Recording Playoff Games in HD

[Capital Card]

I have all three playoff games recorded to my DVR in HD.

I want to transfer them to DVD, but I'm guessing I'll lose most of the HD quality.

Two questions:

1. How big of a hit to quality do I take by transferring to a standard DVD format?

2. Is there a decent HD DVD recorder currently on the market (for a reasonable price?)

Thanks for any input anyone has.

Go Cards!!!


Grrr. Title should read Play-Off games

 

[dreamcastrocks]

You have to use a HTPC (home theatre PC) in order to record in HD. There are no HD recorders available.

edit, I should clarify. You can record the HD football game. The process of using the DVD burner will strip away the HD and leave you with a maximum of 480p resolution.

 

[Twist18]

There is a definite difference in the picture quality. Unfortunately, until more HD recorders become available, thats what we are stuck with.

 

[Big Deal]

I am not sure what your recordings are on, but if you can transfer say a .tivo file to your computer you can use a program like VideoReDo to strip out all the commercials and leave you with a couple of hours worth of HD to burn. You can then burn the game onto 2 or 3 DVDs but will only be able to watch them from a Blu-Ray drive. You can use Roxio 2009 or Nero with the Blu-Ray add-on to accomplish the same thing. It's a pain in the butt.

If you do have an HD tivo, what I do is buy an external eSata drive and move all thegame recordings to that so that it doesn't take up all the DVR drive space. You can get a 500GB external for $120-$140 that is compliant w/ the Tivo HD and the HD games take up between 20-25GB of space. I plan on saving the drives until Blu-Ray stand-alone recorders come on the market at a resonable price.

 

[Capital Card]

I am not sure what your recordings are on, but if you can transfer say a .tivo file to your computer you can use a program like VideoReDo to strip out all the commercials and leave you with a couple of hours worth of HD to burn. You can then burn the game onto 2 or 3 DVDs but will only be able to watch them from a Blu-Ray drive. You can use Roxio 2009 or Nero with the Blu-Ray add-on to accomplish the same thing. It's a pain in the butt.

If you do have an HD tivo, what I do is buy an external eSata drive and move all thegame recordings to that so that it doesn't take up all the DVR drive space. You can get a 500GB external for $120-$140 that is compliant w/ the Tivo HD and the HD games take up between 20-25GB of space. I plan on saving the drives until Blu-Ray stand-alone recorders come on the market at a resonable price.

Thanks everyone. The external drive sounds intriguing until a better option becomes available. Hopefully it is compatable with the DirecTV DVR receiver.

 

[moklerman]

Also keep in mind that the NFL is already offering game downloads on their site from 2008 and I'm betting it won't be long before most games are available in that format.

 

[azhumvee]

question about the external DVR drives.... right now I have falcons/panthers/eagles games on HD on my Cox 8300HD DVR... i'm at 50% used space with those alone =(

If I were to get a 500g external DVR drive, can i "drag" the ones currently on my Cox DVR to the external drive? or can it only hold future items recorded directly to it?? Hope this makes sense...

TIA!

 

[TruColor]

Let me clarify something else - HD DVD is dead. Dead, dead, dead. There won't ever be any HD DVD recorders (at least not in the U.S.).

Blu-ray recorders on the other hand, are just starting to appear...actually you can buy an external BD recorder from a number of places...theoretically, you could connect your DVR to your network, have a BD recorder connected to your computer, and burn the programs to Blu-ray discs. You'd probably need some special burning software to do this (and also have network capabilities enabled on your DVR), but I would think it's at least possible.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

question about the external DVR drives.... right now I have falcons/panthers/eagles games on HD on my Cox 8300HD DVR... i'm at 50% used space with those alone =(

If I were to get a 500g external DVR drive, can i "drag" the ones currently on my Cox DVR to the external drive? or can it only hold future items recorded directly to it?? Hope this makes sense...

TIA!

You can use an External SATA drive with that model. I have tried it and it works. All it will do is extend your recording space. I don't remember being able to drag and drop.

 

[Big Deal]

question about the external DVR drives.... right now I have falcons/panthers/eagles games on HD on my Cox 8300HD DVR... i'm at 50% used space with those alone =(

If I were to get a 500g external DVR drive, can i "drag" the ones currently on my Cox DVR to the external drive? or can it only hold future items recorded directly to it?? Hope this makes sense...

TIA!

Sorry I can't speak to the Cox DVRs, I don't even know if they support an external. I have HD-Tivos with a multi-stream cable card for the HD content (These are much better DVRs then the ones Cox rents out, and they pay for themselves in 6mos of the HD DVR rental fees from Cox and you can stream Netflix movies from your HD Tivo). With the Tivo, you can not put programs directly onto the external, it uses all the space a one drive. You can move the programs to your computer and have an external connected to that and move the .tivo files onto the external from there (assuming your Tivo is connected to your home network).

You can currently buy Blu-ray burners in the US, I have seen internal BD burners for $250+ and you can use this with the Roxio 2009 software, nero w/ Blu-ray add-on, or VideoReDo to burn it onto a BD disk. The blank BD are about $20 a pop.

 

[yotesfan97]

question about the external DVR drives.... right now I have falcons/panthers/eagles games on HD on my Cox 8300HD DVR... i'm at 50% used space with those alone =(

If I were to get a 500g external DVR drive, can i "drag" the ones currently on my Cox DVR to the external drive? or can it only hold future items recorded directly to it?? Hope this makes sense...

TIA!

I just did this last week. You cannot move shows from your dvr to the external drive. I bought an external Seagate Freeagent drive that the dvr did not recognize. I returned it to Frys and picked up a Iomega DVR Extender drive. That one worked fine.

 

[azhumvee]

argh! all i want is all the playoff games (IN FULL) in HD forever to watch.. lol.. the NFL will never sell these in blu-ray? i'm going to have to pay cox for their DVR and hide it in a safe. =( lol

 

[BillsCarnage]

Is anyone going to record the pregame shows? I believe they start at 12 AZ time.. I was trying to record it, but the damn capture software won't work across the country...

The game itself is being re-aired Wed on NFL network.

 

[azhumvee]

am I freak to want the playoff games in HD on tape so bad? lol.. someone needs to tell me its OK to make a 480p DVD of the first 3 playoff games and free up the space to make sure the super bowl and all pregame can fit on my DVR...

gotta love technology... hd sure is beautiful though.. i trust there will at least be an official NFL season recap bd disc for the great cards season?

 

[Big Deal]

am I freak to want the playoff games in HD on tape so bad? lol.. someone needs to tell me its OK to make a 480p DVD of the first 3 playoff games and free up the space to make sure the super bowl and all pregame can fit on my DVR...

gotta love technology... hd sure is beautiful though.. i trust there will at least be an official NFL season recap bd disc for the great cards season?

Not a freak, it's the only way to go. Can you move files from your Cox DVR to your PC?