Windows 7 - TV Tuners: What file format and can I burn to DVD?

I'm looking at getting a TV tuner for my Windows 7 desktop.

I have HDMI out on my video card to hook up to a TV by my computer to watch the recorded shows. But what if I want to watch from a different TV? I'd like to be able to record the show to a DVD. Is that possible. What format do TV turners record to? Is it .mpg?

I've created/authored/burned many DVD-R in my day. So I'm vary familiar with doing that. I have many programs that can take a .mpg file and convert it to DVD format so I can burn it on a DVD-R and watch it in any DVD player.

None of my DVD players can directly plat Dvix or Mpeg directly, So I would have to convert to DVD format.

So is it possible, to take a recorded TV show and get it on a DVD or is there some kind of DRM or Copy Protection placed on them?

P.S.
I watch "over the air" ATSC digital/HD tv (not cable or satellite)

1. Most TV Tuners can choose what format to record in.

2. I'm fairly certain it's legal to record television for your own personal use. However, I'm not sure what the laws are when it comes to "over the air" programming.

I'm not to explain it in detail in case it is illegal, but here's a link to free video conversion software on cnet.You should be able to google yourself enough information.

video converter downloads on CNET

I already have plenty of programs to convert mpeg, avi, ect to a DVD format for burning.

I just need to make sure that the TV Tuner will record in a file that the file converters will recognize.

What's the difference in using a TV tuner to record a show then burn it to DVD, as appose to a VCR or DVD recorder with built in tv tuner hooked up to my tv? In all cases the tv show is saved onto a disc/tape instead of a hard drive, and can be watched on any tv.

Here's some pretty good info,
TV Tuners for Your PC

If you use Windows 7 Media Center Edition to run your tuners, then it will record the file in a new format: WTV. Not many converters know how to handle WTV since it is new to Windows 7. There is an option when you right click on a file, to convert it to .dvr-ms format, the older one that many of the converters DO support.

I right click and convert to .dvr-ms. I then load that into VideoRedo, remove commercials, and then save as .MPG. I then can use traditional DVD authoring apps to convert to .VOB and burn to DVD.

Regards,

Gayle Snedecor

Windows Live DVD Burner burns usable DVDs off of whatever format Media Center records them into... It sems to be a 2 pass operation, the first I assume is a conversion.

Use it with Movie Maker, which I use to remove commercials (or split where you want to), and you even get indexing to jump to where each split in your configuration is. After seeing what I can do with standard Windows tools, I am not bothering to upgrade my Nero. I rarely use the copy of version 8 that I have.

Not always. With Hauppauge it's MPEG (MPG) only. I've yet to find software to convert MPG to DVD without first converting the MPG to AVI which results in degraded quality.