Recording Sky didital to DVD recorder

[MW54321]

I have a panasonic DMR E500. Delighted with it. I also have a sky box (panasonic) to watch TV. I do not have Sky plus.

I can record what is playing on TV (ie on sky)- but I would ideally like to record other chanels simultaneously.

Does videoplus work for the sky channels? Is there a way of recording one sky channel whilst watching another using this recorder?

[bugster]

Is there a way of recording one sky channel whilst watching another using this recorder?

No, can't be done. Your Sky receiver only has one tuner, so it can only decode and output one channel at a time. The Sky+ box can record whilst watching as it has two receivers and two connections to the LNB on the dish.

[MW54321]

Thanks.

If I did have a sky + box, would the DVD recorder be able to record one programe whilst watching another?

[ChrissyBoy]

No.

You can record 2 things on the Sky+ whilst watching something you have recorded previously on the Sky+ but you can only record to DVDR what is "playing" on the SKY+.

I assume the issue here is time. I.e you need stuff on the DVD ASAP? Otherwise you can do all the neat stuff with Sky+ then dump to DVD overnight.

[bugster]

No.

I assume the issue here is time. I.e you need stuff on the DVD ASAP? Otherwise you can do all the neat stuff with Sky+ then dump to DVD overnight.

Yup, Sky+ has a 'copy' feature. Basically this lets you mark a number of recordings to be copied. You then press select and it simply plays them one after another. Using this you can easily transfer a number of Sky+ programs to an external device (DVD recorder) via the analog outputs (Composite, s-video or RGB) whilts you sleep. I do this this on a regular basis.

[ChrissyBoy]

@bugster: At the risk of slightly hijacking, do you manage to achieve 16:9 flagged DVDs? On my setup I have to edit the .ifo files from 4:3 to 16:9 to achieve WSS on playback. My understanding is that Sky+ does not send the WS signal over the scart so the DVDR thinks its 4:3 and so creates the ifo files accordingly.

[bugster]

@bugster: At the risk of slightly hijacking, do you manage to achieve 16:9 flagged DVDs? On my setup I have to edit the .ifo files from 4:3 to 16:9 to achieve WSS on playback. My understanding is that Sky+ does not send the WS signal over the scart so the DVDR thinks its 4:3 and so creates the ifo files accordingly.

Yes, I have the same problem. I don't know if it is Sky+ fault, or the DVD recorder that marks everything as 4:3. Its not really much of a problem for me though, as I generally re-author everything anyway.

[ChrissyBoy]

Thanks bugster.

MW54321: I have to say that SKY+ is the best gadget i have ever bought (and i have a few!). Anyway back to your issue - maybe a multiroom setup could do it? You would ultimately have 2 sky boxes.

[handyguy]

There are other Sky + Panasonic topics, you might check them out.