N00B needs help recording SKY TV shows on my PC

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lancedefrance

24 posts

Geek
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#28737 9-Dec-2008 22:06

Hi

I just want to start by saying that I am a complete noob when it comes to recording shows from TV and HTPC and stuff like this. However I know about PCs and hardware in general, but sadly I dont know much about TVs, tuners, cables and digital vs analogue.

This is my situation, I share with 3 others in a two story rented house. We have a sky decoder in the living room with 1 remote, the house however has tv/antena sockets in the walls of each bedroom so we can watch TV there. We can tune the tv in the bedrooms to pick up the sky reception but can only watch the channel that the decoder in the living room is pointed to.

I would like to be able to record my favourite shows on my home PC for later viewing. Now I dont want to drag my pc to the living room so I thought I would get a card that allows me to connect my pc in my bedroom to the antena that the TV is usually connected to. This way I can get the signal on my pc in my bedroom and just watch it on there and record it if need be. This means of course that no one can change the channel from the living room where the sky decoder is otherwise I wont be able to watch it.

so can yo please tell me what I need to get this happening, is it a video capture card that I need? I dont know the sky decoder that we have but I know that its not hi def and doesnt have a built in hdd recorder.

This recording is going to be analogue I assume but I am not concerned about quality, as its mostly shows that I am going to miss or would like to watch again no movies or anything exciting like that.

Do you have any suggestions on what sort of card I need, inetrnal or USB, accessaries, shoudl I get something with multiple inputs for future proofing? Do I need to get something with a built in Mpeg 2 codec so it deosnt put much stress on my aging CPU and Video card?

Current specs

AMD S939 opteron 146 OCed 2.5Ghz
Nvidia 7800 GT
2 GB ram

Any advice or recommendations would be apreciated, I would like to know what the options are and what the cost is and I will make a descion from there, I havent decided how much money I want to spend on this but initially I thought as little as possible however if there are significant benefits or future proofing for a little bit of extar $$$ then I would consider it.

Thanks for reading

Cheers

Lance

allstarnz

1720 posts

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#183192 9-Dec-2008 22:56

you can buy something like a Hauppauge PVR150 which has an onboard MPEG encoder, meaning not much CPU load. There are other cards too, like the HVR1300 or equivalent, which also do DVB-T (for Freeview|HD)

Or if you just want it for the lounge, you could also buy an HDD DVD recorder.

You'll also need RCA cables to go from Sky box to capture card.

eXDee

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#183194 9-Dec-2008 23:02

As above, a PVR150 will work.
However, RCA cables are not needed. You can simply plug the PVR150 antenna into the wall, and tune into the sky channel as you mentioned that you already do.

lancedefrance

24 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#183348 10-Dec-2008 16:13

Thanks for th replies guys, very helpful.

I bought a PVR150 today for $110 (White box version, no remote). So I am looking at trying connecting it and trying it this weekend :)

I was told that media portal is good software to use, do you have any suggestions?

Cheers

allstarnz

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#183859 13-Dec-2008 13:48

WinTV that comes with it does an OK job for analogue recordings.

attilathegorilla

213 posts

Master Geek

#184632 16-Dec-2008 20:31

Im also interested in this. One hour of footage on Sky (not HD), how many MB of data does it take up? And when you capture footage, is it saved in avi format?

Is there a way to make digital recordings with a capture card like this?

If honest work and justice are not enough - we'll get a lawyer.

davidcole

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#184734 17-Dec-2008 11:14

attilathegorilla: Im also interested in this. One hour of footage on Sky (not HD), how many MB of data does it take up? And when you capture footage, is it saved in avi format?

The PVR150 has an inbuilt MPEG2 encoder chip (the same format as DVDs) and generally records MPEG files that are 2gb an hour in size. You can compress these after the recording has completed it you are worried about space...but trying to deviate your recording process to something else will use a software encoder, and therefore be no better than the cheaper cards.

attilathegorilla:Is there a way to make digital recordings with a capture card like this?

Nope sorry. PVR150 is pure analog. I've had one for 2 years hooked to a telstraclear set top box... It does a good job.

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attilathegorilla

213 posts

Master Geek

#184739 17-Dec-2008 11:40

I may have made a mistake, but already ordered the HVR-1200 last night. I know it has no hardware encoding but my PC is pretty powerful, it should be able to handle it. Does anyone have this card? What is the picture quality like for analogue reception and recording? I wanna use it mainly for recording stuff from SKY, so didn`t really need the freeview capability, but didn`t feel like spending the extra on the PVR-150...

If honest work and justice are not enough - we'll get a lawyer.

davidcole

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#184744 17-Dec-2008 12:25

Your main problem with no hardware encoding is not normally the pc, but that fact that very few software packages support them.

Things like Media portal, GBPVR and MCE pretty much require hardware encoders. The manufacturers software will work though.

attilathegorilla

213 posts

Master Geek

#184842 17-Dec-2008 19:16

I`ve installed the HRV 1200 and it`s working ok with the attached software, PowerCinema 5. 2 problems though. It`s finding no radio stations at all. But I can live with that.

The other thing is that There are 4 inputs on this card. 1 antenna, 1 S-video and two audios. Now with the antenna input, I can get Sky working on the tuner. But when I use the S-Video + audio connections, the tuner can`t find the feed. What am I doing wrong? I`m connecting the Sky box`s RCA video out to the tuner`s S-video in, and the two audios. I wanted to go the S-video route hoping that it would provide the best feed quality.

EDIT: I`ve managed to sort out the S-Video feed, SKY looks and sounds great, I`m very happy.

If honest work and justice are not enough - we'll get a lawyer.