Sky viewing card in a PC

[mawa]

Now sorry guys I am new to this and I just want to clarify some things;

1) Is it LEGAL to put a sky viewing card into a media PC providing you do pay your Sky subscription?

2) What hardware is needed exactly; obviously I know how to build the PC itself in terms of mobo, memory, cpu etc-i'm just not clear on what TV card is needed and what graphics card is needed? But most importantly I have heard many different ways of inserting the sky viewing card into the PC; i've heard about CI's (common interfaces) to which a CAM (conditional access module) must then be inserted. I have also heard about smart card readers??? Does anybody have a definitive answer?

3) The logical progression is onto what software is needed in order to run a media PC? Just install Windows Vista Ultimate? But then how do you browse the Sky programme guide and select which channel you wish to watch?

4) Finally; I do not have one of these flat screen LCD or Plasma TV's and it is not HD never mind 1080p so I have no HDMI connection; therefore is it still possible to connect to PC to the TV and if so what cable is needed? If not please still respond to the other questions with any answers you may have because I could always upgrade the TV at some point

Many thanks for any help and I know the questions are probably pretty stupid it's just that I know nothing about TVs. I have tried to read marksteel's post but he was talking about different connections to other machines throughout the house and stuff so I didnt really understand it all (not to mention some of the terminology used). Anyway it would be great if someone could tell me exactly what is needed and whether it is actually legal to do any of this in anycase; I presume that taking standard freeview straight onto your media centre is perfectly legal provided it isnt distributed or duplicated but i'm not sure about the actual sky subscriber channels because as I understand it the sky viewing card actually encrypts the data.

 

[rolfw]

The answer to question one is no, it isn't illegal, but even though Sky don't like it and it may be contra to their terms and conditions, there isn't much they can do about it, providing you are outside the 1 year interactive discount period.

For much of the other information, this thread is worth a read. Some satellite PC cards have a connector for converting to a scart output.

If you have Sky+ at the moment, you will probably lose functionality by converting to a PC based system, particularly if using a single tuner.

 

[mawa]

Ah right so it's not illegal thats good news at least! When you say I will probably lose functionality by converting to a PC system what sort of functionality were you meaning specifically? I wont be able to record 2 programs at once?

Many thanks for your help

 

[Seany463]

I have Sky working on my pc currently. When you know what hardware is needed its pretty simple to be honest. With regards your rig, if you can play HD movies and the like, your hardware will most likely run a dvb-s/s2 setup fine.

When you say I will probably lose functionality by converting to a PC system what sort of functionality were you meaning specifically? I wont be able to record 2 programs at once?

Yes, you wont be able to record 2 (encrypted)channels at the same time as currently the (T-Rex)Dragon CAM-which emulates the videoguard encryption-can only decode 1 encryption key at a time, unless you have multiroom=another subscription card, then you can get a double CAM (worth the extra tenner per month though? I think not).

Also, worth remembering that we are using software. Its not going to be perfectly suited to Sky like the hardware they provide. There is no escaping bugs whichever software setup you chose, it'll never be perfect.

Back to manually creating my channel list, sigh... ;)

 

[PaulR]

unless you have multiroom=another subscription card, then you can get a double CAM (worth the extra tenner per month though? I think not).

Wouldn't work anyway as you can't plug the two non-existant digiboxes into the telephone lines as their T&Cs for multiroom viewing erquire.

 

[member91040]

Seany Can you pls submit the pic , of the setup of your system. Thanks for that...!

 

[Seany463]

Seany Can you pls submit the pic , of the setup of your system. Thanks for that...!

A picture of my whole rig? I don't have one or a digital camera, sorry.