How to Capture HDTV Using Your FireWire-Equipped Cable Box
If you want to record live broadcasts or your favorite shows from TV to your computer, you can purchase an expensive TVR (TV Recorder) or PVR (Personal Video Recorder) device, such as the TiVo. However, with a spare personal computer with a TV tuner card, cable box with a FireWire port (many newer ones have these ports) and some free software, you can quickly create a PVR that works with most HD programming aired by cable companies in North America.
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Things You'll Need
- Spare PC (should be 1 GHz or faster, have 1 GB or more of RAM and a hard drive larger than 160 GB to allow for multiple movie saves)
- TV tuner card installed
- FireWire-enabled cable box
- FireWire cable
- Generic WDM device drivers
Instructions
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Browse to the BTWinCap website and download the "WDM Video Capture Driver" (see Resources). Save the file to your computer.
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Navigate to the VideoHelp website and download the "CapDVHS" application to your computer (see Resources).
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Open the folder on your computer where you saved the "WDM Video Capture Driver" file. Right-click the file and click "Extract Here" to create a new folder and copy the zipped contents of the file to it.
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Extract the "CapDVHS" file in same way as you did the "WDM Video Capture Driver" file.
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Connect the FireWire cable to the cable box and the TV Tuner card installed in the PC.
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Start the computer and wait for Windows to detect the FireWire/cable box connection. When prompted for the device driver, click the "Cancel" button.
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Right-click "Computer" on the desktop, then click "Manage" on the pop-up menu. Click "Device Manager" in the "Computer Management" window.
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Scroll down through the list of hardware components in the "Device Manager" until you reach the entry labeled "Unknown Device." Right-click on the "Unknown Device" entry, then click "Disable" when the pop-up menu appears. Also, disable the "AVC Panel" entry under the "Other Devices" section of the "Device Manager."
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Right-click the "Tuner AV/C Device" link in "Device Manager" under the "Imaging Devices" header. Click the "Update Driver" link on the pop-up menu.
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Click and select the "Have Disk" button, then browse to the folder containing the "WDM Video Capture Driver" file. Highlight the file, then click the "OK" button. Wait for Windows to install the new driver. Reboot the computer if prompted to do so.
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Browse to the folder containing the "CapDVHS" executable file. Click the "Capture Device" drop-down menu and select the "Digital AV/C Tuner Device."
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Click the "Settings" tab in the "CapDVHS" application. Enter ".ts" in the value fields for the "PS File Extension," "188 Bytes Files Extension" and "192 Bytes File Extension" options.
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Click the "Record" button in the "CapDVHS" application to begin capturing video from the cable box and television.
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Tips & Warnings
When installing the "WDM Video Capture Driver," you may see a warning message regarding the Windows Logo program. If you see the message, click the "Continue Anyway" button.
