Can a DVR with a USB port record video on to the external hard-disk connected via the USB port?
Instead of writing on the Blank DVD can it create a *.vob file on the hard-disk instead?
DVRs don’t typically write VOB files, they usually store either in their own private format, or in the format of the video that’s sent down from your cable/satellite. VOB is a format specific to DVD. PVRs are likely to use something more like MPEG-2 Transport Stream video, or MPEG-4 AVC on some of the newer systems.
Some can STORE video on a external USB hard drive. I have a Dish Network ViP 622, which records images of the video sent via satellite. onto its internal hard drive. It cannot record a show directly to the USB hard drive attached, but can copy from the internal HD to the external, and it will play back from the external drive. Alas, Dish Network charged me something like $39.95 to enable this feature, but it’s at least possible.
You would have to check with the supplier of your DVR to find out if they support recording to USB devices, Some DVR USB ports are limited to other things…. maybe just playing photos back from flash drives, or attaching network interfaces (our TiVo Series 2 uses USB to allow wireless networking to be added). But yeah, it does exist in some form. My ViP 622 supports external drives up to 750GB, they tell me. That’s a good bit of video.
Usb Dvr DVR Setup
