My cable company finally called and they are offering HDTV and digital recorders (PDRs?). I'm getting mine installed on the 24th.
Here's my question...

I really don;t know how these work, but is there a port on them usually that I can connect to a CPU and save what I record to the hard drive, and then burn it to a dvd? FOr example, it would be great to have all the Steeler games from this coming season on dvd. SO would I be able to record them on the PDR, then transfer them over to my laptop? My fiance and I are buying a laptop in thenext few weeks as well, and If i can do this, I might upgrade the memory and video card in it...

Nick

Not sure about your question - but I'm guessing there's no way to transfer to a computer. You should have enough storage space on your DVR to save most of the seasons games anyway...it should hold up to 80 hours worth of programming. (16 games per year times 3 hours each = 48 hours, leaving you plenty to record other shows...and of course, you can record over any game and get those hours back when you want).

What cable company do you have? I live in Pittsburgh and have Adelphia. If you do too, be aware that the DVR and HDTV are seperate boxes, and the DVR can't record the HDTV shows in HDTV yet...meaning when you play them back, they'll be non-HDTV. They haven't developed a DVR yet for Adelphia that can record HDTV in HDTV. If you have Comcast, the situation might be different...but I would call and check if this is what you're looking for.

The real question is why would you want to save Steelers games? Just kidding.

I have armstrong, I'm actually gonna call them yoday and ask a tech there...

Those DVRs are coming to my area also, anyone know if you need a phone line or a digital cable package for that? I ditched my land line a long time ago and only have the basic cable package.

Phone? No.
Digital Cable package? Yes.

Most folks say that the DVRs from cable companies are pretty crappy. I had my Comcast one for about three weeks before I gave up on it. It's usually an extra $10 per month. I figured that TIVO was comproble (even though you had to buy the unit) it was much more reliable, user friendly and highly customizeable.

I have read (at least in my area) it depends on what model box you get, as the quality seems to range from unit to unit. I was considering it since the DVR from Comcast is $9.95 per month which includes the usual $5 they charge for HD.

I'm limited option-wise since I disconnected my home phone line a couple years ago.

I use a Motorolo 6208 from my cable co. There is no easy way to connect the box to a computer, although it does have a firewire port. I havent looked recently but some people were able to do something with a Mac machine and got some video off the cable box. Anyways the cable co's dont support it so you will be on your own, maybe someday they will give an option to dowload to a computer to burn on DVD but not now. And my hard drive is packed full with about 10 hours of HDTV programming. No room for other stuff on there.

I have a Scientific Altalanta unit, and while the software does indeed suck, I have not had any problems with playback. It is alot cheaper than Tivo, $5 more than digital cable was and no upfront equipment fees, and when they get better units in 6mos or a year, or better software, FREE upgrade.
My problem now is I am about to upgrade my TV and I do not want to loose my DVR, but I want to upgrade to HD, and Cox does not offer the HD DVR, even though SA uses the same unit (Explorer 8000 v. the Explorer 8000HD) and Cox has the HD DVR in other areas of the country.

I have Cox here in DC area, and their DVR/PVR or whatever they call it sucks, it is slow to respond, hard to adjust, and basically does what it wants to do. My Dish PVR was awesome. I've been meaning to call and see if they ahve a newer model, I'm getting sick of paying the $9 a month extra for this POS, might as well get a TIVO

Brighthouse here in florida and the DVR is included in the digital cable package. been working great and i've had it for quite some time now. as far as i know at this point you can't connect to your computer but you can to a dvd recorder, so you can save the money on the upgrade and get a dvd recorder instead. hope that helps.