FE
I think all USBs on Sky boxes are inactive.
Something like the HD-PVR below does however enable composite/ S-Video/ HD component via USB
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html
Something like the HD-PVR below does however enable composite/ S-Video/ HD component via USB
http://www.hauppauge.com/site/products/data_hdpvr.html
NG
noggin
Founding member
The USB ports (and eSata and Ethernet on a Sky HD) are not enabled for carrying video - and Sky are not at all keen for recordings to be made of clean digital signals (or more accurately the rights holders of the content that Sky channels broadcast aren't)
There ARE a couple of ways to do this though :
1. Record the composite/s-video output onto a DVD recorder or through an SD PC capture card.
2. Record the component output of a first gen Thomson Sky HD box (later boxes don't have component) using an HD-PVR.
3. FTA channels (BBC, some ITV regions etc.) that are recorded to the Sky + HD can be extracted if you remove the hard drive. HOWEVER this is only feasible if you know what you are doing - and is significantly more dangerous than working in a PC as the PSU has exposed mains voltages.
4. There were other solutions using Sky cards in non-Sky receivers but these may be disabled shortly...
None of these solutions are as easy and cheap as plugging in a USB cable...
(There is a suggestion that Sky are working on a new home server based system - which will allow you to have a central receiver/tuner/recorder box, which will be the only device you need to route LNB feeds to, and that you will then be able to have Ethernet connected set top boxes running from this that will allow you to watch live TV AND watch recordings from the central server from any box. Major advantage over multiroom is that you don't need multiple dish feeds to be cabled to each room, and you can watch recordings around the house rather than just in one location - or by a rubbish quality mono RF PAL connection via the TVLink Magic Eye system)
There ARE a couple of ways to do this though :
1. Record the composite/s-video output onto a DVD recorder or through an SD PC capture card.
2. Record the component output of a first gen Thomson Sky HD box (later boxes don't have component) using an HD-PVR.
3. FTA channels (BBC, some ITV regions etc.) that are recorded to the Sky + HD can be extracted if you remove the hard drive. HOWEVER this is only feasible if you know what you are doing - and is significantly more dangerous than working in a PC as the PSU has exposed mains voltages.
4. There were other solutions using Sky cards in non-Sky receivers but these may be disabled shortly...
None of these solutions are as easy and cheap as plugging in a USB cable...
(There is a suggestion that Sky are working on a new home server based system - which will allow you to have a central receiver/tuner/recorder box, which will be the only device you need to route LNB feeds to, and that you will then be able to have Ethernet connected set top boxes running from this that will allow you to watch live TV AND watch recordings from the central server from any box. Major advantage over multiroom is that you don't need multiple dish feeds to be cabled to each room, and you can watch recordings around the house rather than just in one location - or by a rubbish quality mono RF PAL connection via the TVLink Magic Eye system)
Last edited by noggin on 18 November 2009 10:53am