Transfer DVR recordings to AT&T Uverse
I just finished signing up for a killer deal with AT&T on their U-Verse package, for phone, internet, and 'television' (no longer reselling Dish, apparently, but now delivering via fiber optic). I have a number of recordings on my DISH DVR that I want to save (the Stanley Cup Finals from 2007, for example). But from everything I can find, if I just transfer them to my external hard drive, I can only 'read' them back on a DISH DVR (and usually only the one I copied them from!).
Is there a method of saving recordings off to an external device that will allow them to be used on another service provider's system (DirectTv, AT&T, or even ... horrible as it may sound... Time Warner Cable or some other service)? I do not EVER plan on going back to cable, but am interested in saving these older recordings (Dish DVR is a 622. Some recordings i want to save are in HD, some are SD).
Also - what size would they be if I just write them to the external drive (I plan on getting another one as the one I have now I can't format, as it has 1,000's of vacation and family photo's on it. It would be nice if the same device could store the video's too). Is there another way to copy off the DVR recordings besides the external device - a DVD recorder, for example?