Be Excellent To Each Other

In my continued quest to use and abuse you guys, I was wondering if anyone has a set up that could get a video from a VHS onto a PC. I have a old family video from 1993 that I'd like to get a computery version of. Not even the whole thing, just a minute or two.

I don't even own a VCR :/

I know someone who does...

I used to gave a TV tunercard that could do this. AverMedia made it, IIRC. I threw it away, though, but you could try that route as I'm 99% sure it could do that.

Find a friend with a VHS/DVD combo unit, transfer the video and then rip the DVD. Panasonic models are highly recommended as they have timebase correctors in them.

I have the equipment. I have both a TV card for the PC (handy for copying protected videos), several VHS players and a DVD recorder. Send me the vid if you like, I'll happily pop it onto DVD for you.

<3

I'm popping round to my sisters tomorrow, and she has a VCR, so I'll make sure I have the right tape, and find the right bit. PM your address pleasey.

I have that easycap. It certainly seems to do the job.

Really? maybe you can answer a question I have then..

Right.. Here goes....

Can you use it simply as an input device? What I mean is, could I plug in say an Xbox (as I have one) and use it to put the signal onto my monitor? I'm not interested in recording, just getting AV signals onto my monitor. Would be nice to have a console up here.

As long as you have something with composite output you can use it. You can't do anything with RF signals though. It also takes S-Video but when I tried that with my VCR the picture was covered a grid of light and dark tiny rectangles.

I sometimes use it to connect my amiga.

Well that's me sold then. I will order one later

I just want it for my Xbox and possibly a freeview box as sometimes Media Centre goes a bit whacky. I would also like to split the Sky signal so I can watch the footy up here.

I've done that but it tends to look very rough, and ISTR it required an annoying amount of CPU power on the PC to actually do it.
A better solution is connecting it to the monitor directly. I assume you can't do that, but if you're ever thinking of replacing one, make sure to buy a model which has loads of inputs like the Samsungs we all have (and TV as well, why not).

Use Skyplayer, it's less faff.

And pay £5 a month for it? Nah.

Looked into it all before. I get to pay £5 to watch about three channels.

Huh? It's free isn't it?

It is if you already have a sky sub

"I would also like to split the Sky signal so I can watch the footy up here"

Ergo, he does.

& if you were only getting three channels you must have been looking at it when it launched. There are half a dozen sports channels alone.

You also need a gold sub.

Unless you are paying for Sky through Virgin, in which case, you don't.

No you don't. JC has no 360 & PCs don't have gold subs silly.

But then it would be cable and he wouldn't be talking about "splitting the Sky signal". So in that case, he still does.

No it isn't. When you go through the set up with MCE and obtain a username and password it then drops it on you that you need to pay for Sky Multiroom !!oneone. Which is £5 a month for a few months and then £7.50 a month. Just so that you can watch what they are already being paid for on another screen

In other words Maxwell takes the fucking piss. My Sky costs more than pretty much any area of the UK, yet there is no reason for that. It's the same signal coming from the same satellite to the same fucking dish.

No, you can do that already (your box should have an output on the back). Multiroom is totally different, requiring (for starters) a second sky box.

Move to London, you don't need multiroom for Sky player here.

You don't need multiroom for sky player here either. Are you sure about that JC?

My friend pays for Sky and I have Sky player on my Xbox 360 through him. All I did was enter his Sky username and password into my Xbox 360, the very same username he uses to access his bills etc online.

If I was back in London I could have Virgin and all sorts of wonderfully fast phone lines. Sadly no Virgin = no competition = take the fuckin piss.

Huge thanks for pointing out the outputty thinger though Mr Grim... I have a Sky+ box in the shed at my uncle's place so I can have that up here outputting into the dongley thing on Ebay

TheVision. Yes, pretty much 100%. However, I shall try it again later and grab a couple of screeners

You need multiroom or Sky Broadband to get it free, I believe.

I have neither

Erm, the output is an RF antenna output isn't it?
So you can't connect another sky box to it, you connect it directly to another TV set.

Snap!

(My friend who I blag the password off does have Sky Broadband though, so that may well be true)

My friend has Broadband too so yes, that could be true.

Well have sexual intercourse with me horizontally. Seems old fuckermaxwell does have a heart.

Clearly faked his death pretty well.

Yeah him too

My mum has got sky telly and broadband.

Can I use her account to watch sky channels on my PC?

Although I have a feeling it might not be that simple.

Yes.

Maybe not, you're a friend of Dorothy in Oz now, yeah? Might need to fanny around with a proxy or VPN.

It is pretty simple mate. You will need -

Sky TV viewing card number.

Her details + DOB.

You'll then be able to view all of the channels she subscribes to however whilst fantastic it's not completely



Some of the important channels are simply not partaking in it (so no shed realtime or any other discovery channel) and when you put on Sky one and try to watch The Simpsons it tells you that that programme is not available on Skyplayer. Fuck Fox ETC.

Yes, that's right.
However, you can get magic boxes allowing you to control the Sky box from that cable.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BRAND-NEW-GLOBAL- ... 667wt_1139

It's possibly worth noting that using someone else's Sky Player is highly likely to be a violation of terms of usage. If anyone cares.

Ah! neat. It used to be that you needed a thing which had an IR reciever at one end, and a transmitter at the other end on a bit of wire pointed at the front of the sky box. A bit hacky, and expensive. If they've built it in that's quite handy.

I've got one of those dongles in my loft I think. Never had Sky though.

You're probably right. I'll try and get my father in law's details instead then. Plus he has the full bundle of films and sports (I don't know if this makes a difference).



I'll give it a try and see, that is if I can get hold of the details. I do have a feeling it isn't going to be simple. I'm not going to try too hard to get it working, mind.

The original Sky magic eye we had in 1998 did it down the UHF cable with no extra hackery required.

Just note that for the remote down the aerial solution, you'll need to send the required power line down the aerial which is off be default. You need to go into the hidden service menu on the sky box to turn it on. (And then get ready for plenty of static shocks)

Ah, is that why I kept getting shocks off pretty much every socket on the back of my sky box?

No, that's just you.

less sarcastic reply:
No, TV stuff tends to be floating, i.e. no earth connection, so it all gets charged up to silly voltages by suppression capacitor leakage and HV leakage if you've got a CRT display still.

I'll never live that down, will I?
Er, it may well have been connected to a CRT, but more recently an LCD and then nothing at all, so I doubt it's tv related.

I have an Amstrad DMP2000 printer that has a "lively" centronics port on it. Last time I wheeled it out (about 10 years ago) when I plugged it into the PC it gave me a shock and sparked when I plugged it into the PC.

Worked fine. Not sure what was causing it or if it had always been like it.

By TV stuff I mean anything like set top boxes, dvd players etc. It's all two-wire supply and then when you touch a metal part on the back you earth it.

Same with chinny's printer, probably had a bit too much leakage in the interference suppression components that started being hastily added to products in the late 80s!

PC cases on the contrary are earthed (3 pin connector) so that's why you'll see a spark sometimes when joining floating peripherals to it.