Hugh Sheppard
Can anyone recommend a layman’s guide to recording and saving programmes from the BBC Store onto a portable medium, preferably DVD, but possibly a memory stick?
I used to record live programmes onto my (oldish) Humax 9300t (not HD) and transfer them to DVD on my LG389DTH DVD recorder. Is that still possible? I ask because I’m wanting to save the “Art of France” series for my wife to replay to others. I missed saving tonight’s episode 2 (06 Feb 2017), so all I can get off air is the overnight repeat with the dreaded ‘Signing’ overlaid.
That set me looking in the BBC Store. OK it’s there for £1.89, so the value is OK, BUT it is said to only record on PC/Lap-top hard drives or on tablets, phones and things. Worse, there is no possibility, it says, of saving to DVD, and no mention of memory stick.
The latest Humaxes will record iPlayer – it says – but not my older model. If I bought one and saved it there, or saved it on my lap-top hard drive, what chance of taking it off to a DVD recorder or a memory stick?
Surely there’s already a ‘Recording Programs for Dummies’ book out there. But perhaps not.
So advice would be welcome, as it certainly seems to show that nothing is future-proof.
David Brunt
As I understand it, the file has a built-in code that prevents it being saved to disc or USB. I’d love to know if there’s a way around it too…
Tony Scott
You can record iPlayer programmes via your PC to hard disk with get_iplayer and then transfer to whatever medium you want to.
You need to install the get_iplayer code onto the PC you’re recording to, following the instructions given, and when you record programmes they are saved as one file per programme (mp4 format), which can be copied etc as any other file.
Mike Jordan
I had a sort of similar problem as my old HUMAX Freesat box stopped doing iPlayer when the BBC changed the system!
I had previously bought a new model version HDR Freesat+ (refurbished) and, having tested it out, abandoned it back to its box as they now have a HORRIBLE screen interface full of pictures and graphics and no simple (as loved by engineers) listing screen of what one actually wants simply. It does however do iPlayer (and probably loads of other online c**p channels). At least (if one can cope with the options) it still enables non-Freesat channels to be watched and can remove all the unwanted sales/foreign/religious channels from the guide.
So I have had to get it out and connect it to a spare LNB o/p. Needs a bit of cardboard across one or the other’s IR receiver slot to stop the similar remote controls operating the wrong box despite the little bit of ND filter glued on to stop the display being so bright!
I have for ages simply taken the composite output of the various boxes and fed it to a laptop with recording software via a WinTV USB box and so have carried on using this.
The WinTV software allows saving as an *.mpg or a *.ts file (one that includes ancillary information) and I edit this very nicely in Video re-do software which (for a small extra fee) includes DVD burning and can do nice things like changing aspect ratio and of course editing out all the adverts/trails. My PC has their Satellite card in it so I can record Freesat/Freeview directly. Unfortunately the PC version suffers interference – presumably from it’s internal gubbins – on its composite analogue input hence why I record that on the laptop.
Pat Heigham
My home set-up includes a BluRay player (Sony BDP-S790) that links via Wi-Fi to the Internet, thus it can receive BBC i-Player.
If the programme is available, then I can output the BluRay player to one of my DVD hard-drive recorders and save it either to the drive, or to a blank DVD.
The BluRay player only outputs standard definition composite video, via the video out socket: I haven’t found a way of getting the HDMI o/p into the DVD recorder, so cannot record in Hi-Def, as yet. (The DVD recorder isn’t Hi-Def anyway).
The irritating thing is that at the front of the iPlayer playback is a banner at the bottom of the screen which gives programme information, which I don’t want, it disappears after a few moments – but it’s not a clean start to the copy. Otherwise it works very well, if one has missed a prog that it would be good to archive.
Dave Plowman
I have not tried it, but it’s likely the HDMI connection will prevent recording -if the BBC would prefer you don’t. Not much they can do about an analogue output.
