Recordings to Keep or Lend

Helmac

Is there anyway I can record programmes to keep or lend to someone, similar to the 'olden' days of videos!? I have a Smart TV.
Thanks

Cornucopia

Depends on the content, what equipment you have and what equipment they have.

The two most obvious transfer methods are memory card/memory stick or DVD.

A DVD can be recorded by a freestanding DVD recorder (much like the VCRs of old), OR it can be recorded by a laptop or computer, but you have to get the content there first.

In order to transfer via memory card, you also need to get the content on to your PC, which can be tricky.

If the content originates with the BBC, you can use get_iplayer to obtain the program as an MP4 file, which is suitable for transfer and playback on someone else's computer (and possibly their DVD player, STB, or TV if one of them has a USB slot).

If the content originates on Youtube, you can use OnlineVideoConverter (free with ads) to create an MP4 file from most videos.

For other channels, it's much harder with lots of hassle, variable results and the possibility that some copies available online might be illegal.

In theory, there are limits on personal use copying/keeping/lending of video material in copyright.

googler

As was said, it depends on what you have that can record from either a broadcast signal, or from whatever is coming in to your TV.

Also depends on what you want to record.

Helmac

Thanks. I wasn't thinking of copying illegally just trying to replicate what I, and friends and family, were able to do soooo easily using a video recorder. It would appear that that option is not so simple.

Re a memory stick, how exactly do you use it to record? My TV has a slot but once inserted what then? As you will realise I'm not techie literate!

Thanks

Cornucopia

You may well find that content recorded onto a memory stick will not then play on a different device. You almost certainly won't be able to access it from a PC.

The industry simply doesn't want its content to be transportable any more.

If you tell us what you want to record, on what equipment, and how you want to play it back, we'll be able to tell you if it's possible, and if so, how.

paddyrg

It's been a long running battle between content owners and the public, content owners hate there being a secondhand market for films and books and games, so use a technique called DRM (actually a suite of techniques for Digital Rights Management) and the law to make sure that if you own eBooks you can't gift them to your kids, or if you paid for a download of a movie at the same price as a DVD, you can't lend it to a friend. The net result is that along with perpetually copyright extensions, our freedoms as consumers are being eroded.

googler

Helmac wrote: »

Re a memory stick, how exactly do you use it to record? My TV has a slot but once inserted what then? As you will realise I'm not techie literate!

'What then' is whatever the instruction manual for the TV says you can and should do. That may be playback only, it may be record functionality, but it will depend on your TV.

psychic_teabag

Helmac wrote: »

Thanks. I wasn't thinking of copying illegally just trying to replicate what I, and friends and family, were able to do soooo easily using a video recorder. It would appear that that option is not so simple.

Re a memory stick, how exactly do you use it to record? My TV has a slot but once inserted what then? As you will realise I'm not techie literate!

Thanks

You say it was really easy in the old days, but both you and sharee had to spend a few hundred quid each on machines to do the work. (And many people struggled with programming VCRs - it wasn't all that easy in those days !) The closest equivalent is probably just to buy a DVD recorder and pass DVDs around.

Normal freeview PVR's have a built-in disk. Some let you copy the files off onto your pc (eg my old humax let you do that) but presumably not all. So getting hold of the content that way is not always easy.

I'm pretty sure I've seen a set-top box which has no built-in disk, but which lets you record to a plugged-in memory stick. That would seem the simplest way to be able to share recordings. (If all the people involved bought the same brand, compatability should be gauranteed. Just as how the old days you all had to have compatible VHS video recorders.)

Searching for "usb pvr" or "pvr via usb" seems to find the sort of things I mean. Eg amazon have one for £25.

This term probably also describes smart TV's that can record to external device.As has been said, if it's a proprietry format, probably can't share it. IIRC, my MIL's TV can record to a memory stick, which can be either FAT-formatted, or formatted in a proprietry format that is more efficient, but not shareable.

(FWIW I effectively have a home-brew PVR via USB system, using a raspberry pi with a tv tuner, recording to an external disk, which I can then access over my home network.)