# D-VHS with the new (firewire-less) 921?



## pdbuzz (Feb 1, 2005)

Has anyone dubbed an HD show off of their 921 through the component outputs to D-VHS? 

I'm considering a purchase of a D-VHS deck and wanted to hear of success stories?


----------



## dfergie (Feb 28, 2003)

The D-vhs only inputs thru firewire(in HD ) which E* never enabled and removed from newer model 921's...


----------



## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

About the only way to do this would be if there was an adaptor that could convert DVI to firewire. In order to do this the adaptor would have to make the 921 believe that it's a monitor (and not what it truely is), otherwise the s/w on the 921 might shut off the DVI port. 

You can thank the paranoids in Hollywood who thought that HD films would be ripped and sent over the net a-la Napster before the fall.


----------



## pdbuzz (Feb 1, 2005)

Nevermind. Further investigation shows that isn't possible.

Thanks anyway.

Feel free to pull this one, Mike.


----------



## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

Here is what such an adaptor would have to do:

1.) Combine the video data from the DVI port with the audio from the toslink fiber port.

2.) emulate a monitor to fake-out the 921's software (data flows in both directions)

Notes: All on-screen features (caller-id, timer clock warning, etc.) would be included in the picture, so be sure to disable these first or your recording will include these "pop-ups".

This is theoretical - I have no idea if this would actually work, it's just a concept.

Watch -someone will figure this out and make big bucks


----------



## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

Sorry guys, but you NEED to THINK about this a little big deeper.

Do you really think that the 921 outputs MPEG2 encoded bits to the monitor through the DVI port?? No! The MPEG2 decode is done in the 921, it is sending the pixels for all of the frames through the DVI port. Firewire bandwidth can handle 19.2MBs MPEG2 stream, but there is no way it would ever be able to handle a 1080i signal! Your converter then, would need to take the 1080i digital signal and be able to do an MPEG2 encode, realtime, and then plop those bits to the DVHS deck. I don't think that is possible with consumer electronics.


----------



## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

I guess for now the only way to record off the 921 is through the analog outputs. S-Video is probably the best, since I don't know of any recording device with component RGB inputs.


----------



## Kagato (Jul 1, 2002)

The "best" was is to import a Japanese WVHS deck. It will record component video at 1080i. However, it's audio imput is not digital. So no 5.1.


----------



## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

Also the DVI is transporting a raw MPEG2 stream at about 1.2Gb second, squeezing that into a firewire port may be a little hairy.


----------



## dfergie (Feb 28, 2003)

Kagato said:


> The "best" was is to import a Japanese WVHS deck. It will record component video at 1080i. However, it's audio imput is not digital. So no 5.1.


 I think these are very hard to get now...I might be wrong, but...


----------



## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

Actually they do make a DVD recorder with component inputs. I own one. Its a Philips Model 615. The problem is the component inputs only accepts a 480i signal so your really not much better off than using sVideo out on the 921.

The only way to archive HDTV on a DVHS is with a MyHD PC tuner card. You can hook it up to record and output via Firewire to a JVC DVHS deck. It works great!



Michael P said:


> I guess for now the only way to record off the 921 is through the analog outputs. S-Video is probably the best, since I don't know of any recording device with component RGB inputs.


----------



## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

ibglowin said:


> The only way to archive HDTV on a DVHS is with a MyHD PC tuner card. You can hook it up to record and output via Firewire to a JVC DVHS deck. It works great!


I'm not sure what you mean by "the only way". Many of the new HD cable boxes have firewire ports with can connect to DVHS.

PS olgeezer - the DVI is not mpeg - that's raw decoded data.


----------



## gsartori (Jul 13, 2004)

pdbuzz said:


> Has anyone dubbed an HD show off of their 921 through the component outputs to D-VHS?
> 
> I'm considering a purchase of a D-VHS deck and wanted to hear of success stories?


I do have a D-VHS that I use regularly. Naturally I hate the fact that DISH network sold me something with one promise and ended up being something else but although no component input is available in the VCR the quality I have recording in S-VHS is astonishing. The DVHS has component output and with the 921 it's very convenient to switch HD-SD with the remote control. When I want to tape something I just set my receiver on the DVHS input (in component) and I switch the 921 to SD. I usually record material originally sent in HDTV and although downconverted it's years light better than any analog or SD satellite channels. a DVD recorder would probably do the same thing but with tapes I can bring stuff in my computer and play with it (I have another D-VHS I use for my HDV editing setting). The 921 is also convenient with its capability to change format from the remote control, it can reproduce anamorphic on the S-VHS output with great quality so I preserve 16:9 without black bars or other type of "boxing". I also recorded stuff that I eventually put on DVD with great results.

So, although mad at dish I'm quite happy with what I can do with this setting. The reason why I stay on DVHS and not DVD-R is that D-VHS is the only medium capable to record and reproduce my HD stuff preserving the high definition (I have a High Def camcorder). It is pretty impressive.


----------



## lex61564 (Feb 10, 2004)

you can record from a motorolla cable pvr 6412 via 6 pin to 4 pin forewire cable


----------



## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

David_Levin said:


> I'm not sure what you mean by "the only way". Many of the new HD cable boxes have firewire ports with can connect to DVHS.
> 
> PS olgeezer - the DVI is not mpeg - that's raw decoded data.


Thanks for correcting the error.


----------



## ibglowin (Sep 10, 2002)

Your right, since this is mainly a DBS forum we seem to think DBS only. There are cable boxes out there that will output HD via Firewire. Not many for sure but if your lucky enough to live in a market that supports them count your blessings. For the rest of the masses, there are no other alternatives really than what I described.



David_Levin said:


> I'm not sure what you mean by "the only way". Many of the new HD cable boxes have firewire ports with can connect to DVHS.


----------

