Virgin TIVO - transferring recorded shows to laptop

[PieceOfTheMoon]

I have found some instructions (which I sort of even understand!) for how to do this on the US version of TIVO, but does anyone know if you can do it on the UK Virgin version? It doesn't mention it anywhere in the Vigin blurb, so seems unlikely, but I thought somebody here might have figured out a clever way to do it

I have a DVD/HDD recorder hooked up to my Virgin box and you can transfer recordings to it, though it does it in real time - the copying takes as long as the show. It works fine, though you have to be patient. If you could get your stuff on to a DVD you could then transfer it from there to your laptop. I don't know of any way to copy things direct to a laptop. Sorry, this probably isn't very helpful unless you have a DVD recorder!

Thanks Cartimandua. Can I ask, do you have a V+ box or a TIVO?

Sorry -occasional poster! I have a V+ box. There's an option in the V+ menus to copy recorded programmes to an external device, which in my case is a HDD/DVD recorder. If you're interested in the new TIVO I guess you could ring Virgin and ask?

The back of my Virgin V+ box looks like this v+ box. The top right socket is a SCART socket and anything that plays from the Virgin box (either a recorded or a 'catch up tv' programme) outputs via this socket (it is an analog signal). You can plug a DVD recorder in it and use cartmandua's method or you can buy various manufacturer's devices that will take the signal directly into your laptop and copy to a file.

One device / software solution that looks like it could do it is compro videomate c200 plus. You will also need a scart adapter and some cables. I haven't done this, because I already had a solution using existing hardware and software that I owned:

In my case, I plug in a scart adapter and attach cables from it to my DV camcorder's AV in port. I then run a firewire cable from the DV camcorder to my laptop which runs video capture software. I click 'capture' on the laptop and press play on the V+ box. The camcorder does the analog to digital conversion (no need to have a tape in it) and I end up with a .AVI or a .MPG file.

I can't find an equivalent picture of the back of the tivo box, but the forums suggest that there is an equivalent SCART socket.

tivo scart

Btw, cartimandua, thanks for pointing out the 'copy to external device' - I have just been playing as normal, but I think this allows me to copy whilst viewing something else?

I got Sky but probably same applies. At the back of my Sky box I have a scart cable going to the TV and a Scart cable going into the DVD recorder.

Before I go to bed I mark the programs I want with COPY, start the DVD recording and then start Sky box going. U can't be watching anything else while this is going on. Hence the bedtime thing. U can then either watch DVD on laptop ir use software to convert DVD recording to a PC friendly file format like Avi and have that file resident on your hard drive.

Alternatively PC World or Maplin set cheap boxes that will link your video source to your laptop. The included software will allow you to record directly onto your laptop.

As far as I know, one can't directly take a recording off the tv box.