FireWire out to DVD recorder

I have established a connection from my MacBook Pro to my DVD recorder via the Firewire 400 port. As soon as I plugged the Firewire cable into the DVD recorder (using the appropriate adapter on the other end of the Firewire), the DVD puts a "Macintosh connected" notice on the digital TV screen for a moment. But I can't tell how to send the computer a message to send the AV signal to the DVD. I can't select the Display to the TV screen using the Displays Panel in System Prefs, all I can select is the default MacBook screen. I have read that Firewire can send signals to output or from input, maybe my 2008 MacBook Pro is too primitive? I'm sure someone must have figured this one out. My incentive is to capture streaming movies to a DVD disk. Can anyone help??? JHR