Sky + To My PC

thegoth

Hi,

I want to put some things I recorded from my sky+ onto my P.C. I was wondering how can I do this.

Thanks

snappieT

There isn't really any easy way, it seems.
http://www.satellites.co.uk/satellite/sky-pvr-systems/9408-sky-tv-capture-card.html has the best information I could find out there.

butts

DVD recorders have now got very inexpensive, so the easiest thing is to hook your sky+ box up to one of them and record the programs straight onto blank DVDs. You can then copy/rip the video from the DVD onto your computer.

Also keep an eye on the Richersounds forum as they are going to be doing a 250GB DVR for something like £65. With this device you could back up the entire contents of your sky+ box over the course of a few nights onto the DVR. Then just bring the DVR to wherever you keep your computer and create your DVD copies their.

Tomk1

Buy a USB-tv s-video device, with InterVideo WinDVR3 software included, can record live programmes etc. What I think you wanted was some way of directly conecting sky HD as an external HD. Don't know much about sky boxes but I think you can remove the HD, so using an adaptor should be able to do it, if you don't mind getting your hands dirty. Try satellite forum http://boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=55

snappieT

butts wrote: »

DVD recorders have now got very inexpensive, so the easiest thing is to hook your sky+ box up to one of them and record the programs straight onto blank DVDs. You can then copy/rip the video from the DVD onto your computer.

The simpler solution, yes. Quality-wise, not such a good idea. Converting from whatever codec is in the Sky+ box (lossy, no doubt) to MPEG2 on the DVD (lossy again) to whatever codec you rip on your PC (lossy once again) means you'll end up with a sub-par video.

There's nothing worse than transcoding from lossy to lossy. With the TV card idea, you have to do it once. Having a DVD in the middle means you're doing it twice.

butts

snappieT, the RGB capture on most DVD recorders will be better than alot of TV capture cards as most capture cards don't have RGB in. Also when you rip/copy the mpeg files from the DVD disc onto your computer their is no conversion. You get an identical bit per bit copy of the mpeg2 file that is on the disc. I've got a Samsung DVD recorder and a Hauppauge capture card and can see that the capture quality on the Samsung recorder is that bit better than what I get from the Hauppauge card. No doubt their are better capture cards out there but unless they are capturing the full RGB signal from the Sky box, as oppose to composite or svideo, they are unlikely to better a good DVD recorder.

snappieT

butts wrote: »

snappieT, the RGB capture on most DVD recorders will be better than alot of TV capture cards as most capture cards don't have RGB in. Also when you rip/copy the mpeg files from the DVD disc onto your computer their is no conversion. You get an identical bit per bit copy of the mpeg2 file that is on the disc. I've got a Samsung DVD recorder and a Hauppauge capture card and can see that the capture quality on the Samsung recorder is that bit better than what I get from the Hauppauge card. No doubt their are better capture cards out there but unless they are capturing the full RGB signal from the Sky box, as oppose to composite or svideo, they are unlikely to better a good DVD recorder.

I presumed you wouldn't be storing the MPEG2 on the computer, and that you'd be transcoding again. If MPEG2 is what is required, then yes, you are perfectly correct.