When there was still no internet, you could only watch your favorite movies by buying the DVD or recording on videotape with the VCR from the TV, when it was being broadcast on some channel. Even if today movies can be streamed and many television broadcasts immediately become available online on Rai, Mediaset or Youtube sites, for some it may still be convenient to record films, broadcasts and programs directly from TV, perhaps directly on a hard disk external or a USB stick connected directly to the TV .
There are several ways to record from TV to USB, either directly or by buying an external device, depending on the TV model.
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On televisions with USB port, you can record directly on the stick or on an external hard disk connected by cable if there is a recording function that can be recognized with the abbreviations DVR, PVR or USB Recording .
PVR stands for Personal Video Recorder, while DVR stands for Digital Video Recorder and it is the same thing.
If there is this function, then you can insert the stick or external hard disk on the USB port and configure the recording function in the TV settings.
The PVR or DVR function is based on the TV EPG guide (the one that allows you to know what programs are in the various channels) and also allows you to program the recording of a program in order to start and stop it automatically.
Usually, video recordings in PVR or DVR are visible only on TV and not on the computer due to copyright protections.
If the TV does not have an internal recording function, it is necessary to buy an external device, which today costs quite little.
For example, you can connect a DVB-T2 digital terrestrial receiver like this for 16 Euros, which allows you to record from TV Even in HD quality, without any difficulty and with full compatibility.
Another recording device that can be found on Amazon for less than 20 Euros is the Mini DVB T2 Decoder with SCART socket and USB and HDMI inputs.
Thanks to the Scart socket this type of device is also compatible with old TVs without digital terrestrial and adds the recording function on USB sticks and external hard drives.
With this type of device, the recording is in real time and you cannot change channels in the meantime.
Since, however, it is a different input of the TV, the one to which the decoder is connected, having another antenna socket, it is still possible to see other channels during the recording.
Wanting a quality solution, those who need a high definition HDMI video recorder, PVR and DVR, which also allows you to schedule recordings and which can be controlled with the remote control, you can buy the AVerMedia EZRecorder 310 device (150 Euro), which allows you to watch movies and videos in MP4 on TV and also to record them on a hard disk or a USB stick.
Other ways of recording from TV in digital format have been described in other articles and we have therefore:
- Record from the TV with a dedicated Mini PC
- Use your PC as a TV video recorder
- The online Vcast solution to record TV programs from your PC without using other devices.
