[finknottle]

Can anyone tell which solution I need for this? I want to connect my decoder to my G4 800Mhz iBook (640Mb Ram with 80 Gb HD and 120Gb Firewire external so I think I have enough HD for what I want to record).
I'm not sure what products work with a decoder box and whether an iBook is sufficient power for what I need.

Thanks in advance

[Kevlar]

Would something like this work for you?

http://www.drbott.com/prod/db.lasso?code=6211-EYT2

[Diggory Laycock]

I assume that you want the sky box to decode the sat. signal - and hook-up to the peripheral via the SCART output (on the sky box).

That's what I do - I use a Formac Studio (http://www.formac.co.uk/html/products/av/stud_1.htm) - but that's probably a bit over the top (it receives analogue tv as well as accepting analogue video signals) and it's £200.

If you have a DV camera with FireWire you should be able to use that (if it has Video inputs and support "passthrough" - which I believe most do).

I don't think that a DVB-S box (which would decode the Sat signal separately from your Sky Box) would work with Sky - as they encrypt everything - and I'm not sure that they use the Common Interface for encryption cards - they're very closed and proprietary.

The cool thing about recording as DV is that you can send it out to the TV again and watch the programs in the same quality as when they were shown (except that you only get Stero - not Surround.)

I use an old G4 400Mhz Desktop as my video machine and it's just about good enough - so you shouldn't have any problems.

As for disk space: DV is 3MB per second

[finknottle]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. Definitely going to look into that (actually have an iMac 400Mhz 'lieing around' !!). I wasn't sure if the Eye TV would work with Sky...as Diggory said they are very 'closed'. I wonder have any British macnn users used it with Sky?

[Diggory Laycock]

Originally posted by finknottle:
Thanks guys for the suggestions. Definitely going to look into that (actually have an iMac 400Mhz 'lieing around' !!). I wasn't sure if the Eye TV would work with Sky...as Diggory said they are very 'closed'. I wonder have any British macnn users used it with Sky?

There also appears to be an EyeTV 310 - which has a Common Interface - so you could chuck your Sky card in there - and It might work.

http://www.elgato.com/index.php?file=products_eyetv310

Of course you only have one card - so you'd have to shuttle the card back and forth.

[FozzieUK]

Hi finknottle, it was a month ago so not sure if you still need info. I have Sky running into my Mac through a Canopus ADVC 100. Great DV quality with audio lock. If you still need info just let me know.