Connecting Sky Box to PC

[grandsire02]

I have a Winstars AV Grabber Pro (ex Maplin) that I use to take recorded programmes from my Sky+ box to my PC for editing and burning. The only problem is that the two units are at opposite ends of the house so temporarily have to be connected by a long USB lead whenever I want to do a transfer. Could this be done instead with Powerline Adaptor / Home Plug technology through the house wiring, and if so what would be suitable kit to use?

[mh2360]

Something like this maybe?

http://www.dabs.com/products/devolo-dlan-200-av-usb-extender-7DM4.html?utm_source=goog...m_content=Q200

dLAN® uses the powerline like a long USB cable - over a cable length of 300 meters

[grandsire02]

Thanks for the response. I've been in contact with the Technical Dept. at Devolo who advise that the 'through the house wiring' type of technology is not suitable for the sort of output provided by an AV Grabber. What I can do however, he said, was to take the output straight from the Sky box ethernet socket and use their D-Lan200AV+ Starter Kit to send it to my PC. That being the case, what sort of software programme do I need on my PC to pick it up?

[mh2360]

To my knowledge there is no way to pull recordings from the Sky box using the ethernet port. Not sure what Devolo are talking about.

[grandsire02]

To be fair to Devolo, they did say that their product would work if my Sky+ HD box has an ethernet output. My box does indeed have an ethernet socket, but on investigating this further I understand that this is 'dead' and is only for possible future Sky features. Devolo do do a USB plug but its use is restricted to data transfers to printers, I think he said. One of my basic problems here is that I don't understand the differences between the different 'types' of signals that go down a wire - for example it seems that what goes down an ethernet cable isn't the same animal that passes through a USB socket, or yet again what comes out of my AV Grabber. All that said, it seems that the only way I can achieve what I want is either to record locally on to a DVD disc, or to do what I've been doing up to now which is trailing a long USB lead out of the AV Grabber from one end of the house to the other!

[mh2360]

I have not had any experience with USB powerline adapters, but after reading the specs of Devolo's product, it seemed to me that it simply acted as a USB extender, in that you connect one adapter to the PC and the other to any other usb device. In that way it seems to be practically the same as using a long USB cable.

Devolo do say that their device will work with "USB printers, scanners and hard drives", and (like you) I thought that if it worked with those, then why not a USB video capture device?

If Devolo say no, then I suppose they know best.

[grandsire02]

So are you saying that the output from my USB capture device is the same sort of data signal as is used for "USB printers, scanners and hard drives"?

[intracube]

I have not had any experience with USB powerline adapters, but after reading the specs of Devolo's product, it seemed to me that it simply acted as a USB extender, in that you connect one adapter to the PC and the other to any other usb device. In that way it seems to be practically the same as using a long USB cable.

Devolo do say that their device will work with "USB printers, scanners and hard drives", and (like you) I thought that if it worked with those, then why not a USB video capture device?

A plausible explanation; home mains cabling is of variable quality and sub-optimal for data transmissions, therefore the bandwidth/data rate might be limited and error correction might take a significant chunk of what's left.

Take a look at the dLAN® 200 AV USB product description. The data transfer rate is listed as 200Mbps which doesn't meet the USB 2.0 standard (480Mbps).

grandsire02; Check the requirements of your Winstars AV Grabber - it'll probably need USB 2.0 as video capture has high data rate requirements.

[mh2360]

So are you saying that the output from my USB capture device is the same sort of data signal as is used for "USB printers, scanners and hard drives"?

In that it is a USB data stream, yes, but these power line devices may be able to distinguish between different device classes and handle them accordingly, or not as the case may be.

As intracube stated, the reduced data rate may be a factor too.

[grandsire02]

I'll take all these comments up with Devolo technical people and hopefully report back.

[grandsire02]

The reply I eventually got from Devolo was not particularly illuminating (nor very good English, though his English is much better than my Dutch!):

"as it is written there, you can use our dLAN 200 AV plus, if your device you wish to use has an ethernet connection. The USB Extender is prooved for printer and for mass storage devices, if it will work with another device can not be guaranted."

As this type of device seems mainly to utilise ethernet connectivity, do you think the following set-up would work for me: Netgear Powerline AV 500 Adapter Kit (500 Mbps) http://www.pixmania.co.uk/uk/uk/8384834/art/netgear/powerline-av-500-adapter.html, with my AV grabber connected via a USB2 to ethernet adaptor http://www.europc.co.uk/startech-com-compact-usb-2-0-to-gigabit-ethernet-nic-network-a...gn=europcfeeds?

[jagabo]

What they are saying is the USB-over-power-line adapter may not have sufficient bandwidth for video capture. The device you are using doesn't appear to have a hardware compression codec so it is transferring uncompressed frames over the USB connection. That's roughly 165 Mb/s. USB 2.0 is rated at 480 Mb/s but its real world throughput is around half that, but still sufficient for video capture. If the powerline adapter is claiming 200 Mb/s its real world throughput is also probably half that, 100 Mb/s. Too slow for uncompressed video capture. Even if the bandwidth is sufficient it may not work with the video capture device. The capture software may not be able to capture from the ethernet port.

A 200 Mb/s ethernet over powerline connection would work because the signal put out by the satellite box is already compressed (MPEG 2 or h.264). So it's bandwidth requirements are much lower. But you would need different software and hardware.

I found these reviews of the DeVolo dLAN 200 AV USB:

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/networking-and-wi-fi/network-adapters/devolo-d...-948339/review
http://www.trustedreviews.com/Devolo-dLAN-AV-USB-Extender_Peripheral_review

"taking around two minutes to copy over 100MB of files" -- that would equate to about 7 Mb/s.

And

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/powerline-networking/1283785/devolo-dlan-200-av-usb-extender/2

You can also only access USB drives from one associated PC at a time, and transfer speeds are slow; we measured a top speed of only 2.4Mbit/s when transferring large files from an attached drive to our computer.

[grandsire02]

Taking into account the above comments on bandwidth, what are the merits or otherwise of my suggested Netgear Powerline (500Mbps)/ USB to ethernet adaptor configuration? As I would be spending in the region of £100, I want to be reasonably assured of success before shelling out! Also, is there a better alternative to my Winstars AV grabber on the market?

[mh2360]

If you are using the composite video output from your Sky box, have you thought about using a wireless video sender such as this:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5347926.htm

You could easily connect the Winstar using a scart to RCA adapter, and since it has a remote control relay, you can control the Sky box from your PC.

[grandsire02]

Thanks for the reply, mh2360 - this looks interesting. How would everything connect together (the Winstar has a composite input and a USB output), and what else would I need to buy in addition to the wireless sender?

[jagabo]

You need a sender at one end and a receiver at the other. Go to Amazon.co.uk and search for "wireless tv transmitter and receiver". You'll see lots of them. Some have SCART connectors, some RCA connectors.

[mh2360]

To put it simply, The transmitter box connects to the video source (Sky box, Freeview box or anything else with a composite video output). The reciever box would connect to the Winstar (which then of course connects to the PC).

Most of these types of boxes sold in the UK will have scart connectors, but Scart to RCA A/V adapters and cables can be found just about anywhere.