Anyone here using a computer for PVR functions

[Mambo]

No, you need at least a twin LNB (mounted on the dish).

The one I have has a Quad LNB - so could effectively run two Sky+ systems, four regular Sky Digi-boxes, or a combination!

Will

D'oh!

 

[Tan]

Must say again, I am 110% satisfied with Sky+.

Exactly the same price as regular Sky (which I have had for years!) and so on a month on month basis costs absolutely nothing whatsoever for me.

I have the family pack and so would have to pay an extra £10 a month to have Sky + I dont watch much sport or movies on TV so moving to a higher package would be a total waste of money for me.

But recording would be very useful as I miss so many programs that I wanna watch.

 

[Will]

I have the family pack and so would have to pay an extra £10 a month to have Sky + I dont watch much sport or movies on TV so moving to a higher package would be a total waste of money for me.

But recording would be very useful as I miss so many programs that I wanna watch.

I've got to say that even if I had to pay £10/month for the service it would still be excellent value for money.

The ability to record two different channels (and watch one of the recording channels!), or watch one, record another, pause/rewind live TV (excellent if the phone rings or whatever) and set up all the items to record in a few seconds (no swapping DVD discs, having to leave the sky box on, only being able to record one satellite channel) is well worth the £10/month.

You've also got to consider that it is a one box solution (great if you need the space), and there are no boxes of DVDs lying around, one remote for TV, satellite and recording functions and no hassle of swapping discs.

The icing on the cake for me was the ability to output S-video signals (much better picture quality, ideal if you are using a plasma etc! ) and an optical digital sound output (fantastic for Dolby Digital (movies) and better sound quality (my AV receiver has a better DAC than an average satellite box).

Just IMHO,

Will

 

[guydewdney]

The icing on the cake for me was the ability to output S-video signals (much better picture quality, ideal if you are using a plasma etc! ) and an optical digital sound output (fantastic for Dolby Digital (movies) and better sound quality (my AV receiver has a better DAC than an average satellite box).

Just IMHO,

Will

whats wrong with the RGBs output of the sky box? QED and Squart do a scart -> 4 (or 6) phono or BNC - red, green, blue and composite sync (and L+R audio)... I feed this through a RGB>Component converter (long story) for my plasma...

I just wish i could take the digtal mpeg out of my sky box to feed it direct into the tivo..

 

[craigyb]

Just had a trawl through the forums on the showshifter web page and that looks pretty good! I will do some more reading but it looks like I know what I will be using. Craigyb, have you used this app before, any pointers?

I used showshifter in it's early days, V1.75 or similar, I gave up on it after spending a lot of money on a PC and disks to run it. Really SKY+ is a better system altogether, I just didn't like the idea of give Mr Murdoch money for nothing. But now I've accepted it and I'm happy.

Craig

 

[Mambo]

The one I have has a Quad LNB - so could effectively run two Sky+ systems, four regular Sky Digi-boxes, or a combination!

Hmm, well I live in a block with about 30 flats, all being served by the same communal dish.

May get my local satellite guy to take a look and see if there is a 'spare' LNB to tap in to and get another cable run in to my flat......

 

[scotth_uk]

OK, so we've established that Sky+ suits some people, but going back to my theme - Sky+ is not what I am after. Any other experiences with PVRs on PCs/Macs?

 

[Shude]

Cannot be linux (what a shame, as Myth is awesome) or MCE.

Can I ask why not Linux/Myth?

 

[scotth_uk]

Would love to use that system, but I am not going to dedicate a machine to this task. Just want something on the main beast that I can fire up when needed.

 

[Shude]

Would love to use that system, but I am not going to dedicate a machine to this task. Just want something on the main beast that I can fire up when needed.

You couldn't cope with running Linux as the main OS then?

 

[scotth_uk]

I use too much windows stuff to make the move. I have run various versions of Redhat over the years and whilst you can get something to do everything, I actually prefer the windows apps I use for things like video/sound editing.....

I am trying though - I bought a Mac with OS X! ;-)

 

[peterchurch]

Sky+ renders everything else pointless, but I suppose it's worth doing just to show it can be done

Except that you are paying a subscription for a video recorder to make the murdock empire richer by the month... If you can build a HDR, you can have sky plus without the hard disk limits and the subscription costs ...

 

[peterchurch]

Would love to use that system, but I am not going to dedicate a machine to this task. Just want something on the main beast that I can fire up when needed.

Sounds like a job for vmware

 

[scotth_uk]

Yes, have been thinking about vmware and virtual pc actually. Only concern is going to be the throughput of the usb/firewire/capture card in a virtual window.

 

[peterchurch]

Yes, have been thinking about vmware and virtual pc actually. Only concern is going to be the throughput of the usb/firewire/capture card in a virtual window.

from what I have seen it of VMware it will run it realtime no problem. only problem is you will need to hand over most of the machines memory to the vmware box ...

 

[Shude]

Only concern is going to be the throughput of the usb/firewire/capture card in a virtual window.

VMWare handles easy USB stuff like a pen-drive or something, but it choked on a webcam because it doesn't like streaming protocols.

 

[scotth_uk]

http://www.gbpvr.com/

This looks nice for the pc and supports all of the cheap cards nicely.

 

[Mambo]

Interesting thread for anyone wanting to record from Sky....

http://www.showshifter.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=000247

 

[merc-c]

GB-PVR looks like cyberlink power cinema.
i have it built in to my pc,it wors well with the inbuilt tv / freeview card.

 

[scotth_uk]

If anyone's interested - PCWorld are doing Hauppauge Nova-T USB 2.0 units (digital terrestrial) this week for £59 quid. I picked one up today. Seems good for the moment, although it's not widely supported by 3rd party tools.