Freeview Recording transfer?

Newbie Forum
#1

Hi all, i am new to this but you all seem very helpful

Treat me like an absolute novice:doh:

I own a Thomson Digital Freeview Recoreder (it has a usb port at the front) and i would like to know:

  1. What hardware can i use to connect my freeview recorder to my laptop?

  2. How do i transfer it to my laptop?

  3. What can i expect on my screen?

  4. Do i need any software? And what for?

I don’t know what format the transferred files will be in but i’d like to transfer them to my phone (which supports MPEG/WMV/Flash video types) as well.

  1. Can anyone tell me what software (preferably free, or cheap) i can get which would convert if i need to?

  2. And which format would least compromise quality?

Thank you for helping me in advance…sorry about all the questions, even if you know the answer to just one please please say

:smiley: Thanks a million

#2

Hello [B]niall_dun[/B] and welcome to CD Freaks :slight_smile:

Could you tell us what model number your Thomson recorder is please?

Freeview recordings are a form of MPEG2 recordings which I suspect your phone will not play directly, and would probably be a waste of phone memory since they’ll be relatively large files.

Most phones play video in the .mp4 container format, which is usually the video encoded to XviD and the audio to AAC. Since all you will have is a file - rather than a DVD or disc image - you can make the conversion with freeware programs such as ‘Super’ or ‘AutoGK’. It may take a little while for the conversion, depending on your PC hardware.

Phones have such small screens that you can compress the video down quite a lot. If you also let us know which phone you have, and maybe the screen size in pixels (eg 320 x 240), then we might be able to help better.

#3

[QUOTE=imkidd57;2162117]Hello [B]niall_dun[/B] and welcome to CD Freaks :slight_smile:

Could you tell us what model number your Thomson recorder is please?

Freeview recordings are a form of MPEG2 recordings which I suspect your phone will not play directly, and would probably be a waste of phone memory since they’ll be relatively large files.

Most phones play video in the .mp4 container format, which is usually the video encoded to XviD and the audio to AAC. Since all you will have is a file - rather than a DVD or disc image - you can make the conversion with freeware programs such as ‘Super’ or ‘AutoGK’. It may take a little while for the conversion, depending on your PC hardware.

Phones have such small screens that you can compress the video down quite a lot. If you also let us know which phone you have, and maybe the screen size in pixels (eg 320 x 240), then we might be able to help better.[/QUOTE]

Thank you,

I think the model is TUTV+ DTI6300-16

My phone is the nokia n96…240 x 320 and the memory is good as well. 16gb built in so taking up memory on the phone isn’t so much of a problem.

Should i just get a usb transfer cable like this and link it up to my laptop?

Thank you very much:)

#4

OK thanks for the PVR model. I’ll see what I can find out about that, but maybe that USB socket isn’t for downloading recordings. Many machines have one for connecting flash drives for playback of audio/video/photographs.

The N96 should play back .mp4 files.

Let’s hold on the transfer cable until I can find some more info about the PVR box. I have a Thomson DHD4000 and you have to take the hard disk out and extract the recordings to PC using a special utility.

[B][I]Edit:[/I][/B] Well from reading around, it looks like the USB socket is disabled, and currently does nothing. I’ll see if there’s any methods available for getting the recordings off; other than via SCART and DVD Recorder.

#5

Thank you for looking around.

This forum is very helpful, i only came across it last night

Thank you very much:)

#6

Hmmm… OK well there’s not very much around about this machine, except that the USB port does nothing except supply power. So at least you could charge up something from it… :wink:

Taking off recordings looks tricky, in that you probably have to take out the hard disk and connect to a PC. Then use some utility to get the files off, and finally process them from transport stream to program stream. Only then could you burn to DVD.

So unless you are prepared to invalidate the warranty, and have the skills to do the rest of the above, I suggest the easiest way is to get hold of a DVD recorder and make recordings via the SCART sockets of both machines.

#7

Thank you,

at least i can charge my phone up lol

Thanks for your help and have a nice week:)