Unfortunately the only fix, before deleting the HD show from the DVR
was to capture it again with an SD MPEG 4 recorder (AIPTEK camera) for the sound and then sync them up again in Final Cut. I would only consider wasting so much time on such an activity because the program was something I shot for Animal Planet and I needed it for my reel. Serious pain in the but though.

I created the Pink Taco restaurant & bar concept and opened the original in May 1998 — a year before the Mortons opened their first.

The controversy and community response to their version is tame compared to what I faced in ultra-conservative Manhattan, Kansas. We had aggressive picketers, petitioners, hate letters, anonymous threats, an onslaught of negative letters-to-the-editor, and police
discrimination.

There were many stories in the local papers. The ABC affiliate out of Topeka came to Manhattan and did an on-site story that ran state-wide on the evening news, and the CBS affiliate invited us to join them in-studio for their half-hour morning show (which we declined since things were spiraling out of control).

I would do Internet searches at the time that would call up page after page of hits about me and my store. My Pink Taco dominated the regional news and spread nationwide through online postings and reprinted stories in towns across the country.

Anyway, I have written an article recounting the history of the original Pink Taco and the intense controversy it caused (complete with pictures and links to about a dozen of the news stories). You can read it on my blog if you’re interested:
http://helpmestartauniversity.com/2008/04/17/the-amazing-true-story-of-the-original-pink-taco-restaurant-bar/

I”m using a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD Explorer. I’m using SDK 23, and everything seems to be working fine, AVcap recognized my DVR box, but the EMI box always remains blank. It says it records, but the mt file it leaves behind is empty, 0 bytes. None of the boxes “frame/packet count; dropped frames, etc” are always at zero. Any suggestions?

Now understand this procedure is not problem free. Transcoding with VLC 086d or 086c on an intel Mac is not reliable yet, using Leopard but more-so using Tiger. A PPC Mac, I use a Powerbook G4 to capture the m2t file and to transcode. Example of the 2 hr movie with the powerbook to transcode to H264 would be about 6 hrs and on an intel(Mac Pro) 2.5 hrs Its a royal pain concerning time but its the powerbook sitting alone doing the work, user does not have to be attentive. VLC is open source, so slow to evolve but we should be thankful for this powerful program. Far better than mpegstream in reliability and ease of use. Just launch and go. The Apple QT plugin bogs the computer down too much and is not versitile enough. Concerning the question of blank video or no audio: assume firewire and the set top box don’t play well. Heck even firewire devices and the Mac have issues. The point is that the user must get a feel for that set top box. Have you ever sat down and watched a movie only to be annoyed with the sound, just does not come in clear enough on some days. So to is the Mac connected with firewire. One cause for no picture ,when Apple System Profiler and the capture application see and seem to be work fine is that the user did not make the connection properly between the two devices. The safest method is the remove power not the power down button but the electrical cord from the set top box. Mac should be powered down also. Connect the firewire cable to each properly. Start power to the set top box first then boot the Mac. Check ASP to see if set top box is recognized. Start AVC set your time limit and watch if recording. I’ve been burned by no video also but I always noticed my set top box was acting funny at times. Even when done with the recording and user disconnects the cable still expect problems from the set top box. It may act slowly or like its struggling. I’m sure I’ve jogged some memories of these types of issues. Concerning the issue of encryption: I’ve transcoded movies that were encrypted and sought a countermeasure but stumbled upon one: transcoding in VLC will make it whole. I’ve not tried enough m2t files to see if it is 100% but anything above 0% is ok with me.

Of course, this does not work for those using their computer for unattended recording.

thanks! any help greatly appreciated.
please email replies to jellinekatmacdotcom

The AVCVideoCap application has an EMI field which will tell you if the stream you are tying to record is encrypted or not.

Thanks, Adam

lets say you want to take 1080i HD content and save it as a 720p xvid AVI.
(this is how I save my recorded content because my tv is 720p)

First use mpegstream clip to convert to mpeg, then use a program called ffmpegX to deinterlace and resize to 720 as a mpeg2.
(I have noticed that if you use mpegstream clip to cut out commercials from the mt2 file the audio becomes unsynched)

Once you have the 720p mpeg2 file open it in mpeg streamclip and then cutout the commercials, save the file.

now take the cut, resized file, and use ffmpegX to encode it to Xvid. I keep my bitrate at about 6000 to 6500 when I encode it and this puts 42 mins of 720p content at around 2gb.

otherwise play around with it and youll find other sizes to encode to, just be warned it takes time and alot of processor power!

I’m using a Comcast HD DVR (Motorola 6412) box with an old school tv. I’m curious to know if it is possible to run Apple TV into the Comcast box via the component video inputs? Will the Motorola box convert the signal to old school analog?

I’m guessing not, but thought I’d ask.

Thanks

All I want to do is pull the stuff I have recorded on to the DVR on to my Mac’s HD. I don’t care how big the files are, I can do things to them later. Right now my DVR is full, and want to save some of these shows. (Would like to use the files with my EyeHome or a AppleTV later on)

I’m not concerned about recording live video, just want to take the previously recorded stuff off the DVR. I have no interest in turning my Mac in to a DVR, but every artical on the internet is about doing that. I just want to pull things off.

Link to a screen shot of a older Virtual DVHS
http://macteens.com/images/uploads/vdhs-mtfrmt.jpg

Just confusing I downloaded SDK 23 from Apple.com and my Virtual DVHS looks nothing like one I saw in a different tutorial.

Hope someone can help.

http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html

People have had success using those instructions for the DCT3416. See:
http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t315279.html

also where you put in “channel” do you know what to put if you are recording something from playback on dvr? do you just use whatever channel it was originally recorded on the box from?

thanks for the help.