if we download stuff, is there a way to put it on the dvr and access it this way?

either legit or hack-y suggestions are welcome.

7/24/2008 1:01:30 AM

It depends on the DVR, but if you have one of the newer Scientific Atlanta ones through Time Warner it probably wouldn't be worth the effort.

The problems you'll encounter are:

1) Making sure the video is formatted in the way that the DVR expects it to be formatted. Most cable company owned DVR's are made to be somewhat closed so that you're only using them for the cable company's content. If you have a 3rd party dvr that supports streaming over networks, getting files in the right format will pretty much be your only issue. DVR's/set-top boxes/media extenders that can stream from sources on your home network are kind of flexible but don't support many of the more obscure codecs. Yeah, that means about 1/3 of the anime tentacle rape porn you wanted to watch will be a no-go.

2) Getting the DVR to recognize that the video is there. Your normal cable company provided DVR indexes stored video in ways related to how it was listed in the guide and how it was recorded. You'd probably have to actually change the list database on the DVR so your videos would even be selectable from its menus.

3.) Getting the video files onto the DVR. If it supports streaming over ethernet, this isn't an issue. If it doesn't then there's a good chance its got an eSATA port. This means you should be able to connect any properly formatted drive with an eSATA connection. Sadly, on the box or two out there where that isn't disabled or rendered dysfunctional, it's just going to see it as extra storage space. Files other than those placed on their by the DVR will be ignored at best and cause the system to crash at worse.

7/24/2008 2:16:37 AM