Compare TVS use - Dish Network vs DirectTV

[HoosierDaddy]

I have a Dish DVR (owned by Dish) that I extract programs from with PVRExplorerPro. I edit and burn to DVD with TVS.

I really like this, however, the 3 year old DVR died a few months ago (hard drive failure) and the replacement DVR they sent is just someone else's broken one they "repaired"; and it's prone to locking up if I don't pause between certain functions on the remote. Plus, the dish firmware is getting worse with each version, I assume because they are trying to squeeze more "features" into limited memory on older DVRs. Now, some content headers have minor format changes that give PVRExploreor headaches and it appears there is little or no continued development on it. Lastly, I will be moving to HD within a year and its not looking good for extracting HD content with PVRExplorer.

So, while I'm currently happy with the process, I can see the writing on the wall and am looking for possible alternatives.

I understand you can extract programs from Direct-TV PVRs (TiVo?) and want to know how that is working for TVS users. Specifically, any problems or extra hoops you have to jump thru, can you extract from the Direct TV PVRs digitally without losing quality and just what is that quality (resolution, bit rate, etc.). The Dish SD programing is 544x480 and I burn at that telling TVS to accept non-standard.

TIA

[Anole]

You need a TiVo expert to give you better info, but some members here are operating at 480x480.
I think that may be a limitation of older TiVos, or it may be what DirecTV broadcasts in SD mode.

I'm continuing to use a Dish 508 PVR, and extract as necessary using PVRexplorer.
That program seems to have little or no development, that's for sure!
Over the last several years, I've burned hundreds of 544x480 discs, and find them very satisfactory.

If you'll dig through the threads on the forum, it looks like both users and developers are now exploring HD TiVo/DirecTV, and making DVDs from them.
It appears they're having TVS down-convert to 720x480, and make sparklingly clear discs.

The ability to access the digital image that's broadcast, and not have to redigitize at the TiVo/PVR, makes for first class images.