What Card for Sky Digital > DVD

[glen8]

I am just about to go out and build myself a new PC. I havent decided yet weather to go for an athlon XP or P4 based system. Thats not my question though.... This machine will be used mostly used for capturing my fav TV shows directly from a sky digibox to Hard Disk. Then I want to burn them onto DVD disks using a Pioneer A104 drive.

I'm not bothered how long it takes to encode the video etc etc, I am looking for the best possible quality.

Whats the best card for the job ?

Many thanks for your suggestions.

[SatStorm]

Read this
http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=273104#273104
Then go and read this:
http://forum.vcdhelp.com/userguides/98177.php

It is what I am doing....

[energy80s]

Ideally what we would all like is to be able to hack a Sky+ box and transfer the raw MPEG2 stream directly off the built-in hard drive (like TiVo machines) but at present that isn't an option. However the quality is so poor off Sky Digital (very low bitrates on most channels - like ITV) that it probably wouldn't be much better than just capping with any TV card and converting to CVD ... like what I do now!

The other alternative is to get a Nova-t card and at least get the free to air channels of Digital Terrestrial TV. This is my next plan and if the BBC get the new license then expect a lot more channels fta. Also digital radio. The raw DTT stream is about 1.8Gb per hour.

[glen8]

Looks like a standard TV card using virtuadub > uncompressed avi is the prefered way.

Now for the ultimate question. Which TV card is considered to be the best. Do I capture at DVD resolution in virtuadub or something like VCD quality and then re-encode it to dvd standards in tmpgenc ?

Many thanks....

[SatStorm]

I like hauppauge win tv primio fm. It is cheap and capable for great captures.

@energy80s
If you want to start grabbing DVB/s, then search for a Nokia 9500-9600-9200-Dbox 1 reciever (with SCSI connection)
Start reading here: www.no-access.de
It is the best way, far better win tv nova.
Also, if you still want PCI card, go for win tv dvb/s card not win tv nova.
Read why here: www.odsoft.org
Look for windvblive! software and compatible cards

[energy80s]

Satstorm, do these D-boxes work with Sky Digital? I know they will get free to air digi satellite, but the channels I want are all encripted and Sky doesn't let any third party manufacturer get access to their CAMS. That's why I was oing to go with the terrestrial alternative - plus the fact the the picture quality on Sky Digital is shite. The amount of MPEG artifacts on UK Gold 2 tonight was worse than a VCD encode!

I'll hopefully get a chance to read through all the stuff on those sites tomorrow night in work.

[SatStorm]

No, you will receive only the FTA channels.
There is no videoguard cam currently. So, the only way to grabb from sky digital, is the analogue way. A cheap card do the job.
But for all other channels/satellites, nokia d-boxes are the best solution. With a 90cm dish, capable to move it to different satellites, it is easy to recieve more than 20 satellites in UK, up to 3000 channels... Many of them are in english language.
Don't expect sky digital quality programs, but expect better picture quality. I have to say, that British TV is the best TV right now. Has anything...
With Terrestial digital reception, you can receive only the BBC channels. There is no ITV anymore, as you now. 2 monts ago, it was easily possible to use a d-box and hack the seca/mediaguard encryption and recieve all the channels, including the pay per view services. Grabbing direct to PC was also possible. Well, the good days gone, there are only BBC/CH4/CH5/QVC to play with
Jus for your information, it is possible to convert a d-box to recieve those transmissions too. I think only the antenna is change.

[energy80s]

Yes, whenever ITV Digital went bust a few weeks ago that took with it all of the pay channels on terrestrial digital TV. However there are still 13 free to air services and the ITV Digital license has just been re-advertised. Among the bidders is a joint bid from the BBC and Sky to run a totally free-to-air platform (including digital radio) and it looks like this will be the winner. That being the case, I would rather have a DTT card for my PC so that I can rip the MPEG2 streams directly to my hard drive than trying to capture in analogue format from the Sky Digibox like at present. Most of the programmes I want to capture are from the BBC and ITV anyway.

Here is the proposed list from the BBC bid ...

Proposed Free-To-View Package

The channel line-up for the platform is expected to be as follows:

Mixed Genre

BBC ONE
BBC TWO
BBC CHOICE
ITV 1
ITV 2
Channel 4
Channel 5
S4C
A general entertainment channel (tbc)

News and Sports News

BBC NEWS 24
Sky News
Sky Sports News
CNN
ITN

Culture, History & Ideas

BBC FOUR
UK History

Movies

TCM (Turner Classic Movies)

Children’s

CBBC
CBeebies
Boomerang

Citizenship

BBC PARLIAMENT
The Community Channel
S4C2

Other

Sky Travel
QVC
TV Travelshop

Interactivity

BBCi (Interactive television and text)
Other interactive services (tbc)

Radio

6 BBC Radio services
Commercial radio services (tbc)


Music

A music channel (tbc)

[SatStorm]

Yeah, I know, I was in mediacast last month and BBC was there. The UK market is huge just to get dropped for DVB/T

Those channels are currently FTA through Eurobird/Astra 2 Satellites:
Sky News, CNN, ITN, TCM (Turner Classic Movies),Boomerang, The Community Channel, S4C2, QVC, TV Travelshop and all the BBC radio Channels.
The rest BBC channels needs a card with no subcription.
Here is a link: www.lyngsat.com It has all the satellite info you need....
Last time I counted more than 60 FTA channels at this satellite. Most of them useless (telemarketing channels). There is a funny FTA channel also there, that "the dating channel".
Sometimes, for varius reasons, some sky digital channels turn FTA for a couple of days. For example, at June 21. 2002 Several Sky movie channels (including Sky Box Office) was FTA. SBO was showing The Mummy Returns. (11914 H, 27500, 2/3)
So, a d-box is always usefull for standby
Satellite news here: http://drhans.cjb.net/
Anyway, it is possible to receive terrestial channels with the use of a modified d-box, but if only DVB-T interest you, then the alternative of a cheap PCI dvb T card is better....