# Copy DVR recordings



## slingvip (Apr 14, 2010)

Is there a way to Copy DVR recordings to an external hard drive and PC


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

You can pay Dish a one-time, $40 activation fee to enable archiving to a USB external hard drive (it cannot be USB-powered, though; it needs it's own power supply).

You cannot copy this data to a PC. The only way to capture to PC is to hook it up to the analog outputs and capture in real-time, in SD only unless you have a Hauppauge HD-PVR.


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## slingvip (Apr 14, 2010)

What format is it once you have it archived on the external? Is there a way to convert it to play on a PC.


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

slingvip said:


> What format is it once you have it archived on the external? Is there a way to convert it to play on a PC.


No. It's in a Linux-based EXT3 partition, and it's encrypted. There is no way the content providers would allow you to move that content to your PC; they're trying to get the analog outputs turned off or down-rezzed as it is.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

BattleZone said:


> The only way to capture to PC is to hook it up to the analog outputs and capture in real-time, in SD only unless you have a Hauppauge HD-PVR.


The Hauppauge is no longer the only game in town. Avermedia offers a unit at half the price that claims to do essentially the same thing.


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

News to me, so thanks! Learn something everyday! 

I don't have my HTPC fully set up as I'm bouncing around the country, but eventually I want to have some DirecTV HD fed into it, so another solution is welcome.


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## bnborg (Jun 3, 2005)

harsh said:


> The Hauppauge is no longer the only game in town. Avermedia offers a unit at half the price that claims to do essentially the same thing.


Yes, I have an Avermedia HD DVR. I have seen it work.

But it takes a lot of PC to run well. The extended test I ran was jerky on playback. I am still working on it.


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## BattleZone (Nov 13, 2007)

Really? The Hauppauge has a hardware AVC encoder, and I would have thought that the Avermedia would too. Maybe it's just a bad driver. The HD-PVR has been out for, what, almost 3 years already, so they've had time to work out the driver issues.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

The requirements seem to be similar but the Hauppauge may have a little more mustard as it is a USB device versus the AverMedia being a PCIE card.


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