Enraged Xfinity customer

[Joram]

Yes the grabber will capture HDMI out for whatever being output.  If you want to be there and manually change channels that is an option like digitizing VCR output.  An IR blaster is typically used if you don't want to be there (you can see the tuning in the video I posted yesterday).  Also many STB's now have a screensaver if you don't touch the remote in some period of time so even recording from a favourite channel might not work.

If you get a Hauppauge HDPVR 2 or Colossus device (reasonably cheap on ebay, Kijiji or FB marketplace) they have one IR blaster.  You would need to research your STB to confirm it allows IR tuning and it still might not work with the Hauppauge blaster.  The downside is you probably need an HDCP remover for these but they can give AC3 audio.

Martin

Thank you, been looking deeper into this. Now I understand that you can use a Hauppauge Colossus or HD PVR 2 to capture the signal from the Verizon DVR and save it to the PC. I also understand that you can use NextPVR to change channels and schedule recordings. Apparently, the STB we'd be likely to get can in fact be controlled with an IR blaster.

The next question would be, reading the page for the Verizon VMS 4100 (click on "Advanced DVR equipment" to expose the text), it says that this DVR can record up to 12 programs at the same time (or 6, depending on the level of service purchased). Using one of these Hauppauge capture devices, is it possible to record that many programs at once, or are we limited to recording whatever channel happens to be tuned at that moment?

Looking to see if there's a way to record more than one cable channel at a time, outside the cableco DVR. I suspect that the answer is No, based on this Hauppauge video where they use Hauppauge Capture, but then I don't yet have a solid understanding of all the pieces work together. There's some expense involved, so I'd like to have a good idea first of how they fit in with each other.

[mvallevand]

You should not have hijacked this thread and continued in your original thread.

Logically you are not making a digital capture like cable card just what comes out from HDMI so you can only record what is output, typically live TV. This doesn't stop you from using the STB manually to recording and viewing 12 programs using their service or even other apps the player might have. I guess you could manually capture a recording that you playback too just not two signals at once.

I use 2 STBs with grabbers. I have an HDMI splitter on one STB, one output goes to the main TV and another to a network HDMI grabber (this is actually built into the grabber) I can control this with the STB remote or an IR blaster meaning I use watch using either the cable box HDMI input for playback or scheduling or the Android app uiclient for NextPVR playback and scheduling. It is my secondary NextPVR recording device but I used it for whole home live TV too (that was in the video).

My prime recording device is dedicated to NextPVR recording. I can also get the major networks with an OTA tuner so that plenty for me.

Martin

[Joram]

Sorry about that! Since "my" thread started out dealing with IPTV and this thread had to do with HDMI grabbers, this one looked like a better fit for the question. But I'll pick things up over on that other thread.