Sky have encouraged me to record a one off event, will I face DRM issues?

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Krispkiwi

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#323134 29-Oct-2025 21:18

Hi everyone,

Sky have encouraged me to use a VHS or DVD to get a copy of the Otago vs Waikato that they agreed to play as a one off next week. (Mods i can provide screenshots of that if required)

This is a game that for the past 10 or so years, no one had a copy of. Not Sky (or so they thought), not the Otago Rugby union, no one but after I asked them this week, Sky have found a copy down in the archives.

Now with that I'm running into the issue where I don't have a DVD or VHS player anymore and whilst i will be recording it on their sky box as well, I'm conscious of the fact that once that device dies, it will be gone again.

Can anyone tell me, before I buy another one specifically for this, do DVD recorders or VHS tapes even still work recording sky or is there a DRM issue which blocks it?

I also asked if they would put it on a DVD for me and id pay for that + shipping and related costs but it was declined which is a shame but Sky are already going out of their way to play this in the first place so they get all the credit for that.

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#3429070 29-Oct-2025 23:43

Anything run through a VHS will have very poor picture quality.

I'm confused by why they would want your recording if they found a copy in the archives?

What device is the recording on? A MySkyHDi? What do you mean you'll be recording it on their Sky Box?

According to this old post some content will have copy protection when outputting analogue which won't work with some VHS and DVD recorders. Whether the drivers for USB PC capture devices like the SVID2USB232 or Elgato would obey macrovision copy protection - flip a coin.

With analogue output the quality will be degraded by the conversion from digital and limited to 576i standard definition. The HDMI digital output will have HDCP but that can be sidestepped by someone who knows what they're doing. The ideal would be to capture digital directly from the HDMI output especially if the original was in high definition.

Scott3

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#3429075 30-Oct-2025 00:30

I sold it over a year ago, but to give you some idea the below was my setup for capturing content from a set top box.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=77&topicid=315538

HDMI is the best quality output. A very cheap HDMI splitter will strip the HDCP from the that signal, which can then be fed into an HDMI capture device. Mine was standalone and would record onto a flash drive, but you buy one for $45 that plugs into a laptop.

Sounds like you have an interest in archival / presentation of older media. Ideally you want to get everything into digital format. Ideally stored on a NAS with some drive parity, and data scrubbing to protect against bit rot, and a couple of backups (with at least one being offline, and at least one being offsite).

Don't count on burnt DVD's lasting longer than a decade. (commercially pressed ones do last a bit longer). On VHS, you not only have to worry about the media degrading, but also VCR'ss going out of circulation. They are not built any more, and supply in the used market will decline as more fail, or just end up in in landfill as their owners assume wrongly they are worthless.

fe31nz

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#3429077 30-Oct-2025 00:44

If you have an old Sky box with a card, you can get a DVB-S2 tuner and a card reader and the right software and record programmes on a PC using the card. They record without DRM. But getting that set up and working in just a few days would be a problem. I do that with MythTV software on Linux. I would offer to record it for you, but I expect it will be on a sports channel and I do not pay Sky for sports.

CYaBro

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#3429106 30-Oct-2025 08:40

When is the game supposed to be airing? I'm not seeing anything in the guide other than a replay of this years quarter final between those two teams.

I have the setup that fe31nz mentions so could record it.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

Krispkiwi

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#3429275 30-Oct-2025 14:18

bfginger:

Anything run through a VHS will have very poor picture quality.

I'm confused by why they would want your recording if they found a copy in the archives?

What device is the recording on? A MySkyHDi? What do you mean you'll be recording it on their Sky Box?

According to this old post some content will have copy protection when outputting analogue which won't work with some VHS and DVD recorders. Whether the drivers for USB PC capture devices like the SVID2USB232 or Elgato would obey macrovision copy protection - flip a coin.

With analogue output the quality will be degraded by the conversion from digital and limited to 576i standard definition. The HDMI digital output will have HDCP but that can be sidestepped by someone who knows what they're doing. The ideal would be to capture digital directly from the HDMI output especially if the original was in high definition.

To clarify, Sky aren't wanting a copy for themselves, they're telling me to record it so i'll have a copy moving forward and when i brought up wanting a physical copy they told me to record it via DVD or VHS.

Krispkiwi

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#3429276 30-Oct-2025 14:20

CYaBro:

When is the game supposed to be airing? I'm not seeing anything in the guide other than a replay of this years quarter final between those two teams.

I have the setup that fe31nz mentions so could record it.

1:15am on the 6th of November is the current timeslot for it. They have advised this could be subject to change. I'd very much appreciate it if you could record it. My only other plan at the moment has been to take apart the Sky box afterwards and grab the hard drive or otherwise screen record it but obviously that won't give the best quality or potentially even be possible depending on the protection. I'm happy to pay for any related costs and shipping.

r/dunedin - 1998 NPC Otago vs Waikato final

Dyson

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Krispkiwi

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#3429278 30-Oct-2025 14:32

Scott3:

I sold it over a year ago, but to give you some idea the below was my setup for capturing content from a set top box.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=77&topicid=315538

HDMI is the best quality output. A very cheap HDMI splitter will strip the HDCP from the that signal, which can then be fed into an HDMI capture device. Mine was standalone and would record onto a flash drive, but you buy one for $45 that plugs into a laptop.

Sounds like you have an interest in archival / presentation of older media. Ideally you want to get everything into digital format. Ideally stored on a NAS with some drive parity, and data scrubbing to protect against bit rot, and a couple of backups (with at least one being offline, and at least one being offsite).

Don't count on burnt DVD's lasting longer than a decade. (commercially pressed ones do last a bit longer). On VHS, you not only have to worry about the media degrading, but also VCR'ss going out of circulation. They are not built any more, and supply in the used market will decline as more fail, or just end up in in landfill as their owners assume wrongly they are worthless.

100% agree, I'll be saving this to my NAS with BTFS protection. Is this setup one I could not only get in a week but also learn on how to work it?

Bung

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#3429369 30-Oct-2025 18:01

AFAIK the data on the sky box drive is encrypted. You can't read it in a PC.

Krispkiwi

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#3429372 30-Oct-2025 18:51

Bung:

AFAIK the data on the sky box drive is encrypted. You can't read it in a PC.

Thanks for letting me know before I tried that idea

dolsen

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#3429397 30-Oct-2025 22:24

Can't help with the recording sorry, but, worth another shout out that sky were willing to both search for this recording and then broadcast it as a one off just for you. I'm quite impressed with that.

Krispkiwi

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#3429399 30-Oct-2025 22:41

dolsen:

Can't help with the recording sorry, but, worth another shout out that sky were willing to both search for this recording and then broadcast it as a one off just for you. I'm quite impressed with that.

Definitely. It's been lost media for awhile so it's really good of them.

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cddt

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#3429409 31-Oct-2025 06:52

I haven't tried this with Sky GO, but with TVNZ etc. you can screen record on a PC.

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Asteros

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#3429411 31-Oct-2025 07:37

Krispkiwi:

dolsen:

Can't help with the recording sorry, but, worth another shout out that sky were willing to both search for this recording and then broadcast it as a one off just for you. I'm quite impressed with that.

Definitely. It's been lost media for awhile so it's really good of them.

I'm sure you have already asked Sky; can they provide you with an archival copy? It may require payment but they sound like they are going to some lengths to find and broadcast it.

Scott3

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#3429445 31-Oct-2025 10:27

Krispkiwi:

Scott3:

I sold it over a year ago, but to give you some idea the below was my setup for capturing content from a set top box.

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=77&topicid=315538

HDMI is the best quality output. A very cheap HDMI splitter will strip the HDCP from the that signal, which can then be fed into an HDMI capture device. Mine was standalone and would record onto a flash drive, but you buy one for $45 that plugs into a laptop.

Sounds like you have an interest in archival / presentation of older media. Ideally you want to get everything into digital format. Ideally stored on a NAS with some drive parity, and data scrubbing to protect against bit rot, and a couple of backups (with at least one being offline, and at least one being offsite).

Don't count on burnt DVD's lasting longer than a decade. (commercially pressed ones do last a bit longer). On VHS, you not only have to worry about the media degrading, but also VCR'ss going out of circulation. They are not built any more, and supply in the used market will decline as more fail, or just end up in in landfill as their owners assume wrongly they are worthless.

100% agree, I'll be saving this to my NAS with BTFS protection. Is this setup one I could not only get in a week but also learn on how to work it?

If you have the my-sky or similar (ability to record on your sky box), there is no urgency (beyond mitigating the risk of the single hard drive in your set top box failing). Simply record it to your sky box, and capture the recording being played back at your convenience.

I had exactly this splitter. You may be getting tight on shipping times if you are able to live record.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/computers/cables-adaptors/other/listing/5600635953

Triple the price, but in store pickup is available with this one. (need to be careful with more expensive splitters, as some will retain HDCP, but in this case a review comment indicates it gets stripped):

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/antsig-2-way-hdmi-4k-splitter_p0083493

With regards to the capture card / box. Mine was super easy. I used the independent recording mode. Essentially plug in a big, fast flash drive, Get the sky playing (with the volume set to a consistent and fairly high level on the sky box, Very important), and hit the big red button to start recording.

Mine came with software to directly record to a laptop etc too, but didn't use it, other than to change settings for independent mode.

I just got mine as it came up cheap, on the used market when I was looking. Ones that do local recording seem to be rare these days, so you are likely to end up with one that leans on your computer (hopefully you have a laptop, or a desktop within USB cable range). Will need some kind of software to capture the feed.

No endorsement, but here is a cheap example.

https://www.jaycar.co.nz/hdmi-video-capture-recorder-dongle/p/XC4661?

Ideally you want to match the source resolution with the record resolution (for best quality to file size), No idea how easy sky makes this to do. All the stuff I was recording was HD, so I didn't play around with this. Of course it doesn't really matter if you record a SD source in HD.

[edit]

I understand the other comment about pulling the drive from your sky box is correct. While I have not tried it myself, I understand the sky box records the encrypted satellite signal, and decodes whenever you play back the content. So no useful content from pulling the drive. And the only option to extract content is at 1:1 playback speed via video output like HDMI.

Given you already have a NAS, Yeah, the obvious solution is to get this digital as soon as possible, avoiding DVD, tapes etc.

Krispkiwi

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#3429627 31-Oct-2025 14:37

Asteros:

have already asked Sky; can they provide you with an archival copy? It may require payment but they sound like they are going to some lengths to find and broadcast it.

Yeah I did, they weren't willing to send me a copy via DVD or USB sadly.

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