OK to give free copy of TV show?

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:55:21 -0700, UCLAN wrote:

RickMerrill wrote:

Quite familiar with computer BD drives. My inquiry was about stand-alone
BD recorders. Japan? Yes. Britain? Yes. USA? No.
Panasonic makes a stand-alone blue ray recorder (no computer required).

http://reviews.cnet.com/Panasonic_DM...-31899305.html
This model - the E700BD - is NOT available in the US.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/11675..._recorder.html

"Matsu****a says it has no plans to launch the DMR-E700BD outside of Japan."

I'll ask again: Any stand-alone BD recorders for sale to the US market?

I've just recently started following this thread, so I'm wondering
what you'd be recording if you had a stand-alone BD recorder? I can
somewhat understand using one of the BD drives for a computer, since
you could put a tuner in the computer and receive OTA HD content, then
record it to the BD recorder..... but how would you get HD content to
a standalone? I have DirecTV HD service with their HD DVRs, and there
is no output from them that could be recorded in HD.... what service
or transmission would have this kind of output? Yes, I understand that
you could have a HD camcorder..... but other than your own content,
what would be available to record?

Such a device would contain a QAM (or ATSC) tuner as well as an NTSC
tuner and you could record any unencrypted transmission: QAM over cable,
ATSC over the air, and NTSC from old DVD or VHS players.

Why do you doubt the existence of accessible content?

"RickMerrill" wrote in
message ...
UCLAN wrote:
RickMerrill wrote:

How did you digitally record it in hidef? I didn't know you
could do that other
than on a DVR?

wHY NOT blu-ray?

In the U.S.? The OP appeared to be in the U.S.

I thought only blu-ray could record HD (yes, in the US).

We capture OTA/Cable HDTV via OnAir Creator USB2 tuners and edit
out extraneous material with the output directed to an eSATA
drive. We captured all of the Ken Burns National Parks series,
though we've yet to view any of it. I guess we're still
time-shifting it. If a friend also had eSATA support he/she
could certainly see the same HDTV copy we've archived, but none
of our friends is so equipped. Likewise, I'm not about to
commit this series to the dozen DVD5s it would take to hold it
in HD, nor edit what's on hand to fit tightly on individual DVDs
(each holding less than 50 minutes of this series).

Oddly, the OnAir tuners will also capture HD from HD-VCRs, if
any is still around. Oh! Here's one:
http://www.amazon.com/JVC-HMDH40000U.../dp/B0000ACY2B

The Ken Burns NP series was released on Blu-Ray the same week it
begain airing on PBS. But, like most of his historically
interesting documentaries, it's a listen once and toss it
series, IMNSVHO. So no BD purchase for us.

On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:44:47 -0400, RickMerrill
wrote:

snip

Such a device would contain a QAM (or ATSC) tuner as well as an NTSC
tuner and you could record any unencrypted transmission: QAM over cable,
ATSC over the air, and NTSC from old DVD or VHS players.

Why do you doubt the existence of accessible content?

"Doubt"seems inappropriate. Since I have DirecTV and limited or
non-existant OTA reception, it's more a lack of familiarity with what
might be available. Cable is available here, but it's not capable of
HD transmission. Also, my inquiry was meant ot be specific to HD,
which I thought was not obtainable from NTSC or DVD and certainly not
from VHS.

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:44:47 -0400, RickMerrill
wrote:

snip
Such a device would contain a QAM (or ATSC) tuner as well as an NTSC
tuner and you could record any unencrypted transmission: QAM over cable,
ATSC over the air, and NTSC from old DVD or VHS players.

Why do you doubt the existence of accessible content?

"Doubt"seems inappropriate. Since I have DirecTV and limited or
non-existant OTA reception, it's more a lack of familiarity with what
might be available. Cable is available here, but it's not capable of
HD transmission.

Where is "here?"

Also, my inquiry was meant to be specific to HD,
which I thought was not obtainable from NTSC or DVD and certainly not
from VHS.

Since a DVD can record 'data', it could record 'hd', but I know what you
mean.

On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:41:00 -0400, RickMerrill
wrote:

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:44:47 -0400, RickMerrill
wrote:

snip
Such a device would contain a QAM (or ATSC) tuner as well as an NTSC
tuner and you could record any unencrypted transmission: QAM over cable,
ATSC over the air, and NTSC from old DVD or VHS players.

Why do you doubt the existence of accessible content?

"Doubt"seems inappropriate. Since I have DirecTV and limited or
non-existant OTA reception, it's more a lack of familiarity with what
might be available. Cable is available here, but it's not capable of
HD transmission.

Where is "here?"

Also, my inquiry was meant to be specific to HD,
which I thought was not obtainable from NTSC or DVD and certainly not
from VHS.

Since a DVD can record 'data', it could record 'hd', but I know what you
mean.

A small subdivision in Brazoria county, Texas, located between Alvin,
TX and Angleton, TX. Not really an isolated location, just not enough
people around to justify any kind of decent service.

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:41:00 -0400, RickMerrill
wrote:

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
On Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:44:47 -0400, RickMerrill
wrote:

snip
Such a device would contain a QAM (or ATSC) tuner as well as an NTSC
tuner and you could record any unencrypted transmission: QAM over cable,
ATSC over the air, and NTSC from old DVD or VHS players.

Why do you doubt the existence of accessible content?
"Doubt"seems inappropriate. Since I have DirecTV and limited or
non-existant OTA reception, it's more a lack of familiarity with what
might be available. Cable is available here, but it's not capable of
HD transmission.
Where is "here?"

Also, my inquiry was meant to be specific to HD,
which I thought was not obtainable from NTSC or DVD and certainly not
from VHS.
Since a DVD can record 'data', it could record 'hd', but I know what you
mean.

A small subdivision in Brazoria county, Texas, located between Alvin,
TX and Angleton, TX. Not really an isolated location, just not enough
people around to justify any kind of decent service.

Also, TX has a state-wide franchise which makes local control difficult
if not impossible - in other words the cable company can ignore the
small areas.

Wes Newell wrote:
On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:53:13 -0400, RickMerrill wrote:

I thought only blu-ray could record HD (yes, in the US).

No, you can record HD to any media, even regular dvd. The amount of space
required depends on lots of factors, but you can have an HD recording
with as little as about 3GB per hour using mpeg4. OTA HD programing
(mpeg2) is usually about 6GB per hour, but can be as low as about 4GB.
You can make those smaller using mpeg4, but I've never found a need to do
so. My HD camera uses mpeg 4, and stores to SDHC flash, and can store
about 4.5 hours of 720p/30 HD on an 8GB card. So you could store a 2 hour
HD movie on a regular DVD with space left over.


You would waste the DVD though because a blu-ray player isn't going to
recognize it and a DVD player will only be capable of producing 480p to
your TV. So yes a DVD will work for strictly storing the data but not
for playing it back in HD quality.

On Oct 29, 8:32*pm, Brandon McCombs wrote:
Wes Newell wrote:
On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:53:13 -0400, RickMerrill wrote:

I thought only blu-ray could record HD (yes, in the US).

No, you can record HD to any media, even regular dvd. The amount of space
required depends on lots of factors, but you can have an HD recording
with as little as about 3GB per hour using mpeg4. OTA HD programing
(mpeg2) is usually about 6GB per hour, but can be as low as about 4GB.
You can make those smaller using mpeg4, but I've never found a need to do
so. My HD camera uses mpeg 4, and stores to SDHC flash, and can store
about 4.5 hours of 720p/30 HD on an 8GB card. So you could store a 2 hour
HD movie on a regular DVD with space left over.

You would waste the DVD though because a blu-ray player isn't going to
recognize it and a DVD player will only be capable of producing 480p to
your TV. So yes a DVD will work for strictly storing the data but not
for playing it back in HD quality.

Of course it is capable of HD playback. I have quite a few DVDs with
HD content. Also of course, these disks are only playable on a PC (or
Mac) and NOT a conventional DVD but are absolutely HD.

You _can't_ make blanket statements about bit rates as it varies from
broadcaster to broadcaster and on ABC in LA, it varies by show. Some
are as low as 5.5 megabits while others exceed 10. NBC is around 12.5,
Fox at 15 and CBS varies between 12.5 and 16, more often at the high
end. KCET is often on the low side like ABC - but I only know of LA.
YMMV

G²