Recording HD from STB
 

Starting to look into solutions for this. I've seen popcornhour mentioned but I'm not really sure what it is exactly. Is it similar to the Hauppauge HD PVR? The latter seems to be an all-in-one solution though.

I don't watch a whole lot of TV so my demands aren't too big, i.e. the odd hockey game or special on Discovery.

Any thoughts?

Right now basically if you want to record HD / Digital TV from any of the carriers. You have to use the hauppage HD-PVR and a computer. You can't easily get or use a tv-tuner as for cable the QAM channels are encrypted and statellite signals are also encrypted.

On the topic of the popcorn hour. This is basicall a media player. It has no recording functionality.

If it were me i would either get the HD-PVR (around 250-300 bucks) or just buy a HD-PVR from your provider and save on the headaches.

For me i am not bothering since recording tv isn't something i think is worth the extra cash.

If I were to do this again, I would of bought a PVR directory from Star Choice. I don't know if there anyway to get the videos from it to a PC, but the Hauppauge HD PVR is a headache. I can't tell you how many times I've sworn at that POS because it fails to record a show. Now I don't know if it is the HD PVR, drivers, or BeyondTV but it quite often happens. *knocks on wood as it has gone a week without failing, which is the longest ever* .

HDPVR been running pretty solid for me with BTV. I had to put a house fan blowing over it..I have rev. D2

But i have heard of more then a few people having problems.

of course you only need the HD-pvr if you want to record the show in HD if your fine with SD all you need is a video card or tv tuner with a s-video in. or even coax. In regards to the overheating hd-pvr's if memory serves i believe you can rma it to hauppage for a "fixed" unit.

I used to use my computer to record HD shows but that was a complete pain in the butt so I ended up getting a HD PVR. I have been loving it to bits and mine gives me the option to expand its recording capacity with an external hard drive if I wanted to go that route.

and chance it getting one that is even worse. People on snapstreams forums have RMA'd there HD PVR only to get one that locks up even worse.

I use the firewire on my HD cable box to record to my htpc.

That's what I was going to suggest but I believe some providers disable the port.

I've heard of that somewhere but I haven't been able to find any info about it. How do you do it?