Spec me some video capture software. Bitches

[ProfHawking]

I have not messed with this for some time so looking for a bit of up to date help.
My dad has a load of videos on his virgin media v+ box that he wants on his computer. The v+ box outputs video over scart, and he has that hooked up to a Hauppauge Wintv PVR-500 tv card in the computer.
It came with the WinTV software, which does do recording, but not that well and the files it produces seem to be rather crap quality and massive file sizes.

Ideally looking for some simple-ish software that can capture video from the card and compress it to a reasonable size.
Oh, and also would be good if its free or at least cheap. (or possibly sweepable..)

Can anyone suggest a good way of doing this or any such software?

[TezzRexx]

Does the V+ box have a USB port? I know the TIVO box does, and it is possible to lift stuff direct from the box, but I've not looked into it.

[ProfHawking]

it does. it has USB, Ethernet and eSATA.

All of which are purely for decoration.

I have read up a bit on a sensible way to do this, ie digitally. But apparently its a no-go. There is the possibility that removing it's hard drive i could access the MPEG2 files it uses, but most reports seem to indicate they are encrypted somehow. I am not sure i want to go to the hassle of voiding the warranty, taking the box to bits, frigging a PC to read the hard drive's weird filesystem, and then only to find i cant read the files anyway. Everyone i've seen so far have had to go down the "play on the box - record on something else" route. Cant even use HDMI or component due to copyprotection shite. So SCART is the best shot it seems.

[FatherJack]

It sucks. Use a DVD recorder to burn everything to disk, that's how I do it. While IIRC the stock box (Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 8300DVB) if you bought one as a DVR does allow you to access the content via the USB, eSATA ports (that's what they're there for) they are all disabled at Virgin's behest to stop you doing exactly that. Actually I think the eSATA is for an expansion disk, also disabled.

The quality is ofc standard def and only as good as normal SCART and depends on how compressed you set the recording on the DVDR, but it's pretty easy to do in 4-hour batches with built-in tools to queue up recordings and play them in sequence out of the SCART 'video' port, which it does automatically even if you use HDMI to view normally. Their later box (Samsung SMT-H3110 - no eSATA port) fucked that up by spitting the menus out of the SCART port, making it inoperable when you were archiving.

Even that facility's days are numbered in this DRM-obessed world in my view. It's kind of a throwback courtesy owing to the limited disk space the earlier models had, with publishers screaming at Virgin about copy-protection, it's probably a loophole that will soon close if it hasn't already. With a standard-model DVDR you can record anything unprotected that comes out of the SCART port, that includes Red-button stuff, but excludes things like iPlayer. The reasoning is probably that you could have recorded onto a DVD live, or it's a legitimate example (if tenuous) of time-shifting - which is allowed. I don't know how the new Tivo boxes do this, if at all.

I looked into other routes, swapping out hard drives, etc - but the main worry was not so much invalidating the warranty, but that I don't actually own my V+ box - the agreement is that I rent it from Virgin, so if I take it to bits and fuck it up, I have to pay them compensation and likely have my contract terminated.

[Joose]

Would it not be easier to sweep the stuff he has recorded and burn those to disc?

[TezzRexx]

Would it not be easier to sweep the stuff he has recorded and burn those to disc?

Good point - Possibly another one of those "long way round, long winded ideas that could have been done easy in seconds?"

[ProfHawking]

Cheers for the replys guys. Yes its the Scientific-Atlanta box, and sounds like you've been down a similar route as me FJ.

I would of course normally sweep the programs they want - its far quicker than recording in real time and can do it in HD etc etc. (Another case of DRM driving people to sweeping).
However it doesn't work in this case. Mum's sight isn't great, and she relies on the Audio-Description service that narrates programs (that all her recorded tv has). You just cant get that on swept video.

So yes, unfortunately i'm out of ideas apart from looking for some capture software

[Thompy]

Would Fraps or similar be adequate? There's a program called Dxtory that's akin to Fraps, designed for capturing video games but it will probably record video being played. I know Fraps will record video playing in WMP. Nice thing about Dxtory is that it can use 3rd party codecs to compress on the fly. It's pretty hardware intensive though.

[ProfHawking]

Cheers, had a quick play with Dxtory. Thing is that and fraps are both designed to capture the computer screen. There doesnt seem to be a method to get it to capture from a hardware device?

[Thompy]

Ah no, I don't think so. I just skim read and presumed after plugging the box into the PC you were playing the programs using a media player. My bad.