Sky Digital without STB

[electronicsuk]

Have used SageTV for the past year and a half running with Hauppage MediaMVP and server fitted with a dual analogue/digital tuner card receiving free-to-air analogue and digital terrestrial TV.

I am now moving into a new house, and have to make the decision between Sky and Virgin Media. My problem is that I don't want to have to have external ST boxes kicking around and hooked up to the server due to the associated quality loss in analogue-digital conversion, stability of the boxes and the hassle of setting up IR control.

I've read that the increased support for DVB cards in the latest release of SageTV will allow direct connection to dish or cable feeds for digital TV. Being an existing customer, I would prefer to stick with Virgin, but I have been unable to find anyone who has successfully decoded the encrypted channels without the use of an STB. Is this possible?

On the other hand, it seems some people are having success with Sky Digital and DVB-S cards. Is anyone aware of a tutorial or instructions for setting up Sky Digital with a DVB card and CAM? I'd like to get an idea of how difficult the process will be before I go and subscribe to Sky and attach a satellite dish to the outside of my new house.

Any and all input much appreciated!

EDIT: Should point out that I am interested in more than just the free-to-air channels provided by Sky, I'd like to receive whatever channels I choose to sbscribe to.

Matthew

[electronicsuk]

Bump... is there really nobody out there that can offer a guide or even a little quick advice on how to do this? I've searched the forum and it seems that the likelihood of SageTV ever supporting Virgin Media is low due to the subscription card being locked to the box.

I'm happy switching to Sky, but I don't want to go out and buy all the kit with no guarantee that it's going to work. Are there any known working DVB-S, CI and CAM combinations for Sky Digital?

[brewston]

Search the UK archives for posts by MarkS - I'm sure I read he had it working.
Personally, I've got an STB and put up with the quality loss, I don't have an IR blaster problem as I bought a USB changer from a guy called Joseph Heenan

[doc]

I haven't attempted it yet, mainly because I don't want to go out and spend more money without knowing how it will work out.

I have 2 sky boxes connected via composite from a scart adaptor to pvr350's. I'm very happy with the quality. I used to have it connected via coax as the stb was in a different room, and the quality then was quite poor. I use a usbuirt to change the channels on the stb's.

I have a hauppauge dvb-s card which works fine on the free channels, but its disabled at the moment as I only get a few channels on it, and to be honest the set top boxes are good enough for me.

Mark SS is the one to ask as someone else has just said.

This is the thread with the most info that I could find.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20328

[electronicsuk]

Thanks guys, looks as if support for this at the minute is still a little shaky. Wont be moving 'till after Christmas, after which if I'm feeling affluent I might take the plunge and buy the kit. If so, I'll be sure to let you know the results.

[motobarsteward]

You might want to look at the UK forum. There's discussion there between a newb and somebody who had it work for a long time.