How do I capture a video off my DVR or on a website?

Hardware and technical stuff
1

So my wife was recently on TV and of course we recorded it. I know technically the station owns the video and we are trying to track down the producer next week to try and get a copy.

However, in the meantime we’d like an archive copy for ourselves. I recorded it on my DVR and it’s also on their website as an embedded video. It’s around 3 minutes long FYI. Too long to just capture by pointing my phone at the screen.

We don’t want to diseminate this as our own or profit from it, we just want an archival, because eventually they will delete the video from the website and eventually we have to give back our DVR.

Researching this thing this a bit it seems DVRs have copy protection built into their HDMI out. Is there a straightforward/cheap way to do it? Seems like you have to circumvent a bunch of DRM somehow, which is annoying… but I certainly understand why.

2

For the website, could you use screen capturing software while playing the video?

3

Does your DVR have a USB port? I understand US DVRs tend to be a bit more locked down, but I can just copy stuff off the hard drive from mine.

4

Anyvideoconverter has a way to just paste in the web site URL and it will download the video.

5

The Video DownloadHelper extension for Firefox usually can capture pretty much any video content embedded in a website.

6

I have a device from AVerMedia called the Game Capture HD. If your DVR has Component Outputs, they can be hooked up to the Game Capture HD box, which is essentially just a Hard Drive (not included) that records the video being played out of your DVR. Hook a USB key up to the Game Capture HD and copy the recorded video file and, presto, you have your video. It’s a little clunky to set up, and with component cables, only supports up to, I believe, 720 P, but it works great.

EDIT: Apparently there are several, much more powerful options, including portable ones, per amazon:

Tony

7

That worked great! Super simple, it downloaded and converted it with just a url cut and paste. Thanks! Thanks to everyone else for their help as well.