Sky HD and capture

[brit_sage]

Hi.

I am wondering if anyone can shed some light on how to use SageTV with SkyHD.
From reading the SageTV website it says that sage is capable of displaying HD. Now, the output port on the SkyHD box is a HDMI connector. I have taken a look on the Hauppauge.co.uk website and they do not currently have a capture card that supports to the use with HDMI. I have tried browsing for other capture card manufacturers and so far no luck.

Reading other forums they suggest that HD capture cards don't exist. People seem to be talking about the copyright of this technology and the fact that a raw HDTV stream is roughly 1.5Gbps and to compress this to down to 19.5Mbps, in real time is too complex.

Has anyone here stumbled into this issue and know how to achieve HD streaming with SageTV?

Any information is much appreciated.

Thank you for your time to read this.

[brit_sage]

I thought I should post some useful links on this issue if others wish to read up what I have found so far on the matter.

Discussion about HD capture
http://forums.snapstream.com/vb/showthread.php?t=27837

HDMI Capture Card review
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34318

[Lucas]

Capturing from the HD digibox is impossible via HDMI.

The right way is to use a DVB-S2 card, CI Module and T-Rex CAM with SageTV 6.2 with your Sky HD sub card and off you go.

Note that currently there are some things being ironed out with DVB-S2 support within SageTV but once they are fixed that's the way to do it.

[brit_sage]

Thank you Lucas I will look into what you suggest. I may be back for more advice.

Regards.

[brit_sage]

I have taken a look at Hauppauges WinTV-HVR-4000 card. Link to a review and pictures are as follows;

http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?op...=396&Itemid=40

I know that a Sky HD box has two satellite inputs, where as this card only has one. It can be seen on the photo in the above link.

Does the sky HD box have two inputs because it can record two channels at once. Therefore one recording per input.

If that is correct, it would suggest that I would need two of these cards to be able to watch and record different channels at the same time to get the full benefits.

Correct?

If anyone knows of a suitable DVB-S2 card other than hauppauge I would be most grateful to know.

Another question but regarding EPG. Can sage take the EPG guide straight from the cards itself rather than having to use an external source such as XMLTV.

[brit_sage]

How about something like this.

http://www.twinhan.com/product_satellite_s2_CI.asp

I would also need extra CAM and smart card for pay TV receiving.

Just to check I've got this right. The CAM sits inside the CI module and my SkyHD Card sits inside the CAM?

[Lucas]

As far as the cards go the general rule of thumb is that they must have BDA drivers. For cards with a CI module you also need to contact SageTV support to see if they are supported by SageTV.

I am using the Technotrend S3200 with its CI module. There are some CI related issues but in general it works OK. I am not sure if there are better supported cards (DVB-S2) out there. There aren't very many of them.

The SkyHD box has 2 inputs and it can record two channels concurrently. It can do this with one sub card.

With the PC solution however, you need 2 cards but you also need a CI module and CAM for each and 2 subscription cards.

[Mark SS]

Technotrend with T.Rex CAM is the safe bet. It works for SD and HD using DVBViewer and is the combo most used by Sage users that have been assisting with testing DVB-S.

Some people have had mixed success with the Diablo wireless cards to get two cards working with one subscription. There is also the option of using a softcam solution but that would be dependent on Sage implementing MDAPI support, or at least supporting the MDAPI directshow filter that has emerged from MediaPortal.

Lastly, its possible to record two streams on the same transponder in DVB-T/S but the feature isn't available in Sage. Whether this could work with encrypted channels I'm not sure.

[brit_sage]

Hi,

Thanks for your responses. I will look into what you suggest and then get back to you on the matter.

Thanks again.

[jimbobuk]

I'd be interested in the HD stuff once there was actually any decent programming put down it, but can this kind of gear be used right now with just normal sky digital... I'm currently recording via crappy composite into a PVR150.. it don't look great, and its needing like 3.5gig/hour to get close to this. If i could just grab some cards and what not and use my subscription card inside it and record it like you can record freeview it'd be great. The quality would be ok, the filesizes would presumably be a lot smaller.

How does all this stuff work?

More importantly how can you still let sky get viewing information from you, they've contacted us before when one of the boxes isn't phoning home correctly (at the time a dodgy phone extension cord)..