Set Recordings from Web/Remotely?

[tjoynt]

Looking at pitching a 3-4 Ceton card build at work to record stuff.
The system we use now is really awful. It includes cable boxes, hauppauage component captures, etc. Just bad.

My current plan is to have at max 4 cards in a machine with 4x4TB RAID5 recording, and then a 4x4TB RAID5 eSATA or NAS box to do daily backups to.

My question is, is there a way to setup recordings away from that machine? If it is stuck in a server area, and all of the files and stuff are networked the only thing I don't know how to do is set up recordings.
I assume we could just RDP and do it, but I wasn't sure if there was an easier way. I found that Remote Potato, but it looks dead.

Any help would be appreciated.

[optikhog]

I use Big Screen to remotely do such things. The free edition would appear to be sufficient for my use, although I haven't actually figured out how to order the 'pay' edition:

http://bigscreenglobal.com/bgproduct.aspx?PID=BSRV1

[TeddyR]

The Ceton "My Media Center" suite probably does what you want. http://cetoncorp.com/products/companion/

There are apps for Android, iDevices and windows phone. There is also a windows 8 app. Unfortunately there is no windows 7 native app nor a web interface for it....

[now you can finally justify getting that iPad or windows8 tablet for work... :-0]

[foxwood]

I assume we could just RDP and do it, but I wasn't sure if there was an easier way.

Yes, you can just RDP into a machine running Windows Media Center and update the schedule - you can more or less everything in WMC in an RDP session, except view media.

But how are you planning to show these recordings, or are you just making recordings for Archive purposes? If the content you are planning to record is copy protected, then you'll need to use Media Center Extenders of some sort to display the recordings, and you can update the schedule from the Extender too (which might not be appropriate in your situation).

If the content isn't copy protected, then you can play the recorded files using many other applications.

[foxwood]

The Ceton "My Media Center" suite probably does what you want. http://cetoncorp.com/products/companion/

It's worth emphasising that this tool doesn't require any Ceton Hardware, so it's a viable solution even for users who aren't planning to use a Ceton InfiniTV tuner.

[tjoynt]

It'll be used for archival/testing purposes.
I currently use VideoReDO TV Suite 4 to cut the ads out, that'll then be cut to mpeg's.
VRD cuts out the copy protection, I assume?

I've always used it in the past for personal recordings from Hauppuage 1250/2250 and older WinTV stuff, as well as a TiVO box

[foxwood]

It'll be used for archival/testing purposes.
I currently use VideoReDO TV Suite 4 to cut the ads out, that'll then be cut to mpeg's.
VRD cuts out the copy protection, I assume?

No. The only way to get around Copy Protected content is to do exactly what you're doing now with cable-co DVRs and analog capture cards.

Who's your provider? Not all providers slap Copy Protection over everthing that moves.

[tjoynt]

It is TWC I believe.
With my TiVo (and Comcast), I never had anything Copy Protected. It was a PITA to transfer over though.
I have a couple of friends with Ceton's, and they've been able to do just fine cutting with VRD and viewing in any program.

I'm about get my personal one up and running, so I'll see how it is here.

[foxwood]

It is TWC I believe.
With my TiVo (and Comcast), I never had anything Copy Protected. It was a PITA to transfer over though.
I have a couple of friends with Ceton's, and they've been able to do just fine cutting with VRD and viewing in any program.

TWC (at least in some markets) applies Copy Protection to a lot more content than some other providers.

You won't be able to edit Copy Protected content - that would defeat the purpose of Copy Protection. (Though there is no obvious purpose to applying Copy Protection in the way that TWC does).

[tjoynt]

What is considered "Copy Protected" though?
I used to record via Firewire on a mac through the cable box, and even stuff marked "Copy Once" would still record and I could do whatever with it. (i had a personal collection of the olympics in 2008)

[mdavej]

When you install the Ceton, you can see on a web diagnostics page the copy protection on each channel (program). It will say none, freely, once, never, etc. On my cable system (not TWC), all my locals have no copy protection, but everything else (except HBO and the like) are copy freely. I have no idea what sort of protection may have been enforced (or not) on the firewire port of your old cable box. Even copy once would have allowed you to make one copy of course.