With the advancements in Technology it is now possible to transfer the digital video from Direct TV box to hard drive of computer. There are two methods of doing this:
1. By Using a Graphic card :
A graphic card which contains an ‘S-video In’ option can be used to connect the Direct TV box directly to the pc’s ‘S-Video’ in plug and record the output from the box. An s-video cable is required for this method to work which is supplied with most Direct TV cable boxes.
Supported Graphics Card
The graphic cards available from Nvidia and ATI Radeon companies contains an S-Video Input option. The Quality of recording done by this method depends on what the Graphic card is. This method is very simple and can be easily applied for transferring DVR content to PC. Also the cost of Graphic card installation has gradually decreased over time. The software for recording the video is supplied along with the TV Tuner card.
There are a number of other softwares available which can work with many type of Graphic Cards. The graphic card is plugged into the PCI- Express slot of desktop computer and the VGA cable of the monitor is plugged into it. Then the drivers for the Graphics card can be installed from the cd that is supplied along with the product by the manufacturing company. But this option is mostly preferred for Desktop computers as the graphic cards cannot be connected to a Laptop. But some laptop companies contain inbuilt graphics cards with video input option.
2. By using TV Tuner Card or other Video Capturing Devices :
This option is relatively easier than the first one. By this method the DVR box is directly connected to the PC’s capture device or TV tuner card. But the quality of recording may be lower by this method. Also TV tuner cards are cheaper and are available for laptops as well using the USB technology.
The TV Tuner cards are supplied by number of companies and are easy to install. TV tuner card is connected to the PCI slot of a Desktop computer. It is to be noted that an Internal TV tuner card is required for recording. Some laptops contain built in tv tuner cards which are capable of recording video.
Following are some companies which manufacture Tv tuner cards such as Pinnacle, Intex and many other as well.
