Saorview box that can record

Munster Magic

Hi there,

I currently have sky+ but was thinking of cancelling sky and I was looking for something to record from tv and also to copy the programmes I have saved on my sky+ box. Are there any saorview boxes which would be able to do this?

If there is where can I buy them?

Thanks

Fingleberries

At the moment there don't appear to be any approved boxes that do this.
Some are meant to be in testing awaiting approval.

Others, such as a "Freeview+HD" box may possibly be able to do a job, but it's really not guaranteed to work and your mileage may vary whether it does work or not.

Ordinary Freeview boxes definitely won't work for Saorview.

There's a bit of a thread that may help get answers - http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056710723

John mac

to copy the programmes I have saved on my sky+ box.

None. you need a sky box to watch the programs recorded with it .
(you could use a vcr )

Maidhci

I am currently getting TV reception via a Triax TR112 Saorview box and I occasionally record programmes to a connected external drive via the USB port. Unfortunately, the HD developed a fault after some months and I lost a recorded programme that I wished to keep. My question therefore: When I transferred a recorded programme from the HD (.TIF) to a DVD via my laptop, it was not possible to watch the programmes on DVD player. Is there a solution to this??
Does anyone know of a reliable external HD to record programmes etc. etc.??

Many thanks in advance.

Johnboy1951

Maidhci wrote: »

I am currently getting TV reception via a Triax TR112 Saorview box and I occasionally record programmes to a connected external drive via the USB port. Unfortunately, the HD developed a fault after some months and I lost a recorded programme that I wished to keep. My question therefore: When I transferred a recorded programme from the HD (.TIF) to a DVD via my laptop, it was not possible to watch the programmes on DVD player. Is there a solution to this??
Does anyone know of a reliable external HD to record programmes etc. etc.??

Many thanks in advance.

Some manufacturers encrypt/DRM/otherwise ensure that recording s are not playable on anything other than the box they were recorded on.
There is not a lot one can do about this, except to avoid the purchase of such hardware.
The Sky box would be a popular example of this practice.

When I transferred a recorded programme from the HD (.TIF) ...

Is this a typo? .tif files are graphic not video, IIRC.
Did you copy the correct file to the PC?

Maidhci

Thank you for your response - it is a typo - it should read TSV file not TIF. The correct file was copied but appears, as you say, that it may have been encrypted etc. Do you know if it is possible to record to a VCR via scart connection to the Saorview box, if so, how is it set up?? The advantage of an external drive is that one can watch one channel while recording from another channel etc., coupled with the pause and play facility.

From my experience, recording to an external HD is not so stable, as they appear to corrupt after some months' recording and as a consequence, the recorded material is lost, as it not possible to back it up to DVD. I considered that the disk I was using was a good brand but these things happen.

Johnboy1951

The Saorview standard does not require encryption/DRM/protection of the recorded programme, so I would not expect it to be present on a Saorview approved STB.

If you can upload and link to a short recording - maybe 30 secs - it could be checked on other set ups as it might be something missing on your PC set up that causes you not to be able to play the file.

I don't have a VCR, but it *should* be easy to attached the STB to the VCR with a scart cable, and record on the VCR whatever channel is tuned on the STB.

Maybe some STBs do not output both on scart and hdmi at the one time ..... you would need to check the manual of the device you use.

Was your HDD completely physically destroyed, or was it that the filesystem became corrupted and the drive had to be re-formatted?
If it was corruption then the files should have been recoverable.

Maidhci

The drive became corrupted - I recovered the files to another HD, copied to DVD from the second hard drive, but as stated earlier, could not be played on DVD player. I have also tried uploading to another PC with the same result - it is definitely an issue with the recorded material - it plays perfectly well from the source to which it was recorded but burning to DVD doesn't work - I have done this with both NERO and Roxio, using different PCs to eliminate all possibilities.

In any event, many thanks for your help.

MACHEAD

Many IDTV's now format a connected HDD or pen drive in a propriarty format that will only allow you to replay them on the device on which they were recorded. This is purposely to prevent copying to another platform (DVD etc).

Have you tried 're-encoding' via Handbrake or VLC ? There aren't many options for getting around this, at least not yet anyway. No doubt given time the 'coders' will come up with a means to circumvent this.

Maidhci

Thank you for your response, but I'm afraid I am somewhat lost!! The HD is connected to a set-top box (Triax TR112) the TV does not have a record facility, hence the connection via the set-top box. I am not sure if I understand you correctly - are you suggesting that I format the HD by a means other than through the set-top box - I presume that Handbrake or VLC are formatting software?? The HD format is FAT32. Thanks again.

Hotblack Desiato

TR112 does not encrypt SD or HD recordings. You can view them by plugging the external drive into a laptop using VLC (VLC is a video player program www.videolan.org )

MACHEAD

Maidhci wrote: »

Thank you for your response, but I'm afraid I am somewhat lost!! The HD is connected to a set-top box (Triax TR112) the TV does not have a record facility, hence the connection via the set-top box. I am not sure if I understand you correctly - are you suggesting that I format the HD by a means other than through the set-top box - I presume that Handbrake or VLC are formatting software?? The HD format is FAT32. Thanks again.

My bad! Didn't read your post properly or I would have seen "connected to STB". I have no 'hands on' experience of recording to an external disc from a set top box, so wil go with the post above on this one.

I can cconfirm however that VLC will play almost anything that you care to throw at it. And if you need to re-encode the format of a movie file (not the actual HDD), Handbrake will handle most formats. Have you tried connecting the disc to a lap top and trying to play back the recordings via a software media player? If you can get them to play on a computer, it should be possible to burn them to dvd in a format that would play on any DVD player.
If you haven't already, download VLC and have a go. VLC also has the capability to 'export' a movie file in a range of formats.

It's possible that if your problems persist, the files may have been damaged or corrupted when the original drive failed.

This should prompt us all that even external drives need backed up!