# How to record HD from 921?



## lcajiga (Feb 24, 2004)

Hi, I have a 921 and a D-VHS device. The D-VHS have a digital input to record HD material but how I may record from the 921? I see that there is an output in the manual but sayy for future use...is there any other way? If not, are there any plans to upgrade the 921 to use that digital HD output? Do Dish have plans to use the available bay to put a HD-DVD recorder un the future?

Regards,
Luis


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## mwgiii (Jul 19, 2002)

Dish has said it will not activate the firewire output.


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

You need a 1394 to record to the D-VHS in HD. Other than OTA from enabled OTA set tops or built-in OTA tuners in HDTVs, I know of no other set tops that will work.


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## lcajiga (Feb 24, 2004)

olgeezer said:


> You need a 1394 to record to the D-VHS in HD. Other than OTA from enabled OTA set tops or built-in OTA tuners in HDTVs, I know of no other set tops that will work.


Sorry for my ignorance, but what is a 1394? It is a hardware or cable that I need to purchase? My D-VHS have the firewire, but if the Firewire (Dishwire) from my 921 is disabled, then how the 921 will output to mu D-VHS.

Thanks in advance. Regards,
Luis


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Luis, the 921 won't. The only way to record anything off of the 921 is in standard definition. Originally, Dish was going to activate the firewire ports which would have allowed you to connect to a DVHS deck and record HD, but Dish has since decided to abandon the firewire outputs. So, no recording of HD from the 921.


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

I have a theory. The movie industry is threatening manufacturers to keep IEEE1394 off devices beyond OTA until broadcast flag implementation next July.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

olgeezer said:


> I have a theory. The movie industry is threatening manufacturers to keep IEEE1394 off devices beyond OTA until broadcast flag implementation next July.


That isn't a theory; it is a fact. Some months ago I talked to someone at Echostar who told me that there was so much pressure from Hollywood that the (Echostar) lawyers advised them not to enable the firewire ports. It wasn't that they could not get them working (as some have posted), it was fear that they were going to get into a costly legal battle (and likely lose) if they enabled them.


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

There are congressman that beleive the broadcast flag and the digital protection act of 1998 overstepped our fair use laws. Write your congressmen to have our rights restored. If we don't, next July things could get very strange.


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## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

Bill R said:


> it was fear that they were going to get into a costly legal battle (and likely lose) if they enabled them.


Is the MPAA sueing Mororola, Scientific Atlanta, and the Cable companies for activating firewire on their boxes? Why would Sat be Different?


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## sampatterson (Aug 27, 2002)

David_Levin said:


> Is the MPAA sueing Mororola, Scientific Atlanta, and the Cable companies for activating firewire on their boxes? Why would Sat be Different?


Cable, by law (FCC regulation), had to enable firewire ports if they exist on the box by July 1, 2004. Satellite is not covered. Comcast in Atlanta is finally enabling them, but seem to encrypt the output from the premium channels, so only the OTA channels can be recorded.


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## xgrep (Aug 15, 2002)

sampatterson said:


> Cable, by law (FCC regulation), had to enable firewire ports if they exist on the box by July 1, 2004. Satellite is not covered. Comcast in Atlanta is finally enabling them, but seem to encrypt the output from the premium channels, so only the OTA channels can be recorded.


That's correct (same experience with Comcast here in the SF Bay Area). The FCC ruling allows any paid channels to remain encrypted or otherwise protected. This includes pay-per-view and essentially anything except locals that are available OTA.

Only the OTA content has to be available, but the provider can choose to leave anything else unencrypted, at their discretion. So, for example, in addition to 5 HD locals, we currently receive, unencrypted: INHD, INHD2, ESPN-HD, and Discovery HD, plus ABC News (a national SD feed).

Even with only those channels unencrypted, all things considered, we get more HD content for less than what I would've been able to get on E*, plus I can archive it (and, of course, timeshift it), thanks to firewire ports THAT WORK.

Given this arrangement, you still have to wonder why E* didn't enable the firewire port on the 921, or why the MPAA is in such a tizzy about it.

x


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

There appears to be some concern that Comcast may soon cave in to the MPAA and disable their 1394 ports (think I saw that on Satelliteguys). It can also probably be argued that archiving doesn't constitute fair use, while saving a program on your PVR to be viewed at a more convenient time is fair use. Why the concern? Simply because you could burn DVD's of the original broadcast and sell them, thus depriving the studio of some of their profit, which they guard jealously. Wouldn't you, if you were in their shoes? :grin:


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## xgrep (Aug 15, 2002)

Cholly said:


> There appears to be some concern that Comcast may soon cave in to the MPAA and disable their 1394 ports


How can Comcast cave in and disable their 1394 ports while remaining in compliance with the FCC ruling, which clearly states that the ports must work, and that they must carry the OTA content?

x


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## garypen (Feb 1, 2004)

Because, currently, government commissions like the FCC, EPA, Medicare, etc are controlled by corporate interests like NAB, MPAA, Oil, Logging, Pharmaceutical, etc.
I would not be surrised to see FCC regs changed to whatever the hell the content providers and broadcasters want. OTOH, with Bush buddy Rupert owning one of the two major satellite providers, we should see much more satellite-friendly legislation in the near future.


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## xgrep (Aug 15, 2002)

My, aren't we cynical .

You have a point, and Powell has, as you imply, generally appeased special interests. But he seems rather adamant on the point of getting HD off the ground, and I would not be surprised to see the current ruling stand for some time.

Even so, the 1394 ports on Comcast are not useful except to record OTA (or other unencrypted) content - something you can also do with an LG LST-3410A, for example, without the need for firewire or anything else. As I said, given the utterly harmless nature of these ports under the current ruling, I have a hard time seeing why the MPAA or anyone else would want to see them neutered. But I suppose these guys see gay marriage as a threat to their profits (never mind that half of them are gay).

x


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## Raymond Simonian (Nov 22, 2002)

olgeezer said:


> You need a 1394 to record to the D-VHS in HD. Other than OTA from enabled OTA set tops or built-in OTA tuners in HDTVs, I know of no other set tops that will work.


Are IEEE1394 ports used for anything other than recording to D-VHS or to connect to a computer? In other words are they on ports of cable boxes such as Scientific Atlanta to be connected to HDTV for HD reception also? Cablevision has a specific Scientific cable box with the IEEE1394. I didn't know that televisions came with this port.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

Raymond Simonian said:


> Are IEEE1394 ports used for anything other than recording to D-VHS or to connect to a computer?


Some (stand alone) DVD recorders have a 1394 input.


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## sampatterson (Aug 27, 2002)

Also, the Mitsubishi add-on package (Promise module) for their first few years of HDTV-ready TVs has firewire in for display.


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

Bill R said:


> Some (stand alone) DVD recorders have a 1394 input.


This is exactly why the MPAA is having fits and has pushed so hard for crippling IEEE1394 ouputs and adoption of the broadcast flag.


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## olgeezer (Dec 5, 2003)

But DVD recorders won't record the HD bitstream. The connectors are for Digital camcorders.


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## xgrep (Aug 15, 2002)

olgeezer said:


> But DVD recorders won't record the HD bitstream. The connectors are for Digital camcorders.


The Sony BDZ-S77 Blu-Ray recorder has 1394 ports, though it's not clear from the little documentation I've seen whether it can record HD MPEG2 stream format. The press release at http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/News/Press/200202/02-0219E/ implies that it can (presumably only unencrypted).


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