Saving cherished media content from a BT DTR-T2100 Youview box to disc/file

happychappy

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Hi all

I would like to digitise some content saved on a BT DTR-T2100 which is super important to me and my family.

A few years back my son was chosen to take part in the BBC Children In Need One Show Rickshaw fundraising event. He had recently gone into remission from cancer and so to do this was a huge thing for us - to see him fighting and winning challenges, once again.

We recorded all of the events he took part in for the BBC and they are saved on the above BT Youview box.

I would dearly love/need to save these recordings to something that we can watch at our leisure without worrying about losing them, maybe even make a nice montage of pictures and video that we can save to our phones to show others etc.

My problem is just how do I go about retrieving these recordings? I intend to get rid of BT Youview, but am afraid of losing the content, its why we keep paying for BT TV, but never use it!

Any help would be so gratefully received and make my wife and I the happiest people around.

Thanks in advance for your guidance
 
You don't have to keep subscribing to BT TV to keep Youview box going. It will work just fine for watching TV & recordings and recording TV without any subscriptions. You just lose the parts that are subscription only.

As far as I know there is no way to copy recordings off the box and watch them elsewhere. To actually copy anything off the box you would need to take the disk out and plug it into a computer. After doing that you would need to work out how to decrypt the recordings.
 
Thanks for the reply Wongatta

I have read somewhere that a recordable DVD player recording via the scart lead might do the trick, but I would love to hear if that’s correct?

I can’t stress how important it is to retain the footage, as a very last resort I guess we could use phones but I would like to explore every avenue before resorting to this poor quality idea.
 
If what I read online is accurate (so, not from personal use) this type of box does indeed have analog AV output via SCART. In which case, yes, a recording device, with analog inputs (getting rarer) will allow you to copy, with some degradation of the picture quality - but (if the original is Standard Definition, not HD) probably not so much as you'd really notice.

If it's that precious, once you have extracted it from the box (by whatever means) then make at least two copies of it as backups.
 
That’s what I too have read, it’s comforting someone on here backs it up, thanks.

I am looking on eBay for a recorder, but it’s a bit bewildering, have you any ideas of recommended models?
 
If you are buying used, then it's as much about the internal condition (eg of the laser used to "burn" discs) and that's pretty much a matter of pot-luck, sadly.

All very old nowadays but these were solid with reliable firmware

Pioneer - note do not have digital (Freeview) tuners
DVR-520H
DVR-720H (bigger hard drive)

or these exact Sony models (which were substantially Pioneers inside but with the addition of a Digital/Freeview tuner)
RDR-HXD 790/795/890/895/990/995/1090/1095

Later Sonys were Samsung based and apparently nowhere near as good.

All these have an onboard Hard Drive on which you can initially record your material, do some basic editing if necessary, and then copy the output (several times, as I say) to DVD discs - preferably of different types/brands.

You may be able to get something more recent; there may even be a currently available machine, new, somewhere, but I have no experience I can share.

It's worth noting - because I don't know anything about recordings made on your BT/Humax box - but none of these recorders (or any others) will copy material that has copy protection on it. If you initially recorded SD off-air, I think it's highly unlikely, but I am by no means sure of the workings of that Humax.
 
Thanks for the info, exactly what I was looking for - names and numbers to chase.

Thanks also for confirming my thoughts that it’s basically a Humax.

The recordings are, I believe, SD so hopefully should be ok

My intention is to initially get them onto a disc/hard drive and then onto my computer to edit them down as each show only has a few minutes of my son and the team.

Thanks for all the help so far.
 
This is a long shot but, if the above suggestions don't work, have you thought of approaching the BBC as they may well have a broadcast quality copy somewhere in the archives.

They obviously don't hand out copies to all and sundry, so stress the humanitarian factor.

Good luck! :thumbsup:
 
Thanks for the info, exactly what I was looking for - names and numbers to chase.

Thanks also for confirming my thoughts that it’s basically a Humax.

The recordings are, I believe, SD so hopefully should be ok

My intention is to initially get them onto a disc/hard drive and then onto my computer to edit them down as each show only has a few minutes of my son and the team.

Thanks for all the help so far.
I can confirm this solution does work as I have copied many programmes from my BT box onto DVD this way over the years, although none recently since my DVD recorder gave up the ghost. Good luck.
 
This is a long shot but, if the above suggestions don't work, have you thought of approaching the BBC as they may well have a broadcast quality copy somewhere in the archives.

They obviously don't hand out copies to all and sundry, so stress the humanitarian factor.

Good luck! :thumbsup:

We tried initially, but no information was forthcoming, we thought that we could just use the footage recorded on the BT box assuming that it would be easy to copy...oh how wrong were we! :laugh:
 
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I can confirm this solution does work as I have copied many programmes from my BT box onto DVD this way over the years, although none recently since my DVD recorder gave up the ghost. Good luck.

Thanks for that.

Currently looking at the dross on eBay awaiting the “one owner, low mileage and all accessories“ version to come along....could be a bit of a wait....
 
Thanks so much dbeevers, that will keep me busy for a while.

I’ve been looking at the Elgato 60 video card and although a lot more than I wanted to spend am now wondering if a cheaper video card such as the “Digit now” on Amazon could be the way forward?
 
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for that price its worth a go.
I did try one of the cheaper ones and iMovie saw the device but the software was rubbish on the mac.
Be aware it may look rubbish and drop frames when recording but it should be fine on PB.
 

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