Game capture cards for recording TV?

Whenever I want to archive a recording from my TiVo box, I record it to the hard drive of a HDD/DVD recorder combi, edit it on the system, then copy it to a DVD RW and rip it on my computer. It's lengthy, but it's been a trusty method for a long time.

But now I'm about to move and will have to settle on Freeview. I've just got hold of a PVR and everything is spot on, even the apparent ability to copy recordings onto a USB drive. Only I tested it and it seems that the drive cannot be read by a computer. And there's no other output from the PVR other than the one HDMI. So I'm in the s**t.

I've been eyeing up those devices Lets Players rely on, something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elgato-Capture-Generation-Gameplay-Playstation/dp/B00MIQ40JQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1494620754&sr=1-2&keywords=hdmi+capture

My thinking is, if it can record gameplay, surely it could record TV. Does anybody know if I'd run into any problems sticking the Freeview box into this if I ever want to transfer recordings? Would any copy protection kick in and prevent me from doing so? Or does anybody have any better (and hopefully cheaper) ideas?

I'd use a DVB-T2 USB tuner to your PC or laptop instead. I use that for my Freeview recordings which records the files as .ts which can be easily converted to other formats.

Another option is to use a screen recorder on your PC. oCam is free, but really good at recording from 4k to SD. I use it with Kodi in Game mode.

Normally on most PVRs you have to close/finalise the session before the PC can read it, otherwise you'll often find only the device that recorded it can see what's on it - which is good now but no good in five years time when it's packed up.

This caught me out one or twice when I bought my VHS/DVD combi unit with the intent of copying anything useful off the VHS's onto a disk and then if of any interest sticking it on YouTube. But of course the PC couldn't read it. So I did something blasphemous - read the instruction book - and problem is sorted.

The Elgato Game Capture devices are specifically designed for capturing your video game footage from an Xbox or Playstation video games console or gaming PC, for live streaming on the likes of Twitch.tv and/or YouTube Gaming. They are not meant for capturing TV content from a set top box. I have an Elgato. I've tried it. It doesn't work.

My problem is what I'm transferring is usually programmes that I've recorded on the PVR. Using a USB tuner means I'd have to record what I want to archive at the time it's being broadcast, surely?




Funnily enough I just plugged the USB drive back into the new PVR and it couldn't recognise it either - it wouldn't even format it. So I'm starting to wonder if it's the USB drive playing up.




In what way doesn't it work, as in it just won't record the footage? I would figure there might be an issue in trying to record with a device that only records at 60fps or 30fps, neither of which is a broadcast standard but I'm fascinated how it wouldn't work outright.

HDCP

Most (all?) set top boxes copy protect their digital outputs, making any legitimate HDMI capture device unable to process the incoming data.

There are ways to strip the HDCP protection, which you can find using specific terms on the likes of Google, but I wouldn't want to link a reputable site like this to such information, as its legality is dubious.

(this is pretty much a repeat of barcode's thread about usb recording of council idents - there's some useful information in that thread)

It could be formatted to a Linux-y format (ext2/3 at a guess) or even some proprietary format, and I'd expect the contents to be encrypted anyway - I wouldn't be surprised if it was requied by the Freeview consortium as a licensing condition.

After looking through the manual again it states that a registered drive can't be used on any other device. So I guess that's saved me a bit of time.

A HDMI splitter can be useful both to display content on the TV and through a capture device like Elgato, but get the right one, it will bypass the copy protection.

Despite posting on what has been a dormant thread - I'd probably add my two cents in regards to this topic.

Some have talked about capture cards such as the Elgato; recently bought one today and tested it on my YouView box. It works on SD channels, but not on the HD channels.

You need to use a HDMI splitter which will bypass the HDCP* that is used on the STBs

*HD Copy Protection

Yep - been aware of it for some time. Enforced to prevent content being pirated.

HDMI splitters are at least easy to obtain, will be getting one ASAP. By then, I'll be able to capture some pres in higher quality across the 5 main channels and especially, multichannels.