Upgrading Sky+ Capacity

Thumper Long

Just wondering if anyone here upgraded their sky+ box from the standard 40gb to a larger sized drive, and if so what make and model of drive did you use. i know there are loads on this on the net but just looking for irish boards users, e.g. did anyone encounter the 17 minute bug, if possible include the version of the box you have.

thanks

TL

god's toy

Yep I did just yesterday.

I have a 2nd gen Sky+ box (Pace) and upgraded it with a Samsung SpinPoint P80 160GB (IDE ATA/133 8MB 7200RPM) Got the drive from Komplett for €84 as the word is they are silent and cool running (and they are)

However I was told that some (pace) boxes don’t like the Samsung 7200 and maybe I should have gone for the 5400 RPM 2MB version but so far it's worked perfect and no sing of the 17min bug. 3 programs recorded now whle in the on and off mode and all seems well. just have to test duel record next.



Hope that helps.

Edit: Box info
Pace version number 9f2101
OP system 1.31A8
EPG software sky+1.28.d

Ulsterman 1690

Is there a 160 gig limit with those things or is there anything stopping one from going the whole hog and buying a 300 gig drive

Thumper Long

thanks gods toy
ill have a new sky+ box in the next week and intend doing the same myself although i may be tempted to try a 250bg drive, ill post how i get on

@ Ulsterman 1690

it appears that the very biggest drive that they will support successfully is a 250gb drive

god's toy

Ulsterman 1690 wrote:

Is there a 160 gig limit with those things or is there anything stopping one from going the whole hog and buying a 300 gig drive

I may be wrong but I think you can go to 250GB.

GrumPy

Whats the qaulity of the video like when u record? is it saved as avi? can u transfer to pc? so many questions....

god's toy

Thumper Long wrote:

thanks gods toy
ill have a new sky+ box in the next week and intend doing the same myself although i may be tempted to try a 250bg drive, ill post how i get on

@ Ulsterman 1690

it appears that the very biggest drive that they will support successfully is a 250gb drive

Only thing I will say is make sure you find someone who already has a 250GB and get all the info on it... but then thats why you made this thread and my point is now pointless!! oh well.

Irish GrumPy wrote:

Whats the qaulity of the video like when u record? is it saved as avi? can u transfer to pc? so many questions....

The quality is the same as the broadcast was, different channels have different bit rates so a program on sky1 one may use 1% but same thing shown on BBC 1 will use 2%.

AFAIK you cant send it to PC but they may have gotten around that by now.

ElNino

I installed a 250GB Maxtor in my Pace V2 about 6 months ago. Do a search on this forum to find the exact model to get.

kevpatts

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=194008&highlight=250Gb

pH

At present the pace V2 boxes support up to 250GB. Not sure if the pace V1 even supports 250, or what the new PVR3 boxes support.

Whats the qaulity of the video like when u record? is it saved as avi? can u transfer to pc? so many questions....

The exact mpeg stream from the satellite is recorded, meaning playback is exactly the same quality as watching live.

The Sky+ box is essentially a closed system. There is no way to get the video onto a PC except using standard video capture cards.

telecinesk

Whats stopping you from ripping the drive out of the skyplus box and shoving it on the IDE cable of your pc and (carefully)dragging the files over. No doubt its been done before, and sod warranty and all the things your "supposed" to obey. Thats what Id do if I was that inclined. As for the morals of backing up things, well thats another story....

pH

Whats stopping you from ripping the drive out of the skyplus box and shoving it on the IDE cable of your pc and (carefully)dragging the files over. No doubt its been done before, and sod warranty and all the things your "supposed" to obey. Thats what Id do if I was that inclined. As for the morals of backing up things, well thats another story....

Because:

A/ The drives are not in FAT32 or NTFS and are therefore not readable 'as is' on a standard windows PC.

even if you reverse engineered the format ....

B/ The files (except for FTA channels) are encrypted. Many times during playback the sky box will ask the Sky smart card for the next key to decrypt the file. No one has come close to cracking the encryption without the card present.

telecinesk

Thanks for info. Hadnt realised sky receivers are that ****e to do such things. I have a dreambox now so normal procedures are adhered to. We only cope with linux formatted drives.... and thats not a prob/