Sky HD box connections

311

Hello ,I'm seriously thinking of getting skyHD . But theres a few things I want to clarify first .

Can I connect the box to a pc ,via whatever means . I have a tv with a HDMI connection , so I was wondering what other audio/visual connections are on the box ?

If I had to ,could I use a splitter for the two ?

mathias

Wiki to the rescue once again ,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sky_hd_001.jpg

The Ethernet , eSATA , and USB connections have no functionality , yet , and are listed by "Sky as reserved for future use" .

You can connect to a computer with a tuner card in the usual way , and record off that , its a sky plus box as well with a huge 160GB of recording space ( its 300GB but 140GB is reserved by Sky for Sky anytime and other stuff ) so you dont really need to record off it , its own recording quality being identical to the transmission , no loss whatsoever.

Recorded programs on the hard drive are encrypted and only get decoded by the box so there is no way to copy the data off it in a legally useful form. ( You can archive via scart but this is downscaled to SD and analog so not as good as the original broadcast)

The HDMI has HDCP content protection enabled and will only play back certain broadcasts on HDCP enabled screens , you get a blue splash screen message if your screen or output device is not HDCP compliant.

Dont worry though , if your screen has a HDMI port its OK , you can split the HDMI out through a splitter or an switching amp no problem , but remember the HDMI only carries stereo , so to get surround you'll have to match the optical with the HDMI channel.

The HDMI outputs video and audio but only stereo , not surround , so if you want surround you have to connect the optical to your amp or AV receiver.

311

Thanks mathias ,sorry about the laziness .

I've been ordering stuff today and trying to get media network stuff sorted .

Since I've started using blu-ray ,I can't help thinking that some serious bandwith could be got through the HD box. It seems that there is around 21Mbps on movies ,is this the same for all decoders ,or does the hd box have a higher throughput than a normal sd decoder ?

mathias

Your right , over the Correct connections , like component and HDMI , the bandwidth and throughput is much higher than SD decoders.

The USB , eSATA , and Ethernet ports have no functionality at all at the moment so you will get nothing by connecting up your devices there , Ive tried them all and there is nothing there.

Sky download SW updates all the time , increasing functionality and performance , but so far no use has been made of these ports.

Good news is though , that channel 4 are testing HD at the moment with a new channel expected on 140 by the end of the year.

311

Thanks again mathias ,any recomendations on a hd installer ?

spockety

What happens to the component outputs during content that is HDCP enabled? Nothing gets transmitted through them?

Tony

I doubt they will use HDCP for quite some time as it would disrupt normal viewing .