Copy from a Cox DVR

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Beerman

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Copy from a Cox DVR

#1

Post by Beerman » Mon Oct 10, 2011 6:21 pm

I have a Motorolla DVR (don't have the model # in front of me now) and it's the latest version offered by Cox. It performs well but I am interested in how to copy recorded shows to my network. Of course, Cox is not help though they say I am allowed to do so with their unit. The unit is connected to the network via ethernet but they tell me that's set to off and they can't change it. It appears they ordered these that way. I don't believe them but either way, I'm trying to figure out how to copy or transfer recorded programs to my network or an external drive.
It has USB and Firewire outputs but I've no way of knowing how these work and Motorolla forums are no help.

Any ideas?

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#2

Post by richard1980 » Mon Oct 10, 2011 6:43 pm

If your area is anything like my area, chances are most of the content is copy once, which means it's locked to the DVR, so even if you could figure out how to move the content, it won't be playable.

As a side note, this is a Windows Media Center community, not a cable company set-top-box community. Pretty much everyone here is going to be using a computer for their DVR, not a cable box, so I wouldn't depend on finding an answer here. You may try posting on AVSForum as well. Perhaps someone there can help.

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Beerman

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#3

Post by Beerman » Mon Oct 10, 2011 8:29 pm

Thanks for the info.
I'm one of those that uses my Ceton for watching and recording TV. But, my wife does her own thing on another tv in another room and I wanted to try and save some older shows she's recorded and wants saved.
I'm going to try working with Cox on this again and hopefully get someone more willing to share info.

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#4

Post by STC » Mon Oct 10, 2011 10:24 pm

Hi Beerman.

The inherent design of all cable DVRs is not to allow the easy transfer of recorded shows from themselves to another medium.

One work around would be to purchase a Hauppauge HD PVR and play each show from the DVR component jacks whilst recording through the HD PVR component jacks.
Because you are playing the material through analogue you are able to record in analogue and the PVR will convert to great quality digital H.264 and get around the restrictions.
Quite a bit of work to acomplish. I don't recommend trying it but it is possible.
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#5

Post by Scallica » Tue Oct 11, 2011 3:03 am

stonethecrows wrote:Hi Beerman.
One work around would be to purchase a Hauppauge HD PVR and play each show from the DVR component jacks whilst recording through the HD PVR component jacks.
Because you are playing the material through analogue you are able to record in analogue and the PVR will convert to great quality digital H.264 and get around the restrictions.
Quite a bit of work to acomplish. I don't recommend trying it but it is possible.
This will only work if the CGMS-A flag is not set. The HD-PVR and the included software does not allow capture of copyrighted content.
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#6

Post by STC » Tue Oct 11, 2011 3:24 am

Indeed. There are 'ways' to work around that. Naturally discussions of such methods and devices won't be done here.
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#7

Post by blueiedgod » Wed Oct 19, 2011 5:00 pm

I wonder what kind of file system they use on commercial DVR's? And whether the copy protection is done by the DVR hardware, or actually is encoded onto the files on the hard drive.

Would one be able top take the hard drive out, connect to a PC and just copy the files?

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#8

Post by erkotz » Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:26 am

blueiedgod wrote:I wonder what kind of file system they use on commercial DVR's? And whether the copy protection is done by the DVR hardware, or actually is encoded onto the files on the hard drive.

Would one be able top take the hard drive out, connect to a PC and just copy the files?
Many (maybe all) Cable STBs run Linux. VxWorks may also be common. I have no clue if they use a standard partition type. Assuming you can mount the partition, the files will likely be MPEG2 TS files, but it's unknown if they would be encrypted or not. Not to mention opening your MSO's STB is likely against their terms of service.
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