RE: Why all the mucking about?

Mmm..there are people who can't get SKY+ as they are on a communal feed, ie no personal dish

SKY

Chaps, you're going about this all wrong. My self-built media PC has been running over a year now.

Abit Shuttle pc, P4, 1GB RAM, 300GB SATA HD, WinTV PVR150 (ditch the MCE controller)

Install WinTV drivers and software (obviously) - no antenna reqd. don't scan for terrestrial at this stage

Connect SKY SCART output to S-Video input of WinTV card

Connect SKY audio line-out RCAs to line-in of WinTV card

Subscribe to DigiGuide (£8 per year)

Buy yourself a RedEye - £20 - COM port IR sender, tape the IR end over/near the IR 'eye' on the SKY box

Download the free RedEye plugin for DigiGuide

Update the DigiGuide EPG from t'internet

Verify the paths for output, WinTV software in the RedEye/DigiGuide config

Sit on your sofa and for each program you want to record, click on Record Using PVR (including Series etc.)

Sounds more complicated than it is. Ok it has limitations:

Can't record one channel and watch another - My use for this was to record SKY whilst I'm out or asleep to watch later

er..that's it. DigiGuide is aware of all SKY channels and their numbers, and it tells the RedEye to send the correct characters at the right time, thus changing SKY channels. The WinTV compresses to MPG2 in hardware for DVD quality video.

Trust me. Try it. It works.