Capturing Equipment Help (For Encrypted Sky HD Channels ITV 2 HD ETC)

[Lord Kram]

Hoping someone can help here with some info as I've looked around but can't find anything
Currently have my set up on my pc with a skystar HD2 card, and can obviously capture stuff in HD on all the freesat channels but I want a way that I can capture the rest of the HD channels like ITV 2 HD, E! HD, and the rest which are encrypted
Have the latest sky box and white card so I know component is out of the question, and also still dont think there is a working solution to get the rest of the channels working on my skystar hd2
So could do with some help if possible what is the easiest and fairly cheapest method to get the rest of Non-freesat HD channels with certain equipment?
I know it is possible as I have seen torrents around with TV shows that have been capped in HD from some of the encrypted channels like ITV 2 HD etc
Many thanks

[DB83]

Are they encrypted or merely part of the Sky HD package.

I have a Sky HD box and a standard Sky subscription. These channels are not available to me. Only the SD versions.

If these torrents really are captured from HD then I would have thought that a SKy+ HD box comes in to the equation. Maybe there is no hdcp signal which then allows for a capture from the box at the original resolution.

[Chopmeister]

Option 1 - HDCP stripper (there's a current thread on these on this board) and something that will capture over HDMI (rare but obtainable)
Option 2 - Hauppauge HD PVR coupled to an HD Fury

[Lord Kram]

Thanks for the heads up guys
I know that people have managed to get full hd 1080p capping from ITV 2 HD as I have a clip downloaded from Celebrity Juice
Looked on the HD fury site which product is the one I'm looking at?
EDIT
Just found out its the HD fury 2 I need, is does this come with everything I need?:

http://www.3dfury.co.uk/hdfury2-22-p.asp

As the component set that comes with it only has 3 cables (thought it was 6), do I still need the standard yellow/white/red ones?

[DB83]

So you can actually see these 'encrypted' channels through your Sky Box and viewing card on your tv? Since if you can not this additional equipment will be no use whatsoever.

To me, a hdfury comes over as a video up-scaler. Not a hdcp stripper. But I could be wrong.

[Lord Kram]

Still not sure on this myself, I thought the idea of the HD fury was to be able to connect the sky box through via hdmi and using the component adaptor, connect this upto the Hauppauge PVR and then be able to capture in full HD from any channel/recording etc
Can anyone else give us a heads up on what this does?

[DB83]

The bottom line is if these channels expecially the Itv ones are actually worth recording. From what I see in the schedules, the programs are cr@p.

[Lord Kram]

Well its not just those channels really, I want the ease of being able to use that equipment if possible with the addition of being able to get stuff from the non-freesat channels
Also whenever I want to transfer some HD stuff from my sky hard drive, I have to keep taking the hard drive out of the box, hooking it upto the pc and use expvr to get whatever I need from it

[DB83]

Ok. But this method of transfer does not work for any channel that requires the $ky card to view ?

It's one heck of a gamble to get this equipment - which is certainly not cheap - only to find it will not work for encrypted channels ie the majority on the $ky platform.

So I am with you that you need firm assurance from someone within the UK who has actually done this and the equipment they used.

[daim26]

I've been looking for a solution to this issue for quite a while, here's what I found on another link (which I'll provide below and the how to text) and intend to try out myself. Firstly in answer to the original question I believe it is definitely possible to record from encrypted SKY HD/SD channels but it will be at a cost in order to have the right equipment and from what I've read online in various posts and links.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=1182974

I've got 2 ways to record from a SkyHD box to a Mac in full HD. Neither are cheap, but they do work:

Set Up 1)
- SKY box HDMI out goes to:
- Neet HDMI Splitter (£25 on Amazon) - one output goes to TV, one goes to:
- Purelink HD Fury2 HDMI to VGA (component) (£120 on Amazon). Video Component feed from this goes to:
- Hauppauge HD PVR (£145 on Amazon). This feeds USB out to:
- MacBook Pro running Elgato Eye TV software. I had this already, you may have to buy.
- ALSO you need to send audio to the Hauppauge - this is easy, either straight pair of phono from LR audio out of Skybox, to audio-in on PVR. Or you can use the optical route if you have a Tos Link cable to hand.

NOTES:
Something in this chain fools the Sky DRM into believing it's just a regular TV connected, so you can see the full video signal.
I don't know if it's the splitter (unlikely), the HD Fury (people say it is) or the PVR (don't know).
In this set-up you need the HD Fury as the PVR doesn't have HDMI in - So the Fury creates the component feed the PVR needs.
As you need all the parts, it's academic why it works, but it definitely does.
HOWEVER there is a new Hauppage HD PVR that runs HDMI in which would negate the HD Fury. It's advertised as for recording from an XBox.
But I don't know if it would work direct with a Sky box. My guess is not, but others may now better.

Set Up 2)

This is a bit simpler, and more elegant. Plus it goes direct to my desktop iMac, rather than having to take my MacBook over the the sky box and dig out the leads. But it costs £500.

- Sky box HDMI out to:
- Neet HDMI splitter as before, to TV and also to:
- WHDI HDMI Wireless Sender (£195 (!) on Amazon - it bloody works though) which sends to:
- WHDI Receiver (comes with the above!) by my iMac which connects to:
- Blackmagic H264 Recorder (£330 from cvp.com) which goes via USB into my iMac.

NOTES:
This is obv expensive. I already had the Wifi Sender and the H264 converter for work stuff.
You might be tempted to skip the WiFi and go straight from the Skybox HDMI to the H264 box into the Mac.
This DOESN'T work. The sky DRM kicks in and you get a pink screen.
The Wifi sender seems to do the trick of fooling the Sky Box.
Instead of the BlackMagic H264 box, there are other options for going from HDMI into a Mac:- The new Hauppage as mentioned above may do it, Blackmagic do a new £90 "Ultrastudio" box - you need Thunderbolt for that, so only newer Macs... There's an Elgato HD box now... Any of these might work, if they come after the WiFi sender.
All I know is the set up I have works, but it does run to £500.

How do HDCP Strippers work?

An HDCP stripper box is placed between your playback device (e.g. HD-DVD or Blu-ray player, etc) and your non-HDCP compliant display. It then behaves in a similar manner to a secure device. In order to achieve this, HDCP strippers use the same HDCP chips built into high definition displays. The HDCP source will see a compliant device, so after the authentication process, it will simply proceed to deliver its signal to the HDCP stripper, which will then create the non-restricted copy to forward to the sink device.
This means that an HDCP stripper can effectively enable HDCP sources like HDTV, HD DVD or Blu-ray Discs, to work at full high definition resolution with equipment using either analog or ‘unprotected’ DVI and HDMI inputs.

From reading the above I would take it to mean that the HDFury2/3 and 4 device in order to convert a HDCP signal into a non HDCP ie Standard Definition signal (picture) would need to decrypt the HDCP source which is what your SKY HD+ box will be delivering.


http://www.hdfury.com/hdmi-hdcp/hdcp-converters-and-strippers-boxes/
I hope this helps, please feel free to correct me if you feel I've got anything here wrong.