I have a Dish Network Dual DVR 625. I was just curious, is there any way to hook up my PC to have the recordings transfered to my PC???

My apologies if this has already been asked. Thanks Much.

No, there's no way.

Product brochure

You can connect a DVD recorder via SVHS and record off the DVR or tuner, then transfer the DVD to your PC. I get pretty good results doing this.

What do you mean you can't record off the dvr? You just hook up an s-vhs cable to the dvr and instead of directing it to the tv you direct it to your pc's capture device don't you?

I have a DirectV DVR and have transferred many recordings to my PC. I can't imagine it would be any different with a Dish DVR. Simply connected the outputs from the DVR to the inputs on my SONY VAIO computer's inputs (it has an Svideo input) and did the transfer. It's realtime, of course, and time consuming. The resulting files are dvr-ms files. Then all you need is a the software to convert the dvr-ms files over for burning to DVD. I use PowerDirector, but there are plenty of others.

The poster is referring to transferring digital recording to PC, I presume.
This is not possible from any DVR.

Oh I see, there still might be a way though. I know some people with Dishnetwork who take out their hard drives from their Dishplayers put them in their pc's and transfer the shows to their other PC hard drive using a small utility. I'm not sure if it can be done with other receivers though. Go to Yahoo Groups and search for dishrip or something like that.

Far as I can see, Dishrip is not for HD content, only SD. But it's a good thing to know.

rd, you are precisely correct as far as digital/hd go. The poster asked "is there any way to hook up my PC to have the recordings transfered to my PC????" That's what I responded to. My results from DVR to DVD recorder have the same quality as my DVR to PC transfers. Both are analog transfers, and I have done both. The DVR to DVD recorder are easier, but you have neither the reauthoring ability you have from PC to DVD, nor quite the control over the quality aspects of the finished DVD. The original poster's DVR isn't HD, so that point is moot on this one.

Well crap, I had 622 and 625 mixed up.

I agree that a SVHS analog connect will produce very similar image quality to a direct digital copy on SD content. But this is partly due to the fairly low quality pictures being broadcast. A direct digital copy should still show improved contrast and color though.

I use SVHS to make analog copies of HD content, the results are better than most of the SD broadcasts on Dish.

So What is the USB port for? Any way to get the video from there?

Yes, but only with PocketDish, and only in SD (480i). I assume the 625 supports PocketDish, but don't know for sure.

To say the truth, most such devices that have an usb connection either have an obsolete 1.1 one or it is disabled anyway - and cannot be enabled to transfer data.

The 2 newest Dish boxes do have enabled USB ports. They do connect with a PocketDish, and with other as yet unspecified mutimedia devices. They also have ethernet ports which are not yet enabled.

Ah, now I see how the reality differs between the states and europe, at least.

We are always ten times behind. :-(

I've read online that the Dishnetwork DVR 625 Can connect Wirelessly to your network if you use a USB Wireless internet Connector in the back. altho i havent tested it , im sure it may work, for one thats an Option on the unit to make the USB drive connect to an External hard drive so that you can record directly to that.

another way to get the shows off would be get a good size hard drive, get an Exturnal kit. make your hard drive exturnal. then connect the HD to the USB port. then look thru your Options in menu for the USB write option.

let me know if this works. i'll be giving it a try in the next few days. i have a 500 gig laying around i'll try out.

yep you got it.. go from the dvr to pc capture card instead of tv..i do it all the time.

1-What do I need to copy from my DVR 625 to my HP laptop?
2-What software do I need to add to my computer?
3- Please put this is dummy 101 language, because most of what is said above I do not know.

Ok I have a 625 it crashed well working slow.. So Dish is sending me a replacement 625. Problem I have close to 80 hours of programing and would like to transfer it from the old 625 to my new one.. Can anyone help? Dish was of no help at all but thier techs are basically clueless anyway

YEs there are ways.

one way is to download pvrexplorer and connect a ribbon cable from your pc to the sat dvr harddrive. Run the pvrexplorer program and it will search the sat drive for video files and present you with a list. Yopur pc will likely not detect the drive since it is linux based but the program will. You can select all or individual files to download to your pc drive. Each hour of video file takes up about 1 gig of hard drive space. If your sat is out of warrenty /you own it you can remove the drive (breaking the seal) from the sat and connect it to your pc.

hope that helps.. please ask if any questions..

cheers

hmm, i removed the HDD from my DVR, but its WD sata drive, not IDE.

Plugged it in to my PC, and drive won't even start spinning. Bios, found that something is there, but display any info about the drive, no name.

so its a no go.

1. did the drive power up while in the DVR?
2. I assume from your post your PC uses a sata connector also?
3. I assume you are using the power supply from your PC to power the hard drive?
4. I assume you are running the PVR program that is needed to read and process the files on the DvR hardrive as a windows OS will not recognize a Linux OS?

I can give you a few suggestions on how to possibly get the drive to spin up removing some diodes if you have confirmed that when powered properly it does not spin up?

HDD will powerup fine in DVR, can record etc..

I have 4 sata HDDs, shut down, unpluged one HDD, pluged in the DVR drive, turned on power and drive wouldn't even spin up.

Wouldn't be logical that the drive works in the DVR but not connected onto a standard SATA connector...

Hello everyone, This is my first post here, been browsing for a quite a while and never actually had to post because all my questions were already covered.

But now, I have the same issue as the poster above me, been searching for days with no results. When I remove the wd 320g from the 622 and put it into my pc, the bios shows blank, not none, but blank. Windows will not show the drive at all, but in a linux os the drive and drive name show fine. the boot sector is mountable ext3, but the other partition is unrecognised filesystem and is not mountable.

I could care less about the data on the drive, I want it in my pc, no longer have dish and a broken 622 with a perfect 320g sata drive. It seems that somehow dish has locked these drives. Ive tried to reformat it with a few applications, all give errors on attempt. Im determined to use this drive, i know its functional, and yes it does spin up, even in windows.

Im going to keep searching, but any help would be tremendously appreciated.

and to chef, your right its not logical, but thats the way it is??????

oh yeah, and pvrexplorer will not read the drive either, just thought id add that.