Do Sky bork recordings when I cancel Sky? (Extract+)

C

clashcityrocker

Member
My Satellite Setup
None (just cancelled Sky)
My Location
Southwest
My Sky subscription ended today (too much money, too little decent content). Gone with a FreeSat box (Samsung SMT-S7800).

I figured I could pull my FTV recordings off the HDD before I wipe the HDD and flog the Thompson HD box (it's got a 1TB HDD and a recent PSU repair kit).

However when U run up Extract+ it does not show recordings. Ditto for Copy+ I am wondering if sky sent a "kill" signal to all the content on the HDD, and whilst it's all there, it's not possible to extract...

Anyone know?
 
You have to pay Sky to use their recording system, I think it's about £10 per month, someone who has Sky can probably advise you better.

Try the search option as no doubt this problem has arisen before.
 
clashcityrocker said:
However when U run up Extract+ it does not show recordings. Ditto for Copy+ I am wondering if sky sent a "kill" signal to all the content on the HDD, and whilst it's all there, it's not possible to extract...

Anyone know?
Click to expand...

Don't think they do anything to the drive, simply cancel any entitlements on the card, after removing the hard disk, you should be able to access the content on the disk, however I don't think it will be playable one a non-Sky receiver.
 
The recordings are encrypted and require a valid card to decrypt them. If you just strip them off the drive they will not be playable on none sky equipment.
 
Analoguesat said:
The recordings are encrypted and require a valid card to decrypt them. If you just strip them off the drive they will not be playable on none sky equipment.
Click to expand...

The FTV recordings (BBC, CH4 etc) are not encrypted, you just need to use Extract+ to copy them off, I have done this many times in the past. However this time, it doesn't work... I'm guessing because Sky sent a kill signal.
 
Analoguesat said:
The recordings are encrypted and require a valid card to decrypt them. If you just strip them off the drive they will not be playable on none sky equipment.
Click to expand...
As I remember it, the elementary streams are recorded straight to disk.

So if you're viewing encrypted stuff, you need to have a valid card + Sky box (with its NDS "cam") to decode.
But for the free-to-view stuff (as rolfw points out), it should be possible to view it when connecting disk to PC with copy+ etc (if you can find the files, that is.)

So they should be MPEG2 TS files in some shape (so that they can be fed through the playback circuitry of the box when playing back from HDD), but it may need to be mangled for viewing on some other device with headers etc.
 
Those are fta records NOT ftv recordings - a small but important difference.

FTV is encrypted but require a small cost card to view (eg C5 in many areas)
 
clashcityrocker said:
The FTV recordings (BBC, CH4 etc) are not encrypted, you just need to use Extract+ to copy them off, I have done this many times in the past. However this time, it doesn't work... I'm guessing because Sky sent a kill signal.
Click to expand...
I think you may actually be right.
The + service may have been disabled over the air if you had your box on.
This could have caused the content directory to be cleared (although the data is probably still on the drive - don't see why a format should have happened).
Not sure if there's anything you can short of hiring a forensic data recovery team.
But there's probably some HDD experts out there who know more about this than me.
 
Analoguesat said:
Those are fta records NOT ftv recordings - a small but important difference.

FTV is encrypted but require a small cost card to view (eg C5 in many areas)
Click to expand...
You are right.
But I think the OP (although stating free-to-view) meant that *nothing* was on the HDD.

classiccityrocker: Can you clarify what channels the recordings were from?
 
st1 said:
I think you may actually be right.
The + service may have been disabled over the air if you had your box on.
This could have caused the content directory to be cleared (although the data is probably still on the drive - don't see why a format should have happened).
Not sure if there's anything you can short of hiring a forensic data recovery team.
But there's probably some HDD experts out there who know more about this than me.
Click to expand...

All Sky do when a subs lapses is expire the entitlements on the subscription card, they dont do anything to the hdd.
 
Back
Top