Building a PVR for a HDMI output

Back in the day, we had more freedom to do what we wanted with TV signals coming into the home. We could simply plug the antenna into the VCR, and run another cable from the VCR through to the back of the TV and record whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. AND, we could fast forward through all the annoying adverts. Nowadays, it is apparently “illegal” to record from the TV; at least, that is my impression. They definitely make it very difficult to do so. In the UK, we can purchase Freeview and Freesat set top boxes with an actual hard drive to use as a PVR; Sky Q does the same and so does Virgin Media. The problem is that those recordings are encrypted and can only be stored and played back on that box. That means that they cannot be exported or viewed on any other machine. The reasons are valid enough; licensing and copyright rules and all that. Gone are the days when I could pass my video cassette recording of the Saturday night music video show to my neighbour because he missed…