HTPC Recording From Sky Box

whammer

whammer

whammer

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Joined
22 Jul 2004
Posts
48
Hi all,

Any recommendations for a video card or motherboard with built in GFX that can record from my Sky box for my new HTPC project?
I was gonna buy a DVD recorder, but thought the functionality of a HTPC would be better.
Any advice or previous experience would be most welcome.
I'm probably gonna base it around an Antec Fusion.

Regards,

Whammer
 
Don't some of the SKY feeds have MAcrovision protection or similar on movies and SKY-1 stuff?
 
I'm looking into doing a similar thing myself. There are two main options:

1) Use a regular analogue TV card with s-video or component inputs and use this to record from the currently playing sky channel. You'll then need to add an IR output such as the IR Blaster to control the channel that the digibox it tuned to.

2) You can look at a suitable DVB-S satellite card. Some allow you to add CAM's (Conditional Access Modules) and your Sky smartcard so that you can get the Sky channels directly without needing your digibox (you'll need to use your Sky smartcard though so you can't still use your old digibox).




(1) is probably simplest but a bit of a hack. (2) is unofficial, more complex, and because it's unofficial it's possible for Sky to change the encryption method without warning - resulting in your old CAM not working.




I'm currently looking into (2) but can't yet recommend any cards so you'll have to do your own googling at this time.




** note ** Although (2) is "unofficial" I'm not aware that it's against any regulations and therefore I think it's safe to discuss it on these forums? Indeed it's my understanding that there is an EU regulation which says that a broadcasting company can't restrict you to using its own hardware for viewing.
 
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