Sky on a HTPC

[Carpet3]

hi,

I've had a HTPC running now for a few months and absolutely love it.

My parents have recently upgraded to Sky+ and so we now have a spare digital sky box.

What I would like to do is get Sky onto the HTPC, I understand I would have to use the sky digital box in order for it to decrypt the channelswith a multiroom subscription, also I understand that I would need something to connect to the sky box in order for the pc to change the channel.

I've been reading loads of threads but they all seem to be fairly old now. I was wondering if there had been any advancements lately to overcome this? I'm not too bothered about not being able to watch a different channel from what's being recorded although that would be nice, but I do want to be able to use the EPG to set up recordings for the future.

What would be the best solution?

[Chenks]

if you want to use your sky subscription, then you will need to connect your sky box to a TV card with a "video in" option.

you would need need a remote blaster to enable you to change channel using the PC remote control.

to be honest, it's more hassle than it's worth.

[Carpet3]

could the pc automatically change the channel on the skybox for recording?

[Chenks]

could the pc automatically change the channel on the skybox for recording?

depends what HTPC software you would be using. having never tried it, i can't say for sure. however i would expect it would.

for the amount of money you would probably spend on hardware, you could pick up a refurb sky+ box for £50 and just use that in your "multiroom subscription". seeing as the sky+ fee is now defunct, it shouldn't cost you any extra.

[Carpet3]

thanks for the reply :)

[Graeme*Kustom*]

There's a small section on this in our HTPC article

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/Article_HTPC.html

Windows Media Centre Edition supports changing the channel on the sky box for recordings if you have the IR blasters (these come with the Microsoft remote kit). You also need to be using an analogue or combo tuner that supports a composite input.

It's worth noting that a lot of sky boxes are fussy about outputing to SVHS, resulting in a black and white picture, so it's usually best to stick with composite. For non-HD streams though the quality is fine.

[saltynay]

you can also make it all inbuilt in the computer and skip out the skybox completely :) using a cam and a dragon tv decoder chipset

[Chenks]

i believe you still need the skybox though, as you need to keep putting the card into it to keep it alive.

if it's not in a skybox it won't receive the "stay alive" signal properly.

[Carpet3]

can you elaborate a bit on the cam and the dragon tv decoder? I havent heard of these.

If i can ditch the skybox completely then that'd be great, or even if it's just to reduce the amount it gets used

[Graeme*Kustom*]

It takes more than a little elaboration, it's quite involved to setup.

There's a rough guide here http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=319927

It's not very cheap and not very easy though.

Hauppague hinted at bringing out viewing card readers in a more user-friendly format for their satellite tuner cards, but I've not seen anything further on this yet.

[Carpet3]

thanks for that.

having a read through now...

one question though, what's a cam?

[saltynay]

Its a camera controller card

[Chenks]

Its a camera controller card

no it's not. :rolleyes:

CAM = conditional access module
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conditional_Access_Module

the CAM is where you put the card.

[saltynay]

meh I just assumed it was because it is when doing home automation or security surveillance abbreviated to CAM card. Sorry did think before i posted as there wouldn't be a need for a camera input if your using a tv tuner card already.....