Recording From V+ Box HDD To DVD

Devonish · 29-07-2010, 17:57

Hi All,
First post from a newby, so far so good!!
Initially I came onboard for general info. on various fairly minor issues & found very good, helpful advise which was appreciated.
Then my V+ Hd box(Pace) began to do things it did not used to do, freezing, slowing, whirring for a few mins. very regularly when turned off & re-booting 2/3 times per week, that I know of, which disrupts viewing & recording. VM eventually contacted & told me an engineer can be booked who may change the box, what about content on the hard disc, oh you would lose that I`m afraid, you could record the content to DVDs?
I read lots of posts on recording to a DVD recorder & noted the many problems people were having, even with help & advise. I followed much of the advise with absolutely no success, I admit its probably something I am doing or not doing but it was either give up & forget my current recordings or have major regrets for ensuing behaviours & associated health risks, so give up it has to be.
But why oh why, in this type of situation, can`t the engineer connect one box to another & transfer all recorded content onto the re-placement box, what would be required to enable this must be relatively easy to put in place & would be very much appreciated by customers who have to have a new box. Any thoughts?

Peter_ · 29-07-2010, 18:04

It only plays the programmes to be recorded at the normal speed the is no high speed dubbing setting available, so if you have say 30 hours of programmes on your box then it would take 30 hours to record them plus the time taken swapping all the DVD's.

jodash · 03-08-2010, 07:21

I have no problems copying from either of my boxes to DVD, but most programes are repeated on a regulars basis so you can record them again

jb66 · 03-08-2010, 08:06

The engineer does not have time. Things stored on the box is not intended for long term storage, anything of importance should be kept on dvd.

I have thought about this before. I think the best option is to have the HDD inside ejectable so it can be placed into another box. The problem with that though is that it may infringe copyright, so I think that the HDD should be linked with the smartcard. So it will only work if the HDD is in the same box as the smartcard.

Devonish · 03-08-2010, 18:09

Thanks for the input, I do understand the current limitations but I do believe that with todays technology there could & should be a way of transfering recorded content, onto a replacement box, in a relatively short time, by an engineer without falling foul of copyright legislation.

Peter_ · 03-08-2010, 19:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devonish

Thanks for the input, I do understand the current limitations but I do believe that with todays technology there could & should be a way of transfering recorded content, onto a replacement box, in a relatively short time, by an engineer without falling foul of copyright legislation.

You did actually read my post above.

That is the speed of transfer the is no way to speed it up, 30 hours of content will take at least 30 hours to transfer probably longer, so if your box develops a fault and it requires replacement you will lose all the recordings on the box.

jb66 · 03-08-2010, 21:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Masque

You did actually read my post above.

That is the speed of transfer the is no way to speed it up, 30 hours of content will take at least 30 hours to transfer probably longer, so if your box develops a fault and it requires replacement you will lose all the recordings on the box.

I think the op means transfer via eithernet tec which would be quicker, but still to long

Peter_ · 03-08-2010, 21:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by jb66

I think the op means transfer via eithernet tec which would be quicker, but still to long

As you know the ethernet ports are disabled so play no part in the transfer of data.

Devonish · 03-08-2010, 23:56

Masque, I found part of your response a bit sarcastic & not called for, of course I read your original post, its there on the forum, how could I not read it. Maybe if you read my post in a different way what I was/am trying to convey would be clearer. I am aware of the limitations of current hardware & software used by VM/V+ box manufacturers, my belief/hope was/is that there was/is hardware & software available that would enable relatively easy & swift transfer of recorded content, even if it meant some degree of quality loss. If you had responded that, say, yes it is possible but that would be, overall, way too expensive to implement for a relatively small improvement, I would have said to myself, well yes fair comment. But never mind & thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Peter_ · 04-08-2010, 06:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devonish

Masque, I found part of your response a bit sarcastic & not called for, of course I read your original post, its there on the forum, how could I not read it. Maybe if you read my post in a different way what I was/am trying to convey would be clearer. I am aware of the limitations of current hardware & software used by VM/V+ box manufacturers, my belief/hope was/is that there was/is hardware & software available that would enable relatively easy & swift transfer of recorded content, even if it meant some degree of quality loss. If you had responded that, say, yes it is possible but that would be, overall, way too expensive to implement for a relatively small improvement, I would have said to myself, well yes fair comment. But never mind & thanks again for taking the time to respond.

It what way can my post be construed as sarcastic?

All I have done is point out the limitations on transferring programmes from the V+ to a recording system, as the system only transfers at the normal playing speed, hence a 1 hour programme will take 1 hour to transfer.

So if you have a box with 30 hours of recordings it will take a minimum of 30 hours to transfer, but this of course will only be possible on a working box, and as the engineer will have been called out for a faulty box the would be no system available to transfer from.

Even if we offered a service to retrieve your recordings from a faulty box it would not be free of charge as it would have to be done in a specialised facility which would then have to return the recordings to you, so I rather doubt that anyone would pay for such a service, plus it would very likely entail it being transferred onto your replacement box which you would be without for at least a week while the transfer was being done.

scaseman · 04-08-2010, 12:16

I use a Sony Hard Drive/DVD recorder to make my back ups. It has got a 160GB hard drive so I can copy to the drive, edit if required then burn to DVD. Also I can vary the picture quality so I can get several hundred hours recorded on the drive at low quality. The only downside is you do loose some quality copying even at the highest quality which I suppose is to be expected when using a SCART cable. If I know I want to keep a programme for a while I record it on the recorder while watching it which saves time later.
Also as a bonus I can use the SA built in tuners and record two programmes while recording a third via the Sony recorder.