Need a better way...

[Verlager]

I have about 45 VHS tapes which I want to load to the HD. My method is clumsy and error prone. There has to be a better way...

1. Put the tape in the VCR, rewind it, etc. Connect VCR to Plextor PX-TV402U.

2. Goto SageTV Live TV Guide and select a show that begins on the next half/full hour mark (8:00, 8:30, etc.) If I don't set a future show to record, then the recording options as to quality are limited to the default.

3. Change the recording options quality to DVD Standard.

4. Change the recording options stop time to 160 minutes (120 minutes + 20 minutes for overruns).

5. Change the recording start time to now.

Now everything works.. 160 minutes later, the show is at the beginning and I need to wait several minutes for the buffer to flush. In other words, if I go to Windows File Manager, the show I just recorded is xxx,xxx bytes, and then becomes xxx,xxxx + 123,345 bytes in the next 30 seconds, and so on until the buffer is completely flushed. I have a P4 3.0 gHz with 1 gig of ram, btw.

If the mpeg encoding is done real time, how come it takes additional time to flush the buffer? Man, is this slow and awkward! And even if I close the file which should also flush the buffer, it just keeps spooling the file to disk. Why?

Does anyone have a better method.. ?

[korben_dallas]

Does this issue occur with normal Sage recordings?

I have the Plextor also, but I've never looked at the actual files during or right after the recording time.

[Verlager]

Seems like I'm operating within the parameters of the SageTV program, so, yeah, I guess it would be the same.

BTW, wouldn't it be nice to connect a 75-Ohm coax cable from one source to the rear of the Plextor PX-TV402U and another source to the red/white/yellow composite inputs on the front and be able to switch inputs in SageTV?

[mls]

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to use whatever software that comes with the Plextor to do the recording from the VCR? I've never even considered trying to do that thru SageTV. Just thinking about doing it that way sounds way to complicated to me.

[Verlager]

Originally Posted by mls

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to use whatever software that comes with the Plextor to do the recording from the VCR? I've never even considered trying to do that thru SageTV. Just thinking about doing it that way sounds way to complicated to me.

Except that the software bundled with the Plextor box is really yucky stuff from InterVideo, which doesn't exactly suck, but looks like it took one whole day to write. I have a real bias against freebie software bundled with hardware. Because they usually leave out 75% of the good features to force you to upgrade. Not me!