# Convert a standard Sky Digibox to a PVR



## healeydave (Jun 4, 2003)

Heheheh,
I wonder how long it will be before Sky puts a stop to this:

http://www.cielplus.com/

Its a device that allows you to convert a standard Sky digibox to utilise PVR software on a PC for example. The Interface plugs into the Digital Interface Slot (a pretty much dormant facility until now) and provides a USB2 connection to the PC.

Made me dream about daft things like instead of Tivo being able to produce a new FreeView only offering for the UK, perhaps they could provide a USB port on such a device and allow people to still add a satellite option via this................all hyper-thetical of-course


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## frogster (Jan 4, 2006)

healeydave said:


> http://www.c**plus.com/


Hmm. No contact details at all on the site, and the domain name is registered via an anonymous domain service.

If anything stank of rip-off, this is it.


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## healeydave (Jun 4, 2003)

hmmm, never looked that far..

I did click the links to the software which isn't anything to do with the interface and it supports a whole host of cards.


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## frogster (Jan 4, 2006)

The idea is great and I would buy one, if the initial price was more reasonable and if there was some sort of guarantee over time.

As you suggest, Sky will surely react if they think that many people are buying/using these instead of getting (and paying for) a Sky+.


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## pauljs (Feb 11, 2001)

If it is a scam I guess the guys at TSReader would want to know about it since it's claiming to work with their software.

Assuming it's not, Sky might be upset if it allows Box office movies being copied to DVD :up:

Of course all this can be done with a cheap satellite DVB card on Free to air channels


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## healeydave (Jun 4, 2003)

To be honest, its made me think i've been a bit complacent in not keeping up-to-date with the technology for a while.

Reading the TSReader site, they state that a moderately powered PC with a few DVB cards installed and their software is capable of recording all the channels on freeview simultaneously!

So I'm thinking how cool would that be, to have a complete archive of a whole days worth of programmes whether there was something you wanted to watch or not!

Now thats what I call a buffer....heheh.

I've still gota work out how many gigs I need but forget twin tuner PVR's, let just have everything to hand whether I want it or not


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## rodhew (Sep 6, 2006)

pauljs said:


> If it is a scam I guess the guys at TSReader would want to know about it since it's claiming to work with their software.


I know all about it - I'm the author of TSReader and helped with the project. Reason I'm not selling it and the CielPlus guys are is because I'm located in Maryland and we don't exactly get Sky here!



pauljs said:


> Of course all this can be done with a cheap satellite DVB card on Free to air channels


This does the non Free-to-Air channels too if you're subscribed.

Cheers,
Rod


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## rodhew (Sep 6, 2006)

healeydave said:


> Reading the TSReader site, they state that a moderately powered PC with a few DVB cards installed and their software is capable of recording all the channels on freeview simultaneously!


This is true - with the Pro version and five DVB-T cards you can do all of Freeview. With a card server and some mucking around you could also probably do all the TopUp channels too.

Given there's a bunch of bunk like bid-up TV and QVC, you can save bandwidth by dropping that stuff.

I did the maths a while back but didn't write down the results. Assume an average of 20 Mbps (some muxes are 18 others are 24) with five muxes - that's 100 Mbps or 12.5 MBps (b=bit B=byte).

With four 500 GB drives you get 2 TB which is 2,000,000 MB so:

2,000,000 / 12.5 = 160,000 seconds = 2,666 minutes = 44 hours

Cheers,
Rod


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