For viewing purposes.....

Anyone know if its possible?

 

you can get a vga to scart converter, but there not cheap

a cheap tv card for you pc is a better option, or buy a LCD tv with vga and tv inputs

 

I have a tv card in the desktop, is it just the S-Video cable i need to do the job going from Sky box to Desktop?

The monitor also has screen in screen functions and VGA, S-Video and the Yellow Video input plug.

 

if the sky box has S-video, then use that, but it doesn't carry sound.

otherwise get a scart to s-video converter, they are cheap.

 

Does the yellow plug carry sound?

Maybe i could use the S-Video and yellow plugs?

 

Yellow RCA (composite) carries video only, but be warned it's ABYSMAL quality (lowest quality you can get next to RF aerial modulation) so for sound you would need L+R (red and white) audio RCA inputs on your soundcard....

To convert a scart output (or S-Vid, composite etc) you need a video to VGA converter like this;

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/TV-tuner-box-V...QQcmdZViewItem

Plug your Sky box's s-vid or yellow RCA into this box, then the box into the PC monitor (goes directly into the monitor, so you wouldn't be able to view the desktop at all as you would have to disconnect it from the PC) and the audio from the Sky box needs connecting to an amp or hifi....

 

does you Monitor have speakers ? if so it must have a sound input

 

sky+ boxes have a svideo output

but they also have a usb port

any ideas what this is used for? downloading form box to computer for the recorded stuff or to update the box?

 

Dojj - AFAIK, the UB port is redundant - so you can't use it for data transfer from box to PC.... It was used on some boxes for firmware updates and so engineer service, but I don't think they bother anymore, as most are updated if need be over satelite or via the phone line (ala Sky+)

The other reason you can't tranfer recordings to PC is they aren't recorded like a video you watch on your PC (like MPEG etc) The Sky box just records the data transmission of the programme then replays this, it's doesn't encode to a video codec.....

 

but it's got a hard drive so there must be a way to watch it right?

mind you, i've got a 700+ hour hdd on my dvd recorder so sky plus'd stuff gets swapped directly over

 

Dojj - if you just copy the data stream from the Sky+ box HDD to a PC you just get a file the PC can't read. It's all to do with transcoding. It's not encoded into a "video" format. The "recording" isn't a recording as such, just a capture.....

 

Right after a little investigation of my own....

Is it one of these i need to sort it out?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?...source=15&SD=Y

Red/White/S-Video into Sky+ box and the S-Video/Phono into the desktop sound card?

 

yes, if you have svideo to the pc that is

 

The pc has a tv card in it

 

Yes, if your PC has a TV card with S-Video INPUT then you should be okay. YOu should have an audio input as standard on the built in soundcard, tho you might have one on the TV card aswell, and if you do, use this one.....

YOu might need software to view whats being inputted through the TV card, but this you should already either have, or be easily findable on the net