My two DTV DVRs are eleven years old. The oldest recording I have on one of them is the March 3rd, 2015 airing of The Artist on TCM, complete with intro/outro bumpers by the late Robert Osborne.

DTV has reminded me many times that I am due for an upgrade, but these two receivers contain many recordings I don't wish to lose.

After more than a full decade, I imagine the latest receivers have bigger hard drives and more memory, at least I hope they do, because it would be grand to have faster-responding receivers.

I'm quite confident that DirecTV will not want these receivers back, when I finally get around to upgrading, which brings me to my real question, which is, is there any conversion program for the files on these hard drives? If there were such a program, I'd probably go ahead and upgrade, but at this point, I'm curious how long these receivers will last. It's a testimony to Linux, that's for sure.

I do not know of anyway, most of these use encryption of the data matched to the hardware of the receiver.

Can't move files, hard drive, export to any device.

(found out years ago when receiver went tits up and lost everything)

In theory, you could play them back to a capture card in a PC and save them, kind of a PITA.

As for the "new" DVR'S, I could be wrong but I think most of DTV's new stuff is cloud based...

When we dumped Dish Satellite, they let us keep the receiver as it was out-dated like yours. We used to occasionally watch some of the programs we recorded on it, just made sure that it was connected just to the TV and not anything that would make Dish think we were stealing programming from them. It was still working last time I checked, and I'll have to see if I recorded "Rubicon" on it. I missed the chance to buy that series on DVD.

I'll keep an eye on this thread in case there is a conversion program available, though.

We just cancelled Directtv last Nov and they told us not to return the equipment either. It was probably a bit older than yours but it might be worth an ask if you want new boxes.

I don’t think any cable or satellite service still uses physical devices. All cloud based.

If being able to view in multiple locations check the specifics on that as well.

With virtually everything streaming and on-demand nowadays, I’m really surprised that DVR‘s are even a thing still?

We still have the DTV DVR box, they do supply them and will let you run your other TV's on streaming, we did that and use Amazon Fire Sticks to run the DTV app.

As long as you have a local DVR you can record and see the recordings using the DVR app.

I would imagine they would let you keep the box if it's that old, when you call, just make sure that's a condition of the deal.

I haven't found a way to get the recorded programs off the box. Imagine you could put some kind of recording device on the output HDMI cable, and play the recording from the DVR through it to a tv and capture on the other box.

My 10yo Dish DVR has a USB port to allow saving data. I have not used it but I want to soon before something goes wrong or an upgrade.

quote:

Originally posted by RGRacing:
My 10yo Dish DVR has a USB port to allow saving data. I have not used it but I want to soon before something goes wrong or an upgrade.

I would not assume that the USB will support copying stuff off the main drive. I have never seen a STB that allows this. The USB is for a keyboard (maybe) and/or low-level crash recovery or firmware flashing.

I actually asked Verizon support what functions the USB ports on the front of the unit provides. They claimed "nothing except charging" an obvious lie.

I haven't (yet) had the gumption to connect various devices, attempt to interrupt the boot, etc. but I encourage anyone who has investigated to reveal their findings.

The other “upgrade” for the newer Receivers/DVR is when you have heavy rain, they will switch to broadband mode and stream over your internet connection.

I have done several rounds of upgrades and lost content, due to failure or hardware upgrades. Sadly there is not a clearing house to combine your “digital” content today. I still on the C61K-700 receivers and not the new Gemini.


The other issue you may have is new receivers have 3-5 LNBs for all of the satellite and transponders needed to get all of the channels.

 https://classroom.synonym.com/...ard-drive-14558.html

You can backup your DISH DVR recordings by following these steps:

If the link works you can watch it but it may not apply to your machine or service.

I have not as yet tried but I have a 1TB drive I may now try - Peeked interest.

Cloud?? What is this "cloud" shit?

I want my ones and zeroes and I want 'em local!!

I dunno know, man. Ka Ma La says it's all up in the clouds in the sky.

I got rid of DirecTV about 15 years ago but there were alot of shows my kids recorded that they wanted.

I was already moving a bunch of old VHS stuff to DVD with a VHS to DVD recorder.

I put the input of the DVR into the recorder and had to sit and start each show and record them to DVD for the kids.

They never watched them again. lol

I still watch my DVDs I made from my VHS of Babylon 5 when it was on TNT. I could stream it nowadays I guess or buy the discs.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

quote:

Originally posted by RGRacing:
My 10yo Dish DVR has a USB port to allow saving data. I have not used it but I want to soon before something goes wrong or an upgrade.

I would not assume that the USB will support copying stuff off the main drive. I have never seen a STB that allows this. The USB is for a keyboard (maybe) and/or low-level crash recovery or firmware flashing.

I actually asked Verizon support what functions the USB ports on the front of the unit provides. They claimed "nothing except charging" an obvious lie.

I haven't (yet) had the gumption to connect various devices, attempt to interrupt the boot, etc. but I encourage anyone who has investigated to reveal their findings.

It does. When I had Dish and upgraded to the 4k DVR and Joeys, we had to hook the old DVR to new DVR and it transferred over all my recordings.

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
I dunno know, man. Ka Ma La says it's all up in the clouds in the sky.

You wanna do both of us a favor and keep politics out of this thread?

Refraining from posting political remarks in apolitical threads is something I've mentioned only 60,000 times.

quote:

Originally posted by architect:

quote:

Originally posted by RGRacing:
My 10yo Dish DVR has a USB port to allow saving data. I have not used it but I want to soon before something goes wrong or an upgrade.

I would not assume that the USB will support copying stuff off the main drive. I have never seen a STB that allows this. The USB is for a keyboard (maybe) and/or low-level crash recovery or firmware flashing.

I actually asked Verizon support what functions the USB ports on the front of the unit provides. They claimed "nothing except charging" an obvious lie.

I haven't (yet) had the gumption to connect various devices, attempt to interrupt the boot, etc. but I encourage anyone who has investigated to reveal their findings.

another possible function is firmware upgrade.