HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON 3 edits |
HiVolt
Premium Member
2007-Jan-15 11:04 pm
[ TV] Capture from HD Cablebox via FireWire Discovery HD | TMN HD |
I have stumbled upon a very simple way of capturing unencrypted channels from my Rogers 3250HD box, via its firewire connector to the computer. There are two methods, one for Mac the other for PC. I have only tried the Mac method so far, because I don't have a firewire cable long enough to reach my PC yet. I'll try it tomorrow when i get a long cable. But anyway, here are the two tutorials if anyone wants to read them: Mac » project-tigershark.com/p ··· e-hd-pvrPC » hdjunkie.com/tutorials.htmlThe results are quite amazing, I've attached a couple screenshots. Also I've included a list of channels that are not encrypted, and the ones that are encrypted which do not work. This is a list from the GTA, so if you're in other areas the channels or the numbering may be different. Edit. All SD channels are unencrypted so they can be captured at their normal SD quality as well. quote: Unencrypted Channels
501-HD Preview Channel 502-SportsNet HD 503-TSN HD 505-Discovery HD 508-Omni1 HD 509-Omni2 HD 515-Global HD 517-CTV HD 519-CityTV HD 522-ABC HD West 524-NBC HD West 526-FOX HD West 527-ABC HD 528-CBS HD 529-NBC HD 531-FOX HD 537-TMN HD
Encrypted Channels
500-LeafsTV HD 506-Raptors HD 507-TheScore HD 512-SunTV HD 513-CBC HD 514-SRC HD 523-CBS HD West 525-PBS HD 530-PBS HD 532-WGN HD 533-A&E HD 534-Showcase HD 535-National Geographic HD 540-MoviePix HD 541-HDNet
Notice to Mods: I don't think this is illegal, as there is no removing of any encryption, the channels that do work are unencrypted. |
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sbrook Mod join:2001-12-14 Ottawa |
sbrook
Mod
2007-Jan-16 11:48 am
I think it comes down to what you do with it, since the material is copyright under Canadian law ... it's like VCRs and DVDRs ... |
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dstewart
Anon
2007-Jan-16 12:45 pm
Will this work with the rogers PVR as well? |
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HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON |
HiVolt
Premium Member
2007-Jan-16 3:22 pm
said by dstewart :
Will this work with the rogers PVR as well? I heard that the 8300HD PVR has firewire port disabled, but a new firmware has been distributed recently that not everyone has gotten yet, that supposedly enables the firewire port. If it does, I don't see why it wouldn't work. |
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luma9 Premium Member join:2004-08-17 Port Coquitlam, BC |
luma9
Premium Member
2007-Jan-16 4:26 pm
How about the other ports on the HD PVR's?
I would love to be able to plug a bigger Harddisk in!
I will have to try the Firewire recording!
Thank you
Luma |
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to HiVolt
Are those pictures a direct screenshot from the actual HD feed and are they in their original raw picture format? cause they seem to look a little blurry to me.
I'm interested to know, thanks. |
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HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON |
HiVolt
Premium Member
2007-Jan-17 9:13 am
said by BobSagget:Are those pictures a direct screenshot from the actual HD feed and are they in their original raw picture format? cause they seem to look a little blurry to me. I'm interested to know, thanks. They are screenshots from the captured feed at their native resolution of 1920x1080. They are a little grainy at times. |
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Wolfie00My dog is an elitist Premium Member join:2005-03-12 |
Wolfie00
Premium Member
2007-Jan-17 3:57 pm
Still shots aren't really representative of how good the live picture looks, even less so when viewed on a computer monitor (where they appear much darker than the original). Discovery-HD, in particular, is usually just stunning in its clarity. Anyway, this looks very cool -- unfortunately I have no computer currently with firewire, but the idea of building an HD-DVR out of an old computer is kind of intriguing. I'm puzzled by the list of encrypted and unencrypted channels, though. My understanding was that in the U.S., the FCC mandates that all OTA channels must be unencrypted on cable, but this is not the case with the CRTC in Canada, and that Rogers chooses to encrypt ALL HDTV channels. Your list seems to contradict this, which seems strange, and even stranger that premium channels like Discovery-HD would be unencrypted while some broadcast channels are encrypted! "Rogers does offer a modicum of free unencrypted channels than these QAM tuners can pick up even without a Cable Card installed. Alas none of them are high definition since Rogers charges for the HDTV tier but something is better than nothing."
» www.remotecentral.com/hd ··· gers.htmI wonder if what the Firewire allows you to output is related to something other than encryption. Either that, or something has changed since the boys at remotecentral made that statement. I do have a QAM tuner and I might try hooking up cable directly to the TV and see what I get. Unfortunately everything is set up so nicely I hate poking around behind the cabinets and messing with cables in the dark! |
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HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON |
HiVolt
Premium Member
2007-Jan-17 11:17 pm
Here are some screenshots from a 1280x720 progressive stream, a show on ABC called Knights of Prosperity. They look better than the 1920x1080i ones because there's no need for deinterlacing. |
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DBreaka join:2004-05-21 Scarborough, ON |
to HiVolt
I used to do a lot of capturing back in the day.
Are there any breaks in the stream when recording/capping? Also, does it use alot of CPU load when capturing as well? |
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HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON |
HiVolt
Premium Member
2007-Jan-18 11:04 am
said by DBreaka:Are there any breaks in the stream when recording/capping? Also, does it use alot of CPU load when capturing as well? I have not had any issues, I suppose if the digital cable doesn't hiccup, like it sometimes does, it's no problem. I've yet to measure CPU load. I've been doing it on a 2ghz CoreDuo Laptop with 2GB ram with no problems. Today Im gonna buy a longer firewire to test with my PC, which is a Dual Core 2.9ghz AMD with 2GB ram as well. |
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DBreaka join:2004-05-21 Scarborough, ON |
to HiVolt
HAve you had experience with the 8300HD? I've been following the digitalhomecanada thread regarding it, but people have had more success on the 3250hd.
I have a lot of stuff on my PVR i want to get out and save the pure digital stream. |
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HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON |
HiVolt
Premium Member
2007-Jan-20 2:55 pm
said by DBreaka:HAve you had experience with the 8300HD? I've been following the digitalhomecanada thread regarding it, but people have had more success on the 3250hd. I have a lot of stuff on my PVR i want to get out and save the pure digital stream. Not yet. I've got a friend with a 8300HD, I'm planning on taking my laptop to his place to try it out. |
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Wolfie00My dog is an elitist Premium Member join:2005-03-12 1 edit |
to HiVolt
Well I hooked up the cable directly as I lent someone my hi-def cable box for the night, and the only digital channels I can get are the unencrypted ones listed in the previous link. So I don't believe any HD channels are unencrypted -- I think what is or is not allowed to come out of the Firewire port is related to some other restriction. Anything other than the ones listed as unencrypted (in my link) gets a "not authorized" from the QAM tuner.
If anyone has a QAM channel number (not a cable box channel number) of an HD channel they believe is unencrypted I can try it, but I do believe the only free HD around is OTA via antenna. Encrypting local broadcast channels on cable, HD or not, is actually illegal in the U.S. |
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HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON |
HiVolt
Premium Member
2007-Jan-20 10:47 pm
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yyzUnderdog Premium Member join:2001-11-24 Mississauga, ON |
to HiVolt
Can you capture from recorded programs or just live ones? I have a show I'd love to take some excerpts from on the HD (my wife appeared in it)... but no real way to do it. If this would work, I'd move the iMac downstairs for a bit to do it. |
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HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON |
HiVolt
Premium Member
2007-Jan-20 11:06 pm
said by yyzUnderdog:Can you capture from recorded programs or just live ones? I have a show I'd love to take some excerpts from on the HD (my wife appeared in it)... but no real way to do it. If this would work, I'd move the iMac downstairs for a bit to do it. I don't have a PVR box, so I can't tell you. I plan on testing this in the next week or two at my friends house. |
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borga
Anon
2007-Jan-20 11:21 pm
It might work on recorded stuff by tuning on channel 950. |
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yyzUnderdog Premium Member join:2001-11-24 Mississauga, ON |
Yeah - that's what I was thinking. That would be pretty sweet if it worked. Thanks for the heads-up on this. It's a pretty cool Mac app. |
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to yyzUnderdog
It works on both live and recorded programs and not just from the 8300HD PVR - it will work from the 3250HD box at least as well.
Some channels are encrypted and some are not. You can only do this with the ones that are not encrypted.
I don't have the new firmware on my boxes yet but it is supposed to be this week in Ottawa. |
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scarb to HiVolt
Anon
2007-Jan-24 1:47 am
to HiVolt
i live in scarborough and i can only pick up global and ctv and that it's pixalates every now and then. i'am capping p.c. can u tell me if have the same problem ? also in setting can u look and tell if u got any new updates ? also my dvhs crashes in window. |
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HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON |
HiVolt
Premium Member
2007-Jan-24 9:32 am
said by scarb :i live in scarborough and i can only pick up global and ctv and that it's pixalates every now and then. i'am capping p.c. can u tell me if have the same problem ? also in setting can u look and tell if u got any new updates ? also my dvhs crashes in window. I've not had any success at all on my PC with CapDVHS. It crashes every time I capture a HD stream. SD ones work fine. BTW I read something on digitalhome.ca that on the PC it pixelates a lot on PC. I've not had a problem with pixelation at all capturing on my Mac, whatever channels are not encrypted (from the list above) capture beautifully with no pixelation or dropped frames. |
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scarb to HiVolt
Anon
2007-Jan-24 9:59 am
to HiVolt
thanxs hivolt, guess it's not a scarborough thing but a pc thing. don't know why that happens guess it's time to look for a cheap mac |
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ReignseXorcist Premium Member join:2003-05-05 Toronto, ON |
to HiVolt
I should try this HD thing out. |
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HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON |
to scarb
said by scarb :thanxs hivolt, guess it's not a scarborough thing but a pc thing. don't know why that happens guess it's time to look for a cheap mac It seems to be troublesome on the PC. I've tried two different machines, both more than powerful, and CapDVHS crashed every time on HD streams. On the Mac side however, it works great, both on a G4 1.42GHz Mac mini and my 2GHz Core Duo MacBook. I measured cpu usage on the G4 1.42 mini, and it's only 5-10% during HD stream capture, so its not intensive at all, so that suggests that you don't need a fast one at all. Just don't expect to play back those streams, because my G4 mini chokes big time on 720p or 1080i streams when trying to play them. I copy them over LAN and play on my PC. |
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Leathal Premium Member join:2002-02-09 Richmond Hill, ON |
to sbrook
Correct as long as you don't entend to sell or distribute it you should be okay. So that means no uploading it to YouTube or Google Video HiVolt! Leathal |
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Leathal |
to HiVolt
Your a Mac user HiVolt? Ewww! Leathal |
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Leathal |
to HiVolt
said by HiVolt:said by scarb :i live in scarborough and i can only pick up global and ctv and that it's pixalates every now and then. i'am capping p.c. can u tell me if have the same problem ? also in setting can u look and tell if u got any new updates ? also my dvhs crashes in window. I've not had any success at all on my PC with CapDVHS. It crashes every time I capture a HD stream. SD ones work fine. BTW I read something on digitalhome.ca that on the PC it pixelates a lot on PC. I've not had a problem with pixelation at all capturing on my Mac, whatever channels are not encrypted (from the list above) capture beautifully with no pixelation or dropped frames. Uhm depends on your gear. Back in the days when music videos were my thing and Leathal Productions was another ripper I never had a problem with pixelation on my PC. Leathal |
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HiVolt Premium Member join:2000-12-28 Toronto, ON |
to Leathal
said by Leathal:Your a Mac user HiVolt? Ewww! I've got both PCs and Macs. Both have their pluses and minuses. |
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Leathal Premium Member join:2002-02-09 Richmond Hill, ON 1 edit |
Leathal
Premium Member
2007-Jan-24 1:05 pm
said by HiVolt:said by Leathal:Your a Mac user HiVolt? Ewww! I've got both PCs and Macs. Both have their pluses and minuses. Wait your not one of those people who has a G5 Core 2 Dual and that's runs Windows XP in emulation are you? (joking) I really don't care Leathal |
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