Has anyone had any luck making pure digital recordings from a Motorola DTC6412 DVR to a Sony RDR-GX7 DVD Recorder using the IEEE 1394 cable? The Motorola DTC6412 has two 6-pin IEEE 1395 outputs and the Sony RDR-GX7 has a 4-pin IEEE 1393 input (iLink). I bought the appropriate cable but I'm not getting a signal. I'm not entirely sure the two units are compatible but they should both conform to the IEEE 1394 standard.
Thanks!
fx
Unregistered guest
Posted on
" I'm not entirely sure the two units are compatible but they should both conform to the IEEE 1394 standard. "
You cannot record to any DVD recorder from an STB via any other connections than: Composite, component (on a few models such as your Sony) and via S-Video.
The two reasons being: 1. Your DVD recorder is not an HDCP compliant device. 2. All DVD recorders record in 480i, firewire/IEEE 1394 does not send a signal in 480i.
The best way to record a digital signal from a Cable STB is to use a DVHS tape deck. These will record an HDTV signal as well.
"2. All DVD recorders record in 480i, firewire/IEEE 1394 does not send a signal in 480i"
fx, when you connect a digital camcorder to the DVD recorder by firewire, does it not transfer in 480i? If not what type of signal does it transfer?
fx
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Dale,
I was referencing a firewire connection from a cable STB. I would assume a camcorder does in fact send 480i thru it's firewire port so I suppose I should have been more clear (or at least more specific) in my reply.
Thanks for the question for the sake of clarity.
FWIW the firewire from an STB sends an MPEG2 compressed signal and no recorders on the market currently have an MPEG2 decoder.
I just wanted to add another comment/question regarding STBs sending MPEG signals. I've read in my STB user manual that the IEEE outputs can be used to deliver an HD signal to certain HD-ready TVs as an alternative to component/DVI cables. Would this be possible if the STB was really only sending data?
fx, thanks a lot. I just needed to know if I was way off base here.
fx
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Posted on
"Would this be possible if the STB was really only sending data? "
I guess I don't understand what you are really asking since it is obvious that it is possible. STB's send out data, that is what they do. If you mean will you lose the TV Guide data the answer is yes via firewire. Why jack with firewire? It is compressed MPEG2 data. DVI and HDMI send uncompressed data to your display along with two way communication. For that matter component connections do quite well on most displays and you will be hard pressed to tell the difference.
I appologize, I'm probably wasting everyone's time asking stupid questions.
What I meant to say in my previous post is that, as I understand it, MPEG files need to be decoded by special hardware or software. If this is true, I'm just surprised that there are HD TVs on the market that are capable of performing this type of decoding, yet none of the DVD recorders on the market have this functionality. I just assumed that if there are TVs out there that can accept these inputs, then the signal would be something that DVD recorders could also accept. Unfortunately, I don't really understand the details regarding how any type of TV/video signal is interpreted, so I'm probably way off base.
Thanks again for the info. At least now I can stop worrying about trying to configure my DVD recorder and STB to get them to exchange a signal via Firewire and return my IEEE cable before it's too late.
fx
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Perhaps this will help mitchanddave,
HDTV's are made to accept a digital signal, therefore it is reasonable to assume that some of them might just accept an MPEG2 stream via firewire and have their own decoder.
DVD recorders are all made to accept only analog signals and then convert them to 480i via an A to D convertor. All DVD's today are recorded in 480i. So it is not unreasonable to assume they do not need to add an expensive decoder when these units are already quite expensive.