Portable PVR recordings

[cwineman]

I've seen several threads asking similar questions, but I'm still not sure what to do with this issue. I'll just lay out my scenario and maybe someone can point me in the right direction.

I'm putting together a PVR for my parents. Right now, my mom tapes Days of Our Lives everyday. If the old man wants to use the comcast box where the PVR is, she takes here tape into another room to watch it on the VCR.

I want to be able to do something similar with PVR recordings. The obvious choice would seem to involve writing them to DVDs. If there is another way to go, I'd love to know.

Anyway, how do I turn the PVR records into something that I can burn that will work on a "normal" DVD player? Does it have to be written as MPEG2? Is this something that can be done on the spot, or does it take so long that it has to be done as a batch process at night? If I only care about, say, VCR level quality, how many hours of recorded TV could I get on a disk.

I know there are probably a lot of ways to go about this. If someone has advice let me know. Point me to other forums, whatever.

[martint123]

Use an MVP at the old TV so both can watch recordings.

[nightwalker]

you can certainly burn them to DVDs but that would get old really fast. I agree with martint123 a MVP at the other TV would be the way to go. It'll save you lots of time if she can just watch it as opposed to you burning to DVD in case she needs it, DVD rendering at any resolution takes a bit of time.

[Carlito]

Also, if you have an extra pc lying around you could build a client pc and watch the shows through that.

[kram_0]

I output my single pvr machine to two tvs. I'm just using a splitter from the composite av output - one goes to our main tv located right next to it, the other to a wireless AV sender which also acts as a ir repeater for remote control. Because the 2nd tv is small and old, any quality loss via the wireless goes unnoticed. You should be able to pick one up for around AU$50 if you shop around - at least under AU$100.
A couple of points to note:
* This set up means that you can only display a single GBPVR output but if one of us wants to watch actual live (not using GBPVR) then we can still watch a recording on the other tv.
* I haven't been able to get either the hauppauge or compro remotes to work properly through the wireless av sender/ir repeater. This has not been an issue for me because I never used them in the 1st place - I use a couple of universal remotes instead so we don't have 5 remotes in each location!!

Good Luck!

[andrew_macaluso]

Ipod Video! - you could try a video card with two TV outputs. One output to the main screen and another to a separate monitor. Similar to what was described above, but with the ability to watch two things at once.