How to Move DVR Files to a PC

You can store DVR files on the hard drive of your computer.

If you have movies and TV shows on your DVR that you would like to keep, you can just let them pile up on the DVR, but eventually you're going to run out of space on the unit's hard drive. To prevent this from happening, you may want to consider moving the DVR files off the DVR and into another digital storage unit, such as your PC. Once you move DVR files to a PC, you can watch the files in your computer-based media players.

Things You'll Need

• Digital video capture device
• Video-editing application

Instructions

1. Connect your DVR to your PC with a digital video capture device. A digital video capture device serves as a pass-through that converts the analog video from your DVR into digital video that can be stored on your computer. To connect with the device, plug the colored audio and video cords at one end of the device into the matching "Audio Out" and "Video Out" ports on the DVR and plug the USB end of the device into your computer.

2. Launch the video-editing application that you generally use to edit or capture video. Video-editing applications with video-capturing capabilities include Adobe Premiere, iMovie and Windows Movie Maker.

3. Open the capturing wizard in your video-editing program. In most programs, such as Premiere and Movie Maker, open the capturing wizard by going to "File" and "Capture" or, if it's an option, "Capture from digital video camera." In other programs, such as iMovie, use the toggle switch that appears on the main screen to switch between the editing and capturing modes.

4. Enter the name that you would like to use for the video you plan to capture when the naming box comes up. Also, click "Browse" to choose a folder on the hard drive where you want to save the captured footage.

5. Press the button on the screen labeled "Start Capture" or "Start Import." Begin playing the DVR file that you want to record on the DVR. Once the DVR capture is complete, click the "Stop Capture" or "Stop Import" button in the video-editing program to stop the recording. The video captured from the DVR saves into the folder that you set as the output file.

References

• Video Capture Card Roundup
• Yale: Instructions for using iMovie
• Windows Movie Makers: How to Capture Video

Resources

• Download Windows Movie Maker
• Download iMovie