Off-topic question for the Sky+ists

It looks like my missus has given me permission to get Sky+[1].

So, before I do, one quick question.

Give that I've got a DVD burner in my PC, is there an easy way to extract
recorded programmes from the Sky+ box and burn them onto DVD?

I noticed yesterday that the standard Sky box has an RS232 port on the back,
but I've no idea what would be required to communicate with it.

Anybody happen to know?

[1] In exchange for me replacing her ailing Passat with a Honda Civic.

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AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
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The speccy Geordie twat.

 

Not digitally , no.
You would need to use an analogue feed from Sky to PC.

--
Alex

YZF 600

"I laugh in the face of danger"

"Then I hide until it goes away"

www.upce.org.uk
www.drzoidberg.co.uk

 

As Dr.Z has already said, not digitally. Anyway, how long are your days if
you plan to transfer movies over an old serial port? Max 115,200 b/s = 14
kB/s ouch.

The Sky+ box stores the movies in their raw Sky-encoded format (as they come
off the dish), so you'd have to run them through a convertor anyway even if
you could get the raw data off its hard disk.

 

Well that's a pain in the fucking arse, isn't it?


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AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
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The speccy Geordie twat.

 

I think that's the idea.

 

About six million years.

 

Ooooh, let us know if you want bits, I work at the Honda gaff in the
Toon.

 

Yep.
Sky don't want people running off DVD copies of all the first run films so
they make it near impossible to extract the raw data.
Even if you lifted the HD out you would find that it contains the data as
received and would need to be decoded , and as Sky hasn't been hacked yet
then thats a non starter.

Just to depress you , in the US you can now get a TiVo with built in DVD-RW
drive :-/

--
Alex

YZF 600

"I laugh in the face of danger"

"Then I hide until it goes away"

www.upce.org.uk
www.drzoidberg.co.uk

 

I read that it was possible on an old (non sky+) Pace 2200 to get Mpeg 2
out of it. I wonder if similar things are possible with different
digiboxes.

http://tinyurl.com/yqumq

 

Well as it's only a year old I'm moderately hopeful that it doesn't want
bits

However, if your lot are OK I'll bring it in for servicing there.


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AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
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The speccy Geordie twat.

 

I would hope so too, I stake my reputation on these things.

See me, I'll do you a good price. Indeed, we have a chap that might even
do it for a crossing of palm with silver kind of thing

 

AndrewR secured a place in history by writing:

No. There isn't even a hard way. Sky don't want you to do this
(surprise!). You can't get past the impossibility of decrypting the raw
data .

Your best bet is to wait until some Scandinavian with too much time on his
hands manages to crack the encryption because he wants to watch the
recorded stuff on his Red Hat box, then shares the facility with the rest
of the Linux community (ie the world). But I don't think this is going to
happen soon.

 

It's funny really, because I'd agree to buy Lisa a newer car and she'd sort
of set her heart on an Audi A3 (we test-drove a new TDi-130 a couple of
years ago).

We went to have a look at one that was OK, but had 87,000 miles on. Which
seemed like a lot for a Y reg vehicle.

Then another Y reg A3 with only 57,000 on, but a grand more expensive and
without air con, which ruled it out.

Then the Honda, which was my idea, because Lisa's a bit of a badge-snob and
didn't even want to go and see it. However, as soon as she looked at it she
loved it. So it's on an 03 plate and has done 21,000 miles, but as it is a
_shed_ load less than list for a brand new one I don't care. It's the
diesel engine, so I'm sure it can cope with it anyway.

Right, well it's had its first two services, but I shall certainly talk to
you once the next one hoves into view.

Use notes OK?


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AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1
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BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, TEAR#3 (and KotL), DS#5, COSOC#9, KotTFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

Righto, the diesel. Two tips. One, there is a recall on these for a new
coolant expansion tank (nothing serious, but Honda are a fussy bunch).
Two, they occasionally suffer with a problem with the turbos, they get a
bit of over boost and the ECU cuts the power. There is a modified turbo
for these, and it gets a new waste gate valve. Might be worth
complaining about a loss of power while it's still under warranty.

As long as the ink is dry ;-)

 

So then, do you know a good Honda place where they could check to see if
this work has been done?

<fx : Checks>

Hmmm, the £15 notes are all dry, but you'll have to wait till tomorrow for
the £40 ones.


--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Kawasaki ZX-6R J1
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, TEAR#3 (and KotL), DS#5, COSOC#9, KotTFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

Email me your chassis number and I'll check for you, although these are
both very recent.

LOL.

 

Just to cheer Andy up a bit you can get Tivo UK boxes, slap a network card
in them, bung some software on and then stream the TV programmes off
directly and burn em to DVD.

Shit loads more flexible than $ky+.



frag

 

Frag, are you saying that these can work with an ordinary sky
subscription card?

 

Yes. And a normal sky receiver of course.

For comparison to have either set of equipments you'd have:-

Tivo box + Sky box + TV + (optionally aerial feed and/or cable box and/or freeview box)

Or

Sky+ box + TV + optional aerial feed

Both types (Tivo or Sky+) both have enhanced program guides letting you search for
title, genre, author, etc. Set up "season passes" to record all episodes of a
series automatically.

Big differences are:-
Sky+ will ONLY record Sky programmes. You can't plug something else in via a
SCART socket and tell it to record from that (and have it control it and know
all about it). Sky+ boxes cannot be hacked to add networking (which lets you
add all sorts of nice things like copying shows out, setting up & checking
what its going to record from anywhere in the world using a web browser, etc,
etc). I'm not sure if the Sky+ boxes even have an internal tuner so they can
record of the aerial lead. So it can't record one channel and you watch
another live (AFAIK), you can watch a recorded program whilst it records
another. (as Tivo can)

A Tivo box CAN be connected to say a freeview box, and will include all the
channels that freeview box can receive in its channel list, knows about the
schedules of them, will switch the freeview box to the correct channel to
record from it. It can also be networked for all the above advantages.
(insert NTL cable or Sky instead of freeview if you want - they can also
control say Freeview AND a Sky box AND use the normal aerial input)

In a nutshell Tivo is designed to work with whatever sources you've got
(Sky, freeview, NTL, aerial), Sky+ works with Sky.

People have hacked Tivo boxes to do all sorts of things. I came across
one guy who wrote a hack that emails him all the shows his Tivo is
going to record that day, any conflicts, etc, etc. (oh yes, the Tivo
can send and receive email).

Wee problem with Tivo is that they've stopped making them, but there
is at least one place selling the last few with full guarantees.
There's also talks going on with someone about starting to make a
new model. The Yanks have loads of different Tivo boxes, with nice
things like build in DVD-RWs and huge hard drives. B$tards!



frag

 

Heh, I've got a TV capture card in the PC, which is plugged into the
skybox and does exactly the same. Pinnacle PCTV for those interested.

Works fine for me.

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