Sky compatable PVR?

RangeR

Hi guys,

I've done a search on the forum for info on this but couldn't find much information that suited my needs.

I'm looking for a PVR including hard disk. Doesnt have to be that big. I will need an ethernet port in it, I might run some CAT5 from the PVR to my computer. Wireless doesn't interest me in this case, as even 802.11g isn't fast enough for full audio. Although a mate of mine is running IP over internal power lines at nearly twice the speed of 802g. Might look into that.

Anyway, the MAIN feature I want is...
I will hook up the SKY Digibox to the PVR using Scart. The PVR will record and stop recording based on the SKY EPG auto channel switch. I know that there are a few units out there [maybe Sony or Panny] but not sure of the specifics.

Similar to the Phantom PVR in operation. I already have a Phantom PVR but I do not want to use it. It's too fiddly. I want a PVR that can auto detect like the Phantom PVR.

I dont mind if the PVR doesn't have it's own EPG as I will only want to use the SKY EPG to program my recordings.

I would rather not, but don't mind scheduling recordings on both devices as a fall back solution.

I hope I've explained myself ok.

I do NOT want to connect the Sat feed directly into the PVR.


Anyone got ANY information on SKY compatable PVR's out there?

watty

Forget IP over power. May be made illegal, and is very antisocial.

What your asking for is an analog input PVR. There are plenty of options, but they seriously degrade the already digital Satellite quality.

A Satellite card in PC will receive and record all the free Sky channels directly, playback = live quality. You can use Digiguide as an EPG.

A Sky+ will work as a PVR for Sky pay channels. But delibrately has no PC connectivity.

Satellite PVRS for Sky free channels or other providers Pay Channels start from 300 Euro for decent model.

If you want an analog in PVR then consult Argos, Google, Dixons/Curries etc, it's really nothing much to do with Sky or satellite at all.

YOU SHOULD look for TWO features:
1) RGB in
2) SCART signalling

Then it will work with Sky personal planner and give as good quality as possible with analog in PVR, WHICH IS MUCH LOWER than direct recording as in Sky+, PC sat card or satellite PVR.

Full audio is no problem for Wireless, it is decent quality video it can't handle. You need 100M ethernet. USB even the supposed 480Mbps version is generally slower than full duplex 100M ethernet and definately slower than Firewire/iLink/IEE1394. Some PVRs feature firewire and/or ethernet and/or USB2.

Really this is not a Home Theater/ PVR forum ask here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=113

RangeR

Yeah, I've pretty much decided to run a CAT5 down to the TV area for the PVR.

I know PVR [except Sky+] is nothing to do with Sky as such. I was more looking to see if other people have used or know about certain PVR's that DO work with Sky, as I don't want to go out and drop a wad of cash ony to find out it's not what I want.

I don't want PC Sat card for 2 reasons. Herself will not tolerate another computer in the house, especially a noisy one by the TV. And I want to be able to record the full Sky package of channels, not just the free ones. If I'm out of the house or away for a few days, I want to be able to record any channel in my subscription, excepting Macrovision stuff.

Good tip on the RGB in and Scart Signalling. I assume most devices that handle Scart Signalling *should* work with the personal planner?

watty

Yes. The personal planner wiggles the SCART on pin. I'm not sure if the VCR out has RGB. I must check. I'm also not sure if the main SCART which does do RGB also wiggles the SCART on pin for personal planner.

In either case, if neither of these is true a single wire from VCR SCART cable to Main TV SCART cable would rectify the issue. I'll check.

Generally only Sky Box Office has Macrovison. Which is why we never order that any more. The top 2" of one of our TVs continually "tears" with Sky Box office Macrovison. It only slightly flickers with the different Macrovision on a Disney VHS.


My PC based PVR is in shed at bottom of garden yet IR remote in living room (cut eye cable and extended it with CAT5) and feeds all the TVS. 200G HDD, dual layer 8.4G DVDR all mode writer, Sat card with four satellite LNB feeds and Analog TV tuner card too. A PIII 933 MHz 512M running XP pro. It is too slow to view HD Satellite, though it can record it perfectly! A 3GHz PC can playback/view HD Satellite. There are NO analog input High Definition PVRs and likely never will be.

bpmurray

IrishTLR wrote:

Yeah, I've pretty much decided to run a CAT5 down to the TV area for the PVR.

I recommend CAT5E or CAT6. This will provide what you need for the future, using Gigabit LAN. If you use CAT5, in two or three years, you'll want the extra bandwidth. The difference in price is pretty negligible.

Blaster99

Are there PVR's (with HDD) that work like Sky+ and take digital input and support Sky's viewing cards? I have tended to find in the past that analogue PVR's are expensive and if digital ones are cheaper and you have a digital signal, seems to make sense to use it...

watty

... But the ONLY digital input PVR for Sky pay channels is Sky+.

There are many, many Satellite PVRs, some can do DTT and even analog input too. But while some can take a CAM and viewing card, none properly support Sky viewing card (only BBC/ITV etc on Sky).

Of course you might buy Sky+ AND the non-Sky as the Sky+ in Irieland will only do BBC1NI and BBC2 NI. It won't do BBC3, BBC4, other BBC regions & Nations, BBC News24, Cbbc, Cbeebies, ITV1/UTV/ITV2/ITV3/ITV4. Any of the non-Sky Digital Satellite PVRs will.


A couple of non-Sky PVRs can be got to partially work with Sky Card, but the card has to be kept in a regular Digibox or it misses keys and stops working for up to a day. Such a system is vunerable to Sky/NDS changes and might not work at all tomorrow.

yvry

I think when i read your question on dreambox, difficult but it has everything you are asking. I will not explain how thats is your work

RangeR

Ah I'm aware of Dreambox [and it's various custom add ons] and what it can do for Sky. However, I was only aware that it could do what I want when I DON'T have a sky subscription.

If you tell me that the dreambox can connect to a sky digibox and either has the ability to change channel for recording OR will auto record based on my personal planner, then I'll do the rest of the hard work.

I do not mind thinkering around with stuff. But I do mind dropping 500 yo-yo's on stuff that just won't work for me.

Having said that, you might be on to something. I could probably.... Hmmm.... Nice.... I'll look into that a bit more but the Dreambox might just be what I need. I never thought of using it legit

watty

No the dream box does not connect to the Sky box at all, just to LNB.

The Sky card can't be g'teed to work in a Dreambox, and also needs to spend most of its time in a real Sky box or it misses keys and does not work for up to 24hrs.

The best solution for Sky pay channels and for Free channels, esp all free BBC and ITV that DO NOT RECORD on Irish Sky+ is:
Sky+ for pay TV channels
Reelbox, Dreambox, PC Sat or any number of solutions (80 Euro for PC card, Sat PVRs from 300 Euro) for FTA channels.

The Sky quad LNB with Sky+ can feed two coax to the Sky+ and two cables to the FTA PVR. Then you ALSO can watch two different channels (One or both FTA) while simultanously recording two channels.

For stuff you want to put on PC and have for a while on DVD, then on some PVRs, the Sky card *might* work, and for scheduling one film or program a day won't miss keys, put card back in Sky+ afterwards.

The non-Sky satellite PVRs all support two motorised dishs.

Check out Dr. Dish and TeleSatellite International for Satellite PVR reviews. Some newer boxes may do HD TV.

watty

For Digital I have 2 x digiboxes, 1 x PC with Satellite card feed from four LNBs (4 satellites) and a motorised FTA Digital receiver.

I wouldn't give up any of them.

Periodically I have a subscription on just one Sky Digibox and use an S-VHS recorder for the rare occasion. Most things I want to record are on BBC/ITV. At a pinch I can record analog video slightly better than SVHS quality using MJPEG capture at a rather high quality setting similar to DV camera compression (DV format is similar to MJPEG). Then I can use TMPEG encoder to do high quality 2 pass VBR encoding to MPEG2 for DVD authoring.

BBC satellite is mostly DVD compatible. ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 is often 544 pixel DVB, which is NOT a supported DVD format (my DVD player will play it if I lie to DVD authoring SW by patching file headers before and after authoring), and is best transcoded to 720 pixel.

RangeR

watty wrote:

Check out Dr. Dish and TeleSatellite International for Satellite PVR reviews. Some newer boxes may do HD TV.

Will do, thanks Watty.

The main reason that I don't want to go with Sky+ [and I do have the two premium movie channels, so the extra rental is not a major problem ATM] is that if, for what ever reason, I stop subscribing to Sky+, my PVR is gone. It also won't work with anything but Sky. It's just a waste. If I decide to go with NTL or Chorus or AN-Other later on, I have to fork out for a new PVR. Not going to happen.

I'll check the mags and Sat sites though. Might be more info in them.

Zaphod

watty wrote:

The Sky card can't be g'teed to work in a Dreambox, and also needs to spend most of its time in a real Sky box or it misses keys and does not work for up to 24hrs.

I'm not sure if it needs to spend most of its time in a digibox. From my own experience with a Dragon CAM + a FTV card, it lasts several weeks without requiring updating in a digibox. A subscription card may require more regular updates, but from reading other forums, it doesn't appear to be a major issue.

watty

I'm just erring on side of caution, Zaphod. It's easy to "oversell" a solution, especially one that no-one can know how long it will work for.

I suppose any ISO card reader on PC could be made to work with ProgDVB (which I have). My old hauppauge PCI DVB-s card is made by technotrend and works as Skystar1 with any SW I installed (I tried about 5 packages, but overall ProgDVB seems best). It has a header for a CI board to take a real CAM, but I never saw anyone sell them.

Do you know anyone using a Sky Card with ProgDVB, ISO card adaptor and Skystar1 family card?

I develop PIC based Radio controllers and have a PIC programmer that can connect direct to a naked ISO card socket. It doesn't use real serial data though, rather the Serial port handshake pins are "wiggled" by IC-Prog to write or read data. I have an ISO card socket removed from an old Amstrad Videocrypt decoder and mean to fit the 6pin connector to it for the programmer. I reckoned I could read names/number from my phone sim using the original ISO size carrier as a holder.

Zaphod

I've got a smartmouse on order from Germany with the intention of using with the FTV card, Ritzdvb and an SS2. I'm hoping to eventually have it accessible via SMS using an old Nokia phone and the command line utility that comes with Ritz. I'll report back with any progress (or lack thereof).

http://dvbn.happysat.org/index.php is probably one of the most useful forums for info on smartmouse/phoenix side of things.

watty

I must say that though I found Ritzdvb a lot prettier than progDVB, it was VERY awkward with Diseqc switch and four satellites.

Iv'e written an VB based NT server service for SMS via nokia phone serial cable (NT4.0, win2K, winXP, Win2003). It can be customised easily to to nearly anything. I had it accessing SQL, Zetafax fax server and MDaemon Mail Server also with forms on IIS that could access the service too via ASP script.

If you're interested I'll upload it to my website with all source.

bk

watty wrote:

BBC satellite is mostly DVD compatible. ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 is often 544 pixel DVB, which is NOT a supported DVD format (my DVD player will play it if I lie to DVD authoring SW by patching file headers before and after authoring), and is best transcoded to 720 pixel.

I had the same problems with my TiVo and DVD authoring. I found the easiest solution was to simply buy a new DVD player. The newer DVD players that support DivX/Xvid, also support 544 line MPeg Videos simply dropped onto a DVD-R (you don't even need to author the DVD). This makes copying to DVD much, much faster and such DVD players can be gotten for as little as €50 from Lidl/Aldi.

Zaphod

watty wrote:

I must say that though I found Ritzdvb a lot prettier than progDVB, it was VERY awkward with Diseqc switch and four satellites.

ProgDVB is what I've used in the past too, as it works immediately from installation with 4:2:2. Ritz requires messing with filter graphs etc but does seem more amenable to command line control.

I've never found ProgDVB to be that great with Disecq switches. I think, though, that it might because the SS2 PCI (esp v2.3) cards aren't very good at sending the tones over longer stretches of coax, rather than something specifically wrong with the software. I've seen the same thing with certain receivers over extra long stretches, where they might switch port 1 and 2, but not 3 and 4, or not switch at all. When the 4x1 was moved nearer the receiver, it worked fine.

Anyone recommend a particularly 'sensitive' model of Diseqc switch?

watty wrote:

Iv'e written an VB based NT server service for SMS via nokia phone serial cable (NT4.0, win2K, winXP, Win2003). It can be customised easily to to nearly anything. I had it accessing SQL, Zetafax fax server and MDaemon Mail Server also with forms on IIS that could access the service too via ASP script.

If you're interested I'll upload it to my website with all source.

Would like a look, thanks!

watty

Re: DVDs.. There is a reson for standards.. Don't bank on any DVD ROMS playing on your next DVD player if they aren't standard compliant.

Never had problem with 4-way Diseqec. No application would relaibaly operate motor though. The version of card I have can't supply the startup current.

I'll PM when I have the stuff on www.wattystuff.net or on the www.wattystuff.net/tiki

bk

watty wrote:

Re: DVDs.. There is a reson for standards.. Don't bank on any DVD ROMS playing on your next DVD player if they aren't standard compliant.
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The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from

The reality is that most decent DVD palyers are becoming really good at playing any format you throw at them, including Divx, Xvid, HD Divx, unusual DVD formats like NTSC TiVo MPeg 2 and even WMV, plus lots of audio codecs like Mp3, Ogg, WMA, etc. and even photographic formats like Jpeg, etc.

It isn't difficult to figure out what DVD players support the format, simply check www.videohelp.com

Also it is worth noting, that while there are lots of DVD palyers on the market, there are only about 4 manufacturers of the chipsets/decoders for DVD palyers, so as long as you get a DVD player with a Realtek chipset you should be fine.

BTW I just copy the Mpeg files to a DVD-RW, if I have problems with the DVD in a future player I can always copy them back to the PC and go through the painful DVD authoring process then, so I haven't lost anything. Of course I'd probably just return the DVD player and get one that does work as it isn't worth the hastle of DVD authoring.

hawthorn

I am somewhat puzzled.....i dont fully understand all the technical stuff in these posts, but do I take it that DVD HD recorders do not record from Sky in digital? ir they have an analogue tuner?

If so, whay dont they have a digital tuner?

Do I take it that PVRs are better ie digital recording? What exactly is the difference between a PVR and a DVD HD recorder, is it just that the DVD HD does not record in digital?

I have an old (well not that old) JVC VHS recorder, and that can record from sky, and to me it looks the same quality..... Could this be? Will a DVD HD be much better?

Sorry for the basic questions but Im probably not the only one wondering..!

KC

watty

You can get both kinds of PVR.

Ones with a Digital Tuner come in three kinds:
* Satellite (Only Sky+ works with Sky pay channels)
* Cable (Has to be supplied by Cable Company generally)
* Terrestrial (i.e. UK Freeview, no service here yet)

Ones with an Analog Tuner can record Analog terrestrial TV, or analog video directly via S-Video, RGB, Composite, Component etc on RCA/Phono connections, S-Video miniDin or SCART depending on model. They then encode that to digital at poorer quality than a broadcaster or DVD production company uses in Analog to Digital conversion.

All DVDR or HDD/DVD or PVRs (includes Tivo, MS Media Centre, ProgDVB, MythTV, Sky+ skyHD) record digitally. But the input may be analog.

If the input is analog and it is on less than Highest Quality to give more recording time the quality is still better than VHS. But not better than S-VHS. However you have instant access to each program without widing the tape, pause of Live TV (by starting to record and then playing a minute or two behind recording when you unpause) etc.

The PVRs (Sky+, Dreambox, ProgDVB on PC, Reelbox etc) that have a digital input record the digital signal "as is". There are no quality settings to extend recording time. Playback is a copy of the live digital data so is IDENTICAL to live TV. Much better than Analog input PVR or S-VHS.

Some Like reelbox or PC based solutions can have four digital tuners, two for satellite and two for Terrestrial Digital, AND analog tuner too. These can create DVDs (Sky+ can't) or stream the live or playback on your computer network to a laptop or portable video player or PC. Direct Digital PVRs also are ususally better at automatic (scheduled ) recordings, esp. Sky+ which uses the Personal Planner and Sky EPG.

Even though Sky is Digital or NTL Digital Cable is Digital, if you record from the normal receiver with separate PVR, you can only input in Analog. The quality is reduced by process of Digital --> Analog -- Analog ---> Digital as ALL PVRs use Digtal format internally. A PC based PVR can use MJPEG instead of MPEG2 for analog input Digital recording. For "on the fly" digital conversion and any subsequent editing this is a lot superior to PVR "on the fly" Analog to MPEG2 conversion as it is like DV format used by Digital CamCorders. It uses MUCH more disk space. The Best digital format used for Analog in (perhaps to edit S-VHS or Hi8 analog tapes) is Huffy as it has no copression artifacts at all. It uses a horrendous amount of disk space.

ShaneOC

I recently bought a Sony RDR HX510 DVD recorder with 80Gb hard disk. So far I have recorded most of the stuff onto it using the SP (regular) quality setting. I have recorded from both a sky+ box and a regular box (with FTV card) and I cannot tell the difference in quality between live broadcast and recorded programmes. I recorder the rugby on LP (one step down the quality ladder) and did not notice any difference in quality between that and SP. I have tested writing to a DVD and can't really see a difference between between a regular DVD and one with recorded TV.

Presumably the encoding on cheaper DVD recorders (with or without Hard disks) may not be as good but I have zero complaints about the sony.

By the way, the two sky boxes are connected via RGB scarts to the recorder.

I expect the next thing that I will be getting is a phantom PVR which I will connect to the FTV box. This will allow me to use the FTV box as a pseudo-sky+ box. Just set autoview in the planner and it will record.

watty

As an ex Broadcast enginner I'm picky. Also have a large CRT 4:3 TV that does true WS (much better quality than cheap 28" WS or any less than 4000Euro flat screen TV).

Also the original channels on Satellite vary from best DVD quality to worse than VCD or old LP VHS. Many channels are about SVCD single pass MPEG2 encode quality which is close to the average analog RGB in PVR quality, so then any difference would be hard to spot.

ShaneOC, sounds like a good solution for Sky payTV channels, Cable or MMDS.

hawthorn

Watty

Thanks for that detailed reply. Im sure I could follow 80% of it...! Im just a beginner, sorry! But thanks again, it did make it a lot clearer to me.

Having seen the post about the Sony DVD recorder, I have one last question. If I had Sky+, and used that as my main recording method (ease of use etc), can I if I wish, transfer a recorded show to a DVD/HD, where then i could presumably edit it, and eventually record to disc to keep, if needs be. I can see loss of quality looming here, but can it be done?

K

Watty you should arrange a weekend seminar, or at least a one day. Id certainly go and wouldnt mind paying a reasonable fee!!!

watty

I'd get charged by DeVore or Cloud or somebody if I advertised it here

ShaneOC

hawthorn wrote:

Watty
Having seen the post about the Sony DVD recorder, I have one last question. If I had Sky+, and used that as my main recording method (ease of use etc), can I if I wish, transfer a recorded show to a DVD/HD, where then i could presumably edit it, and eventually record to disc to keep, if needs be. I can see loss of quality looming here, but can it be done?

This is exactly what I have (with the addition of a FTV box for Channel 4, five, and all the BBC and ITV channels on an EPG). I have transferred stuff from Sky+ to the HD, editted out ads etc and then copied it to a DVD. I have noticed no loss in quality (and it's only on the standard quality setting - there are 2 or 3 higher settings).

Butterbox

watty wrote:

The Sky card can't be g'teed to work in a Dreambox, and also needs to spend most of its time in a real Sky box or it misses keys and does not work for up to 24hrs.

Sky cards will update in a dreambox. The card does not need to be put into a digibox every couple of months for updates. I have a full subscription and Freesat which have not been out of the dreambox for over a year now.

watty

That's good news. Hope it stays that way but unfortunately no G'tee it will work even tomorrow.

Blaster99

Would it be possible for you guys in the know to jot down a few notes or links on how one gets a Dreambox to work with Sky? I have googled and I've searched this forum, but I haven't found anything specific on the topic.

watty

PM me with details, Butterbox and if it is all legitimate I will put it in the ICDGopedia


This is first I have heard of a 100% working solution.


The legal options will be here:

http://bytelive.com/wiki/tiki-index.php?page=Alternatives+To+Sky+Digibox

RangeR

If it's legal, add me to that list. I've been researching this for months and came up emtpy.

watty

OK this method will NOT last. Only buy a Dreambox if ultimately you are happy to use it for Free channels. I can nearly be certain that Sky/NDS will take counter measures against this. I CAN'T AND DON'T ANYONE ELSE TRY TO EXPLAIN WHY or the post will be deleted and thread locked

Icehouse

I reckon that if/when the BBC FreeSat launches, it'll be with a cheap and rather cheerful DVR...

hawthorn

Shane

Good to know it can be done. i thought i read somewhere that it could be difficult to record from Sky+ ie transfer a recording made on Sky+ to a DVD recorder, but maybe that was referring to Movie channels or something like that.

What do you actually do? Just playback your recorded show and set DVD to record?

Not that I have actually got DVD recorder yet, but its coming! As some of you may have seen in earlier threads I debated long and hard whether to just get Sky+ and a simpler DVD recorder or not get Sky+ at all, but get a good DVDHD recorder, possibly one with Guideplus to change the channels on the sky box. My thinking was this would eliminate the need for Sky+.

But I think there are still some features on SKy+ that are good, so I may even be greedy and go for Sky+ AND DVDHD recorder:)

Also I saw on some post that Sky+ box may become the default box....so I may wait and see!

K

RangeR

hawthorn wrote:

possibly one with Guideplus to change the channels on the sky box.

Ok, seeing this from you, mate. I did some more researching...


Supported PVR's in UK. Should work here. List is a bit out of date, so I hear.
http://www.europe.guideplus.com/En/help/supextrec_uk.html

Setting up Guide++. Says that you need to tune into ITV via areial or Eurosport via Sky.
http://www.europe.guideplus.com/En/getting_started.html

Some FAQ's on setting up Guide+ for Satellite
http://www.europe.guideplus.com/Generic/faq/uk_en/faq_satellite.html

Some products that I found to support Guide+ and STB
Philips HDRW720/05 No ethernet suport but has iLink and built in DVD Writer
Philips MCP9350I/05 This is the daddy. Full blown Media Center with Lan and Wifi. I have to say, I pretty much stopped looking after I found this one

*EDIT* The Media Center doesn't support Guide+ but has the Microsoft Media OS with it's own EPG to control the STB [Sky included] via IR Blaster.

ShaneOC

hawthorn wrote:

i thought i read somewhere that it could be difficult to record from Sky+ ie transfer a recording made on Sky+ to a DVD recorder, but maybe that was referring to Movie channels or something like that.

What do you actually do? Just playback your recorded show and set DVD to record?
K

I have not tried transferring a movie (from Sky Movies) yet but will do so over the weekend and let you know how I get on. Transferring is very simple. You can either just play a single programme on Sky+ and hit record on the DVDHD or you can set a list of programmes using the "Copy" option on Sky+ and record those to the DVDHD.

watty

Sky Movies have Macrovision. Some PVRs may not care.

RangeR

I thought it was just Box Office?

watty

Sorry thinking of Box Office. Most Sky Movies might be OK. Try and see.

bauderline

A nice solution for this is building a Media Center PC running MCE2005 and using ultra quiet and decent spec hardware. I have spent the last few weeks settings this up and tweaking it. If you connect the digibox to the tuner card via SVideo the picture quality is very good. The system has its own built in EPG which downloads the listings two weeks at a time, you can record one off movies or record an entire series and then playback on your TV or burn to DVD.

It IS a really nice solution, however I will put my hands up and say its tricky as hell to get the hardware/software/driver setup just right so that you get top class picture and sound quality.

If anyone is interested I will post further details...

b.

RangeR

bauderline wrote:

A nice solution for this is building a Media Center PC running MCE2005 and using ultra quiet and decent spec hardware. I have spent the last few weeks settings this up and tweaking it. If you connect the digibox to the tuner card via SVideo the picture quality is very good. The system has its own built in EPG which downloads the listings two weeks at a time, you can record one off movies or record an entire series and then playback on your TV or burn to DVD.

It IS a really nice solution, however I will put my hands up and say its tricky as hell to get the hardware/software/driver setup just right so that you get top class picture and sound quality.

If anyone is interested I will post further details...

b.

I would be intereste in further details. I'm pretty sure I will be going down this route within the next few months. Would probably like a machine that looks like a DVD or VCR, rather than a computer. Like the Philips Media Center.

bauderline

Take a look at the following article / review... This is what I based my machine on, the key to the hardware is to ensure its powerful but quiet whilst being supported by MCE2005.


http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1893821,00.asp

baud.

Sponge Bob

bauderline wrote:

The system has its own built in EPG which downloads the listings two weeks at a time, you can record one off movies or record an entire series and then playback on your TV or burn to DVD.

Hi

Are you able to get the EPG data passed from the digibox to the MCE PC over s-video ?

Is it picking up 'sky' format epg or generic dvb-s epg ?

can it pick up generic dvb-s epg from a channel such as sky 3 or sky 1 or only for bbc /itv ??

TIA

bauderline

Hi,

I believe the guide data is downloaded "over the air" for DVB-T cards and updated automatically in this way. DVB-S cards are not officially supported by MCE2005, however there are a couple of reg hacks available for a couple of DVB-S cards that make them look like a DVB-T card to MCE2005. I am not sure how it will fetch the guide data if you go down this route.

The only method to catpure and record the output from a Sky Digibox is to use an analogue capture card and capturing the output using either the RF connector or better still SCART to composite or SVideo for better quality. Note for SVideo you will need a small device from maplin as apparently the digibox only output from the SCART in RGB or composite. The maplin box converts the RGB output to SVideo as I understand it.

In this instance the guide is downloaded via the internet and you will need either a broadband connection or a dial up connecton will do as you can elect to download the guide manually when it suits you.

I hope this helps !

baud.

watty

You can't use the Sky EPG on ANYTHING other than a Sky box. It is not "passed" out. The best that BLOATED MCE will do is Now & Next with Satellite unless you use a 3rd party addon like Digiguide.

bauderline

Watty,

With all due respect you are talking rubbish and have must have used MCE2005 rollup 2 which contains a *** FULL *** EPG which can holds data for two weeks at a time and can be configured to record an entire series much like sky+.

I am not saying MCE2005 is perfect but I have found it the most flexible solution for sky.

This is what the MCE2005 EPG looks like, this is for an american provider, however the Sky one is EXACTLY the same.

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/mce2005/tv%20guide.html

More MCE2005 screenshots...

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/mce2005/

Best Regards, Baud.

Sponge Bob

I am well impressed with this if it is indeed possible.

Let me clarify

1. Its an external sky box .
2. It interfaces to MCE PC only thru s-video
3. There is no separate internal DVB-S card in the MCE PC which could 'independently' acquire epg .
4. Over S Video it is possible to acquire 2 weeks of EPG
5. There is no scart connector betwen the MCE PC and teh Sky Box
6. There is no DVB-T card in the PC nor a freeview box anywhere 'in th emix'

RangeR

Sponge Bob wrote:

I am well impressed with this if it is indeed possible.

Let me clarify

1. Its an external sky box .
2. It interfaces to MCE PC only thru s-video
3. There is no separate internal DVB-S card in the MCE PC which could 'independently' acquire epg .
4. Over S Video it is possible to acquire 2 weeks of EPG
5. There is no scart connector betwen the MCE PC and teh Sky Box
6. There is no DVB-T card in the PC nor a freeview box anywhere 'in th emix'

Sir Sponge look at the Philips Media Center MCP9350I/05 I posted about a few days ago . Pretty much the same but built to look like a normal consumer device that you'd plop under your telly. It has many Video connects on the back. It's abeast of a machine


http://www2.p4c.philips.com/files/m/mcp9350i_05/mcp9350i_05__fp_.jpg
http://www2.p4c.philips.com/files/m/mcp9350i_05/mcp9350i_05_tlp_.jpg

Tech Spec

Add a new dimension to your viewing

* Digital Natural Motion produces smooth, judder free images
* Motion Adaptive De-interlacing for razor sharp images
* High Definition playback

Great convenience

* Dual tuner: Record channel 1 while watchng channel 2
* Direct access to central stored video, music and photos
* LikeMusic - your personal DJ to match music to your mood
* Simultaneous user access throughout the home using a client

Designed for your living room

* Horizontal design styled for your TV
* Easy to connect to your TV and Home Theatre system
* Intuitive user interface lights up selected device keys only

Access your online favourites

* Video and music on demand
* Additional functionality through future software upgrades