Is it possible to videotape from satellite?

Fand

Went to visit a friend in Wikala the other day; she's just got a satellite box with a million stations, but she tells me that only one station can be watched from it at a time (unlike cable, where two TVs in different rooms can have different shows going on, and a VCR can simultaneously tape a third, all on different channels).

"Can't you tape one?" I asked.

"Don't think so," she said, "At least there's no instructions, and I can't see how I'd do it."

Can she tape from the satellite? Does she have to watch the thing she's taping?

chernobyl

This "cable" senario is only possible on Analogue systems.
As for viewing 2 channels independantly on Satellite, this requires a dish upgrade and a seperate box (very high security) but with a digital recorder (eg) Tivo, you can record one channel whilst viewing another.

hope that helps.

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Ashley...if only

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

Fand

Thanks, Chernobyl. Where does one get Tivos, and are they dear?

Blitzkrieger

SKY will be offering a system similar to TiVo next year, and yes it is expensive. £500 to sign up and £10 a month to use it. I think the cost of TiVo is about the same?

chernobyl

Sky+ incorporates the Digi Decoder and a Tivo, but i think its best to buy your own Tivo as the Sky+ will limit you to purely sky channels and also requires a constant connection to a phone line ( for updates of software ).

They are expensive, but there worth it.

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Ashley...if only

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

Fand

Where does one buy a Tivo, please?

chernobyl

Dixons, Currys etc.

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Ashley...if only

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

Fand

Took a look at www.dixons.co.uk and saw one there for about £400 yuk money. Dear but interesting.

Thanks, Chernobyl and Blitzkrieg.

Shinji

TiVo are a bit rubbish - the basic spec is nice, but the whole £10-a-month subscription thing is utter wánk. Wait a few months for lower-priced alternatives to appear which you just buy up front - or build your own, all it takes is a medium-spec PC box with a big hard drive and an MPEG encoding card.

Fand

Shinjo - Got a pattern for the knit-yourself-a-Tivo job?

chernobyl

You could buy a TV card, record the TV to VCD (via your pc) and play them back on a DVD player (by burning them to cd in the VCd format), this is far more flexible (if a more time consuming format), and it will cost about the same.also you will have the ability to record box office events which are "macrovisioned".

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Ashley...if only

Ashley Lyn Cafagna

BlitzKrieg

.......................gimme a sec......


i dont know about the whole tivo thing etc etc.. But simply recording from sky? tha's easy (i think) We can record shows from it easily (i got the entire tenchi OVA HAHAHA)

we just programmed the vcr to record from sat, tha all. while recording we'd watch rte etc etc. No bother at all.

chernobyl

yes, but video is an aging and a very poor format, and DVD Player sales should rocket when DVD recorders are released here in europe.
(i know they are available in europe, but not "highstreet" available)

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Ashley...if only

Ashley Lyn Cafagna