Do you think a series 3 HD TiVo Could do this?

[ayrton911]

Hello.

If one has a high-definition satellite box, will a Series 3 TiVo be able to take the digital output from that box, record it, and then play it back whenever you want?

This seems to me, to be a feature we really need in HD recording boxes.

It is pretty cheap and easy to get HD satellite receivers now, but not always easy to get TiVo & HD sat box (and in the future impossible). So will TiVo have this functionality? Plug in a HD DirecTV or DishNetwork sat box into the HD TiVo and have it record HD?

That is what I really want to see. Then I could keep TiVo functionality, with HD. Sure, you'd only be able to record one channel, but better than none, plus you could have a SD recorder, for regular stuff.

[aztivo]

You might be able to do this as a manual recording but that would be about all... If i am wrong I am sure someone will correct this

[pkscout]

Nope. No way to get the MPEG out of the reciever in MPEG format and no way for the Series 3 to encode an HD signal (when recording the digital cable and ATSC it just buffers the stream to disk, it doesn't encode it).

[ayrton911]

Nope. No way to get the MPEG out of the reciever in MPEG format and no way for the Series 3 to encode an HD signal (when recording the digital cable and ATSC it just buffers the stream to disk, it doesn't encode it).

Thanks for explaining this.

Are there any devices out there that can record output from a HD box? Anything at all?

[dt_dc]

Are there any devices out there that can record output from a HD box? Anything at all?Firewire is the only common / current / affordable way of providing consumer output / recording of HD. Alot of cable boxes have Firewire output ... you can hook these up to a D-VHS recorder and record HD. There's a company that specializes in adding Firewire outputs to DBS boxes to allow recording:
http://www.169time.com/

Firewire provides the compressed MPEG stream ... much easier to record. Analog (or DVI / HDMI) outputs ... much more difficult / expensive.

There were some W-VHS recorders out that allowed for (analog) recording from analog HD outputs. Not a real elegant solution ... but they do / did exist.

Of course, there's some professional equipment if you're interested in spending (alot).

[Budget_HT]

MPEG-2 HD FireWire output from a cable box can also be recorded on a Mac or PC with the right software. Check the HTPC threads for more info.

[dt_dc]

MPEG-2 HD FireWire output from a cable box can also be recorded on a Mac or PC with the right software.As long as it's not protected via DTCP (5C). There are no Firewire cards for Mac or PCs that can handle DTCP encrypted content.

Although ... it's speculated that DTCP-compliant Firewire cards might become available with Vista.