OK I LOVE my TiVo! To sound like the cliché, it changed the way I watch TV.

However now that I have my video's on HD I find that I want to keep some of them, "I Love the 70's" call me stupid but in 10 years or so this will be worth it to me.

I convinced myself to go out and get a DVD+R/RW and a ATI all in Wonder card. 2 weeks later and several hours of recording and editing. Result: out of sync audio.

Enter the Pioneer DVR810HS a TiVo with a DVD-R/RW built in.

needless to say I have one on order. :-)

Wow! But why only get the 80GB version... 120GB all the way. But is it worth the cost versus extraction on my own... Still very cool none the less. Gets me thinking though that burn to an RW then extract to computer to remove comercials, add cool menus etc... Maybe in time. Still waiting for the HD TiVo!

Naw, if it's like any other TiVo, upgrading a hard drive is too easy to pay a company to do it for you!

Still waiting for the HD TiVo!

Ditto on that. My understanding is we won't see it this calendar year. Some Google searching reveals the HD DirecTiVo will have 4 tuners (two satellite, two off-the-air), a 250GB disk, and cost around $800. This in 1Q04. The only missing feature is a DVD burner.

(Edit: There's also a non-DirecTV version coming that will include an MPEG encoder so it can record analog signals. Heaven only knows when we'll finally get a grand-unified all-in-one gizmo. Among the all-in-one features that are still in separate boxes, but have no intrinsic reason for being so: HD-DVD playing, whether via DivX, MPEG4, or Windows Media Player; video game support, such as Sony PS2; HD-based time shifting; DVD burning; and various MP3 and JPEG ripping/display features. This "convergence" is definitely beginning with these TiVo/DVD boxes, and will undoubtably continue for the next several years. Of course, you can do most, but not all, of this today with a home theater PC...)

My understanding is we won't see it this calendar year.

Okay, read the thread, understand now. Frownie face now is a smile instead.

What a coincidence, I just got back into Tivo extraction and DVD burning yesterday, and got a good disc right off the bat.

Extraction is the only way to go for now. Yes, it's nice to have a built in DVD burner, but as you point out, these can't really edit out the commercials (some claim they can, but are really just making invisible chapters so no space is saved), and you can't make the DVD all nice and pretty

As for the original post:

However now that I have my video's on HD

I assume you're talking about having it on your Hard Drive, and not High Definition

Anyway, I'd definitely say get a Turbonet (either wired or wireless), then follow the instructions on how to set up all the proper services. Next you just download the proper files for .ty stream extraction and follow these instructions up until the steps it describes for making the DVD (you can follow them if you want a really simple DVD, the kind you would probably get with that standalone DVD burner).

But for making a really nice DVD, the absolute best program I've seen is DVD-lab. I've literally tried over 15 DVD authoring programs, and this is by far the best. This is, however, the only part where you'd spend money.

So there you have it. You can have DVD burning for the price of a Turbonet and (if you want nice DVDs) an $80 piece of brilliant software.

It seems like a very long process here, but once that beginner's hack guide is completed and you've got all the software set up, it takes about 10 minutes of user interaction to create a DVD (again, more if you want to design a nice layout and everything.

Most importantly, I get absolutely NO synching issues. That was why I gave up on the process several months ago. Like you I was going to wait for the built in DVD burner, but now it is so incredibly simple to do it this way. And I had the Turbonet anyway.

Extraction is the way to go.

Yeah, I just started using TyTools feature to create VOB files directly, just after purchasing TMPGEnc! Now I don't use it! But it is still a great piece of software, I would just get a few sync issues using it. I only wish TyTool's edit could be more precise on cutting. Then I would be completely happy! DVD-Lab is the way to go! I've only got 2 discs done so far (I'm just archiving Smallville) but the menu's rule!

Couldn't agree more! DVDlab is incredible. The only thing it's missing is multiple audio tracks, which I wouldn't think would be difficult to implement, but the creator says it is in his FAQ.

I also wish the editing could be more accurate.

Anyway, it's funny you should mention it, I have a few DVD backups of Smallville as well, though they're only downloads and not Tivo recordings. I don't know why I like that show so much

By the way, what quality setting are you recording your shows that you want for backup, and did you adjust the settings through Tivoweb at all?

Yeah if only it had multiple audio tracks. I would be faking 5.1 DD signals, in addidtion to 2.0 DD, and maybe standart stereo just for kicks. Where it would be great is on the DVD's I make now of my 4-wheeling trips with my friends, having a commentary track would be awesome! I guess people are adding them through other dvd utilities after DVD-Lab. Guides here and here, but I haven't tried them yet.

I adjusted my TiVo so it encodes at 720x480, for Best and Good, just different bitrates between them. I found this which has some information, but I had found another site that went through it step by step for every setting. It looks like people are using some different settings now. In retrospect I wish I had kept the old settings and only changed one, such as medium. Then record what I want in medium and otherwise don't worry about it. If you can post what your default settings are, I could use a backup. Attached is my current settings.

I have most of season 2 that I am working on now, as well as season 3 of Smallville. Half of season 2 is straight from the ty streams, but I may have to convert some of the Divx files I made to make all of them. I'll have to see how the quality looks.

Yeah, my friends and I shoot a lot of video of our concerts and stuff, and would love to make commentary tracks

I'd be happy to post my defaults. How do I get that text file output you've got?

I just clicked and dragged to highlight the names, then I manually added the values as they didn't come with the copy/paste. I wish I knew an easier way!

I have a Series 2. So there is no good way to do the extraction. Also the 810 has some very nice features.
The DVD menu it creates is TiVo like and includes the video info and all. The other nice feature is that the DVD controls are also TiVo like and ff/rw skip back is more user friendly than my Toshiba.

That and an 18 min batch burn for two hours worth of video in the background while watching a show that is being recorded. Peaked my interested and made me realize that I can live with the commercials in the burned copy.

If I were creating an archive of Family Guy that I wanted to save and pass on to my children then I might care more, then again at that point $40 for the set at Barns and Noble could fix that.

John

True, true, and true. My dad actually asked me about the unit recently. He's interested in it, but wishes it was a Sat unit as well.

My main gripe after the commercials is that Panasonic insists on backing that damn DVDRAM. I mean seriously, when you have a hard drive that big, what use is a recorded copy that can only play on that unit? That doesn't make sense to me.

Does the unit also use DVD-RW? Last time I checked, it wasn't as supported as DVD+RW is for models that use that format.

Yup it supports DVD-R and -RW. It will automatically seek to find free space and start recording from there, as well as re-write the title screen.