Is it possible to download tv programming from Dish DVR to a laptop running windows thru the USB port?
Question:
Answer:
You don't mention which model you have, but most likely it's not possible in the current generation. The USB jack on the back of the Dish PVR (625 for example) does not allow transfer of programming -- it would require hardware and firmware changes. Instead, there are other ways of getting programs onto a computer. See the yahoo group dishrip and PVRExplorer. The FAQ file in the PVRExplorer group is helpful.
You should contact either Dish Networks or the manufacturer or your DVR for a definite answer. I would imagine, however, that it is not possible, or at least easy, with your current configuration. Usually, capturing television on a personal computer (as advertised by Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows Vista) requires a special TV tuner card to be installed (there are such cards available for laptop computers -- check with your local computer or electronics store), and then the TV input routed to or through the TV card on the computer. But unless you specifically need the video on your PC for some reason (e.g. to edit the video or somesuch) the DVR is probably sufficient for you. Finally, if the DVR were specifically designed to be connected to a computer, the manufacturer would almost certainly have provided special software for this task in order to manage the data transfer, decode the "raw" video, and so on and so forth.
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