Video Capture of sky on your PC - help needed

Right you lot, here is your question for 10

What the the easiest and quickest way of getting sky onto my computer so I can cap it ??

Now the tricky part:-

I only have sky and not sky + so I need to somehow get the sky to output to my pc.

PC is nice and fast (Quad Core beast + 4 gig ram) so no worries on that front

I was somehow thinkning of one of those USB video capture sticks and maybe a scart breakout and sending the sky output that way.

I could go for an internal video card but they seem to be a lot more expensive.

Anyone got any ideas or do you think the USB stick approach will work ???

Hopefully will migrate soon to Sky + later on in the new year.

Answers on a postcard

Cheers

SC

Not sure about usb stick m8, you could buy a cheap dvd recorder and record a disk then pop it into your pc

thecheeze Wrote:Not sure about usb stick m8, you could buy a cheap dvd recorder and record a disk then pop it into your pc

Yes that seems the easiest way, especially for those of us that aren't very technically minded.

I used to get very good results with a usb capture stick and virtual dub. Transferred loads of old vhs tapes that way. The usb stick used to get very hot at times and eventually failed. Was ages ago, so maybe they have sorted the heating problem! Seen on ebay they are selling pretty cheap EasyCAP on ebay only 12 quid from a UK seller!

If it's just the free channels you want to view. The best way to do it is buy a satellite reciever for you PC. You can get them with PCI or USB. That's what i use. HD versions are now available.

thecheeze Wrote:Not sure about usb stick m8, you could buy a cheap dvd recorder and record a disk then pop it into your pc

If you use the dvd recorder method, use rewritable discs. Your computer might not be able to read a write once disc until it is finalized, which is wasteful since no more files can then be added.

hello

Thanks for the replys - I did notice the easycaps on Ebay for 12 quid so that sounds like a good first option.

I take it that if i do go down that route i could just pop it into the Video out (scart) on the back of the skybox and stream live stuff.

Also looking into a few other options after talking to people at work so keep the ideas coming and i will keep you all posted.

Bye for now

SC

I don't have a clue how to do this, the best I can come up with is rub the sky box against the pc monitor and hope for the best.

shavedcok Wrote:I take it that if i do go down that route i could just pop it into the Video out (scart) on the back of the skybox and stream live stuff.

Correct!

I used something very similar to this scart adaptor, it has a scart pass-through so you can connect your sky box to your tv and your computers easyCAP at the same time.

If you computer is miles away you can even get 10m rca cables to reach almost anywhere!

Broadening this thread a little to include Macs....any Mac users out there that have used the Elgato system? I get fed up with transferring to DVD hard drive, burning to DVD then transferring to Mac and have wondered whether to give Elgato a try instead...