# Moving DVR Content



## shael (Sep 20, 2007)

I know this comes up from time to time, but what is the latest on being able to move content from one DVR to another DVR?

We currently have 2 HR22's and 1 HR24. We are considering a new Genie system to replace at least one of the HR22's, maybe both. But we still have a lot of stuff on the DVR's that we really don't want to lose.


----------



## sbl (Jul 21, 2007)

The latest is the same as before - there is no way to do this. With an external device such as the Hauppauge HD PVR 2, you can save recordings to your PC, but you can't reinsert them on the new DVR.


----------



## shael (Sep 20, 2007)

I thought I had heard a rumour that Directv was working on something to do this.


----------



## joed32 (Jul 27, 2006)

Where did you hear that?


----------



## tkrandall (Oct 3, 2003)

I remain “confused” as to why DirecTV des no offer such a DVR to DVR copy and transfer capability. 

Is their reasoning 1) they don’t want to offer this service because they see it as either reducing revenue or significantly increasing costs? 2) or is it they just don’t; think it the type of enhancement they want to bother adding? (kind of like OTA true scanning capability for the non-Genie DVRs hooked up to an AM21…why won’t they add that either?) Surely the obstacle is not a technical one.

I realize their methodology for encoding is tied to the box serial number and/or access card ID associated therewith, but it would seem to me that it would be possible to come up with software that would allow a copy or re-assignment of a program to another box via a re-encoding of the program to said other box. The additional digital “key” to allow this would be indication the destination and origination boxes are authorized to the same account. I could see this type of box to box transfer as easily being doable via a whole-home network setup, perhaps after hours when the boxes are not otherwise tasked with recording, etc

I honestly think this would be a very good product enhancement, one that customers would significantly value, and one that would not in any way undermine DirecTV’s product offering or direction. Not everyone wants a single DVR Genie type solution in the house. I prefer a multiple DVR whole home setup. (If they would only allow me to select the destination DVR for a recording from another DVR (as can be done from a non-DVR receiver, that would be perfect)


----------



## sbl (Jul 21, 2007)

The technology is not an issue - TiVo already knows how to do this. But if you have another DirecTV DVR you can already stream content from one to another, so is there really a big advantage to copying the show?


----------



## tkrandall (Oct 3, 2003)

The advantage is preserving content on the DVR(s) as long as you remain a DirecTV customer (as they own the DVRs). As it is now, the content goes poof when the DVRs go poof or are replaced. If you have multiple DVRs and you have a really special content you want to keep (like a TV news or sports broadcast in which someone in your familiy is featured), your only option now is to download to a DVD recorder or PC. If you could spread it across mutiple DVRs, then you would be able to tie it over through multiple DVR life cycles.

Which brings me back to the question - I am curious why does DirecTV not see this as a worthy product enhancement? I don't see how it either increases their costs or redcues revenue. (Again, like supporting true OTA scanning on non-Genie receivers.) There are so many things they do to make the products better. This would be a welcomed enhancement so that your content does no die when the DVR does. (if you have made the effort to copy it over first of course....)


----------



## shael (Sep 20, 2007)

Exactly. Anytime a DVR has to be replaced you lose everything. Or in our case this time, looking to upgrade but still have a lot of recordings saved. Finding a point when the DVR is almost empty can be tough!

What we are thinking of doing is keeping our HR22 for awhile until everything is watched up. We already have our original non-HD DVR in the living room with a small TV for watching multiple games.


----------



## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

The way I see this is like this, we do not own the content, we "rent" it from DirecTV, and as such we have no right to "keep" it for the long haul. If you really like a movie, the "producer" would really like for you to buy the disk


----------



## KarenRichmond (Aug 3, 2012)

That is fine if it is a movie you want to keep. I have no problem buying a movie I want to have for the long haul. The issue this thread is really about is being able to dump recordings you haven't watched yet on one DVR to another if for instance one DVR seems to be dying or you are looking to or needing to upgrade a DVR.


----------



## sansabar (Dec 17, 2006)

I'm going through this right now. In fact, have a similar thread in another section.
It seems there is no easy solution. I have a couple sseasons of tv series that I have yet to watch and don't want to lose them in an upgrade to the HR44.
Being a Mac user, I have ordered the Elegato EyeTV and will record the shows in real time to the Mac and play them back at a later time. Not very convenient but there seems to be limited options for a solution.
I agree with others that this has always been a sore spot when losing a current DVR box for upgrade or replacement. I have lost many hours of recordings never watched because my DTV box died or was in the process of dying and the replacemant box can offer no help with preserving or saving the existing recordings. Once your old box is gone, they're gone too.


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

We've been asking for the ability to use* any HR to play content from any HDD used within an account *for years and have gotten nowhere. MRV isn't the answer, it has nothing to do with the question. This is just one of several reasons why I don't have a Genie even tho D* has offered them to me at no cost. I know I'd end up putting a large external drive on it and I know the Genie would fail at some time and all the recordings would be lost on the external HDD.

I've taken care of the problem in my own way (a rather expensive way) and never have any fear of losing content, but that doesn't help those with only a couple HRs. Years ago I was told that I was in a minority of users with large external/internal HDDs and D* didn't care what happened to only a few subs. That can't still be true. Not with the Genies and their small internal HDDs which fill up rather quickly with five tuners. And not with all the folks that now use external drives on their regular HRs. Using a five tuner DVR just cries out for a large drive, but why spend that money when you know the Genie, like all the other HRs, will fail sooner or later and all content will go down the tubes with the Genie?

Rich


----------



## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

KarenRichmond said:


> The issue this thread is really about is being able to dump recordings you haven't watched yet on one DVR to another


Well your "rental" period ends when you upgrade or replace your DVR


----------



## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

shael said:


> I know this comes up from time to time, but what is the latest on being able to move content from one DVR to another DVR?
> 
> We currently have 2 HR22's and 1 HR24. We are considering a new Genie system to replace at least one of the HR22's, maybe both. But we still have a lot of stuff on the DVR's that we really don't want to lose.


Stop recording on the one you want to get rid of. Watch all of its content only till its all gone, and replace it with a genie, then rense and repeat as needed. Someday it will fail, even if its not for another 15 years. So eventually you will lose that content anyway. I say just wait til you get the genie and then start recording the movies again if they are things you wanted to keep long term. And if its hbo tv series, don't worry about them at all since you can download with hbo go.


----------



## jforkner (Mar 17, 2004)

Couldn't you purchase a DVD recorder and offload the recorded shows to DVDs, then watch them? Granted, they might not be HD, but at least you'd have them.

Jack


----------



## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

jforkner said:


> Couldn't you purchase a DVD recorder and offload the recorded shows to DVDs, then watch them? Granted, they might not be HD, but at least you'd have them.
> 
> Jack


Yep, that is about the only way. this, and a video capture hardware/software for PC or Mac


----------



## acostapimps (Nov 6, 2011)

Does anybody have the Hauppauge HD PVR 2? How is the quality on recordings? I'm thinking of getting this device but not really sure, I know it has to be connected to the PC also via USB after installing software and it will record in real time (1 hour show = 1 hour recording)


Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk mobile app


----------



## loveshockey (Feb 25, 2008)

Since i just had a HR23-700 die on me last night during a local power loss, this is a hot button issue for me too...

Now i cant remember what series links i had on that DVR or what programs i lost...we have four DVRs in the home...

I nice feature for them to add would be downloadable to do lists/series manager/playlists...maybe to USB flash drives in txt or html format?

Sent from my XT907 using DBSTalk mobile app


----------



## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

Since i just had a HR23-700 die on me last night during a local power loss, this is a hot button issue for me too...

Now i cant remember what series links i had on that DVR or what programs i lost...we have four DVRs in the home...

I nice feature for them to add would be downloadable to do lists/series manager/playlists...maybe to USB flash drives in txt or html format?

Sent from my XT907 using DBSTalk mobile app


Join the wishlist club. 


- Merg

Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk mobile app


----------



## loveshockey (Feb 25, 2008)

Im not a programming wizard, but I think an app/PC program could be created...
you could tell it when to query all the receivers(like 3am everyday) or something...
and it saves the info in a txt or CSV file, and could replace or append the file...

Someone with the knowledge and some time on their hands might be able to pull it off...


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

loveshockey said:


> Since i just had a HR23-700 die on me last night during a local power loss, this is a hot button issue for me too...
> 
> _*Now i cant remember what series links i had on that DVR or what programs i lost*_...we have four DVRs in the home...
> 
> ...


That's one of the advantages of using an external HDD. If/when your HR fails, the external HDD retains the SLs and a lot of other info that would be lost using a stock HDD internally. Even if you put a large internal drive in your HR, when the HR goes south you can remove the large internal and put back the stock drive and the larger drive will pass along the SLs and other info to a new HR.

Of course, if your HDD fails all is lost.

Rich


----------



## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

This is also a reason that I sort what channels get recorded on what DVRs. For example, record all CBS and NBC shows on one unit, all ABC FOX and wb shows on another. Helps with both conflicts and makes it easy to rememeber what shows get recorded where based on channels.


----------



## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

I just use the voice recorder on the iPhone to read the series manager on the DVRs every couple of months.


----------



## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

dennisj00 said:


> I just use the voice recorder on the iPhone to read the series manager on the DVRs every couple of months.


would pics work better?


----------



## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

Too much movement between camera / remote. . . and I don't read the inactive ones. Which means I need to go back and clean that up.


----------



## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

As to why, I've been under the impression that a major reason DIRECTV® is not making it easy-or even possible in many cases- to do what we want wrt archiving is that it runs afoul of a number of content owners wishes/rights. Archiving is not a feature, nor is it a bug.....

Mileage varies as to how much effort one wants to expend saving videos. For me, zero. Yes, I have a nice backlog of movies I want to see again someday, a few unseen ones, and a few series I haven't watched. But if it all went down the tubes, I'd be sad for a day or two, and then start recording again. *Most* of the stuff people have saved can be recreated with a bit of effort. There are also a number of folks who've saved stuff that won't be rebroadcast, ever, such as the 1995 Tulsa-Akron FB game that was actually just made up by me, but you get the point.


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

you know, Laxguy, we are all vocalizing OUR ideas and habits and priority, own valuable stuff in Internet, at home, in a bar... we could share it, but we shouldn't push other person in same mud pond where we are feel good 

if he like red car without power stirring - give him choice to realize that idea!

if someone prefer archive recordings (he is not selling these ! duh !) - give him the option !
(dish did that long time ago and they have same content's owner with same restrictions !)

who need the childish attempts to procure why DTV is not making it ? you never know real reason, why we need to know your own idea what is not a fact at all ?


perhaps you like work pro bono for the legal/marketing dept ?  I don't think so

there so many times of advocating of 'reason' why DTV/dish/etc doing that or not doing this - I really don't think ppl's energy should go that way, if you are not affiliate with companies either way; the site is a place where we are_customer_ telling our needs, ideas ...
why they must putting down each time when there is reason to post it ?

and no reason to pretend to have internal knowledge why it's done or not


----------



## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Are you telling me to shut up on this topic? I.a.e., I probably won't.


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

no, just don't push other to that pond where you are happy, it' your pond


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> Are you telling me to shut up on this topic? I.a.e., I probably won't.


I think you're both right or, at least, both have good points. It is possible to archive content, it's also unnecessary in most cases. I've just about given up on recording HBO, Showtime and Starz scripted shows. They're all right there when you use On-Demand, so why clutter up your DVR with them? Same thing is true for shows like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Copper and all the other shows that are on NetFlix. We're going to see more and more shows on streaming sites in the future and I'm thinking of unloading my owned 24s WITH the 2TB HDDs in them while they're still worth something. Why worry about archiving when the content is readily avialable and already archived for us?

Rich


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> Are you telling me to shut up on this topic? I.a.e., I probably won't.


By the way, have you read *this* comic strip today? I thought about you when I read it.

Rich


----------



## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Heh. thanks. All right misspelled as alright or allright is a correction I've never made to anyone here, and don't intend to start.

Easy to remember: "All right is all wrong unless it's two words."

Now, do'nt get me started on incorrect apostrophe's or gratuitous one's added for a simple plural. :rotfl:


----------



## davel (May 1, 2007)

sbl said:


> The technology is not an issue - TiVo already knows how to do this. But if you have another DirecTV DVR you can already stream content from one to another, so is there really a big advantage to copying the show?


Like if the Drive starts to fail or the HDMI port pops? it is needed.


----------



## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

DTV can't go over what dish made [EHD] - afraid-ing of lawsuit from that company's CEO shark


----------

