.theverge.com/21346571/cheap-cam-link-capture-card-streamer-clone-review-test-price) and I've used one very successfully. Just find someone shipping from a local location rather than China for speed. It's possible that these also remove encryption, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, with those two and the odd HDMI cable you hit play on your DVR and can record nice clean un-encrypted digital output on your computer.

Adam

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[Yawitz]

What kind of DVR do you have? There are common solutions for TiVos that I know about, but if it's a Comcast box (e.g. X1), I don't know what you'd do (other than what Adam describes). Of course, if you can't get the box to run at all (if that's what the error code suggests), I don't believe there is a practical way to get the shows off the raw hard drive.

- Mitch

[tbru...@dejazzd.com]

As an example, I have used Dish dvrs that needed replaced or upgraded  over the years. The techs that came to switch them out said that the programming on the dvr one or two tb hard drives were encrypted. The only way to save the recordings was to move the programs to an external hard drive. There are 2 usb ports on my current Dish box which also contains the dvr. The external drives could be read from a new Dish box.

 

None of the programs either on the box or the external could be converted to another file type to be read on any device not connected to the Dish box. The techs said Dish uses the encryption to prevent copyright infringement.

 

Everything left on the outgoing Dish dvr was lost when it was replaced. The hard drive inside the old could not be switched to the replacement box. Dish support said that each box had a unique encryption that could not be read by another Dish box.

 

Dish had to activate the encryption remotely on the externals. As of a couple years ago, 2tb drive capacity was the upper limit. I believe Dish support said that larger drives could be used but the Dish software only let 2tb could be recorded. It might have changed since then. They did suggest that I could switch out 2tb drives and switch back when content was needed.

 

It could be that Comcast uses a similar system. Perhaps Comcast boxes have usb ports to attach external drives.

 

 

-Tom

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[Melissa P]

First, I should say that I'm almost 100% technically illiterate, so I probably shouldn't even be posting.  I'm probably posting information you've already thought of.

I also have a Comcast DVR.  Anything I record on it is playable -- and downloadable -- on my other devices, e.g., laptop, iPad, iPhone, etc.  There should be a way to capture the video on those devices, I would think.

Also -- as everyone knows -- I'm a member of a certain fandom.  I used to read (not so much any more since so much of local TV is now available to anyone online) that if a fan had recorded a show, someone would eventually get to her house and get it off the DVR.  So, I know it's possible.  I just don't know how it's done since I've never captured anything unique.  (My sister once got something for me off her local PBS station, but that was years ago when people had DVD recorders.)  

Sorry if I wasted anyone's time by posting.

Oh, but I do have another TV-related story:   On Wednesday morning, before Comcast went out for the rest of the day, I noticed that the mute button on the remote wasn't working.  On Thursday, another button wasn't operating properly.  So, I decided to take a look at the batteries, which I had replaced not too long ago.  The batteries were covered in liquid -- one or both of them had leaked.  I cleaned out the "water" as best I could and put in new batteries, but more buttons stopped working.  Bottom line:  Comcast is sending out a new remote.

[Adam Bowie]

The notes here about the files being encrypted doesn't surprise me. I'm sure a lot of the underlying technology in all these boxes is similar. But I've yet to come across a box that lets you just copy the files across and then do something that lets you watch them. There may be some kind of decrypt software in a murky part of the internet, but that's your best bet. Ten years ago, I'd have hooked my DVR to a DVD-Recorder to do this, but these days HDMI still has copy protection (unless you use a "splitter" that removes it).

I know the solution I mentioned does work - I actually gave it a go this morning. Although I should add that if you go with a cheap HDMI video converter like I did, you need to capture the sound separately - or at least feed it from your DVR to your computer. If there are phono outs on the back of your box (usually red and white), then a simple cable to the headphone jack on your computer should do it. Or you could get a USB sound card to capture the audio, which may do it in slightly better quality. Note this will only get you stereo - not surround or anything. 

I suspect that many who are capturing shows to put online are using these kinds of capture devices, just as the kids who stream on Twitch use them.

Adam

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[M-D November]

The X1 DVR is backstopped by Comcast’s cloud DVR. I swapped out my DVR about a year ago (the newer models don’t have the very-tempting-to-a-toddler power button on the front of the box), and save for some very old recordings, everything was available on the new box via cloud DVR after the upgrade.

[Dave Sikula]

I’m a little confused. Do you mean things that had been on the old DVR’s hard drive or just new material?

—Dave Sikula 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 3, 2020, at 8:55 PM, M-D November <mdnov...@gmail.com> wrote:

The X1 DVR is backstopped by Comcast’s cloud DVR. I swapped out my DVR about a year ago (the newer models don’t have the very-tempting-to-a-toddler power button on the front of the box), and save for some very old recordings, everything was available on the new box via cloud DVR after the upgrade.

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[M-D November]

90% of what was on the old DVR’s HDD was available on the new box via Cloud DVR; we only lost a few older (12+mo) PBS musical theater specials. The new box also inherited all of our scheduled recording/series recording settings.

[daves...@gmail.com]

Thanks. Many of my recordings are more than a year old, so I'm wondering if they'd transfer.

--Dave Sikula

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tvornottv/83bac87d-5389-47b5-8d69-eddcaedd04d8n%40googlegroups.com

.

[Adam Bowie]

If I'm understanding correctly, I think this is less about "transferring" and more about re-downloading things you previously recorded from your service provider. I would definitely make a list and then try to check in advance.I know that this side of the pond, many shows drop off Cloud DVR services after a set amount of time.

Adam

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[M-D November]

If you've got recordings that are more than 1 year old, chances are they will not be available on the Cloud DVR service, but you can check - log into the Xfinity Stream app and see if they show up under "recordings" there. If yes, you're good.