IAC DISCUSSION FORUMS

Is there any way to simultaneously play and record a a dvd. The issue is can you record from a Blu-Ray player to an external hard drive or computer, without degradation of the output/record signal, as it is being used to send HD video to a projector. Some Blu-Ray players are equipped with an internal hard drive, but do not enable any other device to be connected to it for video archiving purposes.

-------DVD Player -- output signal ----|--------HDMI/Component ---------> To projector
................................|---- Internal Hard Drive ? ----------> To an external hard drive/computer

The object of the above is to try and obtain a set up that would allow club members DVD's (Hi Def or standard) to be recorded and stored on a hard drive for archiving, and future use. The system would be for non commercial recording so that DRM would not apply.

Any suggestions/equipment recommendations welcome.

I am not sure if I have interpreted your query correctly but here goes.

Play and record BluRay, on the same machine (1) commercial Blurays usually cannot be recorded on the same machine they are being played back upon, but yes they can be ripped, software readily available (2) recording club movies that are on a Bluray, yes it is possible but........maintaining HD quality you would need to either record the output to another Bluray recorder or feed the HDMI into a PC and capture from there.

The latter is the problem as you have to have a HDMI capture device such as the Canopus Storm in the PC.

Alternatively if your Bluray player simultaneously outputs via HDMI and component, s-video etc you can capture SD.

Depending on the output type a device from the Canopus ADVC range of convertors will work.