Jul 20, 2018 - In the era of smart TVs, Comcast is discovering that its Xfinity X1. The apps, books, movies, music, TV shows, and art are inspiring our some of the. Will be able to stream TV from Comcast natively, without forcing you to futz.
Based on the article here, I've been trying to copy a recorded video filefrom my XFinity DVR (digital video recorder) to my Windows PC. https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-do-i-transfer-files-from-my-comcast-dvr
The model# of our XFinity-provided DVR box is 'XG1-A'. I've purchased a (blue) USBcable, with USB-A male connectors on each end.[ The article above mentions using either USB-cable or a firewire-cable, butthis newer-model XG1-A doesn't have a firewire port. ]
From the results of my attempts so far, I'm wondering if this ability tonavigate and copy files on this DVR unit is purposely NOT (no longer) supportedby Comcast. (The date of the article is March 2015.)
That means you can download shows and movies to keep the kids entertained during the cross city treks or for your spring break trip! The cloud technology from XFINITY X1 DVR allows for 500 GB of storage, meaning you’ve got tons of shows and movies at your fingertips after downloading. Now you can get XFINITY Stream for PC and Laptop powered up with Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and MacOS/OS X.You can download XFINITY. AFAIK, you can 'watch' shows on your laptop, but you cannot download shows to a laptop with a Microsoft Operating System at this time. The Support Forums are 'public' forums and you should not post identifiable information - (full name, account number, address, phone numbers & email addresses ). Mobile Comcast Xfinity app now lets you download movies for offline viewing. The newly updated Xfinity TV Player for Android and iOS lets you download content from four networks.
My symptom/indications are as follows: (1) When I attach a Windows-10 laptop via the USB-cable, I get absoluteno indication that Windows is seeing any 'usb-attachment' event/signal. (2) When I attach a Windows-7 laptop via the USB-cable, I do seesomething happen. i.e. after a few seconds, I see the mouse-cursor switchto showing a half-inch in diameter blue-circular cursor which lasts a a fewseconds, then disappears for a few seconds, then re-appears for a few moreseconds, and then disappears a second time. That's it...no msgs nor dialogsindicating an explicit attempt to establish a>22 gold badges14 silver badges18 bronze badges
3 Answers
After poking around, I got some informed info back from a friend whopreviously worked in set-top box industry. He said:
About recorded media these days…
Even if you were able to find some way to retrieve video files from your set-top box, I do not believe you would be able to play them. Most videos these days are encrypted and simply copying the files won’t allow you to play them on other devices. This is intentional as Hollywood and content providers are very worried about their videos being copied around. As you know, copying a digital file loses no information – it is a perfect copy each time. The content providers do not like that.
Content providers were working on a digital watermark/stamp embedded in the video stream so they could tell where the content originated from. This information is embedded in the video macroblocks and is not visible when watching the video. However, should a digital copy be made (or even an analog copy back to digital), that information can be retrieved and will allow content providers to see who originally viewed/recorded the content. So, if the video showed up online somewhere or was discovered on a system, they can backtrack it to the set top box and determine its origin. It was very cool technology and was patented for helping to catch pirates.
I also know that in some cases, providers do not actually store the video on your set top box. For example, if you DVR a show that was broadcast, only a pointer is saved on your set top box and the actual video is stored back on their server. When you go to watch it, the set top box knows to retrieve the originally recorded material on the backend server. This helps keep DVR storage down on your set top box which keeps cost down. Note, that the watermark embedding happens on the video transmit to your set top box so if you were to succeed in recording it, your provider can still tell where it came from.
So trying to copy the actual files may be an exercise in futility. Even if you were able to make a copy, they may not be playable on any device other than your set top box.
And, after digesting my friend's feedback, I also had a chat last weekwith a Hauppauge tech support person, and he explained that the only guaranteed unencrypted stream coming out of a provider's set-top box these days is what comes out of its 'cable-out' port, during playback of some previously-recorded program.
Based on all the above info, it appears that the only feasible approach going forward would be to use such a PVR (Hauppauge or whatever), and grab the cable-out playback stream.
Hope this helps others. Cheers...
DaveDaveFor your info, the USB port on the XFinity DVR is disabled and there's no way to enable it. That's why nothing happens when you connect a USB cable to it and your computer. Apparently, the only way to copy a video from the XFinity DVR is to play it back and record the playback with some capture card/device.
You can take the box apart, remove the internal hard drive, plug it into your windows computer using an external enclosure of some sort, sata data/power to usb. The computer won't assign drive letters or recognize the hard drive on it's own. The volumes are hidden and can be shown using diskpart but it recognizes them as raw data and will tell you to format it if you assign a drive letter to any of the 5 partitions.
I got around this by using a data recovery program called Ease US Data Recovery. It's pretty amazing and will work on any storage format that you plug into a windows machine. This software will also recovery any data that ever existed on the disk even after erased and it puts it back in it's original file structure format and labels applied to the data before it was erased which is not the norm for data recovery software.
Where Can I Download Shows For Free
But that's not what you want here, you want to simply get the currently stored data off the disk and backed up on your computer. It will do that too. Cheers.
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Comcast on Tuesday launched a new cloud-based DVR service for some customers in the Philadelphia area that will let them access DVR'd content on their mobile devices.
The new cloud-based X1 box works like a regular DVR but lets you watch recordings on your smartphone, tablet, or computer while at home. You can also download specific DVR recordings directly to your mobile device to watch while you're out and about, as well as access a live stream of 'practically' your entire TV channel lineup at home, the company said.
Today's launch makes the X1 DVR available to new Xfinity TV customers in the greater Philadelphia, New Jersey, and northern Delaware areas. Comcast first launched the X1 DVR with in Boston in February, and it will roll out to additional markets throughout the year.
'We want to provide customers with the best television experience on every device, when they want it and where they want it,' LeAnn Talbot, regional senior vice president at Comcast, said in a statement. 'The cloud-based infrastructure of the X1 platform allows us to deliver on that promise, and give customers a more personalized viewing experience.'
To enable the new streaming and download features, Comcast has launched a new Xfinity TV app for iOS and Android tablets and smartphones as well as a dedicated portal for viewing on computers. Once you download the app and sign in with your Xfinity TV credentials, you'll be able to browse through your full channel lineup in the Guide or scan available recordings for download in the Saved menu.
The Xfinity TV app for the X1 platform is only available for iOS devices running 7.0 or later and Android devices running 4.4 (KitKat) or higher. For more, see Comcast's FAQ page.
How To Download Shows From Xfinity Dvr
Last year, Comcast launched the Xfinity TV Go app, which added on-the-go viewing for 35 live channels.