Sky Plus

delama1

Hi All,

I'm new to this, so apologies if I've come to the wrong thread.

I was just wondering if anyone has sky plus, and if so, what do they think. Is this where you can record shows on sky to watch at any time? Anyone know how much it costs? Sounds great, but probably wouldn't use it much.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated!
thanks,

Marie
www.belbambini.ie

miamee

Don't do it! Most people I know who have this have turned into telly addicts (if they weren't already!) Someone even records daytime tv to watch when she gets home :eek:

Of course this is coming from someone who has the basic NTL package & nowt else

Mossy Monk

i used to have Sky+. it is an excellent piece of machinery. willchange the way you watch tv. got rid of it myself because i dont really watch tv but if you do then well worth it

dubmick

it's brilliant. It totally changes the way you watch tv. It doesn't cost any extra per month if you have two premium channels.

byte

Moved to the Satellite forum.

newbie2

best thing ever.
I watch alot of TV so it's great.
The wife also likes it, she can series link all the "America's next top Models" and the like and watch them when I'm not around;)

god's toy

I LOVE IT!!! best thing ever


I can work all day and at the weekend's catch up on everything without having to care when something was on.

corblimey

Can't live without it. I don't watch "live" tv anymore and I've forgotten what an ad looks like (seriously, is that cillit bang guy still going?). The series link feature is possibly the best thing since unsliced bread.

S.M.B.

corblimey wrote:

Can't live without it. I don't watch "live" tv anymore and I've forgotten what an ad looks like (seriously, is that cillit bang guy still going?). The series link feature is possibly the best thing since unsliced bread.

Hi,

I'm also considering getting Sky Plus but am wondering is there anyway of transfering recorded programs to a PC without using a TV-Capture Card? I know movies are protected by Sky but can other material be transfered in any way?

watty

No they can't. Some very clever people have tried hard even with the disk. All the Free channels are best recorded on a non-Sky sta PVR or PC satellite card. Even the FTA material is encrypted on disk!

ice27

Its absolutely FAb! and better still the wife can even use it, although i dont know whether thats a good thing or a bad thing! My bloody hard disk is been eaten up by that tripe "Seoige & O Shea" thats on every day!

Joking aside its really great and extremely user friendly.

S.M.B.

watty wrote:

No they can't. Some very clever people have tried hard even with the disk. All the Free channels are best recorded on a non-Sky sta PVR or PC satellite card. Even the FTA material is encrypted on disk!

Thanks for the quick reply. Had a feeling it couldn't be done. It's a real pity though. As good as the service is at the moment, it would be great if I could transfer recorded material to a PC and then to a portable media player.

watty

That would involve re-encoding also. Since a PMP is 1/4 screen typically, transfer via analogue TV capture to PC and thence re-encode to 1/4 VGA MPEG4 can be done. DVDs look OK on 1/4VGA on GP2X (google)

Supercell

If you record onto a Dreambox HDD (or anyother standard sat box that can work with a Sky card or card in cam solution) with your Sky card is the content still encrypted?

byte

Longfield wrote:

If you record onto a Dreambox HDD (or anyother standard sat box that can work with a Sky card or card in cam solution) with your Sky card is the content still encrypted?

I'm open to correction on this, but I don't think so.

watty

It depends on the setup actually.
ON PC used for Sky some setups will record direct only, (reliable) and decode only while viewing.
The FTA channels will be clear.

If the Sat card has a built in CAM interface (i.e. not the smart mouse / serial card programmer solution) then direct record decoded without much overhead is possible

It really depends on the HW & SW architecture. I'm not sure how the HDD & CAM connecton is done on a Dreambox.

Supercell

Definitive answer to this (got new Sky Card and just tested ) - its not encrypted.

Using CCam can record to Dreambox HDD - files are .ts and unencrypted and easily converted to dvd format.

Mapping a network drive to the Dreambox HDD is easy enough for transferring files to the Windows PC,

Alternatively for the DM500S users , just get a crossover cable to your PC and map the drive to one on your pc and you can record that way directly and later burn it to DVD.

billy few mates

Probably a silly question I'm thinking of getting Sky+ (as soon as I get cthe 'capital sanction' from the mrs) I've never actually seen it in operation but read and heard a lot about it and like the idea of being able to record and freeze live TV etc but can I record one channel while watching another like with a normal VCR? I had normal Sky a few years back and couldn't do this so I was wondering if its possible now.
Thanks

watty

Yes. It has two tuners, and two coax cables. It records direct digital from either builtin tuner, or even both potentially.

billy few mates

Thanks for that...