Vista - Media Center DVR TV Copy Protection

**JZweighaft** · 06-20-2008

Media Center recognizes copy protection on recorded TV. You can record and play a TV movie in Media center, but you cannot burn a DVD copy. You also cannot open, edit and save Media Center recorded movies in Movie Maker. Movie Maker only imports the commercials before the movie starts then stops. Shows like local news programs are fine, but who wants to save those? Media Center's DVR-MS files of movies are too large to copy to a data DVD to save and remove. (I haven’t looked at lowering the recording quality yet.)

I’d like to trim the ends off of DVR movie recordings and edit out commercials. I don’t intend to distribute these to anybody, but I would like to make a DVD that I could watch on any player in my house, not just the Media Center computer where the movie was recorded.

In the days of VHS taping we could do this. There must be a way to do it now. It is probably even legal under fair use or if not, it should be. I hope Microsoft reconsiders their copy protection scheme. Meanwhile are there any suggestions?

**eggyuk** · 06-20-2008

When i want to keep programs i have recorded to watch later i convert them cos i don't have space to keep them in the massive format WMC uses. I use a program called DVRMSToolbox which converts the DVR-MS file to MPEG-2 and from there you can use another program to convert to avi etc or trim bits out. Like i said i use it for shrinking the size of recordings cos i think 800mb for a half hour program is ridiculous.

**JZweighaft** · 06-20-2008

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried to install DVRMSToolbox but had problems. Vista’s “Windows Installer Loader” says the DVRMSToolbox setup requires .NET Framework version 1.1.4322. Vista has version 3.0 but only a part was enabled so I turned on the rest and tried again with the same result. Attempting to install .NET Framework version 1.1 produced an incompatibility warning and I stopped there.

We have the same version of Vista. How did you install DVRMSToolbox?

Download.com reports others who downloaded DVRMSToolbox also downloaded:

DVR-MS Converter
Convert My Records
dCut
NVision DVR
ET Cut

I’ll look at some of these too.

**eggyuk** · 06-21-2008

To be honest it's that long since i installed it i cant remember if i had any problems and if i did how i solved them. Did you download the x64 version? I was looking through my software folder to find the installer and notice i have DVRMSToolbox1209_x64.zip.

DVRMSToolbox For Vista - 1.2.1.1 (x64) - babgvant's Tools & Blog

That was the first place i found it when i did a quick look for it. May be worth looking in some more well known sites such as majorgeeks.com or similar sites just to make sure its malware free.

**JZweighaft** · 06-22-2008

I did not have that version. I downloaded DVRMSToolbox from your link and it seems to have installed correctly. Unfortunately the first few tries with the GUI produced errors. It didn’t matter if I converted a whole folder or a single file. I got errors attempting to convert both copy protected and unprotected TV files. I need to look further. It might be pilot error. I'm not done yet.

**johngalt** · 06-22-2008

Thanks for the link eggyuk - I recorded my first event a couple of days ago and now I have a way to test to see how well the record went.

**JZweighaft** · 06-23-2008

Good news. After a little too much playing I got DVRMSToolbox to work. I've done one movie and one news show as tests. The trick was to avoid the automatic commercial cutting as that doesn't seem to work, at least on my machine, but it occurs in the default settings for the GUI. Thank you Eggyuk for the good suggestion.

**eggyuk** · 06-23-2008

Quote: Originally Posted by JZweighaft

Good news. After a little too much playing I got DVRMSToolbox to work. I've done one movie and one news show as tests. The trick was to avoid the automatic commercial cutting as that doesn't seem to work, at least on my machine, but it occurs in the default settings for the GUI. Thank you Eggyuk for the good suggestion.

No problem. Yeh you beat me to it I was gonna suggesting avoid the commercial cutting cos i haven't got it to work either. Just takes a bit of trial and error to get the right profile but once you've got it it works fine.

06-20-2008	#1
JZweighaft Vista Home Premium 64 bit 4 posts	Media Center DVR TV Copy Protection Media Center recognizes copy protection on recorded TV. You can record and play a TV movie in Media center, but you cannot burn a DVD copy. You also cannot open, edit and save Media Center recorded movies in Movie Maker. Movie Maker only imports the commercials before the movie starts then stops. Shows like local news programs are fine, but who wants to save those? Media Center's DVR-MS files of movies are too large to copy to a data DVD to save and remove. (I haven’t looked at lowering the recording quality yet.) I’d like to trim the ends off of DVR movie recordings and edit out commercials. I don’t intend to distribute these to anybody, but I would like to make a DVD that I could watch on any player in my house, not just the Media Center computer where the movie was recorded. In the days of VHS taping we could do this. There must be a way to do it now. It is probably even legal under fair use or if not, it should be. I hope Microsoft reconsiders their copy protection scheme. Meanwhile are there any suggestions?
My System Specs

06-20-2008	#2
eggyuk Vista Home Premium 64Bit SP1 133 posts	Re: Media Center DVR TV Copy Protection When i want to keep programs i have recorded to watch later i convert them cos i don't have space to keep them in the massive format WMC uses. I use a program called DVRMSToolbox which converts the DVR-MS file to MPEG-2 and from there you can use another program to convert to avi etc or trim bits out. Like i said i use it for shrinking the size of recordings cos i think 800mb for a half hour program is ridiculous.
My System Specs

06-20-2008	#3
JZweighaft Vista Home Premium 64 bit 4 posts	Re: Media Center DVR TV Copy Protection Thanks for the suggestion. I tried to install DVRMSToolbox but had problems. Vista’s “Windows Installer Loader” says the DVRMSToolbox setup requires .NET Framework version 1.1.4322. Vista has version 3.0 but only a part was enabled so I turned on the rest and tried again with the same result. Attempting to install .NET Framework version 1.1 produced an incompatibility warning and I stopped there. We have the same version of Vista. How did you install DVRMSToolbox? Download.com reports others who downloaded DVRMSToolbox also downloaded: DVR-MS Converter Convert My Records dCut NVision DVR ET Cut I’ll look at some of these too.
My System Specs

06-21-2008	#4
eggyuk Vista Home Premium 64Bit SP1 133 posts	Re: Media Center DVR TV Copy Protection To be honest it's that long since i installed it i cant remember if i had any problems and if i did how i solved them. Did you download the x64 version? I was looking through my software folder to find the installer and notice i have DVRMSToolbox1209_x64.zip. DVRMSToolbox For Vista - 1.2.1.1 (x64) - babgvant's Tools & Blog That was the first place i found it when i did a quick look for it. May be worth looking in some more well known sites such as majorgeeks.com or similar sites just to make sure its malware free.
My System Specs

06-22-2008	#5
JZweighaft Vista Home Premium 64 bit 4 posts	Re: Media Center DVR TV Copy Protection I did not have that version. I downloaded DVRMSToolbox from your link and it seems to have installed correctly. Unfortunately the first few tries with the GUI produced errors. It didn’t matter if I converted a whole folder or a single file. I got errors attempting to convert both copy protected and unprotected TV files. I need to look further. It might be pilot error. I'm not done yet.
My System Specs

06-22-2008	#6
johngalt Vista Ultimate x64 MAK, OpenSolaris 5, Gentoo 2008.1.... 3,848 posts	Re: Media Center DVR TV Copy Protection Thanks for the link eggyuk - I recorded my first event a couple of days ago and now I have a way to test to see how well the record went.
My System Specs

06-23-2008	#7
JZweighaft Vista Home Premium 64 bit 4 posts	Re: Media Center DVR TV Copy Protection Good news. After a little too much playing I got DVRMSToolbox to work. I've done one movie and one news show as tests. The trick was to avoid the automatic commercial cutting as that doesn't seem to work, at least on my machine, but it occurs in the default settings for the GUI. Thank you Eggyuk for the good suggestion.
My System Specs

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