Wood Works Season 7 Downloads on Amazon.com

[Pat Germain]

I don't know if anyone else was aware of this, but I wasn't until this morning. Amazon.com has a "DVD Unboxed" section where you can download videos for $1.99 each. And Wood Works season seven is available!

I don't have a DVR and can't always catch the show. I'm sure hoping they add seasons 1-6. Although I love the show, I'm not really interested in any of the season 7 projects. Although, the sharpening episode might be worthwhile. I've never seen it on DIY.

Just search for "Wood Works" on Amazon.com. There's a "Currently Unavailable" caption which appears, but I think they actually are available. Check it out!

[James Hart]

I've been setting the DVR for Woodworks for about 3 or 4 months now. Once I get 8 or 10 new episodes I put a blank DVD in the DVD-R and copy them over. Trouble in the house when the DVR was completely full with WW and NYW, something had to give.

I try to pay attention and pause the recorder during the commercials. I have no plans to make any copies other than for personal use, all legit.

I'm up to 56 of the 91 episodes. From looking at the DIY website, it looks like they might not play back season 1 and a few episodes of season 2, not sure on that yet.

Jim

[Bob Feeser]

Jim,
Looks like you have the dream setup. I have been recording NYW for years on an Ultimate TV satellite recorder (like TIVO) and am able to dump them onto VHS. That is a rare ability, at least at the time I bought my setup. They did not allow digital to digital transfers. Since they were both Sony machines, and I was going from a digital satellite hard drive recording in the Ultimate TV box, they only allowed me to go to an analogue VHS. VHS is a pain to deal with.
I bought an All in Wonder TV card, which gave me transfer capabilities into the computer, but the drivers for it are known to have bugs. After a while the recorded segments would crash my computer.
I understand that Miscrosofts Vista Media Edition gives you recording capabilities directly into the computer, but I imagine you need to keep the computer running. (Not a bad option if you do not have to pay a monthly fee) I also understand an adapter is available for converting your satellite receiver to an input source for computer based recording. Then again, it seems that Verizon FIOS is at the moment the source of choice. With all of that, I haven't even tuned my computer after the last upgrade, and I have stopped dumping NYW onto VHS.
Of course with all that I just wrote, someone could respond in book form, with chapters. So what I am really asking you is what kind of setup you have, that allows you to record DVR, and dump to a DVD? Huh?

[Bob Feeser]

Pat,
Thanks for the tip. I am an avid Woodworks fan of David Marks. I did come digging, and sure enough you were right. Here is the link directly to the Amazon page you spoke of.
Bob

[Gary Keedwell]

Hey Bob... You beat me to the punch. I am having a hard time inserting a link by having the word underlined. When I highlight the word and click on the link and the window opens...I cannot insert my link. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Gary

[Pat Germain]

You are quite welcome, Bob.

FYI, I just downloaded the sharpening episode to try this out. Here's what I've learned:

- These videos work on Windows XP SP2 and Vista. No Mac or Linux, which is a bummer

- Apparently, you can also download these videos to a TiVO. I don't have a TiVO, so I wouldn't know anything about how that works

- You have to install the Amazon player which takes a LONG time to download and execute

- Once the player was installed, I was prompted to download the video. It's pretty slow going; about 20 minutes for a 20 minute episode. I'm on a cable modem with very good bandwidth. It seems "the problem is at the distant end"

[James Hart]

Bob,

It's really straightforward.

There are 2 outputs on the back of my DVR, one to send signal to the TV and the other to send signal to a 'VCR". I put a DVD-R in place of the VCR.

When I pull up the recorded list and select the program, it gives me the option of sending it out the VCR output. The only small drawback is that I can't fast forward the output when it's in recording mode. I have to pause the DVD-R to skip recording the commercials.

This set up actually allows me to watch something else on TV while the recording happens in the background. Sometimes I'll use picture in picture so I can see WW in the little window and pause the commercials.

You could easily replicate this by daisy-chaining the DVD-R in between the DVR and the TV, but this would degrade your signal to the level of the connections on the DVD-R, which are typically RCA plugs, not component, HDMI, etc.

Jim

[Will Blick]

I downloaded and watched the sharpening video for $1.99. It was less than 12 minutes of actual tutorial.... 21 minutes total. Informational content mediocre IMO.... But regardless, I see this technology that Amazon is implementing as potential replacement for DVD sales. Maybe not for movies, but for instructional videos and other how-to's. The cost effective potential of this method is quite impressive to me. Not sure if you can download a 1 hr episode for $2 in other areas, but when that happens, this media technology will soon explode.

[Grant Vanbokklen]

Not working with a Mac is not good

I don't see this taking off unless they can some way make it work with all systems and also be able to burn your own dvd from what you download.

If you could I probably would have bought a few since I don't have a television service to view them otherwise.

[Bob Feeser]

Gary,
What I do is go to the web page I am trying to create the link to, right click the address on the address bar, and choose copy. Then I come back here to the forum, and type my sentence, with the word "here" for example, drag across it to highlight it, then I left click on the "insert link" icon, the one directly below the smiley, with the blue globe on it, and the hyperlink dialoge box opens up, then I right click on the address bar, and choose paste. (Hint: make sure the http:// doesn't wind up twice in the address) Then it shows up as an underlined link.
Bob

Hey Bob... You beat me to the punch. I am having a hard time inserting a link by having the word underlined. When I highlight the word and click on the link and the window opens...I cannot insert my link. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Gary

[Will Blick]

good point about the DVD burn...I was not aware this was not possible....

[Bob Feeser]

Jim,
Thank you for the tip. Looks like you have a great setup. What I think I have to do is go over the new update, and how to properly install it. The thing I like about this is that it turns the computer into a digital, to digital recorder, that I can then burn to a DVD if I choose, or just keep the library in the computer. They also had a conversion option, then allowed me to save it in MPEG, or some generic format for space considerations. I thought the thing stopped working, because the DVD protection was messing things up. So your set up with DVR to DVD-R direct is ideal. Since I do not have a dedicated DVD-R other then in my computer, I can not do that, but if I had one, I would be glad to do as you say.
Bob

Bob,

It's really straightforward.

There are 2 outputs on the back of my DVR, one to send signal to the TV and the other to send signal to a 'VCR". I put a DVD-R in place of the VCR.

When I pull up the recorded list and select the program, it gives me the option of sending it out the VCR output. The only small drawback is that I can't fast forward the output when it's in recording mode. I have to pause the DVD-R to skip recording the commercials.

This set up actually allows me to watch something else on TV while the recording happens in the background. Sometimes I'll use picture in picture so I can see WW in the little window and pause the commercials.

You could easily replicate this by daisy-chaining the DVD-R in between the DVR and the TV, but this would degrade your signal to the level of the connections on the DVD-R, which are typically RCA plugs, not component, HDMI, etc.

Jim

[Gary Keedwell]

http://home.knology.net/index.phpI have a link.