# "save to vcr" function gone?



## rainbow (Feb 8, 2008)

I have a premiere and a series 3. I just noticed yesterday that the "save to vcr" function is not listed in th options of programs I have saved in the premiere. Luckily that option is still there for the series 3.

Is it no longer an option for the premiere?


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## aridon (Aug 31, 2006)

Insert "what is a vcr" joke.


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## rainbow (Feb 8, 2008)

aridon said:


> Insert "what is a vcr" joke.


yes - I thought about expounding on that, but the function does work for the dvd recorder I have it hooked up to. They could change the wording to say - 'save to device'. But that option looks like it is totally gone, at least on my premiere.

I was wondering if it might be an oversight (hopefully) with the pgrm updates.


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## Philmatic (Sep 17, 2003)

I think that the powers that be have been wanting to get rid of that feature for years now to close the "analog hole". DRM free transfers of Hi-Def content to whatever device you want? That's INSANE!


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

rainbow said:


> I have a premiere and a series 3. I just noticed yesterday that the "save to vcr" function is not listed in th options of programs I have saved in the premiere. Luckily that option is still there for the series 3.
> 
> Is it no longer an option for the premiere?


With the Premiere you should be able to make copies to a VCR using the analog outputs and manually starting and stopping the devices. What more did the option do in the Series 3? My TiVo HD has a "Save to VCR" menu option, but it appears to just prompt you with instructions for making a manual copy. Maybe that option originated when TiVos had IR blasters and could actually control VCRs.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

L David Matheny said:


> With the Premiere you should be able to make copies to a VCR using the analog outputs and manually starting and stopping the devices. What more did the option do in the Series 3? My TiVo HD has a "Save to VCR" menu option, but it appears to just prompt you with instructions for making a manual copy. Maybe that option originated when TiVos had IR blasters and could actually control VCRs.


That option did title the program on your VCR or DVD recorder (something a manual xfer would not do) before the program started to Xfer from the TiVo, my TP did have that option last time i looked but I have not looked for at least two software upgrades so it now it may be gone, I will check it out tonight.


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

Philmatic said:


> I think that the powers that be have been wanting to get rid of that feature for years now to close the "analog hole". DRM free transfers of Hi-Def content to whatever device you want? That's INSANE!


If the MPAA and the RIAA have their way, there won't even be analog outputs on future devices. JUST HDMI and that's it. I imagine that's what'll happen if/when we get a Series 5. It'll probably have a power connector, cable card slot, ethernet port, USB ports, a Cable in connection, maybe an OTA connection, and an HDMI output, and that's IT.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Wow, they removed the function? That sucks. Yes, I think calling it "save to VCR" was kind of lame.. but "save to recorder" or something generic-ish.

I use it largely because of the somewhat informative "intro page" it shows before the recording. (Though I have always been using it to save to my DVD recorder.)


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

They must have removed it in the last release......if only they would share release notes again....


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

kturcotte said:


> If the MPAA and the RIAA have their way, there won't even be analog outputs on future devices. JUST HDMI and that's it. I imagine that's what'll happen if/when we get a Series 5. It'll probably have a power connector, cable card slot, ethernet port, USB ports, a Cable in connection, maybe an OTA connection, and an HDMI output, and that's IT.


That would be great. It will be nice when all these extraneous analog connections are gone. Personally I wish every device was devoid of analog connections. But realistically that is not possible since so many people still use them.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

L David Matheny said:


> With the Premiere you should be able to make copies to a VCR using the analog outputs and manually starting and stopping the devices. What more did the option do in the Series 3? My TiVo HD has a "Save to VCR" menu option, but it appears to just prompt you with instructions for making a manual copy. Maybe that option originated when TiVos had IR blasters and could actually control VCRs.


I'm pretty sure you couldn't use the IR blaster to control the VCR, but that feature is that old.

IIRC back in the series 1 days it did a couple of things. One is displayed a title screen before the show. Basically just a quick fullscreen version of the guide data. The other is that it gave limited protection against remote button presses during the copy. Second instead of exiting the playback it would pop up a VCR icon (or some icon) in the bottom corner if you pressed a button; to warn that it was in copy to VCR mode. Of course that meant the transfer always had that icon but I guess that's better than accidently jumping to the menu and then timing out to live TV while the VCR was recording. (You had to hit some confirmation to actually exit, but I can no longer remember what it was)


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

kturcotte said:


> If the MPAA and the RIAA have their way, there won't even be analog outputs on future devices. JUST HDMI and that's it.


You can already convert HDMI to component so the protection is moot. As usual, DRM is only frustrating legitimate users from doing things they are legitimately permitted by law to do. It does nothing to prevent actual piracy.

All the DRM in the world, and blu ray rips still appear on bittorrent before the discs hit store shelves.


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## vstone (May 11, 2002)

L David Matheny said:


> With the Premiere you should be able to make copies to a VCR using the analog outputs and manually starting and stopping the devices. What more did the option do in the Series 3? My TiVo HD has a "Save to VCR" menu option, but it appears to just prompt you with instructions for making a manual copy. Maybe that option originated when TiVos had IR blasters and could actually control VCRs.


The Premiere has the composite output, but loses the S-Video output that resulted in some fine DVD's made on my Panny DVD recorder.


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## TheWGP (Oct 26, 2007)

smbaker said:


> You can already convert HDMI to component so the protection is moot. As usual, DRM is only frustrating legitimate users from doing things they are legitimately permitted by law to do. It does nothing to prevent actual piracy.
> 
> All the DRM in the world, and blu ray rips still appear on bittorrent before the discs hit store shelves.


+1 - this is so accurate! If you're willing to pirate, it's often *easier* than dealing with all the DRM!


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Jonathan_S said:


> IIRC back in the series 1 days it did a couple of things. One is displayed a title screen before the show. Basically just a quick fullscreen version of the guide data. The other is that it gave limited protection against remote button presses during the copy. Second instead of exiting the playback it would pop up a VCR icon (or some icon) in the bottom corner if you pressed a button; to warn that it was in copy to VCR mode. Of course that meant the transfer always had that icon but I guess that's better than accidently jumping to the menu and then timing out to live TV while the VCR was recording. (You had to hit some confirmation to actually exit, but I can no longer remember what it was)


It does all of these on S3 & TivoHD.


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## aadam101 (Jul 15, 2002)

TheWGP said:


> +1 - this is so accurate! If you're willing to pirate, it's often *easier* than dealing with all the DRM!


Exactly, for the most part pirating is still an easier option to get video to my TV.

At least the book publishers learned from the movie/music industries mistakes. They made it easier to buy e-books than it is to steal them.


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## rainbow (Feb 8, 2008)

lessd said:


> That option did title the program on your VCR or DVD recorder (something a manual xfer would not do) before the program started to Xfer from the TiVo......


This is the one thing that I found invaluable - the title info - of that function. My dvd recorder records off of what is on the screen, so I don't 'have' to have that function to record from tv. The title page is what made that function. I sure hope they don't get rid of that function for my S3.

I record episodes of Dr Oz, etc, and that title page saved me from all kinds of manual notes about which shows/dates/prorgram details of each show.


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

rainbow said:


> This is the one thing that I found invaluable - the title info - of that function. My dvd recorder records off of what is on the screen, so I don't 'have' to have that function to record from tv. The title page is what made that function. I sure hope they don't get rid of that function for my S3.


Well, I never used it, but now I know how "Save to VCR" works (or worked). The titling function does sound useful, and they probably should have just renamed it "Save to Recorder" and left it in. I can't imagine that the new TiVos are so short of memory that that's an issue.


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## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

Well, you can use kmttg to copy the show you want down to your PC and then use some CD burning software to make a Video DVD of it. I have done that for a few people who's kids were in Thanksgiving Day parades.

I also made a DVD of Shaun Cassidy on Oprah for my wife...


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

rainbow said:


> This is the one thing that I found invaluable - the title info - of that function. My dvd recorder records off of what is on the screen, so I don't 'have' to have that function to record from tv. The title page is what made that function. I sure hope they don't get rid of that function for my S3.
> 
> I record episodes of Dr Oz, etc, and that title page saved me from all kinds of manual notes about which shows/dates/prorgram details of each show.


Going to the program information page, and then starting the recording before you press play accomplishes the same thing - a video with the title shown at the beginning and it included the show description. The save to vcr function had to be the most useless thing Tivo ever included. The only purpose it served was to confuse most people about how real time copy recordings of tivo recordings work.


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

smbaker said:


> You can already convert HDMI to component so the protection is moot. As usual, DRM is only frustrating legitimate users from doing things they are legitimately permitted by law to do. It does nothing to prevent actual piracy.
> 
> All the DRM in the world, and blu ray rips still appear on bittorrent before the discs hit store shelves.


Could you actually a 720p/1080i signal from the Premier over HDMI (Not asking HOW, lol, just a yes or no) to Component?


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## tab3 (Dec 12, 2015)

A Tivo Premier ( Series 4 ) can " save to VCR " even though the menu option is gone. Just connect one of the unused sets of audio and video outputs to a DVR's inputs, start the Tivo playback of whatever show you want to download, and start the DVR recording.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

tab3 said:


> A Tivo Premier ( Series 4 ) can " save to VCR " even though the menu option is gone. Just connect one of the unused sets of audio and video outputs to a DVR's inputs, start the Tivo playback of whatever show you want to download, and start the DVR recording.


Yes, of course, but if you review the thread you'll see that the "Save to VCR" feature did a bit more than that. It seems to have been similar to the same function on a ReplayTV in that it would display the title information on-screen before playback (to embed the show info on the VHS tape in the only way it could), but I don't know if it also included the other aspect of Replay's feature... which was to suppress any on-screen messages during playback, so as to not corrupt the VHS copy. I found this latter function the more important, since I could always use the 'Info' button to force the episode info onto the tape.

Gotta say, as a side note, TiVo should have long ago created a "Playlist" feature, as such a feature would have been ideally paired with this now-extinct "Save to VCR" function.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If anyone is still using a VCR in this day and age I feel sorry for you. VCRs have an effective resolution of about 320x480, and that's interlaced so really it's only about 320x240. On a modern HDTV it's going to look like sh*t!

Even DVDs don't look that great on a 1080p TV, but at least they're digital and most DVD players these days have component/HDMI output and can do reverse telecine to get a 480p/24 picture. (from movies at least) 

Personally I'm an HD snob, so I wouldn't even watch a DVD any more.


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