Getting video recorded on a Freeview PVR onto my PC?

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sbiddle

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#583615 19-Feb-2012 22:28

Richard7666:
sbiddle:
Richard7666: Sorry, I am after recording from the televison set (as in, the monitor) via plain old composite cables. If that helps at all.

The setup would be Sky->TV->Recording device

Some good advice here, thanks guys

This is a totally different problem to the questrion you posed in your original post.

Are you wanting to copy files from a Freeview PVR or just Sky from your Sky STB to a PVR?

Most PVR's don't have A/V inputs, so your best option is a PC with tuner card. Secondly you would really want to bypass the TV in this process, Sky STB's have multiple outputs so there is no need to go via the TV.

You'll also need to deal with the copy protection on the Sky video signsls that are designed to prevent recording. If you do get a PVR with A/V inputs you will face issues recording some channels, a PC tuner card will typically get arond this as it will ignore the copy protection.

The reason for recording from the TV was to avoid any copy protection crap from the Sky decoder. Currently my VCR setup for instance is Sky->TV->VCR.

Really, all I want is something hard-drive based (and that can be transferred to PC) to take the place of the VCR in that chain.

That can't work since the TV won't strip copy protection signals from composite video, it'll merely pass them through. If you want to stop copy protection you'll need hardware to do that.

Rikkitic

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#583699 20-Feb-2012 08:56

That can't work since the TV won't strip copy protection signals from composite video, it'll merely pass them through. If you want to stop copy protection you'll need hardware to do that.

Sorry, that's not quite true. It may depend on the TV but ours works fine for this purpose. I recently used it to transfer several copy-protected tapes onto a hard drive. If the composite input doesn't work, you can also try the RF input, which probably won't make much difference to VCR quality. For DVDs, playing them on a laptop and routing the VGA output via the TV also works fine, though you do lose quality.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

Rikkitic

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#583703 20-Feb-2012 09:08

Richard7666:

Really, all I want is something hard-drive based (and that can be transferred to PC) to take the place of the VCR in that chain.

I already answered your question. See my earlier post. You need any unofficial (=uncrippled) STB with PVR functionality and maybe some software named Video Redo. If the PVR doesn't create straight mpeg files, Video Redo will let you edit and convert them and it will even create DVDs if you want that, though I don't see much need these days. I just keep everything on external USB hard drives which play back without problem through the computer and the STB (when I want to watch them on the TV). I use the H.264 version to keep everything in HD with surround sound. Works like a charm.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

Rikkitic

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#583793 20-Feb-2012 11:45

Richard7666:

Really, all I want is something hard-drive based (and that can be transferred to PC) to take the place of the VCR in that chain.

I just re-read your posts and realised I missed the bits about Sky. What I said applies to Freeview but naturally it wouldn't work for Sky itself.

However, I'm still not sure what your problem is. We have the older Sky Pace decoder and there is no issue at all recording from that. In fact, I run everything through our DVR to upscale it to component. We can directly record anything that comes from the decoder (scart/s-video) without any problem. This isn't HD, but it's a lot better than your VCR quality.

If you have a newer decoder, or MySky, or premium channels, that may change things. I don't know because we have never upgraded to any of these. I would think, though, that it must be possible to record those signals as well if you are willing to downscale them. Our TV has a composite 'monitor' output which works for recording protected VCR tapes and I have to wonder if it wouldn't also work for any other video signal.

Anyway, what you want is not a PVR, but a DVR. Just like MySky, except without the restrictions, and also a whole lot cheaper.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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